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Chapter 68: Chapter 62: No Chance to Trick Me (Seeking Recommendations!)_1
After Tang Qing finished speaking, everyone else left, leaving only Qi Yan and Liu Desheng. Liu Desheng tactfully closed the conference room door, the last one to leave was the previous purchaser, disheartened and no longer paying attention to such details as closing the door.
"Alright, you two, to be honest, the company is newly established and there are many things that are not perfect yet. We haven’t even set up our framework, so for the next week, we will continue producing the current orders. We’ll only take small new orders, not large ones, to lessen your burden.
Meanwhile, let’s reconcile internally. Soon, the sales and purchasing departments may be fully integrated into the company, so prepare yourselves.
These remaining orders should keep us busy for over a month. After that, don’t let the workers leave. Have them clean up, check for hazards in the factory, participate in skills training competitions, and so on. Pay them, of course. We can’t let them be idle. It’ll also help them earn some money for the Chinese New Year. Whether they will return after it, that will be up to you, Deputy Factory Manager Liu."
Tang Qing paused before he continued:
"We also need to improve our rules and regulations. We aim to establish a brand and need to have strict standards in every aspect. This will be up to you, Factory Manager Liu. You can learn from other well-established factories. Once ready, submit it to the company’s general manager for review. As for who the general manager is, you will find out soon.
From now until the end of the year, create production schedules for the factory. Submit them to the general manager and me. Moving forward, every Friday night, we need a plan for the following week’s work and a report on the current week’s progress. Don’t worry about the hassle. This is the first step towards success."
"Do you two have anything to say?" Tang Qing, taking a sip of water, looked at them and asked.
"No," said Qi Yan. Her role as a factory manager was just in name; she didn’t wish nor knew how to manage the factory. She was sure that once the general manager was confirmed, it would be their responsibility to investigate and reform the factory. Therefore, Tang Qing’s current plan may not even be the final one.
"Nothing else to add." Liu Desheng immediately responded. Knowing a general manager would oversee him and some of his jurisdiction would be surrendered to the company didn’t bother him.
As a factory for product manufacturing, it’s unheard of to lead a large company. Though he felt a bit disappointed, he accepted this as inevitable, something he had anticipated.
As for the hassle of drafting rules, regulations, and weekly reports?
Struggling to feed your family, now that’s what he calls a headache and a helpless situation. Liu Desheng, who had been through tough times, knew one thing too well: do your job well if your boss assigns it to you. Otherwise, nothing good awaits you. If you think it’s too much trouble, there are always people willing to take your tough job. Those who find tasks troublesome do so because they haven’t encountered more challenging tasks.
"Alright, then. Sister Yan, it’s getting late. Deputy Factory Manager Liu, you go and arrange the work. Yan and I will interview potential company staff. Right now, we only have an accountant. We don’t have anything, not even an office," Tang Qing said with self-deprecating humor, feeling like his company was nothing but a shell, with only a boss and an accountant.
"Yes." After saying this, Liu Desheng stood up and left.
...
The next task was choosing a location for the company. Mainly handling design work, he never considered renting an office in the city. Any offices in the city center of a prefecture-level city would appear ostentatious. Renting the upscale offices would not improve their reputation. Therefore, the best option was to randomly select a practical location, something more prominent and closer to the factory.
Qi Yan, driving the Santana, took Tang Qing to a place not far from the factory situated in the suburbs. This area was crowded with businesses, none of which were involved in manufacturing. Instead, they served as company management bases. Since it wasn’t far from the Development Zone and had a good environment, many bigger enterprises chose to build their businesses here, especially logistics companies. There were many of them along the street.
After arriving at the gate of a company without a sign, Qi Yan pulled over. The landlord was going to come later because they were caught up with something. Only a security guard was present. Since Qi Yan had looked at this place in advance, the security guard recognized them and let them in.
"Young boss, what do you think of this place I chose? Good, right? The place is spacious and the environment is nice." After showing Tang Qing around, Qi Yan asked for his thoughts with a beaming smile. She had inspected this place in advance was satisfied with it; otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought Tang Qing here.
"Pretty good, very suitable, especially the decoration. It’s excellent," Tang Qing couldn’t help but praise. The site was not small. The L-shaped office building right in front of the main gate with three floors, newly constructed less than two years ago, had a blue glass curtain wall, giving it a modern appearance. Of all the companies on the street, only this one had such an impressive facade.
Each floor was spacious and included employee dormitories. Even the decoration was elegant. In particular, the offices looked extravagant like that of a local tycoon’s, which was perfect. There was also a warehouse-like space behind the building, which could be renovated to place equipment in the future or used as a sample room for their design projects.
"Of course. Can my taste be bad? This place is owned by one of my classmates’ family. Her father, who owned a decoration company, bought this land before. However, his business failed last month and he no longer wanted to carry on. So, he planned to lease it out to get some rental income.
Their company mainly focused on luxury decoration so the entire company was decorated with high-quality and coordinated materials. Whether it’s the greening or office environment, everything was great. However, the rent is on the higher side. The property has only been on the market for a short while hence few people have shown interest thus far," explained Qi Yan.
"Excellent, it’s really great. How much is it per year?" Tang Qing asked, satisfied. As long as the price is reasonable, he planned to rent the place. He didn’t have the capability to purchase it yet. The few million RMBs in his account had other uses in the short term, and besides, it would definitely not be enough.
"Five hundred thousand a year, paid annually. By the way, boss, the company’s account might not be able to afford to pay a year’s rent." Qi Yan reminded him.
"I know. I’ll transfer three million into the company’s account for now. We need to buy some office equipment and whatever you need for the design work, I have no idea about those. As for the rent, since the landlord is your classmate, I won’t negotiate - fifty thousand is fifty thousand. Let him come over to sign the contract." Tang Qing nodded in agreement.
He seemed indifferent on the outside, but inside he was bleeding. The money that just came into his hands was being spent before he even had time to warm up. Shaking his head, he took it all in stride - after all, this was the life of a boss. He consoled himself with these thoughts.
This clothing factory was going to be a bottomless pit for the foreseeable future. Even when it starts making profits, it’ll be necessary to reinvest to expand the business. He didn’t expect any returns for at least two years.
"Alright. Wow, boss, you’re rich. Do you have any single, talented young man to introduce to me? I’m still single." Qi Yan playfully joked.
"Well...Find one yourself. I’m not getting involved." Tang Qing laughed it off, as he did not know any young talents suitable for Qi Yan.
"How heartbroken. The boss doesn’t even care about the personal issues of his employees." Qi Yan said with a pretend hurt expression, clutching at her chest. Tang Qing casted a casual glance and ignored her. For all her beauty, Qi Yan’s chest wasn’t especially noteworthy, and Tang Qing even maliciously thought that it might be padded.
As for Jiaxue, she had more potential. But he’d have to wait until after her National College Entrance Examination to confirm. He could be patient as good things were worth waiting for.
"......." Tang Qing simply turned his head and ignored Qi Yan’s comments. He didn’t want to be wrapped up in her words. Trying to trap him? No way.
Seeing that Tang Qing wasn’t responding, Qi Yan just chuckled and stopped teasing him, and began contacting her classmate instead.
Almost half an hour later, her classmate, who was too busy earlier, rushed over with the contract. It was a woman who was not particularly good-looking.
After signing the contract, Tang Qing transferred five hundred thousand. This time he didn’t use cash or the card linked to the system before, as it was too risky - it had transactions with Liu Qian’s account. He took the cautious approach and used a new card registered under a different name, which even had a stock account linked to it, in preparation for purchasing stocks next month.
At that time, the previous account would receive funds, the system would take them back, and then distribute them to this account. With the system, no one would be able to trace the source and destination of these funds. His transactions with Qi Yan also used this card.
Although this would still associate him with those unidentified funds, unless it was a national investigation, he wasn’t scared. But if it came to a national investigation, they could still get to you no matter what.
After signing the contract, it was almost noon. They were even invited by the other party to a meal, partly to catch up, and partly to get acquainted, especially since Tang Qing was likely to renew the lease for another year after this one.
After dinner, Tang Qing and Qi Yan didn’t go home but rested in their newly rented base.
Qi Yan also sent out messages inviting the interviewees one by one. Since only managers and above were being interviewed today, there weren’t too many. There were only twelve positions today including two general managers, five department managers - a total of thirty-seven interviewees.
All of these were selected by Qi Yan from a headhunting company. There were only a few headhunting companies in such a small place, usually under the guise of a labor service company. The one Qi Yan chose was quite famous, being a branch of a provincial company, reputed to be quite strong.
"Boss, you should take a nap. We’ll start the interviews with the general manager candidates, followed by the managers. Their arrival times are staggered, so no one has to wait too long. I’ll let the factory send a few people to guide and receive them." Qi Yan said with a smile.
"Sure, I’ll appoint a deputy general manager for you. But you’ll only be managing the design department. Is that alright?" Tang Qing sat in the boss’s chair and said after some thought. Since he wanted to build a brand, design was of utmost importance. Appointing the person in charge as a deputy director was not unusual.
"No problem, thank you, boss. I love design." Upon hearing this, Qi Yan broke out into a smiling face. While she had no interest in managing people, it represented Tang Qing’s recognition and emphasis.
"Okay, good. Wow, these decorators really treat themselves well." after finishing speaking, Tang Qing looked around at the office environment and lamented.
"Of course, it’s all about face. If they don’t improve themselves at home, how can they go out and do business." Qi Yan added.
PS: Second Chapter, there’s one more, it might be posted late.
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