Chapter 278 - "I wish you luck on that." (2)
When Zhang Huaxiu came in to work the next day, Shu Yan asked her, “How are things over at your sister-in-law’s? If there wasn’t enough time, you can take another day off to help her out.”
“It’s fine. We were more or less done and I have already given her the pointers. She can always ask me more questions after I am home from work. I will, however, go over to help her on her opening day.” Zhang Huaxiu was an experienced worker at Shu Yan’s shop and knew very well how to mix and match and set pricings, including promotional activities. She was well versed in all of those.
Wu Xiuyue wasn’t generous enough to give away a television; they didn’t even have one at home. She bought a bicycle as the grand prize and a radio as first prize. All in all, it did not come close to what Shu Yan had.
That being said, it was still the first on Fujian Street and those who saw the flyers would come over and check it out. Regardless of whether she was doing a lot of business, it looked very bustling.
Shu Yan sent a pair of flower baskets and, seeing that Wu Xiuyue and Zhang Huaxiu were running around back and forth, asked Zhang Huaxiu, “Didn’t you guys hire any workers?”
That made Xiuxiu angry. “My sister-in-law said she won’t be needing any help other than herself and she’d have my mother come and help out when push comes to shove. My mother worked in a factory her entire life; what did she know about selling clothes? Besides, why would you have an old lady sell clothes? But she wouldn’t listen to me at all. She felt that hiring a salesperson is much money.”
Her mentality was too conservative. Wu Xiuyue’s personality might not make her a good business person. Having a small shop of her own might not be a big problem but anything beyond that were not likely.
That wasn’t something that Shu Yan could bring up to her. They might be close, but she wasn’t family.
Lin Hui came over today as well and also brought with her a pair of flower baskets. She even bought a couple sets of clothes from Wu Xiuyue’s stores to help her kickstart her stop. Shu Yan was going to buy a couple of sets as well but Wu Xiuyue stopped her.
“You have helped me enough. Lin Hui can use the clothes so I didn’t stop her. You have your own shop; it doesn’t make sense for you to buy from me.”
Shu Yan looked around and Wu Xiuyue’s business was not bad. This was a Sunday and school was out. Many students had free time and were wandering around this area. When they saw the red banner, balloons, and flower baskets, most of them would take a look at the flyers and came inside.
As more and more people arrived, Wu Xiuyue had no time to chat with Shu Yan and the others. She had some experiences selling clothes over at Shu Yan’s store and had an idea what to say. Other than being somewhat nervous and wasn’t too articulate at the beginning, she became bolder and talked smoother and smoother as the day went on and clothes started being sold one by one.
When the first batch of customers were gone, Wu Xiuyue did some mathematics and she had already made 500 yuan. Subtracting out rent and utilities, she would still have 200 yuan of profit remaining. How long had it been? Over 200 yuan in just one morning. She just might be able to make over 1,000 yuan today. That was more than what her husband made in a month.
That realization brought a big smile to Wu Xiuyue and she felt pumped.
Shu Yan wanted to remind her that she had promotional activities today and it was a Sunday. It was only normal that business was good. She might not be able to bring in half of this in the future. Then, considering that it was her grand opening, it was probably unlucky to say something like that. She decided to have Zhang Huaxiu analyze that for her on a later date.