Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 71: The hottest commodity of the 20th century: Post-it notes

Time flies, and two months passed quickly.

Two new assembly plants had already been built at the site of the Changxing Plastics Factory, and the workers had moved there. The injection molding and assembly processes were combined, which also increased production efficiency.

However, the old factory is still in use, and we cannot waste the space. After all, the rent has been paid, and we can return it when the lease expires.

……

Yang Wendong didn't know how the two major traders in the Japanese and British markets promoted the mouse traps and fly traps in his own country, but in the past two months, orders have been pouring in, keeping the Changxing factory very busy, and the company's employees have exceeded a hundred.

In the office:

On the table in front of Yang Wendong, a large number of small plastic cubes were placed in front of him, and there were several pieces of paper underneath with many drawings drawn on them.

"Knock knock knock" There was a knock on the open door, and Lin Haoyu and Zhao Liming walked in.

Yang Wendong gathered the small plastic cubes on the paper and put them aside. Then he said, "Sit down, both of you, come over here. What's going on?"

After Zhao and Lin sat down, Zhao Liming said, "Brother Dong, orders from Japan and the UK have suddenly declined recently, especially from Japan, which has dropped by more than half compared to last week."

"It's September now, and dealers and terminals have some inventory. It's normal for orders to drop at this time." Yang Wendong glanced at the calendar next to him and nodded.

In Hong Kong, although the winter is a little cold, it is not very obvious. This is why many people in Hong Kong who are homeless or live in wooden huts like Yang Wendong in the past can survive the winter and not freeze to death.

But it is different in Japan, Britain and even Europe. In these two places, when winter comes, the rats will definitely hide in the underground pipes and basically will not appear near humans. Flies and the like will completely disappear.

Zhao Liming nodded and said, "Yes, I also knew that winter would affect us, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon."

Yang Wendong added: "It's just the beginning now. It will be even more exaggerated in the next few months. There's nothing we can do about it."

Zhao Liming asked: "Brother Dong, can you find a way to expand the market in Southeast Asia? I won't say how much, but at least it will make us better off."

"I've tried it before, but it didn't work very well." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Most of these places are like the squatters we lived in back then, too poor, and generally don't care about rats.

The only pity is that the US market has not opened up yet and it’s winter.”

In the past two months, Yang Wendong has visited many businessmen doing trade in Southeast Asia and reached some cooperation in mouse traps. However, it is not known whether it is due to their capabilities or the problems in the Southeast Asian market, but their sales volume is far inferior to that of the UK and Japan.

As for the largest American market, Yang Wendong also tried to find some traders, but he still missed the best time. Just when he had achieved some success, winter came.
Winters in the United States are colder than in Europe.

Zhao Liming nodded and said, "Brother Dong, in this case, we can only produce next year's stockpile in the winter, but it seems a bit too costly to do so."

"Well, yes, stockpiling is definitely necessary, but I need to discuss with several distributors and clients about how much to stockpile." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Even though he knew that the sales of his mouse traps would definitely be good by next year, he was unable to stock up on a large scale as the financial pressure was too great.

In the past two months, because business in Japan and the UK was good, he made a net profit of more than 3 Hong Kong dollars.

However, he spent a lot of money during this period, including purchasing the factory and land, and then spending some money to build a new factory. Adding the more than 4 Hong Kong dollars he had in his hand before, he now has about Hong Kong dollars in his hand.

If the shipment volume is very low for a few months, but your factory is still working hard to produce, this amount of money may not be enough; secondly, from a risk perspective, you cannot gamble like this.

"Okay, then I will start controlling the workers' working hours and part of their salary recently," said Zhao Liming.

The wages at the Changxing factory are not much worse than those outside, at least they are above the average. However, if we enter the off-season, we must control costs. After all, the workload of workers is also low, and maybe they can take a few days off a month. These have actually been prepared. Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Well, okay, but don't reduce the benefits too much, at least the food should be kept normal."

In fact, in today's Hong Kong society, workers do not have any social security insurance. Even if Yang Wendong is a good person, he has no place to pay.

The benefits he mentioned actually meant giving employees more food, so that they could be full and eat a little better; for example, adding some broth to the rice and having meat dishes once a week.

This is already far more than any other factory. Perhaps only the workers doing manual labor at the docks can compare with the food at Changxing Factory.

Zhao Liming nodded and said, "Okay, Brother Dong."

Lin Haoyu also said: "It's the same here. There are fewer rats in Hong Kong in winter, but fortunately not many customers have terminated their contracts with us."

"With our price, they probably are too lazy to bother." Yang Wendong smiled.

In fact, he was imitating Pao Yu-kang's model for shipping. He did not make short-term huge profits, but instead stretched the time so that he could make a small profit every month, and then make more money over time.

Especially for the rat extermination business, if you do a good job in the early stage, then in the later stage you only need daily maintenance, which can also save costs and make more profits.

It’s just that the upper limit of this business is too low. At present, it is still far behind the factory. It can only be said to be a supplement to my current career.

Lin Haoyu added: "It's just that there are fewer rats now, so it's much more difficult for me to expand my business."

"Yes, it's normal. These are seasonal issues." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Just keep running at a low efficiency. I will make a forecast with the dealer and then decide how much to produce in advance."

"Okay." Zhao Liming agreed.

In the afternoon, Su Yiyi came to report the bill and saw a pile of small cubes on the table. She asked, "Brother Dong, are you still studying these things?"

"Yes, I've been researching it for a while, but it hasn't come out yet." Yang Wendong sighed, touching the block with his hand.

Two months ago, after he took over the injection molding factory, he thought for a long time and decided that making the Rubik's Cube would bring him the fastest and biggest profits. This was also the way many online articles in his previous life wrote.

However, although he could play with the Rubik's Cube, he was not an expert in mechanical structure. He did not figure out how to achieve multi-angle rotation in the middle of the Rubik's Cube.
At present, his factory is still of relatively low level and he has not recruited any very talented people, so this matter has been stuck.

Su Yiyi added: "Brother Dong, these are the previous account books. I have something to say. I made two mistakes in the account, involving about 100 yuan. I have corrected them."

"Yeah, it's okay." Yang Wendong didn't care and said, "But you still have to be careful in the future. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes occasionally in finance, but you can't make mistakes frequently."

Su Yiyi nodded and said, "Well..., it's just that sometimes I work for a long time, and I want to remember something a few days ago, but I forget it later."

"So you have to write it down." Yang Wendong said with a smile: "A good memory is not as good as a bad pen."

Su Yiyi said: "I also remembered and wrote a small note, but sometimes the note was lost and then I forgot about it."

"Find some convenience." Yang Wendong suddenly stopped. He thought, in this era, there should be no sticky notes?

This thing is a creative product with a simple structure but a large market. It is one of the most popular products of the giant 3M company in the 20th century and was even rated as one of the 20 great inventions of the 100th century.
Moreover, there is glue on it, which is more or less related to my existing industry!
PS: No one guessed it...

Asking for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)