Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled
Chapter 158: Chapter 138 Tong Zelan's Suggestion

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The day's lessons ended quickly.

By five in the afternoon, quite a few people from the class followed Chen Pingsheng to his Tengying Entertainment.

It wasn't far since it was within the Second Ring Road in Capital City, and this wasn't about any special reception but simply a visit.

After all, everyone in class knew he'd made three to four hundred million from investing in a television drama, and now he's teaming up with Tong Zelan, the toy magnate Hu Ding, to develop and sell derivative products of Hua Qiangu.

Clearly, the revenue from Hua Qiangu was far from its peak, with only the exclusive broadcasting rights of the television drama sold so far.

In the future, it could be available on various online platforms, or even turned into a game.

One could say, as long as Hua Qiangu became the king of dramas, Tengying could live off its earnings for ten years.

The group set off for Tengying Entertainment, which was currently on holiday, though the public relations department headed by Yang Qian was already waiting.

After all, his classmates were all big bosses, and they needed to be hosted with a bit of grandeur.

He drove his white Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Most of the other classmates rode in NovelFireP nanny vans like Alphas.

Tong Zelan was in a Mercedes-Benz V-Class.

He also had one, but he left it in Sha City during the New Year.

To them, at their level, cars were simply a means of transportation and there was no competition involved.

If they liked it, they just bought more of it.

Upon arriving at the headquarters of Tengying Entertainment, parking was convenient, and Yang Qian was specifically waiting there.

"Chen, your company has quite a few beauties," someone commented.

"Just so-so. We're not in this business to watch beauties, the key is to make money," Chen replied.

This visit was mainly for the development of the derivative products of Hua Qiangu.

Props used for shooting the drama, such as Palace Bell, Sword of Forgetting, and the like, were all there.

Yang Qian introduced them one by one, and Hu Ding planned to take these items back for one-to-one replication and production.

Of course, items like swords could only be crafted to look good, and absolutely not to be made sharp.

Hu Ding took a dozen or so props from Hua Qiangu, and once his side completed production, Tong Zelan would replace someone to handle online sales.

As for Chen Pingsheng himself, he only covered the rights and Zhao Liying's endorsement, which arguably made him the most relaxed person there.

"Chen, you sure took a long holiday, didn't you?"

The entire staff were on half a month's leave, which amounted to the company stopping operations for half a month.

Chen Pingsheng said, "No problem, Tengying doesn't have much going on anyway. I'm not a professional entertainment industry player. Zhao Liying has her own personal studio with us. She arranges her own dramas and other projects; I just handle the investments."

"You're quite the laid-back boss," Tong Zelan sneered, replaceing Chen's approach a bit too relaxed.

Even their own artists could hang their studios under him, which essentially meant they were their own bosses.

They just hung under the big tree that was Tengying.

She would take resources if they were available; if not, she'd easily replace resources outside herself.

Tengying wouldn't interfere.

"I can't help it. First, I don't know how to shoot films, second, I can't write scripts, and I can't teach acting either. If I didn't do it this way, I'm afraid no one would sign with my company," Chen explained.

Chen Pingsheng led them all to the fifth floor, where Tenghui Capital's signboard was very conspicuous.

Lin Jia and others were still working in the office.

"Tenghui Capital Investment Co., Ltd.?" Tong Zelan said with a smirk, "Unexpected, Chen Pingsheng, you've actually set up an investment company yourself. What projects have you invested in? Share some insights for my reference."

"No... my company has just hung a sign up to now," Chen Pingsheng admitted, not daring to show off in front of a real investment expert.

"I might consider it in the future, but I don't have the capability yet."

"You've got enough on your plate with investments in your own projects, no need to look elsewhere," said Tong Zelan.

She then inquired, "Aren't you running Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket with a full range of fresh categories? How's it going? You've never really talked about it."

"Not bad," Chen Pingsheng said and had Yang Qian pour everyone a cup of tea.

"A full-category fresh supermarket differs completely in customer flow compared to traditional fruit supermarkets; let me put it this way, our Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket is doing exceptionally well in Capital City, maintaining a daily foot traffic of four to five hundred."

"But since the opening day of Tengsheng Fresh, customer traffic has never dropped below eight hundred a day. From this perspective, it's very necessary to develop a full-category fresh supermarket."

"It seems you're really doing quite well in this aspect."

Tong Zelan said, "Over the years, we haven't shied away from trying to invest in online fresh produce startups or even engaging in small-scale cash burn wars—not against competitors, but against traditional small merchants and vendors."

"Without exception, we failed. Vegetables and these daily fish and meat products... many internet investors are aware that there's huge demand, and if well-managed, it's at least a trillion-level market. Unfortunately, this industry can't be conquered by just throwing money at it."

"Hard to imagine you folks on the internet are even eyeing the livelihood of street vendors now."

This was the first time Chen Pingsheng heard about this from Tong Zelan—he hadn't even known that the internet industry had already set its sights on the vegetable market.

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"You're the same."

Tong Zelan gave him a disdainful look, "Your company has developed to this point, and you're still in the fresh market business."

"But that's completely different."

Chen Pingsheng said, "No matter what, the business I'm doing is still traditional, competing only for customers in a small area. And the reason I've developed a full range of fresh products is first to seek greater development for my Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket, and secondly to lay some groundwork for the big marketplaces I plan to do next year."

"You're thinking of doing a large supermarket?"

Although traditional supermarkets have a large market, the competition is just too fierce.

One could say that carving out a piece of the pie in this industry is incredibly difficult.

Of course, opening four or five within a small area in Capital City, Tong Zelan believes that with his capability, it wouldn't be a big problem.

She has no interest in investing in traditional big marketplaces at all, mainly because there's no room for innovation.

She can't think of any novel strategies that could break through in this industry.

She understands why Chen Pingsheng is doing it.

After all, he has already established a very good foundation in the traditional industry, and now developing big marketplaces is just a step further to solidify his position in the traditional industry.

Tong Zelan wasn't very interested in it.

They chatted about some other things next.

If Hua Qiangu really hits big, Tong Zelan suggested opening a milk tea shop.

How should I put it?

The profit margin is particularly high, a cup of milk tea sold for fifteen yuan costs at most two to three yuan to make.

And the young people nowadays all like to drink this stuff, if Hua Qiangu becomes popular, we could immediately come up with a co-branded product.

It could be an instant hit.

Then, by directly adopting a capital-raising model, we could quickly expand into the national market.

In one year, we could open between five hundred to a thousand stores.

It has to be said, this woman's vision is indeed quite accurate.

The milk tea business originated from Wanwan, and it became popular after spreading from there.

The domestic milk tea market is far from saturated.

It's even fair to say that it's still in the early stages, so getting into the milk tea business now is undoubtedly the best timing.

In terms of making money, that's way more profitable than traditional big marketplaces, which have turned into a highly competitive red ocean.

Tong Zelan suggested that he enter the milk tea market mainly because she saw the resources of his Tengying Entertainment and his strong traditional management capabilities.

Without these two aspects, she probably wouldn't have brought it up.

After all, for top investors like her, the relevant data for various industries across the country is laid out on their desks.

What industry is emerging, what industry is saturated.

It's all crystal clear.

You think investors just sit in the office making decisions, but underneath, there are countless market researchers.

Tong Zelan had made her judgment that the milk tea industry had great potential only after reviewing market research on the milk tea market.

Mainly it's because of the high gross margins and the high frequency of customer consumption.

Add to that the significant market gap, and you have the combination of several factors creating a vast emerging market.

Chen Pingsheng was slightly interested, but since he never drank milk tea, how could he get into that business?

It seems he too would have to replace a professional milk tea shop to invest in first.

Calm on the surface, he was actually quite intrigued on the inside.

Having an investor as a friend is really quite beneficial.

It's not even about whether they'll give you money or not, but the chance to have first dibs on selecting a highly promising emerging market.

That alone puts you ahead of ninety percent of entrepreneurs.

Choice is greater than effort, as everyone knows.

It's like choosing to start a business on Taobao in 2008 versus now, though the business is the same.

But with different times come vastly different outcomes.

If you started in 2008 and had a little knowledge of e-commerce operations, making hundreds of thousands a year was like child's play.

Starting now, even if you devoted 24 hours a day, it would be hard not to lose money.

Not to mention making a profit.

The more time passes, the closer the market gets to saturation, and naturally, the harder it becomes to make money.

This is the benefit of being friends with Tong Zelan; she can clearly tell you at this point in time, which entrepreneurial direction is the correct one.

She truly had no interest in big marketplaces.

If Chen Pingsheng could make the milk tea shop as successful as Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket, she would be fine investing a few hundred million.

The potential for future growth in this industry is just that high.