plum city

Chapter 9 Canton Fair

People like Fang Guofei were really born in response to this era. In the early 90s, as long as you were bold, dared to think, dared to act, dared to venture, and could fight after repeated defeats, there would always be a few nodes that would allow you to step on them. On the cusp of the times, it took off.

Because of the care of Xu Ailian's father, Fang Guofei and his foreign trade company, as a pilot unit for the province's foreign trade system reform, obtained the qualification to participate in the Canton Fair, which would have been impossible for a foreign trade company like them.

What Fang Guofei got was not just a small stall, but a [-]-square-meter exhibition hall that was connected by twelve small stalls like the Provincial Textile.

The rent required for such a large exhibition space was a huge sum of money at the time. Even Xu Ailian's father thought that Fang Guofei was out of his mind. If you, a small foreign trade company, want such a large exhibition hall, do you have that? Ability?

Fang Guofei soon showed his ability. He came up with a trick and went to six factories that he had placed orders with to ask them to share the stall fee.He promised them that they would display their products at the Canton Fair and would bring several factory directors with him to the Canton Fair.

They also promised that any orders received at the Canton Fair would be given priority to several factories they went to.

Several factory directors, although the factory has been producing foreign trade products, they have only heard of the Canton Fair before but have never seen it. Now they have this opportunity to participate in the Canton Fair and bring their own products. The factory directors quickly agreed.

In this way, Fang Guofei didn't pay a cent for the entire Canton Fair booth fee.

With the stall fee settled, the next thing Fang Guofei has to consider is how to make his exhibition hall very impressive and impressive, at least more impressive than the provincial textile exhibition hall.

When Fang Guofei resigned from Provincial Textile and said he was going to start a foreign trade company, the people in Provincial Textile all regarded it as a joke. He was just a driver and was going to open a foreign trade company. Hahahaha. Everyone thought that this was different from What's the difference between a toad wanting to eat swan meat?
This kind of sarcastic remarks reached Fang Guofei's ears, and he kept sneering. At the beginning, didn't you all think that if I went to pick up Xu Ailian, it was because I wanted to eat swan meat? What was the result? Did I eat it?

Laugh, laugh, you laugh, in the end I, Fang Guofei, will make none of you laugh.

Fang Guofei held back such a breath and left the Provincial Textile Industry.Although in terms of scale at the time, his foreign trade company was about the same as an ant or an elephant compared to Provincial Textile, Fang Guofei had been secretly competing with Provincial Textile.Given this opportunity, of course he would not let it go.

At that time, there were no specialized exhibition planning and exhibition companies in the society, and even the decoration companies had just started.Although Fang Guofei studied painting for a period of time when he was a child, he could only draw a cat, not a tiger. How could he understand the layout of an exhibition hall?

In addition, he used to be a driver in the Provincial Textile Industry, so he had attended the Canton Fair several times, but each time he had to drag the exhibits from Hangzhou to Guangzhou before the opening.After the exhibition, bring these things back from Guangzhou.

He just entered the guild hall, and that was before everyone started setting up the exhibition. He carried things in there.Or after the exhibition hall had been dismantled, he went in to help carry things.He had never entered the exhibition hall when it was actually launched.

Fang Guofei was at a loss and didn't know what to do. He accidentally saw the words "a stage open to the outside world" in the slogan of the Canton Fair, and his eyes suddenly lit up and he was inspired.

Since it was a stage, he was introduced to the artist from the provincial song and dance troupe and asked him to help design the exhibition hall.The artist of the song and dance troupe didn't know how to arrange and decorate the exhibition hall of the Canton Fair. Fang Guofei told him:

"You can use the exhibition hall as a stage. You can make it as beautiful as you want, as long as it attracts people. Think about it, the Canton Fair is similar to the Sijiqing Clothing Market. Customers come and go in the passage, passing by our exhibition hall, My eyes lit up and I thought, wow, it’s so beautiful! You must come in and take a look, this way you will achieve your goal.”

As soon as Fang Guofei said it, the artist immediately knew what to do, not to mention that at that time, the song and dance troupe was already in ruins, had no performances, and could not even pay wages. With such an opportunity to make extra money, how could he be willing to miss it and start working immediately? stand up.

The design drawings are good, and it really has a stage effect. The whole style is the garden design of Jiangnan. The pavilions and pavilions are like the place where Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai passed by each other. In mid-air, there are hanging silk clothes hanging in the bamboo forest. The mannequins in clothing are also like the flying apsaras of Dunhuang.

Fang Guofei read this design draft and was very satisfied.At this time, the artist gave Fang Guofei another idea. He said, isn't this a clothing and textile display? Why are you so rigid? You put clothes on plastic models and hangers. Why can't you find a few beautiful women with good figures? , put on clothes and walk around the exhibition hall.

"This is a flowing landscape!" the artist used a phrase that was popular in newspapers at the time.Fang Guofei's eyes lit up again. He thought this idea was great. He immediately thought that instead of just walking around in his own exhibition hall, I would let them walk around in the entire Canton Fair hall with a sign on their body. The exhibition hall number is written on it, attracting customers from other places to my booth.

As soon as Fang Guofei said this, the artist became excited and shouted:

"Mr. Fang, you are the one with the quickest brain response. In this way, doesn't the entire exhibition hall become a display stage for your company?"

Fang Guofei chuckled: "This is the effect I want."

"But, in this case, will the organizer of the exhibition take care of it?" the artist asked worriedly.

Fang Guofei snorted: "Who cares? How does he care? These are my staff. Do you have any regulations on what clothes the staff must wear? My staff, she left our exhibition hall and walked in the passage. They Is it okay to go to eat, is it okay to go to the bathroom? Can you not let them go out and just stay in our own exhibition hall all day long? "

"High, high, Boss Fang, you are really tall." The artist gave Fang Guofei a thumbs up.

The artist quickly called over the dancers from their song and dance troupe, and Fang Guofei chose four. Their figures and looks matched each other. They heard that they were going to Guangzhou, and the round-trip train tickets, food and accommodation were all included. , there is still a subsidy of 200 yuan a day, and I am almost crazy with joy.

Fang Guofei, who participated in the Canton Fair for the first time, became an instant success at the Canton Fair. There was an endless stream of customers entering and leaving their exhibition hall every day. Each of the several salesmen Fang Guofei brought with him accepted their business cards.

The staff of Provincial Textile who went to the exhibition were still coy at first. They just stood in the passage and watched from a distance. They had mixed feelings in this former driver's exhibition hall.On the second day, everyone came over openly and took turns, and Fang Guofei all greeted him with a smile. They called him Fang Guofei, and they no longer called him Xiao Fang or Lao Fang, but called him Mr. Fang.

There were not enough manpower in the exhibition hall, so Fang Guofei went to the crowd at the entrance of the hall and found two female college students to come in as translators. Several factory directors acted as product explainers at the scene.

For the orders that were finalized on the spot every day, Fang Guofei kept his promise in advance and passed them on to several factory directors who followed him. The prices were pretty good.The factory directors were also overjoyed. When they returned to their hotel rooms, they made long-distance calls back to the factory and shouted loudly at the other end of the phone:

"I have to find a way to work overtime to complete all the work in the factory now and free up production capacity. When the Canton Fair comes back this time, we are not worried about not having orders to do, but whether we can do it."

"Immediately add machines and recruit people to expand production." Several factory directors told the people in their factories.

In the evening, several factory directors took turns inviting Fang Guofei to have dinner with the salesmen and several dancers from the song and dance troupe. They also took their [-] a day subsidy and paid it to them quietly. got money.

After returning to Hangzhou from Guangzhou, what Fang Guofei had to do immediately was to recruit people and expand the company. Several salesmen from the provincial textile department came over and told Fang Guofei that they wanted to come to him.

Fang Guofei laughed loudly and said, "You regular troops, please stop teasing our guerrillas."

Fang Guofei said haha, he didn't want any of these people, what he was thinking was, each of you are older than me. If you don't demolish the filth when you get here, I will burn incense, and I still count on you. Can you sacrifice your life for me?Thank you, my temple is small and I cannot afford to support you.

Aren't they just salesmen? Fang Guofei felt that it was more reliable to bring them out one by one.

He assigned an assistant to each existing salesperson in the company and asked them to take care of them. He himself took on six assistants in one go.

(End of this chapter)