Chapter 299 212: The Most Powerful Woman (2)

Zhu Jing, dreaming of the good life to come, raised her glass. "Xia Jie, to the future!"

Xia Jie raised her glass and clinked it against hers. "We've got this!!"

Yang Hui lay in bed, messaging with Serene. Her progress was quite fast; she was asking when he would have time in the next couple of days to go see the piece of land. According to her, the previous owner had already built an office building on the 100-acre plot. It was brand new, had never been used, and just needed to be furnished.

'An office building too?' 'Then it's not just the price of the land.' As if she knew what Yang Hui was thinking, Serene brought it up herself: the office building would be transferred at its construction cost, and the payment could also be deferred for a year.

Yang Hui stared at the messages, at a loss for words. 'What kind of strings did Serene have to pull for the other party to agree to these terms? What if I go bankrupt? They'd get nothing after a year. After all, they don't know I have the System.' Serene offered an explanation, but Yang Hui found it a bit of a stretch. She claimed she had convinced them using the sales performance of Yanghe Commerce's existing stores.

'If the other party actually believed that, they'd have to be a complete idiot.' 'In business, securing what you can is what matters. Money is only money when it's in your pocket. Besides, doing well now doesn't guarantee you'll do well in the future.'

Out of his trust for Serene, he didn't overthink it. 'As long as it's suitable, I'll use it. Besides, there's no risk for me with these terms.'

After setting a time with her, he remembered it had been a few days since he'd contacted his online friend, Xiaohe Wanwan. 'In the past, whenever there was a major change in my life, I'd always talk to her about it first and get her opinion. The idea to start my own brand was her suggestion. Now that I'm getting ready to do it, I should let her know.'

[Xiaohe Wanwan: You're planning to create your own casual, fashionable sportswear brand. That's a very competitive track. Consumer loyalty to brands is relatively high, which isn't very friendly to new brands. Plus, in the early stages, you won't have enough capital or opportunities to sponsor major international events or hire international celebrities for endorsements. Building brand awareness will be slow.]

Yang Hui felt that she always seemed to see right to the heart of any issue. This was why he enjoyed talking with her.

[Xiaohe Wanwan: But that's okay. Since your positioning includes "fashionable and casual," the "functional" label isn't as critical. You can focus on polishing the tech fabrics and fashion design. You'll need to pay attention to acquiring talent and investing in technology in these two areas.]

He knew that some international giants, like NK, had their own signature technologies. For cushioning, they had Air Max: a visible air unit providing powerful shock absorption, and Zoom Air: an internal air unit with elastic fibers for quick responsiveness.

There were also foam midsoles like React, with an 85% energy return rate, and ZoomX, made from Pebax material, which was lightweight with top-tier rebound performance (used in marathon racing shoes).

In addition, there were upper technologies and special structural technologies that provided exclusive signature shoes for many NBA stars.

Yang Hui's brand definitely couldn't be this comprehensive in the beginning. Xiaohe Wanwan's advice was to enter the market through fashion design while simultaneously picking one or two areas of technological R&D to focus on for a breakthrough. By perfecting those one or two points, he could create his own powerful selling proposition before expanding into other areas.

He naturally took her advice to heart. Xiaohe Wanwan's suggestions were very pertinent.

[Xiaohe Wanwan: Once you've established your own brand, your store locations won't be limited to just Qingjiang province. You have a good relationship with Xinyue Group, so ask them to help you coordinate opening stores in China's most famous business districts. Establish your brand awareness and tone first. After that, penetrating the market from high-end to low-end is simple.]

According to Yang Hui's development plan, his future company would definitely employ a multi-brand, multi-channel strategy. This meant his product lines would need to cover the mid-to-high-end, high-end, and luxury sectors. He was just starting with the mid-to-high-end segment.

He didn't want to be like Futong Commerce, which had opened over 500 stores in a single province, crazily chasing quantity. He was focused on the quality of individual stores. Even for his own brand, he was determined not to open any store that couldn't generate an average monthly revenue of over 800,000.

At this standard, despite the size of a province, there really weren't many business districts that could meet the criteria. Being able to open around 30 stores would be considered quite good.

For the high-end segment, the requirements would be even higher. He felt that if a store couldn't generate over 2 million per month on average, it wasn't worth opening. In the entire province, no more than 10 business districts would meet the standards for a brand like that.

That was the only way to run the business with ease, guarantee high incomes for the staff, and ensure the stores operated sustainably.

Yang Hui had considered Xiaohe Wanwan's advice, but Xinyue Group's commercial real estate division was split into two parts. One was Xinyue Square, positioned for mid-range fashion, and the other was Xinyue Center, positioned for high-end luxury.

Of course, Xinyue Square had far more locations nationwide, over 500, while Xinyue Center had fewer than 30. But in terms of influence, Xinyue Center was vastly superior. If Yang Hui's brand could open a few stores in Xinyue Center, it would be a huge boost to its prestige.

Unfortunately, Xinyue Center was a separate entity and wasn't under Zhang Chun's management. When Zhang Chun returned this time, Yang Hui planned to bring it up when they met and ask if he had a way to get him an introduction to Xinyue Center. Yang Hui guessed that Zhang Chun must know people there, but he wasn't sure if he had any influence over them. 'I'll have to give it a try when the time comes.'

He didn't mention any of this to Xiaohe Wanwan. After ending the chat, he lay in bed and drifted off to sleep. For some reason, he dreamed of the Zong Family's eldest daughter. He was startled awake by the part of the dream where he was taking wedding photos with her.