Chapter 132: They Earn Money, I Take a Cut

Early in the morning, Jiang Qin arrived at Room 208. A copy of the Linchuan Youth Daily was already placed on the desk.

He gave it a quick read, but didn’t look at it in detail, since the content was stuff he had answered before. Rereading it didn’t have much significance, so he casually slipped it into a file bag.

“I’ll send it home for my parents to take a look.”

The matter of his entrepreneurship would eventually have to be made known to his parents. In the eyes of his parents, the credibility of a newspaper would definitely be more trustworthy than Jiang Qin just talking about it himself. Since it was already written in the newspaper, and his answers were quite positive and uplifting, they would find it hard not to believe.

Jiang Qin pondered for a bit, suddenly wanting to see his parents’ expressions when they read the newspaper.

Unfortunately, the competition at the University of Science and Technology had reached a white-hot stage, so he couldn’t leave.

Moreover, Su Nai’s progress had caught up as well. The first trial run of group buying would be launched at the end of the month.

Jiang Qin casually pulled out a pen from the pen holder and wrote an address on the file bag, then tossed it into the outgoing mailbox by the door. After that, he got up and went over to Su Nai’s side, scanning the screen full of code.

Very professional, couldn’t understand it.

“Boss, don’t stand behind me like that. I don’t know why, but it makes me feel a bit flustered.”

Jiang Qin gave a cold boss face: “You don’t know why? It’s because of the inappropriate habits you’ve developed from looking at inappropriate things in the office.”

Su Nai got angry after hearing this: “At least I don’t stare at feet all day!”

Jiang Qin’s expression changed: “You…looked at my bookmarks?”

“No, but the recommended videos are all foot fetish stuff, both black and white, I can’t pretend I didn’t see it.”

“Sometimes websites just randomly recommend things, it has nothing to do with my interests!” Jiang Qin was the most thick-skinned of all.

Su Nai fell silent for a moment: “Boss, I want you to understand that I’m a programmer. When it comes to websites, I know more than you.”

“Why can’t you organize your messy desktop properly?”

“?????”

Jiang Qin directly used the topic change technique, not only showing no embarrassment, but even reprimanded Su Nai. Then he returned to his seat and changed his video website password.

A 38-year-old man reborn couldn’t control everything with an iron grip. Sometimes there would be minor embarrassments and oversights, but it wasn’t a big problem.

In the afternoon, Su Nai came to report her work progress to Jiang Qin.

The group buying website was about halfway done, estimated to be ready for testing in two more weeks.

Additionally, she gave Jiang Qin a demonstration of the details she hadn’t demonstrated last time. Basically, it met Jiang Qin’s requirements.

Su Nai’s strongest trait wasn’t her technical skills, but her ability to understand. Just like with group buying, Jiang Qin’s planning document wasn’t very professional, but Su Nai’s completion was of high quality. She was a real treasure of an employee.

In the future, he would have to treat her better.

If an employee like this left, it would probably be quite difficult to find a replacement.

Jiang Qin secretly changed the video website password back, pretending nothing had happened.

After that, he opened Word and typed ad a line.

[Group Buying Website – Free Merchant Entry and Sales Commission Plan]

The forum’s promotional combination punch still needed to continue being thrown. At the very least, he needed to secure the entire Linchuan University City area and have a firm grasp on that traffic flow.

Currently, the campus beauty pageant at the University of Science and Technology was in full swing, and the end time would likely be around the end of this month. After that would be the Normal University, then the University of Technology, and so on in that order.

So the initial trial market for group buying could only be done at Linchuan University first.

After all, the traffic flow at Linchuan University had stabilized.

Once the trial run results came in, the users at the University of Science and Technology should have mostly been retained as well. At that point, he could extend group buying over there and devour that market.

“The timing is a bit tight, some things need to be prepared in advance.”

Jiang Qin pondered while calling Tan Qing over.

Currently, the marketing team didn’t have any available manpower. The main pillars were still Tan Qing and Wei Lanlan. Wei Lanlan was mainly responsible for business at the University of Science and Technology, while Tan Qing was mainly responsible for Linchuan University.

Since Since the first trial field for group buying would be at Linchuan University, it was only natural to assign this task to Tan Qing.

“Boss, what did you need me for?”

Tan Qing came over in a hurry, her hair somewhat disheveled.

“You were running the market?”

Jiang Qin pulled over a chair for her to sit and called someone to pour her a glass of water.

“Yes, I’ve been out running recently because the advertising business at Linchuan University is about to reach saturation. I was thinking about expanding outwards, but the results weren’t very good. On one hand, our forum’s advertising fees are quite high, so smaller businesses don’t even consider it. On the other hand, the forum’s ad slots are also quite limited, so there aren’t many opportunities to negotiate. It’s not like Lanlan’s side, where she can secure a deal whenever she negotiates one…”

Tan Qing was actually feeling a bit uncomfortable, but she still spoke quite tactfully without directly expressing it.

The main reason for her discomfort wasn’t a lack of business at Linchuan University, but rather that it had almost reached a dead end.

Why?

Because users who were interested in and capable of advertising had basically all been developed. Those remaining either couldn’t afford advertising or simply weren’t interested.

But the marketing team didn’t receive a base salary, only commissions. Without any business, it was the same as having no income.

The reason Tan Qing went out to run the outside market herself was because she hadn’t closed a single deal recently and urgently needed new business to open up the situation.

In contrast, Wei Lanlan’s side was in great shape.

Because the University of Science and Technology was an entirely new market, all the merchants were eager to try forum marketing. Closing a deal there was simply a matter of course.

She and Wei Lanlan were good friends. Originally, they had joined Room 208 together from the part-time job club. Now the two were in different locations, one managing a market with no development potential, the other a completely undeveloped blue ocean. It was only natural to feel envious.

“Drink some water first.” Jiang Qin pointed at the glass of water in front of her.

Tan Qing picked up the glass and took a sip: “Boss, I’ve finished drinking. You can tell me what you need.”

“Actually, I called you here today to resolve the bottleneck you’re currently facing. Our forum’s main users are university students, so it’s not very realistic to expand outwards at this stage.”

Jiang Qin could understand Tan Qing’s current mindset and appreciated her attitude.

She had been left on the old battlefield, mining inferior customer sources, while her good friend went to a new battlefield where she could eat her fill just off small fries. Seeing her own income getting lower and lower, she didn’t slack off. Instead, she put in all her effort to expand outwards. This kind of employee was actually quite rare.

“Boss, if I don’t go out and run, our business will directly come to a halt. I have a team under me too, and even if I don’t mind, they’ll definitely have something to say about it.”

“The reason I called you here is that I plan to let you develop an entirely new market.”

Tan Qing was stunned, feeling the excitement had come too suddenly: “Really?”

Jiang Qin nodded seriously: “I’m not joking.”

“Is it the University of Technology? Or the Normal University? I’ll go prepare right away!”

“Neither, it’s actually still Linchuan University.”

Tan Qing’s smiling face instantly turned into a crying face: “Boss, I’ve been quite anxious recently, can you not joke with me?”

Jiang Qin waved his hand: “Just as you said, the forum’s ad slots are limited,d, and the price is quite high. This threshold has already blocked out a portion of people, which is unfavorable for future development. So the best solution is to lower the threshold.”

“Are we going to lower the advertising fees? That way we can indeed attract another batch of merchants, but the merchants who have already paid will probably curse us out, right?”

“No, what I mean is the group buying website.”

“The one mentioned in the last meeting?”

“Yes.”

Jiang Qin called Su Nai over and had her re-demonstrate what she had just shown Tan Qing.

At first, Tan Qing was still in a daze, but as the demonstration went deeper, her eyes grew brighter, and she began to vaguely understand Jiang Qin’s meaning.

“Boss, are you planning to let all the surrounding merchants join this website?”

Jiang Qin nodded: “We’ll directly integrate group buying into the forum later, inviting merchants to join for free. This way, even users with a small scale can get promotion, giving the already depleted market a second spring.”

“But how do we make money if they join for free?” Tan Qing didn’t understand.

Jiang Qin looked at her: “Joining is free, we’ll only take a tiny cut from each sale.”

Tan Qing pondered for a moment, feeling quite shocked: “This is possible?”

“Of course it’s possible. But developing this market will definitely be quite arduous at the beginning. The biggest hurdle is whether merchants will accept the commission agreement. If this task is given to you, do you have the confidence?”

“Yes, boss, I want to do it!”

Tan Qing didn’t hesitate at all and immediately agreed.

Advertising fees were a one-time payment with little market sustainability, just like at Linchuan University where the current business had already hit a bottleneck.

But group buying was different. Since merchants could join for free, the scale of each merchant was no longer an issue. It was essentially entering with no threshold.

If this market could be developed, it would definitely be even more vast than the market at the University of Science and Technology.

“Since you want to do it, then start with the walking street. Your task for the next few days is to first survey the willingness of the merchants there.”

“Can I directly reveal the group buying website?”

Jiang Qin pondered for a bit: “My suggestion is not to negotiate in the name of the group buying website because this is a new thing, and the unknown represents fear. You should negotiate in the name of the forum. When we did the campus beauty pageant, many merchants on the walking street asked about advertising prices but gave up because the fees were too high. You can start with them, telling them that we now have a free promotion opportunity, valid for two weeks for sign-ups. Ask them if they’re willing to try it.”

Tan Qing nodded thoughtfully: “Will the group buying website be launched in two weeks?”

“It will undergo a trial run in two weeks.”