Chapter 259 - Fish-Catching Internet Cafe Enters the Second Stage! (1/2)

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and looked at Zhang Yuan. “What’s the financial situation for these internet cafes?”

Zhang Yuan immediately answered proudly, “They’re looking good!

“The flagship store’s getting about seven hundred thousand yuan per month in revenue. After deducting our expenses, we’re making about two to three hundred thousand yuan per month. The other shops are doing slightly worse, but we’re more or less balanced out.

“Our Ming Yun Villas branch was incurring the most losses among all the branches. However, its revenue has increased recently. I think we can generate an overall profit soon.” Hearing this, Pei Qian felt his heart begin to bleed.

However, this also gave his thoughts validation.

Again, Pei Qian asked, “Our main source of income in the internet cafes is the sale of alcohol, right?” Zhang Yuan nodded. “That’s right. The internet cafes’ main sources of income are the sale of alcohol and coffee, as well as tips for the resident singers. Another important source of revenue is the internet-surfing fee. However, while more people are paying to surf the net at our internet cafes, there still aren’t that many of them overall.”

Pei Qian roughly understood the situation now.

“We do have to expand. We’ll open a new branch in a location where the rent is the most expensive!”

Ma Yang’s suggestion to expand the business reminded Pei Qian of something.

Pei Qian had not intended to throw money into a failed project like Fish-Catching Internet Cafe anymore. Now, both the flagship store and the Ming Yun Villas branch have become popular. Fish-Catching Internet Cafe also had pretty good ratings on Quanmin Reviews. The internet cafes were now considered very famous in Jingzhou.

Once paying customers formed an impression of such high-end brands, they would remain forever. Even if Boss Pei opened a new branch, people would likely visit it as well.

Thus, opening a new branch would have been disadvantageous to Boss Pei.

Why would he open new branches if they could not incur losses?

However, after some thought, Pei Qian thought of another problem.

Among all the businesses, Upwind Logistics was probably the best at losing money.

Still, Ma Yang was the CEO of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe after all. Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was now doing so well; it was now well-reputed and making profits. How could they just stop now?

How would Pei Qian explain this to Ma Yang?

Of course, Boss Pei did not need to explain anything to anyone. He could choose to cast Fish-Catching Internet Cafe aside if he wanted. After all, allowing it to earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a month was a small burden which Boss Pei could afford to carry.

However, would people grow suspicious?

After all, something would be off.

Thus, Pei Qian thought of another idea.

Making some profit would not be a problem for now. There was still more than a month until settlement. He could spend all the money on Upwind Logistics and a new branch for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, right?

Even if all of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s branches generated profits, it would be fine as long as the new branch didn’t earn money, right? Those two Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches were making profits, but that was due to two main reasons.

First, most of the revenue was coming from the sale of alcohol and customers’ tips for the resident singers. At the moment, most customers preferred to take Fish-Catching Internet Cafe as a coffee shop or a bar, and not a place to surf the net.

Pei Qian had nothing to say about this.

His original intention was to create a complete hodgepodge. He wanted to confuse everyone about what Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was in order to minimize the chances of the internet cafe becoming famous.

He would never have expected that the bar and coffee area would become more popular than the internet cafe area!

He could only say ‘man proposes, God disposes’.

Apart from that, the few Fish-Catching Internet Cafes were located in deserted areas, and the rent was cheap.

Pei Qian had picked these locations out in order to keep the internet cafes hidden and traffic low. He hoped word about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would not spread, and rich customers would not be satisfied. That would have ensured that they would not recover the cost of daily operations.

However, the situation was completely different now. Since Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had become famous, there was no point in keeping the branches in inconspicuous locations. Pei Qian would be better off looking for a busier location and spending more on rent!

To Pei Qian, as long as he could resolve both of these problems, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would be able to continue incurring losses.

That was why it was important for people to think in reverse.

The resident singers are bringing in money? Get rid of them!

The rent is too cheap? Find a more expensive place!

Pei Qian considered for a while and immediately decided on a perfect solution.

“Since that’s the case, we can enter the second stage of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s plan,” said Pei Qian in a serious tone.

Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan immediately perked up and listened closely.

The second stage! It looks like our hard work on Fish-Catching Internet Cafe has paid off. Boss Pei is validating us!

Pei Qian continued, “Once we enter the second stage, we will improve Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s reputation. At the same time, we will do as much as we can to emphasize the true nature of the business—the internet cafe.”

Ma Yang became confused. Zhang Yuan was stunned as well. What did he mean by the internet cafe area being the true nature of the business? Wasn’t diversification the advantage of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe?

They were earning the most from the sale of coffee and alcohol now!

Zhang Yuan continued to hear Pei Qian out despite the questions in his head.