Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 74: Preparations to be made

As you get older, similar things will only happen more and more. You can be disappointed and disobedient, but the facts are the facts, and you can't change them.

Therefore, many officials later pay attention to feng shui and seek out various 'masters'. There is a reason why the longer you do business, the more you worship Buddhas and burn incense in temples.

In the eyes of some people, Feng Yiping is also a person with good luck.

In 2002, in addition to the projects he was originally responsible for, he took over the projects of generators and air-conditioning machines that no one in the company wanted to do. Anyway, it is not easy to do such projects well, but it is even more difficult to do them worse than before.

Maybe if things went well, he could sign a few standby power generation projects for buildings, and that would be a success.

At the time, he definitely didn't think that his luck would be so good next!

In most people's minds, the main impression of 2003 should be SARS! But for people in the electromechanical industry, it started in 2002, with a nationwide shortage of electricity and severe power cuts.

The extent of the power shortage was such that, even in an underdeveloped province in the centre of the country, the average household experienced almost 9 hours of power cuts per year, according to statistics from that year! Please note the average per household. Even the total for the previous ten years was less than 9 hours.

Although efforts were later made to ensure residential power supply and promote the use of electricity at off-peak times, power cuts were a common occurrence for businesses and commercial users at the time. It turned out that it was barely possible to achieve a three-day power cut and four days of power supply. And after the peak demand for residential power had passed, after 11 pm, the production lines of enterprises could still operate at full capacity. However, as the temperature rose and the demand for residential power increased, later on, even a five-day power cut and two days of power supply became a luxury.

But for the company, not to mention barely being able to operate for ten days a month, the next question was whether it could survive. And as for the foreign trade contracts that had been signed, if deliveries were not made on time, the compensation fees would be so high that the company could not afford to pay them.

As for the merchants, not to mention those with refrigerators, a power outage of just a few hours would result in a huge loss. Other ordinary shops, not to mention the obvious, your shop is so hot it feels like a steamer, and after just a minute inside you're covered in sweat. Who would be interested in shopping?

There was no other option but to buy a generator.

So generators were in high demand on the market at the time, not to mention bargaining. In order to get stock, many people were willing to pay a premium.

Feng Yiping was familiar with a municipal agent for the American Cummins brand. Originally, he drove a Passat, but six months later, the technicians from his company who went out to install and debug the generators were all driving Audis.

Another agent who sold Volvo generators replaced his Honda with a Mercedes-Benz after two months.

Feng Yiping was in the same boat. He had not yet taken over the dealership for two months when he suddenly found himself at the peak of the market. Not only did the stock disappear, but the dealers, who had been unenthusiastic when Feng visited them, suddenly became enthusiastic, something they had never shown before and would never show again. They all came to Feng with cash in their hands, begging him to sell them more. They were even willing to take the units that had been returned for repair.

Feng Yiping was no different. He sent someone to wait at the supplier's place and negotiated with the salesperson every day just to get more goods.

As for large diesel generators, the requirements were even higher. The agent asked you to report the goods demand plan for the next three months, and he would place an order according to your plan. Then, at the end of this month, the full payment for the goods planned to be delivered at the beginning of next month would be transferred to his account all at once. As for after the goods arrived, if some models were slow-moving, sorry, they definitely could not be returned; if some popular models were out of stock, sorry, there were none!

In short, in those two years, not just the coal bosses were making money. From the US to Europe to RB, power producers were all working at full capacity. Domestically, whether it was a state-owned factory or a private enterprise, they were all working three shifts, 24 hours a day, and still could not meet the growing demand. The offices were still full of customers with cash ready to pick up goods.

In short, those two years were a rare period of good fortune for them. Every link in the supply chain was making a fortune at the time – certainly not comparable to the coal bosses!

As a result, at that time, especially along the coast, every factory built a new generator room, and the diesel engines were constantly 'thumping' all day long. For the businesses on the street, it was a spectacular sight to see all kinds of generators lined up in front of their doors.

Such an opportunity is enough for once. At that time, Feng Yiping took over what he thought was a tasteless project department, which easily sold tens of millions of yuan a year, with a capital turnover of less than 10 days and no receivables at all. It can be said to have set a record in the company that is difficult for future generations to surpass.

At the end of the year, the bonus for the staff in his department responsible for after-sales was higher than that of the heads of other departments. As for those who had originally given up on this project, they were filled with regret and hatred, and kept making all kinds of sarcastic comments. But what could they do? They could only watch helplessly.

In less than two years, Feng Yiping had made his first pot of gold, and this gave him the capital to go to Guangzhou and start his own business.

Perhaps it was the blessing of his ancestors, or perhaps it was the favour of fate. In any case, these opportunities given by the heavens may only come once, so every time such a rare opportunity arises, one must firmly seize it!

Therefore, if he didn't reborn in the 1990s and make a fortune in the financial crisis that would sweep through Asia in a few years' time, it would be absolutely unforgivable. Even the heavens could not look on, and he might be sent back to the barbaric times of the first millennium BC.

However, to profit from the 1997 financial crisis, it was necessary to speculate in foreign exchange, stock indexes, and futures, which were all inaccessible to most Chinese people.

It wasn't until the Free Trade Zone was launched that citizens were allowed to open capital accounts, and each account was limited to a maximum of tens of thousands of US dollars. There were also various restrictions on the movement of funds in and out of the country.

So, like most people, Feng Yiping was also just tossing and turning in the two domestic markets at the time. He had heard of currency speculation and stock index and futures index speculation, but had never seen it before and knew nothing about it. Of course, he now had to go and learn about it.

There was of course no better choice than a university of finance and economics renowned for its finance department to learn about these things.

And, to be honest, Feng Yiping not only does not feel the slightest bit of guilt about following the lead of various international predators in the future and taking a few small bites out of these Southeast Asian countries, but on the contrary, he is looking forward to it!