Three Major Hurdles

Wang Ye was no longer an impulsive eighteen-year-old kid, even though he was physically only eighteen...

He would not rashly jump into the study-abroad agency business on a whim.

Wang Ye understood that the barriers to entry in this industry were fairly high. Running a small personal agency and helping a few acquaintances or friends handle study-abroad procedures would not be a problem.

But if he wanted to truly recruit students on a large scale, that would obviously be extremely difficult!

The first issue was company qualifications—he needed to be legally allowed to recruit students in China.

Although he had not yet looked into the relevant regulations, not just any person or company could handle study-abroad agency services.

As far as he knew, domestic study-abroad agencies were basically affiliated with one university or another.

Even the agency that had helped him apply to study abroad was like that. It was actually an institution run by a local undergraduate university...

Once the qualification issue was resolved, recruitment would be another major hurdle!

What channels could he use to let the broad pool of potential clients, especially students' parents, know that his agency existed?

This was 2001. The internet was not very developed, and people with a little age on them hardly went online. Younger students did not have many opportunities to access the internet either.

So online promotion was definitely out of the question. The results would be far too poor.

The only traditional advertising channels were television, newspapers, and magazines.

But advertising through those traditional channels was extremely expensive!

Did he have that much money to pour into advertising?

Or rather, even if he had the money, would he be willing to spend that much on advertising?

And after spending it, could he recover the costs?

Especially in those days, plenty of people in China praised Europe and America, but they were praising developed countries in North America, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Russia was not included...

How could he make students and their parents understand the benefits of studying in Russia, make them interested, and then get them to open their wallets?

That was also a major problem!

Company qualifications, publicity, and student recruitment—these were the three major hurdles facing Wang Ye if he wanted to run a study-abroad agency.

An ordinary person would probably get a headache and back down just thinking about those problems.

But Wang Ye did not. Instead, he grew increasingly excited.

Perhaps he had gambling in his bones. Otherwise, in his previous life, he would not have taken all his savings and even borrowed a huge sum of money to charge into the stock market without hesitation...

Wang Ye believed in one principle: great risks brought great rewards!

The harder an industry was to enter, the greater the profits it could bring!

Given his current situation, with so little capital in hand, running a study-abroad agency might be his best choice!

Small investment, huge returns...

He could think of many profitable industries, but all of them required substantial capital investments.

Still, even if he wanted to set up a legitimate study-abroad agency with minimal investment, he would need at least two or three hundred thousand yuan.

That was around thirty thousand dollars?

Where was he supposed to get that money...

Still lost in thought, he heard Ruan Xiaozhu calling him.

"Hey, hey, what are you thinking about? You almost bumped into someone. Come take a look at this store. For boys like you, sportswear is more suitable."

As she spoke, she pointed at a Reebok store beside them, signaling Wang Ye to go in with her.

Today's shopping trip was mainly to buy clothes for Wang Ye.

Wang Ye looked around. This was the famous "Underground Mall." He did not know its actual name, but everyone called it that.

The entire mall was located beneath Red Square, so everyone simply called it the "Underground Mall."

It was also Moscow's most upscale mall at the moment, packed with luxury goods and major brands everywhere.

Sports brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Puma were probably the lowest-end brands in this mall...

Still, although these sports brands were not expensive, they remained popular and sold well, so high-end malls were happy to bring them in.

Given the "strength" of Wang Ye's wallet, there was no need to look at other major brands. A down jacket from a sportswear brand would do.

No longer thinking about the study-abroad agency, Wang Ye smiled and said, "Let's take a look, then. Just buy something casual. I'm not at the stage where I need to care about my image yet."

That was true. Even if clothes made the man, he needed a thick enough wallet to pull it off.

The current Wang Ye could not even afford to put on airs!

Inside the bright, spacious store, racks displayed a dazzling array of clothes in all kinds of styles.

Reebok was an old brand too. Compared with Adidas and Nike, its clothing leaned more toward fashion and had less of a sporty feel.

Naturally, Wang Ye and the others headed straight for the down jacket section. After looking through them, Ruan Xiaozhu casually picked up a dark blue down jacket and said, "This one looks good. The cut is more fitted, and your skin is fair, so dark colors like this suit you."

After he tried it on, the effect really was quite good. It looked much better than the one Wang Ye was wearing.

The price was not too high either, less than two hundred dollars, which Wang Ye could accept.

He had the sales clerk find a suitable size and paid for it directly. Wang Ye's shopping was done.

He had thought they would be heading back, but Ruan Xiaozhu and Yanzi had no intention of leaving. They enthusiastically began visiting the stores one by one.

Wang Ye had no choice but to carry the bag behind them and continue accompanying them.

Girls' love for shopping was practically inborn!

Even though they did not buy much, simply browsing, looking, and touching things made them happy.

They ate lunch at a McDonald's inside the mall.

In Moscow, McDonald's was still very popular.

When Moscow's first McDonald's opened in 1990, the scene had been something else...

It was far more exaggerated than when McDonald's opened its first store in China. Apparently, lining up seven or eight hours just to get inside and eat a burger had been normal...

By 2001, things were naturally no longer that outrageous.

After lunch, Wang Ye quickly suggested that they head back, saying he had things to take care of that afternoon.

Just then, someone called Ruan Xiaozhu, wanting to buy phone cards.

So, although Ruan Xiaozhu was somewhat reluctant, she could only go back...

When Wang Ye returned to his dorm at People's Friendship University, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Song Xiaogang was in the dorm.

When he saw Wang Ye return, he said with a beaming smile, "Brother Ye, do you still have any phone cards? I've almost sold out on my end and want to get some more."

Wang Ye took out his wallet and looked. Only one-thousand-dollar denomination cards remained inside, mainly because Ruan Xiaozhu and Yanzi had taken too many.

The two of them had taken six thousand dollars' worth of cards...

"That's all I have left. Take them and sell them first." Wang Ye pulled out all the cards and handed them to Song Xiaogang.

Then he asked curiously, "Are phone cards selling that well? You took quite a few last time, yet you sold them all in less than a week?"

Song Xiaogang's business was unexpectedly good. That truly caught Wang Ye by surprise...