Chapter 827 Preliminary Preparations
After leaving the street printing factory, Guo Tao went straight home. The next morning, he left home with his luggage and got on the train at noon. The train started slowly and took Guo Tao towards the south.
In the early morning of the third day, Guo Tao's train arrived at Yangcheng Station. After getting off the train, Guo Tao took a bus for more than an hour to reach an urban village in Yangcheng. This urban village is called Shibei Village, located in Tianhe District of Yangcheng.
Due to its good geographical location, this place is quite lively. In addition, with the increasing number of people going south to work in recent years, the number of foreign population in Shibei Village has also been increasing.
Arriving at Shibei Village, Guo Tao found a bungalow with familiarity. Just as he was about to knock on the door, a young man in his twenties came out. Seeing Guo Tao, he was immediately surprised and said, "Master!"
"What? Ready to go out?"
"Well, I made an appointment with a female college student in Yangcheng, and I was about to go meet her."
"Are you responsible for translation?" Guo Tao asked.
"Yes!" Xiao Zhang nodded.
"Then wait a moment, I'll go with you." Guo Tao said to Xiao Zhang, and then he carried the luggage into the house, and then they went out and locked the door. Xiao Zhang rode a bicycle, and Guo Tao sat on the back seat of the bicycle. The two passed through Shibei Village and crossed the river, and soon arrived at a teahouse near the Normal University.
This place is not far from the trade fair venue. This teahouse is just an ordinary teahouse. When Guo Tao arrived at the place, he saw a girl in a white dress waiting at the door of the teahouse. Judging from her appearance, she should be the female college student they are going to meet today.
When he went up to ask, it turned out to be true. Xiao Zhang introduced the two parties. The female college student was a third-year student in the Foreign Language Department of the Normal University named Tan Li. Because they were introduced by an acquaintance, Guo Tao led a team to participate in the trade fair at the old factory last year. At that time, under the guidance of Song Yuanchao, he found a college student to be an interpreter, who helped him a lot.
However, this college student has graduated this year. He introduced Tan Li to them. Although it was the first time they met, they were not strangers because they were introduced by someone they both knew and had previously had preliminary communication over the phone.
Tan Li had an ordinary appearance and a short stature, looking about 1.58 meters tall, and a little thin. Although she was wearing a white dress, Guo Tao could tell at a glance that the dress was not hers because it was obviously a little larger in size and the style was also a high-top from several years ago, which looked empty on her thin body.
Judging from these details, Tan Li's family background should be very ordinary, but this is normal . If it were not for her ordinary family background, Tan Li would not consider making money now.
After ordering three desserts and sitting down to chat, Guo Tao first looked at Tan Li's student ID card and then asked her some questions. Tan Li was obviously a little nervous at first, but she quickly adjusted her mood, introduced herself to Guo Tao and answered his questions.
Half an hour later, Guo Tao was quite satisfied with Tan Li's performance and immediately decided to let Tan Li serve as the translator for their trade fair.
"Thank you, Mr. Guo and Manager Zhang. Don't worry, I will do a good job." Tan Li said happily, her little face flushed with excitement. Then she asked about the translation fee a little embarrassedly. Upon hearing her ask this, Guo Tao immediately smiled and told her about the cost.
When she learned that the fee was 25 yuan a day, Tan Li's face showed obvious joy. You know, the entire translation work only took half a month. At the fee of 25 yuan a day, she could earn nearly 400 yuan in half a month.
This income is not low. The annual living expenses of ordinary college students are about this amount. Tan Li is very frugal, and this money is enough for her living expenses for one and a half years. Being able to earn so much living expenses in such a short time by her own ability is a pleasant surprise for Tan Li, whose family conditions are not very good.
Guo Tao looked at Tan Li, thought for a moment and said to Xiao Zhang, "Take Xiao Tan to Shahe Clothing City and buy her two sets of nice clothes. Oh, and shoes. Remember to buy clothes in the style of professional attire. Here's the money."
As he spoke, Guo Tao took out money from his pocket and handed it to Xiao Zhang, who nodded in agreement. Tan Li was a little nervous and wanted to say something, but before she could say it, Guo Tao said to her, "Xiao Tan, don't get me wrong. This clothing fee will not be included in your translation fee. This is a special clothing fee arranged by our company for you. You also know what your next job is. As a translator of our company, you are responsible for communicating with foreign customers, which is a very important thing. So in this regard, your clothes represent the image of the company, and it is normal for the company to make arrangements for you in this regard."
Tan Li's face turned slightly red. She looked down at the pair of rustic and worn leather shoes on her feet, as well as the dress that seemed a little too big for her. She didn't know what to say for a moment.
Guo Tao's guess was absolutely correct. Tan Li's family background was indeed not good. She was a girl from a small place. Her parents were farmers and she had several brothers and sisters. She was admitted to university through her own efforts, which was not easy for a girl from the countryside.
In order to meet Guo Tao and his friends today, Tan Li borrowed a dress from her classmate. As for the pair of leather shoes on her feet, which were almost worn out, they were her best pair of shoes. Tan Li was still thinking about where to borrow some money to buy herself a decent set of clothes. After all, she was about to work as a translator in Guo Tao's company, so she couldn't continue wearing her classmate's dress, right?
Unexpectedly, Guo Tao had already considered this and asked Xiao Zhang to take her to buy clothes and shoes, and all these expenses were borne by the company. Tan Li was not stupid, she certainly understood that this was Guo Tao's good intention, and he took care of her thoughts in this way, and she suddenly felt grateful to Guo Tao.
Letting Xiao Zhang take Tan Li away first, Guo Tao continued to sit and eat sweet soup, thinking about the upcoming autumn trade fair.
Guo Tao had great expectations for this trade fair. As early as half a year ago, Guo Tao started to prepare for the trade fair. The room in Shibei Village was specially rented by Guo Tao some time ago.
Because of the trade fair, accommodation in Guangzhou is very tight at this time of year. Domestic and foreign manufacturers and merchants flock to Guangzhou, making it difficult to find a room in hotels and guesthouses. The tight accommodation situation has led to an increase in housing prices. After much deliberation, Guo Tao rented this house in Shibei Village in order to save money and have a suitable place to display samples and other things.
The next day, Guo Tao took Xiao Zhang and Tan Li to the venue. They had not yet entered the venue, so they could only get familiar with the venue. After leaving the venue, they went to the train station to pick up the samples and materials sent over, and then found a tricycle to take the things to Shibei Village.
In the next few days, Guo Tao and his team continued to be busy. After the venue was open to entry, they began to arrange the venue.
Compared with other manufacturers, Guo Tao and his team are just a small factory with weak strength and little money. It is good enough for them to have a place to exhibit in the venue. As for the decoration of the booth, they naturally cannot ask a professional advertising company to do it, so they can only use local methods to solve it.
After several days of hard work, the booth was finally completed. Looking at the booth that looked somewhat presentable, Guo Tao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
These days, I have been very happy thanks to Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang is Guo Tao's apprentice, a very smart young man. After learning that Guo Tao was going to open his own factory, Xiao Zhang found Guo Tao himself and said that he wanted to follow him.
Guo Tao persuaded Xiao Zhang, telling him that it was risky to open a factory on his own, and if the factory didn't do well, there would be no way out. Xiao Zhang worked in a state-owned enterprise, with a stable job, so there was no need for him to fight with him. If he really wanted to come, he could wait until he had established a firm foothold here, and Guo Tao would welcome him with open arms.
But who would have thought that Xiao Zhang insisted on coming, saying that the master was in trouble now, and how could he, as an apprentice, just sit there and watch? How could the master work hard while the apprentice just sit there and enjoy the benefits? Even Guo Tao was not worried about his factory going bankrupt, so what was there for him, the apprentice, to worry about?
Besides, I am young and it is the right time to learn from my master. Even if I fail what does it matter? Now is not the past. Even if I can't be a worker in a state-owned enterprise, I can support myself by being a self-employed person with my own intelligence.
Just like that, after Guo Tao resigned to start a factory, Xiao Zhang followed him and became Guo Tao's right-hand man.
For this autumn trade fair, Guo Tao specially sent Xiao Zhang here in advance, and at the same time he planned to train and cultivate him well. If there are no problems, he wants Xiao Zhang to be responsible for sales in the future. This kid is smart, clever and reliable, and is the most suitable candidate .
Guo Tao's factory produces hardware products. He originally came from a hardware factory and is very familiar with this industry.
After deciding to open his own factory, the first thing Guo Tao thought of was his own business. He would rather do what he is familiar with than what he is new to. If he were to change to another industry, Guo Tao would not be so confident.
Because it was still his old business, Guo Tao's factory had high-quality products and novel designs, and relied on the original channels to attract a lot of orders, thus overcoming the initial difficulties.
But Guo Tao also knew that if he continued with the original products, whether it was hardware tools or other similar products, they would be far inferior to some foreign brand-name products.
Due to problems with materials and craftsmanship, their products can only be low-end products, and most of their sales customers are from third world countries. Although the order amount seems large, the actual product profit is very small, and there are also many domestic competing manufacturers.
Taking this into consideration, Guo Tao started his product transformation last year. After market research and product comparison, he finally decided to make furniture hardware the main product series.
Furniture hardware is a product that exists in China, but there are not many professional furniture hardware factories. Most furniture hardware products are just derivative products of many factories, or can be regarded as auxiliary product series.
Guo Tao's Haitao Furniture Factory currently focuses on furniture hardware, mainly hinges, handles, slide rails, footrests, fasteners, decorative parts, etc. In the future, it will also develop into springs, lifters and other products.
