The Way to Sell Televisions

The next morning, Fang Bai and his father finished breakfast and headed into town together.

On the way back, Fang Shi rode the bike with Fang Bai on the back.

Fang Bai sat on the rear rack, carrying his father's clothes, watching him pedal hard, and jumping off when they hit a slope.

Once he made some money, he'd buy his father a motorcycle.

He wouldn't splurge on a nice new one—next time he was in T City, he'd figure out a way to scrounge up a secondhand one. That would make it much more convenient for his parents to get to town, unlike now, where biking to the rental took at least half an hour. A motorcycle would also be handier for nighttime trips.

Half an hour later, father and son arrived at the rental.

"Son, this place is pretty nice. How much is the rent for a year?" Fang Shi asked, watching his son unlock the door, then looking up to check out the second floor and the surroundings.

"Three hundred sixty, I think."

"That's expensive."

"Dad, you need to get used to this. When you're doing business, you have to think like a businessman." Fang Bai opened the main door, and the room full of TVs came into his father's view, stunning him.

"Good heavens, there really are a few hundred TVs." Fang Shi clicked his tongue in amazement, unable to resist starting to count them.

The TVs were lined up against the wall, taking up half the space, stacked several layers high.

Fang Shi looked a bit worried. "Son, can you fix all of these?"

"Not all of them. If two can be pieced together into one working set, that's enough."

Fang Bai had already come up with an explanation for knowing how to repair TVs. From now on, he'd slowly reveal his genius in front of his family.

Even if they had doubts, they wouldn't question it too much—they'd just chalk up Fang Bai's sudden cleverness and skill to that accident.

"Dad, you can sleep on the second floor. There's a bedroom there too."

Fang Bai led his father upstairs. He'd already discussed it with the family—his dad would help out here, and there was no way he'd ride back to the village every night.

When his mom wasn't working, she could come over too, and the family could live together here.

"Son, you go ahead and get busy. I'll put my stuff down and see what I can do to help you."

Fang Shi quickly settled into the role of working for his son. He didn't know how to fix TVs or run this kind of business, but seeing that his son had already made over ten thousand yuan and could scrounge up all this stuff, he figured the kid had found a way to make money—and that was already better than his old man.

As long as some could be fixed and sold, they'd recoup the cost. But he didn't know the specifics, so he'd just have to follow his son's lead.

Fang Bai went downstairs to write a poster. A little while later, his father came down from the second floor, and he said to him, "Dad, we need to hire a few people to help me fix these TVs. I know the general issues with them, so I need someone to help me take them apart—preferably someone with some basic electrical knowledge. I can direct them on disassembly and repairs.

The pay is negotiable, but the main thing is finding the right people. I'm thinking of recruiting from nearby electronics factories or from Wencheng University—students who know the relevant stuff.

We'll split up. You ride the bike and check around for any electronics factories nearby. If you find one, put up posters in the area around the factory, but don't stick them right at the factory gate, or you'll get cursed out.

I'll go to Wencheng University to put up posters. We'll hold all interviews at the shop."

"Alright, no problem. But isn't ten yuan a day too high?" Fang Shi nodded, glancing at the hiring info on the poster, feeling the pay was too generous.

"Dad, we're in a hurry. There are still a lot of secondhand TVs in T City, and this TV market is huge—there's no end to the money we can make.

Don't say ten yuan a day. If I can find a real talent who can handle this whole mess and let me just sit back and reap the rewards, I'd pay a hundred yuan a day.

Think about it, Dad. If one person can help us make hundreds or thousands of yuan a day, what's a little sweetener for them?

Sure, we could hire people for a few yuan a day, but they'd lack the skills, and that would slow us down from expanding and mess with my study time. Pinching pennies and losing the big picture—that's not worth it."

Fang Bai patiently explained to his father, hoping he'd grasp the key point.

In the coming years, currency would depreciate fast, and wages would rise quickly. Ten yuan a day was high now, but by 1993, it'd be pretty standard.

"Alright, you've got a point."

Fang Shi was a bit resistant at first, but hearing his son's reasoning, it made sense—you can't catch a wolf without risking a child.

Soon after, the two set off.

Fang Bai took a rickshaw to nearby Wencheng University, which was still a vocational college at the time. He slipped onto campus and posted hiring flyers on the school bulletin board.

[High Salary Recruitment: Our company is expanding and eagerly seeking talent. We need several students familiar with TV repair and circuit boards!

Salary: 10 yuan/day!

Paid daily, lunch included. This job can be part-time or long-term.

Note: Only third-year students need apply.

Also, a reminder: No registration fee required. Any interview or registration asking for a fee is a scam!

Work and interview location: Across from Oubei No. 1 Middle School...

Contact: Mr. Fang]

There was no phone number, and no company had been registered yet, but the poster wasn't wrong—they'd set one up sooner or later.

As soon as Fang Bai finished posting the flyer, passing students swarmed around to read it, and after taking in the details, they started buzzing with discussion.

"Wow, that's good pay."

"It's not that much. If we land a good job after graduation, we might make more than that."

"That's different. They're just hiring temps. Where else can we find a part-time gig with this kind of salary?"

"Working for a private business? No way I'm doing that."

Most students had a monthly living allowance that wasn't high. For those from rural families, what their folks gave them was usually less than ten yuan a month.

The state also provided subsidies to college students, but if you weren't a teacher-training student, the subsidy was meager.

Plenty of students were desperately short of money at home, with younger sisters and brothers still in school needing funds. In this era, who didn't have siblings?

Now this company was offering ten yuan a day in wages, solving the most pressing problems for many students.

The mindset of students back then was different from later generations. Quite a few were aloof, convinced they'd land an Iron Rice Bowl job in the system after graduation and would never work for a private company.

They'd rather die than go!

What they didn't know was that five or six years later, the state would start phasing out guaranteed job assignments for college graduates, rolling it out on a large scale in 1998, and by 2000, the assignment system would be completely shut down.

Some students were proud, but others were willing to give it a try.

Never mind ten yuan a day—even just a few yuan a day tempted plenty of students.

Private companies recruiting part-timers on campus was rare at Wencheng University; many students had never seen it happen.

Wages paid the same day, plus lunch included—students weren't afraid of being scammed.

But the requirements weren't low either: you had to know how to repair TVs or circuit boards.

Fang Bai put up a few posters on the notice boards around Wencheng University, then left campus and headed back to his rental.

Once the TVs were fixed, how would he sell them?

That was the question he'd been mulling over lately.

He'd thought about sales methods for the TVs, like setting up a street stall, opening an electronics store, or door-to-door selling.

Families who could afford a TV weren't exactly poor; they'd rather buy from a proper shop. Opening an electronics store would be best.

But opening a store required capital!

And the store renovation would take time.

For Fang Bai, spending a bit more money wasn't a big deal—it was the time that mattered.

After a brief thought, he figured that folks in this era were still pretty open to street stalls. He could give it a try first, which would also save some money and time.

If street-stall sales didn't work out, he could always consider other sales methods.

Maybe his whole idea was wrong anyway.