"Young Master Lin, do you care to explain yourself?" Dong Jin stood up as he spoke with an eerily calm voice.
"Dong Jin, I'll be frank with you, you have to be joking to offer that tiny sum for my recipe. You'll break even in 6 months and profit in 8. After that the growth would be exponential and here you're offering me 1 million gold coins?"
Zhu Jiao shook his head as he picked up the tea cup on the table.
Bei Huo couldn't take it any longer and spoke out.
"What does a kid like you know! We are bearing a lot of risk bringing such a product into the market. Not to mention the capital outlay to have that many stores, we'll only be able to break even in a few years."
Bei Huo's eyes opened up so wide it looked as if they would pop out of their sockets.
"Me? Are you sure you know how to do business? What if I told you that I have a way to make it so that we can break even after 3 months, would you be interested?"
Zhu Jiao spoke calmly with a glint in his eyes.
"If you can give us a plan that is feasible and can break even after 3 months, we'll even split the profit."
Bei Huo continued.
"I am not interested in just the profit, I want to hold equity in the company. Let's work it out this way, I will invest my recipe while you pump in the capital. I will ask for a 49% stake in the company while you will be the major shareholders."
Zhu Jiao played around with the lid of the cup as he continued speaking to the old men.
"If you hold a 49% stake in the company then would the rest of us split the remaining 51% that is just preposterous!"
Bei Huo stroked his beard as he looked away with a harumph.
"What I'm offering is 4 different companies, with 4 different recipes each." Zhu Jiao smiled as he looked at the 4 old men in front of him.
"Dong Jin, I'll give you the recipe to the Katsu, instead of selling it as is, we will create a bowl dish for it, Katsu-don! For Nan Mu, I'll let you take the chicken cutlet, we'll flatten out the chicken and make it huge, it'll be the go to street food. For xi shui, I'll give you the recipe for something better than tea, we'll sell boba tea! And finally, Bei Huo, since you're so feisty, we'll sell Korean spicy chicken."
The 4 old men gave him a look of loss. How can someone be so confident about their abilities and recipes that he could make a sweeping declaration just like that.
"Young Master Lin, I'll be frank with you. I have confidence in your recipe, but it's your business acumen that I'm worried about. There's a lot that goes into a food and beverage business, on top of that there are still huge costs involved. I'm sorry to say, but your idea is still too simplistic… We'll offer you 1.5 Million gold coins for your recipe, that's the most we will extend."
Dong Jin spoke while shaking his head, he felt that this conversation was going nowhere and he decided to end it quickly.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you haven't even heard of my plan and yet you turned me down? As businessmen you should understand that there will be opportunities lost if you don't listen fully. I'll give you a rundown on how we profit and how we make money, tell me after if you want to go ahead with the plan. I was planning on asking you to buy in with 1 million for a 51% stake, but now the amount has changed, I want 1.5 million."
Zhu Jiao stood up as he walked in front of the old men.
Bei Huo chuckled heartily as he watched Zhu Jiao move. "Sure, if you manage to convince us, I'll willingly jump in with 1.5 million gold coins."
Zhu Jiao smiled as he cleared his throat, getting ready to speak.
"Gentlemen, do you know what the best business is in this world? It is the kind of business that you don't need to run. You were wondering how we would be able to break even in 3 months? We will run a franchise business and earn enough to break even in 3 months."
"What's a franchise business." Dong Jin asked with a furrowed brow.
"A franchise business is basically where we let a 3rd party open their own version of our stalls. Provided they follow our recipe exactly and they go through a stringent quality check." Zhu Jiao replied.
"Isn't that just hiring more people to work for us?" Bei Huo asked.
"It's different, they pay for the initial outlay, the overhead and everything. They just need to pay us for the franchise license."
Zhu Jiao smiled.
"But what if they take the recipe and open their own instead? Won't we be at a loss instead?" Bei Huo continued in doubt.
"We won't give them the full recipe, but the portions that are premade. So for example, the seasoning will be our own and we will sell it to them for more profit."
Zhu Jiao ended off his sentence as he walked back to his seat and sat down with a plop.
The 4 bosses looked at each other before turning towards Zhu Jiao, "When can we begin the business?"
"Let's put it in words and seal the deal. I'll teach you all the processes and provide you with the ingredients to start."
Zhu Jiao went back into his room after he sent the 4 old bosses off, his eyes lit up blue as he opened up his
With light steps he walked into the portal, before coming out of it with large pots and pans and buckets full of things.
Dusting his hands, he packed everything and called one of the servants to deliver the goods together with his handwritten notes to each of them.
"Hehe, now that that's over and done with, I need to get stronger…. I need to pretend to get stronger… Anyway, it's about time for me to change the map to a school setting. If I can't give a good face slapping in a schoolyard setting. I won't be able to find one anywhere."