Who goes to work if they're a decent person?

Chapter 54 Let Me Do It

Zhou Wenbin paused.

"The fixed expenses are mainly these: First, labor. We currently have a total of 8 people, including full-time and part-time staff."

"Me, two bartenders, three waiters/waitresses, one kitchen staff member, and one cleaner/general helper—if our average salary is 5000, that's 4 a month."

"This doesn't even include bonuses and social security contributions; if they were paid properly, the amount would be even higher."

"Secondly, there's the rent. Oh, this building belongs to the owner... it's your property, so there's no rent, but you still have to pay property management fees and other related charges."

"The other biggest expense is materials and inventory," Zhou Wenbin said with a wry smile. "We have requirements for the quality and variety of our drinks and snacks."

"To maintain a diverse selection at the bar, we always order in large quantities, especially for high-priced items like whiskey and gin that aren't necessarily popular."

"Slow sales, oxidation and evaporation all lead to losses. Snacks and fruits also have shelf lives, sales are unstable, and they often have to be discarded."

He quickly calculated for Su Ming, "Based on an average monthly turnover of 150,000, the gross profit is 65%, minus labor, miscellaneous expenses, materials, etc."

Add to that equipment maintenance, advertising costs, taxes... Mr. Su, to be honest, the bar is losing around 6 yuan a month.

Although the system had already told Su Ming that the daily loss was around 2000, the data reported by the store manager still felt different.

"Damn it, why are all the businesses I've taken over losing money?"

Su Ming was slightly speechless. He thought for a moment and looked at Zhou Wenbin.

"So, what adjustments do you think would be best for our store right now?"

Zhou Wenbin had clearly been prepared, and he smiled.

"Mr. Su, I've actually wanted to talk to you about this for a while now. I've been running our store for over half a year now, and most people there don't really understand wine at all."

They come here to drink just for the atmosphere, I think we can lower the cost of the drinks and not buy such high-quality stuff at all.

"If the drinks are of lower quality, they won't be able to tell the difference, which will significantly reduce costs and increase our profits."

Zhou Wenbin's proposed method can actually solve the current problem, because the beverage industry is already quite profitable, and most customers are drinking for the atmosphere.

Su Ming himself had been to many entertainment venues. Were those drinks really that good? They were probably not even as good as the ones that cost a few dollars a bottle outside.

But in some places, it can sell for more than ten yuan, or even several tens of yuan a bottle.

Although this is a good idea, Su Ming actually doesn't want to lower the quality of the wine.

Since the profit margin is already high enough, lowering the quality would be too unethical.

As an inexperienced businessman, Su Ming still couldn't quite get over his own mental hurdle.

"Are there any other solutions? Lowering the quality of the drinks doesn't seem like a good idea."

Su Ming spoke in a gentle tone, but his attitude was very clear.

He's not some moral saint. Making money in business is perfectly normal, but lowering quality and selling inferior goods as superior ones is unacceptable.

He has a bit of a phobia of germs, especially when it comes to things like alcohol that you drink. You can fool people for a while, but if you ruin your reputation, the shop will be finished.

He took over the bar because he wanted to turn it around and make it profitable, not because he wanted to find a new way to quickly destroy it.

Zhu Bin clearly did not expect Su Ming to reject the proposal so decisively.

In his mind, this was the best solution at the moment, one that could quickly make the bar profitable.

Moreover, he also has corresponding procurement channels and plans to make a profit from procurement.

Hearing Su Ming say this, his expression gradually turned somewhat unpleasant.

"President Su... if we don't start by reducing the cost of alcohol, then... the options available will be limited, and the results may be slower."

Zhou Wenbin didn't make any definitive statements; he just wanted to offer Su Ming some more gentle advice.

"To make a profit, there are only two paths: increase revenue or reduce costs. If you want to reduce costs, besides the cost of alcohol, the biggest costs are labor and material losses."

"Our current staffing is basically at the bare minimum. If we cut back any further, the service won't be able to keep up, and we won't save much money."

"As for material loss, there's actually not much room for optimization..."

Zhou Wenbin reiterated the predicament to Su Ming, wanting him to understand that the bar's current situation was not a matter of whether or not he wanted to lower the quality of the drinks.

It's the current environment that forces you to do this. If you don't want to do it, then the bar will lose money, since it's not their money that's being lost.

"So, do you have any good ideas about open source?" Su Ming asked, feeling that the store manager's thinking was actually quite clear.

"Open source... it's simply about increasing revenue." Zhou Wenbin adjusted his glasses. "As long as we increase revenue, we'll naturally make a profit. But the problem now is, how do we increase it?"

He paused, then added, "Mr. Su, to be honest, we had tried some methods before you came."

"Whether it's distributing flyers, doing special group buying, promoting membership top-ups, or placing soft advertisements on local WeChat official accounts, etc."

The results weren't entirely negative, but they were rather mediocre, since the business district itself determines the customer traffic.

Many of our marketing and promotional costs were barely enough to break even, so we didn't do any further marketing or promotional work.

"Otherwise, we'd have to raise the price of drinks, but actually, raising prices would be a recipe for disaster..."

Su Ming listened quietly; he understood everything Zhou Wenbin was saying.

Local lifestyle and blogger-driven store visits are not yet popular, and stores' methods of attracting customers are still mostly traditional.

But traditional methods rely heavily on location and customer traffic, or they rely on group buying.

However, group buying is often just about getting freebies, unless you rely on salespeople to close deals, convert private domains, and then get repeat purchases.

"In that case... I can use the company's talent resources to attract traffic."

Su Ming immediately came up with a plan: to collaborate with influencers from Uncle Zhang's company and his own company to attract traffic in a matrix format.

Create exclusive packages for influencers to attract a large number of people to visit and spend money here.

Su Ming thought this should make the business a hit very quickly, after all, last time he posted a recruitment video, and immediately a lot of people came to apply.

"Manager Zhou!" Su Ming's face revealed a smile that Zhou Wenbin found somewhat incomprehensible.

"Don't worry about the publicity and events for now, leave it to me."

Zhou Wenbin paused for a moment, then asked, "President Su, do you have any good channels?"

He wondered to himself, "This young new boss, could he be up to something?" The thoughts of the wealthy are unfathomable.

"As for distribution channels, I have a new idea that's guaranteed to make our business explode."

"So in the next few days you need to manage the store well, and you must prepare more materials, and you can even hire more people."

After a while, we might run out of manpower.

"Hiring?"

Zhou Wenbin was genuinely surprised this time. They were already losing money, and now they were hiring?