Yesterday, met uncle Pou on the street,and I introduced him to my father.
He told my father that I was very smart. I think he was over-praised me, but I worked very hard for my previous boss.
I knew Uncle Pou when I got my first job back from States. He was a sole proprietor to offer the delivery service for the HK customers who bought Chinese furniture in Macau. Even though there were many similar furniture shops on the street, he knew that we had a very good business, as we always shipped many furniture to HK.
It reminds me of my boss of that job. I want to summarise what I learned from this " Chinese Business Man"( Knowing well the Chinese furniture industry, he first diversified and later on he changed his business and now he is no more in this field!!!!).
My boss (H) is from mainland China, and all his family members are in China too. At that time, he realised that Macau money was better than CCY, that was why he set up business in Macau(now he only owns business in China, as CCY is more attractive !!!) He got the chance to get a Macau ID, then he came to Macau. He told me he had many jobs before, so he knew the hard way of living, another way to say, he started from zero to what he had at that time.
He didn't receive formal education nor speak English, but he knew the way to communicate. He could finish the deals with foreigners in busy days when I was pretty busy on receiving the other customers, as our shop was very big.
He set up his Chinese furniture factory in China, then exported to Macau to sell, target customers were Portuguese and the British in HK.
He also provided furniture to some Hong Kong furniture shops, I was once very puzzled that one Hong Kong guy was very unfair to him, but still he accepted the request (Later on, I realised that H was looking for a long term business, and also it was a way to get rid of the products in the factories - for the turnover is more important for the business, it is no use to keep the stocks all the time, cash is cow!!!)
To be honest, H is not a hard-working person, but he used his brain. By the time I looked for the job, right after I came back, he interviewed me for a short time and he asked what did I expect for salary.
I gave an amount close to my previous summer job in Macau, and insisted that I wanted for a commission, so that we could have a win-win situation. He immediately promised and in a very short time later on, he and his wife had a good trust on me (Later on, we did have a win-win situation, I was very happy with my selling record and also met the clients all over the world).
My careering as "selling representative" started immediately, I worked almost every day. His business was quite good. I received all kinds of customers, and I learned from the customers as well as from H.
H always told me trust/honesty is important. When I offered the furniture price, even though if I made a mistake of the price, I should not change the price again, otherwise the customer would not believe or come back.
He insisted this principle for many times, but it was contrast to his wife, who was very careful of the money. She wanted to earn all the money, even though one dollar, at the beginning, she didn't understand why his husband hired me at such a high cost, more than the current market price - but later on, she was smart enough to know that I had a value for their business !! Overall, H had a long term view of business.
We didn't have a fix-pricing (but rather flexible pricing) in the shop, and it depended on the business, if it was very slow, even though customers stopped by, he charged me to lower the price in order to finish the deals. But I should had a good memory of the offered price, as customers would like to stop by for many times before making the decision.
Another strategy I learned from him was that , he knew the people liked to compared prices, for the first two or three pieces, he would lower the price to attract customers, once customer decided to order a whole house of furniture, he was very careful of the pricing of the rest, that meant the marginal benefit for the customers had reduced, instead, he mentioned that he would offer better follow-up service, so that he could secure his profit, some customers accepted this as they also realised that there was a cost to search for the other furniture in the other shops.
I was started to in-charge of the whole shop all the time, from the money, the keys and the products. He started to open more shops, from one to three, one of them was a huge shop, like the storage. Business was quite good, I also went to China to bring the buyers to check the furniture for exporting business.
He said that this could tell the customers that there were a lot of products to choose, whenever they spend more time in the shop, they will buy more. He knew what the customers think.
He told me once in a while, change the furniture's position, so that people can have a new look whenever they stop by.
When I was in China's factory, I could see the factory was very big, actually, he had supervisors to help him to organise the daily operation, so that he could have time to travel and went to Macau.
He himself in-charge of the purchasing (this was important, as the raw Chinese furniture cost a high % of the selling price, while the labor cost and the transportation cost were comparatively lower, he himself knew the conditions and the cost of the purchasing) . Only once in a while, he came back to Macau to see the retail business, and got the money back to China for the wages of the labors.
He also knew that relationship to the government department is important. His wife is also a smart woman, and provides help for him once in a while especially the customer relations. Whenever oversea buyers visited the factory, she helped a lot of the arrangement, from meals to transport.
Business is business, the smart business man needs to use his brain, but honesty and trust are the most important things.
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