Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

After adding royalties, air fryers generally sell for more than $170.

In this comparison, Li Weidong's air fryer sells for $200. Although it is a little expensive, it is still within the acceptable range. After all, Li Weidong's air fryer has two more functions.

In the next few days, Li Weidong sold more than 20,000 air fryers. Other exhibitors also sold hundreds of thousands of air fryers.

Air fryers are still very popular in European and American countries. The eating habits of European and American countries prefer fried food, and it is also destined that this product can be sold well.

In the late 1980s, developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan had a combined population of about 600 million to 700 million people. With such a huge population base, it was easy to consume hundreds of thousands of air fryers.

The Southeast Company also signed a patent authorization of more than three million US dollars. In addition to various costs such as taxes, Li Weidong can probably get a dividend of two million US dollars.

There is no double taxation system for taxation on Hong Kong Island, so as long as the company pays various taxes and fees, the profits obtained are distributed to shareholders, and shareholders do not need to pay individual income tax.

However, it will take some time to get the two million US dollars. It has to wait until the domestic payment is received from the foreign businessman, and then the foreign trade department can pay the patent fee to the Southeast Company.

Li Weidong is not afraid that the foreign trade department will default on his debts. After all, this is a patent licensing contract signed at the Canton Fair. If the foreign trade department dares to default on the debts, it will be the golden sign of the Canton Fair.

...

In the evening, Li Weidong and Zheng Jianan had dinner together, and then strolled along the seaside.

Zheng Jianan can understand Mandarin, but he can't speak it very well, so he simply speaks Cantonese.

Li Weidong is on the contrary. He can understand Cantonese, but he speaks very scumbag, so he talks to Zheng Jianan in Mandarin.

The two are like mainland actors and Hong Kong Island actors playing against each other. You speak Cantonese and I speak Mandarin.

"When you invited me to join the patent company, I thought I encountered a liar. Now that I think about it, it's fortunate that I didn't reject you. Otherwise, I would have lost more than $400,000 in dividends this year!" Zheng Jianan laughed very much. sweet.

"You didn't take this money in vain. If you didn't rely on your identity as a lawyer to go to the fray, the money won't be so smooth." Li Weidong said.

Li Weidong is telling the truth. The only large state-owned enterprises that can come to the Canton Fair are large state-owned enterprises. Just relying on the name of a Southeast company is not enough to make these large state-owned enterprises pay royalties obediently.

The identity of Zheng Jianan's lawyer is obviously a very important bargaining chip. With Zheng Jianan as a lawyer, it means that the Southeast Company is not afraid of a lawsuit, which is a weapon that can cause substantial harm.

Just like in many TV dramas, there are always lines such as "you are going to sue me". In normal times, this is just an angry remark, because the person who said this is often sure that the other party will not sue him.

But if the other party is a lawyer, I believe that no one will have the confidence to say the phrase "you have the kind of thing to sue me", because the lawyer will really sue you.

The same sentence "Believe it or not, I will sue you for defamation" that often appears in the same Hong Kong drama, if it comes from a lawyer, the effect is completely different.

In Liu Dawei's office that day, if Li Weidong hadn't revealed Zheng Jianan's lawyer status, maybe the matter of the patent fee would have been debated for a long time.

However, when everyone knew Zheng Jianan's lawyer status, they realized that the Southeast Company had the ability to litigate intellectual property rights against foreign businessmen who bought air fryers at any time, so paying the patent fee became their only choice.

After listening to Li Weidong's words, Zheng Jianan smiled slightly and said, "I can earn more than 400,000 US dollars by pretending to be a tiger. This is too valuable. If I work normally, I am afraid that I will be promoted to a partner in a law firm. , it is possible to earn $400,000.”

"Don't just take money and do nothing." Li Weidong smiled and then said, "It's not easy for me to go to Hong Kong Island, so the day-to-day operation of the company is entirely up to you."

"Don't worry, the business of the patent operation company is basically related to law, which is what I am best at." Zheng Jianan said.

"No salary." Li Weidong added.

"There are dividends, what salary do you need?" Zheng Jianan smiled sweetly.

Li Weidong pondered for a few seconds and said, "One more thing, Wal-Mart's buyer Gordon and his buyer Hayward are also staying at the White Swan Hotel. Can you get to know them?"

"Are they related to the Southeast Company's business?" Zheng Jianan asked.

"This is not necessarily true." Li Weidong shook his head and continued; "Walmart and such large retailers are both important sales channels for small household appliances, and will become my big customers in the future. Regarding the business of small household appliances, if there is any If there is an opportunity, I plan to operate the brand and the factory separately, the brand is responsible for marketing, and the factory is dedicated to OEM, and it may be linked to the business of the Southeast Company."

"Don't worry, it's still very simple for a beauty to ask for a man's contact information." Zheng Jianan said confidently.

The two chatted and walked to the door of the White Swan Hotel.

"Okay, I've arrived at the hotel, it's time for me to say goodbye!" Li Weidong said very gentlemanly.

"Why don't you go up and sit down?" Zheng Jianan stared at Li Weidong with big eyes.

Li Weidong was stunned for a moment, and secretly said in his heart: "I'll go, is this a direct hint? If I go up and sit down at night, nothing will happen! Do you agree? Although I'm a bit greedy. The body, but only a little bit!"

In later generations, Li Weidong, when he became a multi-millionaire, already had beauties who took the initiative to embrace him. After Li Weidong became a billionaire, this kind of invitation to "go up and sit down" happened many times.

However, after being reborn, in the conservative 1980s, this was the first time Li Weidong encountered this.

Li Weidong was hesitating, Zheng Jianan smiled charmingly, then he pointed his toes, pressed his lips to Li Weidong's cheek, and said, "Give you a good bye kiss, and my sister won't let you accompany you!"

After Zheng Jianan finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the elevator.

Looking at the back of Zheng Jianan's departure, Li Weidong touched his cheek subconsciously. The warmth of Zheng Jianan's lips seemed to remain there.

"Is she flirting with me?" Li Weidong said to himself.

...

After the Canton Fair, Li Weidong returned directly to Qinghe.

Everything in the electric furnace factory is normal, and some workers are still on vacation.

Winter wheat in North China and East China is sown from the end of September to the beginning of October. During this period, the electric furnace factory has no production tasks, so the workers simply go home to plant wheat during the holidays.

Compared with cutting wheat, planting wheat requires much less physical labor, but the technical requirements are more than one level higher.

At that time, most farmers could not afford agricultural machinery, and they still used manpower or livestock to cultivate the land, and the efficiency was definitely much lower.

In addition, farmers at that time were reluctant to use pesticides, so herbicides were rarely used, and all weeds in wheat fields were removed manually. This greatly increased the labor of the peasants.

Facing the empty production workshop, Ma Zhongyi said: "It is estimated that in two days, the workers will be back. The wheat is easy to get sick when it first emerges, and it is necessary to prevent the cold current and frostbite the wheat seedlings."

"Wait two days, just wait two days. Anyway, we need time to purchase raw materials, but after getting the raw materials back, we have to step up production, and we must send out the first batch of goods by the end of October. Send a batch of goods. There is Thanksgiving in late November in Europe and the United States, and Christmas in late December, which are good times to sell goods." Li Weidong said.

"Okay, leave the production matters to me." Ma Zhongyi nodded, and then asked, "Is it still seven cents a set?"

"The new air fryer has added two functions and additional parts. It will be a little more troublesome to assemble. Give it a dime!" Li Weidong said.

"Let's go up five points!" Ma Zhongyi said stingly.

"Brother Ma, prices have risen sharply this year. A few months ago, pork was still 1.5 yuan. Now it's 2.5 yuan. We must not raise more money for the workers?" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"That's right, I went to the market and found that the items were a lot more expensive. Then let's increase it by a dime!" Ma Zhongyi nodded.

The assembly cost of each air fryer increased by 10 cents, and Li Weidong only paid a few thousand more, which was just a drizzle for Li Weidong.

In fact, Li Weidong can't make much money for this batch of air fryers.

First of all, the price of the air fryer has dropped. A $200 air fryer is nearly one-third cheaper than before, which greatly reduces Li Weidong's profits.

The second is the increase in the price of raw materials, which increases the cost of Li Weidong.

In 1988, the price increase was so great that the final raw material price could not be determined until the moment of signing the purchase contract, because the raw material supplier did not know how much the price would rise tomorrow.

Another point is the uncertainty of the foreign exchange rate, which also makes Li Weidong unable to estimate how much money he can make from this single business.

Before September 1988, the exchange rate in the foreign exchange swap market was fixed, and after September, the foreign exchange swap market in various places gradually cancelled the fixed exchange rate. When Li Weidong finally settled foreign exchange, it was still unknown how much renminbi could be exchanged for one US dollar.

At that time, the country was not so handy with the intensity of exchange rate control, and the valuation of the RMB was a mystery, and even a rough range was not easy to estimate. Li Weidong did not know the exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB, so he could not accurately calculate the profit of the business.

I have to say that doing international trade at that time was really like opening a blind box, which was fun and exciting. Once a business is completed, it may make a profit inexplicably, or it may lose money inexplicably!

Li Weidong walked out of the workshop and looked in the direction of the laboratory of the second-hand inventor Lu Jianli, but did not see Lu Jianli's motorcycle.

"Mr. Lu didn't come today?" Li Weidong asked.

"Mr. Lu has started school. I heard that I have to study at night. I'm very busy. I have to wait until the weekend to come over." Ma Zhongyi paused, then said: "By the way, Mr. Lu asked me to bring you words."

"What word?" Li Weidong asked.

"He has completed the task you gave him, and he has made improvements!" Ma Zhongyi said.

Li Weidong was slightly surprised: "Can the toaster be improved? This second-hand inventor really gave me a surprise!"