Chapter 368 195: The Boss is the Boss (2)

"Pretty much. Our branch stores are all located in malls with high foot traffic or in well-situated standalone shops."

"Each store is generally around 1,700 square meters, and between the tables and private rooms, they have a seating capacity of 500."

When Yuan Li brought this up, she couldn't help but feel a little proud.

"I'm sure the foot traffic at these stores will be great. And with how good our food is, the average table turnover rate will be at least three."

"Excluding the Taikoo Li store, reaching a daily revenue of 5.6 million shouldn't be a problem."

The flagship store in Taikoo Li had a daily revenue of 600,000.

'All these stores combined will bring in at least 6 million in daily revenue.'

According to the profit model he and Yuan Li had calculated, an average table turnover rate of three would yield a net profit margin of at least 10%.

The reason it was so low was partly due to Spicy King's high labor costs.

In this regard, Yuan Li actually respected Qi Sheng a great deal for bearing the cost of providing employees with a full benefits package.

To others, it might have seemed ridiculous.

But Qi Sheng wasn't short on money, and Spicy King's profits could easily cover it.

Besides, the Taikoo Li store had a turnover rate of six.

Even Yuan Li was completely stunned by that.

'If Qi Sheng weren't so generous, the employees would never work this hard.'

'Accumulating funds from net profit alone would be a bit too slow.'

'The fastest way was to leverage Spicy King's constantly rolling cash flow.'

For instance, payments to suppliers were typically delayed by a month.

This gave Qi Sheng an opportunity to upgrade the skills of the managers at each branch.

If Spicy King's revenue weren't so high, Qi Sheng definitely wouldn't dare to play this game.

But Spicy King's business was just that good!

Even when their payments were delayed, the suppliers didn't dare utter a single complaint.

'It would only take 17 days to upgrade the abilities of all these branch managers.'

'And less than four days for the 20 deputy managers.'

Even if the suppliers really started pressing for payment, Qi Sheng still had nearly 90 million on hand. He could lend it to Spicy King to handle the emergency and even collect some interest.

'Why lend it and not just give it?'

'Spicy King wasn't a company he wholly owned.'

Since Spicy King was independently financed, the books had to be kept clean.

With Yuan Li's cooperation, the books created by the system were flawless.

If VCs conducted due diligence later, they wouldn't find any issues.

A major shareholder lending money to their company to fund its growth was an incredibly common practice in China.

"It's been a long day. You should go home and get some rest. We'll see how Lin Qiu and his team perform tomorrow."

Qi Sheng planned to prioritize upgrading the staff at Lin Qiu's store.

After all, their store was the largest—almost double the size of the other branches.

It also had an unusual staff configuration: one manager and two deputy managers.

"Boss, I'll say it again: since we just opened, we still have plenty of time to make adjustments."

"If we let this drag on, trying to salvage our reputation later will be much harder."

Yuan Li tried to persuade Qi Sheng, still not ready to give up.

She had very little faith that Lin Qiu and his team could properly manage the Yofang branch so soon.

If she weren't so tied up, she would have gone over to manage it herself.

And show Lin Qiu and the others how it's done.

"I know."

Qi Sheng smiled and nodded. He wasn't annoyed by Yuan Li's nagging.

After all, Yuan Li was just looking out for his business.

'But how could she know that he had the ability to flip on his "cheats" at any moment?'

'Today, Lin Qiu might just be an ordinary talent.'

'But tomorrow, he would absolutely blow Yuan Li's mind.'

...

By ten o'clock that night, Spicy King's opening day revenue figures were in.

The 21 stores in total had contributed 6.24 million in revenue, with an average table turnover rate of 3.14.

The initial online, offline, and direct community marketing efforts had played a huge part.

Maintaining a turnover rate of three based on word-of-mouth going forward wouldn't be too difficult.

Qi Sheng used Spicy King's cash flow to upgrade Lin Qiu and his two deputy managers by one level each.

[Consumed 5,000,000. Lin Qiu's talent level has been upgraded to Elite Level!]

[Consumed 1,000,000. Zeng Hong's talent level has been upgraded to Ordinary Level!]

[Consumed 1,000,000. Guo Tingting's talent level has been upgraded to Ordinary Level!]

Seeing the refreshed stats of the three employees, Qi Sheng was in high spirits.

'It made no sense for him, the big boss, to be constantly bankrolling the company.'

'At Spicy King's rate of expansion, the company's unrestrained demands would be unsustainable, even if the system was spitting out cash like crazy.'

'This was a proper growth model!'

...

The next day, Lin Qiu was up early, leaving the dormitory for the restaurant.

When he arrived, he found that he could sort through the usually overwhelming tasks with ease.

The feeling surprised him.

It wasn't just him; his two deputies felt the same way.

Zeng Hong and Guo Tingting, who had previously been just ordinary servers, had made huge strides in their management skills. They were now nearly on par with how Lin Qiu had been before.

With the three of them working in concert,

the restaurant, which had been somewhat chaotic the day before, was now running with incredible smoothness.

Lin Qiu even keenly spotted minor details he had previously missed, promptly directing the staff to correct them.

"Manager Lin seems different today!"

"It's not just Manager Lin who's changed a lot. Manager Guo and Manager Zeng are way different too."

"I admit I wasn't convinced before. Manager Lin was barely adequate, and I figured Guo Tingting and Zeng Hong only got to be managers because they were senior staff. I definitely don't think that anymore."

"Let's work hard! We'll have a chance to become managers in the future, too. Manager Guo and the others have a base salary of 15,000, which is three times what we make!"

"Let's get it! Just gotta do the work!"

...

As for the staff's whispers,

Lin Qiu and his team were naturally unaware of them, nor did they have the time to pay them any mind.

After their morning meeting, Lin Qiu, Guo Tingting, and Zeng Hong set new goals for the team.