"Ah, you're a better brother than I am, sending money home while you're in college.
Unlike me, who needs a thousand yuan a month. My mom calls me a prodigal son and compares me to you, saying my best friend sends money home every month and has already bought a house. She scolds me for being useless, saying I can't even save the family money, let alone send it home. Who was it that cried and begged me not to go to Jiangnan University, only to scold me now? It's truly disgusting!" Fan Rui grumbled, starting to cry involuntarily. Zhao Yao could only try to comfort his good friend.
Seeing how unhappy Fan Rui was, Zhao Yao decided to share his own troubles, telling him about his unfortunate fate of not even having an internship opportunity.
"Ah, that's their school's loss, they didn't recognize your talent!" Fan Rui said with a grin, though he seemed much happier and stopped crying. Fan Rui then declared loudly, "Actually, brother, I never thought I'd be inferior to you. While you started making money earlier, I'll definitely be like you in the future, or even surpass you, earning more than you!"
"You know what? No matter how good Jiangnan Group is, it's still working for someone else. But I want to be my own boss. I want to start my own business. I'm starting my business before graduating from college. The government is also encouraging college students to start businesses and provides policy support. This is a great opportunity for us to start our own businesses!"
"I've even thought of a business idea. I won't do anything else but specifically deliver food for college students.
You know how lazy college students are these days, they don't even want to go to the cafeteria to get food. Once someone in a dorm goes to the cafeteria, a group of people will immediately ask them to get food for them. Often, one student going to the cafeteria will bring back food for seven people in their dorm.
It's not just about delivering food. Whenever someone goes out, roommates will ask them to bring back drinks, chewing gum, or a book. They'll ask for anything!
Some students don't like the food in the school cafeteria and specifically ask classmates to go to outside eateries or restaurants to bring back food. Many people do this.
However, this kind of thing is troublesome, and many classmates are unwilling to do it. But they can't refuse for the sake of appearances, and over time, it's bound to cause conflict.
I've often seen roommates argue, even fight, because they didn't want to bring food.
So many people want to eat outside food but are unwilling to trouble their classmates to bring it for them. But they also don't want to move or leave their comfortable dorms. This creates a demand that is not being met.
So this is an opportunity for me. I want to create a delivery company on campus, specializing in errands for students. Delivering food from the cafeteria to the dorms will cost one yuan. Buying groceries from the supermarket and delivering them to the dorms will also cost one yuan. If I have to go to an off-campus restaurant to buy food, the price will be based on the distance, starting at three yuan.
If we can get 100 orders a day, we'll have a profit of at least 100 yuan. That's 3,000 yuan a month, equivalent to a regular worker's monthly salary.
Once we develop the market further, one school can generate at least 300 orders a day. Then, by arranging two employees, we can take a 30% commission. One school can generate 3,000 yuan in profit per month. With twenty to thirty schools in a city, that's tens of thousands of yuan in profit!
Then we can attract investors and use their money for nationwide expansion, setting up branches in all universities across the country. We can then make a fortune, and our future will be no less significant than Jiangnan Group's!"
"So, what do you think of my business plan?" Fan Rui asked excitedly.
"Mmm, a very good plan!" Zhao Yao replied absentmindedly, which greatly discouraged Fan Rui, and his enthusiasm for chatting immediately diminished.
After chatting for a while longer, Zhao Yao felt hungry and remembered he had come downstairs to eat. He then invited Fan Rui to join him.
"We've already eaten!" Fan Rui quickly said. "You go eat. I'm a bit tired. We'll rest in your room for a while!"
Zhao Yao tried to persuade him a few times, but Fan Rui refused, assuming Zhao Yao didn't want him to treat. So Zhao Yao went down to eat alone.
However, what Fan Rui didn't know was that while he thought Zhao Yao was dismissive of his business plan, Zhao Yao was actually contemplating Fan Rui's business plan, and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
But there were also several crucial issues that needed to be resolved. For instance, how to set up an ordering platform. If it were a website platform, it would require a computer, which limits its usability. Moreover, students without computers in their dorms were the majority in the entire school.
Besides that, there was the issue of delivery. To deliver, they would need to recruit dedicated delivery personnel and manage them. One or two schools might be manageable, but if it were to spread across all schools in the city, would they need to hire administrative staff just to manage a few delivery personnel?
Furthermore, there was the question of how to collect payments. Should students pay the delivery personnel directly?
If so, how could they ensure that the delivery personnel would return the fees to the company in full?
And how could they ensure that the delivery personnel wouldn't do anything bad during delivery, or cause conflicts between the delivery personnel and users, or even lead to huge compensation claims for the company?
All these issues needed to be considered. As a result, although Zhao Yao only ate a bowl of noodles at the noodle shop downstairs, he spent over an hour without coming up with a proper solution.
However, since Fan Rui had come up with this idea, Zhao Yao decided to have a good chat with Fan Rui again. They could brainstorm together and see if they could come up with better solutions.
But when Zhao Yao returned to his room, he found that Fan Rui and his girlfriend had already left. They had only left a note on the guest room's notepad saying they had an urgent matter to attend to and had left.
If that were all, it would be fine. But Zhao Yao noticed that the bed in his room, which was originally tidy and flat, seemed to have been rumpled and was now messy. There also seemed to be some traces of unknown liquid on the sheets.
Zhao Yao wasn't stupid. Thinking about what had just happened, he felt disgusted. He naturally couldn't stay there any longer. He quickly checked out of the room and went straight home.
Later, Zhao Yao tried to find Fan Rui several times but found that he wasn't home, almost always out with his girlfriend. However, considering that Fan Rui had told him about this business idea, Zhao Yao ended up spending several hours at Fan Rui's house. He finally waited for Fan Rui to return and, to Fan Rui's surprise, said, "Old Fan, I think the business plan you told me last time is very interesting. Why don't we join forces and start a company together? What do you think?"
"That would be great!" Fan Rui also became excited upon hearing this. "So, how much startup capital do you think our company needs? I've calculated that we need at least an office near the school to make it look like a company.
Also, for convenient delivery, we'll need to find a way to buy two electric bikes and equip them with two large baskets. Finally, we'll need to hire a dozen or so employees. The initial investment alone will be around 100,000 yuan.
You know, I don't have much money, but I can contribute my effort and my mind. Of course, if you invest more, you'll have more shares. How about a 6-4 split, you take 6 and I take 4? I'll consider it working for you!" Fan Rui said quickly, even preemptively structuring the company's equity.
"Well, I don't think we should move too fast!" Zhao Yao hadn't even considered paying the money himself, let alone the numerous issues with a 6-4 equity split. He said very seriously, "We currently only have a business idea, and we don't know the market prospects. We can't blindly throw money into it and expand blindly.
So, I suggest that we first conduct a pilot program in one school. We'll create a dedicated website for ordering online, and then both of us will be the delivery personnel. We'll deliver for a month ourselves to thoroughly understand the market and figure out how many people are willing to purchase delivery services.
And what problems we'll encounter during actual operation. We'll compile all these issues, study and solve them collectively, and finally come up with a mature operational plan. Then, expanding on a large scale will be the best choice!" Zhao Yao said seriously.
"What? We have to deliver ourselves?" Fan Rui's expression immediately soured when he heard this. He quickly said, "Old Zhao, have you forgotten? We're starting a business. We're the bosses. What boss would go around delivering for others?"
"If you really want to explore the market, then we can hire two people to deliver and learn from them. Why would we need to do it ourselves!"
"..." Zhao Yao fell silent. He looked at his high school friend, whose skin was becoming fairer day by day, and suddenly lost interest in talking. He just shook his head and said, "We must personally deliver to understand the most realistic market situation. Otherwise, everything will be an illusion."
"Old Zhao, it's summer vacation now. Do you know how hot it is? You want us to deliver ourselves? You're crazy!" Fan Rui said.
"Alright, I understand. Then we probably can't cooperate!" Zhao Yao sighed. "Since you're not willing, I'll go myself. If you're willing to invest, then we'll allocate shares according to the investment ratio. If you're not willing, then forget it."
"Do you think I'm like you? Where would I get the money!" Fan Rui's expression also turned unpleasant.
"Okay, since this idea came from you, and I'm using your idea, I'll leave 1% of the company's shares to you. How about that?"
"1% of the shares? You might as well not give me any!" Fan Rui snorted. "Old Zhao, to be honest, I have plenty of business ideas in my head. You look down on me, but I won't let you down. I'll give you this idea for free, and you can use it to start your business. I don't want a single cent of shares!"
"Thank you," Zhao Yao said finally, and then he never visited Fan Rui's house again.