Yi Xian is quietly writing his inspection report at a seat near the corner of the restaurant. There are still several customers forming aline in front of the counter waiting to make their orders. The girl named Mei Mei is currently greeting every customer that enter the restaurant.
Mei Mei is the poster girl of the fifth restaurant. She is cute enough to rival the most popular idol member on earth. The people on this cultivation world are generally more good looking than the average people on earth. Maybe the qi within the food is the reason for that. Most people looks very youthful and there are very few cases of chronic diseases. Well, the earth was way too polluted after all.
The business hour will end after another half an hour. Following the company policy, the restaurant will stop receiving customer and only the customer within the premise are allowed to make their last order. After the closing hour at 6, only the staffs are allowed within the premise. Then, the cleaning duty will start to prepare the restaurant for the next day.
As the last customer left the restaurant, Yi Xian stopped writing his inspection report. He has completed the report for this inspection. He starts thinking about his next agenda for the day.
The business is currently thriving but Yi Xian is faced with his first bottle neck. The central kitchen will hit the maximum capacity within a month. Based on his observation of the customer demands growth and the sales at the newest location, Yi Xian predicted the sales at the fifth location will completely fill the current central kitchen production capacity after a month.
The expansion of the current central kitchen is currently ongoing and the negotiation for a second central kitchen location is underway.
Yi Xian is currently running low on fund. He had reinvested all profit for business expansion. He had been living frugally for this year and a half. It was very fulfilling looking at the growing business. Despite all his saving, he finally hit the wall. He has no money to continue the expansion.
Based on his most effective business plan, he has to complete the business locations distribution throughout the North Gate City within a year. He has buy locations at the Qian Capital. Next year, he had a plan to move his management headquarter to the Qian Capital and starts opening branches in all major cities in Qian Kingdom. The business model in North Gate is fully scalable.
He not only requires funds, but also human resources. The Yi family had declined too much. The last 3 members of the Yi family have very limited energy and time to cultivate loyal work forces. They had called the family members of Aunt Su and Uncle Su to help with the operation at North Gate City. Other former servants of the Yi family had left the family too long. They need a lot of time properly ensure their loyalty. There is no time to cultivate human resources for the critical management positionz within his business timeline.
This is a common problem for every start-up on earth. Many founders hit a bottle neck due to rapid expansion beyond their funding capacity. Usually, this is the time where investors are involved. The choice of an investor is a crucial decision for a founder. The choice can make or break the business. The investor can be a strategic partner as a key to a much wider market and a green pass to various hurdles during expansion or they can be the hurdles and pitfalls that obstruct the business during expansion.
At this point Yi Xian had to consider a second strategic business partner for his business venture. He has a person in mind. A very young manager at the North Gate Merchant League branch. A recent acquaintance that visited him after Chicken Palace became famous in the city.
"Maybe she is the best choice after all..."
Yi Xian mumbled quitely but his voice is still heard by Mei Mei.
"Huh!? Young master Yi! D-did y-you get a girlfriends?!"
Mei Mei asked Yi Xian while stuttering. Her face looks pale and her eyes a bit red. Small tears can be seen forming at the corner her eyes. If Yi Xian has to be honest, she looks super adorable and cute. Yi Xian is a bit tempted to tease her a little.
Yi Xian is well aware that Mei Mei has a feeling for himself. Yi Xian also admitted to his feeling attracted to the cute girl. However, they are not in a relationship yet because Yi Xian feels that they are too young to get married while the unmarried love relationship is forbidden in Mei's family.
Despite knowing this, Yi Xian smile slyly and asked Mei Mei teasingly,
"Why? Is there a problem if I got myself a girlfriend? I am also a single healthy 18 years old guy. No girl ever asked me out before. I am bit lonely too."
"N-no! I asked you out before for a date! You are the one t-that said it d-didn't count!"
"Of course it didn't count. Who the hell bring their older brother together in a date? Is that still a date? Three people is an outing!"
"B-but brother said that we can only go together alone after m-mariage!"
"So? Since you can't go on a date with me, you are not my girlfriend and before we are married you cannot say anything about me going out with another girl."
"B-but I'm still too young to get married! Brother will not allow it. Maybe after 2 years."
"Well, see you 2 years later. I will enjoy my date in the mean time."
Yi Xian pretended to leave the seat to walk out of the restaurant.
"W-wait!"
Mei Mei hurriedly catched Yi Xian's hand and she seriously asked,
"Did you really got a girlfriend?"
"No. I was joking. But I was really talking about a girl. It was a business acquaintance. I plan on meeting her for work."
Yi Xian decided to stop with his teasing. If he did not clear the misunderstanding early, Mei Mei might start crying the whole night and her older brother might start looking for him.
Her older brother is a pretty scary figure to Yi Xian. Mei Feng is a rank 5 Martial Squire. He is a famous genius in Qian Kingdom among the younger generation of cultivation circle. He looks handsome and cool like an ice-beauty except for a single flaw. He loves his little sister too much. It was the first time Yi Xian saw a real life sister complex.
"Really?! You promise only work and no funny business?"
Mei Mei smiled while extending he little finger for a pinky swear.
Yi Xian chuckled at the cute gesture but he extended his hand to complete the pinky swear.
"Okay. I promise. I need to go for the meeting now. Good bye, Mei."
Yi Xian leaves to restaurant to go for the appointment with his future accomplice.
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In a private guest room at the Merchant League branch, Yi Xian is received by a young woman in her early twenties. The woman has a long black hair reaching her back. She has a very domineering and charismatic noble demeanor. Her presence command the air of respect and authority. She is also a well known genius cultivator in Qian Kingdom. Based on the information Yi Xian had collected, the woman is called Sui Ling. She is currently a new business venture manager at this branch as part of her training as a Merchant League younger generation elite. Sui Ling is also a rank 4 martial warrior.
Despite being in front of a true elite of the Merchant League, Yi Xian never lose his confidence nor bearing. There is a knowing glint in his eyes. He proudly extends his hand for a handshake to the woman.
"Good evening and nice to meet you again, Ms. Sui."
Sui Ling is startled by the greeting. Officially, this is supposed to be the first meeting for the two of them. She pretends to be oblivious.
"Excuse me Mr. Yi. Did we ever meet before? I think this is our first meeting."
"Of course not. You was the representative that went to inform me about the Chicken Palace incident. Although the representative at the time looks very different, I can still recognize that it was you at that time."
"No, I am sure that you are mistaken Mr. Yi. The representative at the time was my younger cousin. She was an intern working for the branch at that time."
Sui Ling tries to deceive Yi Xian with an excuse. She was really the representative at the time. The problem is that, she forgot to create her manager persona at the time. She was working unofficially as an intern at the branch without an official position. Sui Ling is actually a very mischievous girl.
When she heard about the interesting incident where many influential and old companies tried to steal from a new company, she became interested in the founder of the new company. So, she decided to take over the role of the representative of the Merchant League to contact the founder. She was a bit shocked to find out that it was a guy even younger than her.
She was a little talkative and outgoing during the contact since she was impersonating other personnel at the time. It was a completely different character for her commonly know ice princess character.
"Really?. Well, maybe I was mistaken. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Nice to meet you the , Ms. Sui."
Yi Xian is a bit skeptical but there is no reason to doubt her. It is a bit rude to keep questioning someone he just met once or maybe twice. He decided to leave it for now.
"Nice to meet you too."
"It is already late in the evening and we have a dinner reservation at 8. Let's begin our meeting immediately "
"Yes, I have received you proposal previously there are several thing I would like to know further."
Yi Xian and Sui Ling spent the next 2 hours negotiation for a business partnership. Yi Xian proposed for an amount of funding required to complete distribution Chicken Palace restaurants throughout Noth Gate City. Yi Xian is staking 20% of his company shares for the investment.
Within a year, if Chicken Palace managed to recoup the whole investment, the Merchant League of the North Gate branch will return 15% of the shares and will only keep 5% of the share. Yi Xian also offer about 2% of the shares of Chicken Palace to Sui Ling as an individual. Sui Ling agreed to buy the shares with her personal wealth because she was very impressed with Yi Xian method of negotiation.
After completing the negotiation, the two people went for a dinner at a restaurant within the Merchant League building. Yi Xian get to know more about his new personal strategic partner as well some advantages of partnering with the Merchant League. Sui Ling managed to maintain her business persona throughout the day until the dinner was over. Yi Xian bid Sui Ling good bye with a very content smile since he accomplished all objectives for the day. Sui Ling immediately reported the outcome of the negotiation to the Merchant League.
The deal offered by Chicken Palace is very profitable. The Merchant League is also very satisfied with the result. The business model is already proven with very low risk. According to the current deal, North Gate branch will get 5% of Chicken Palace for practically free. Unlike the earth, the duration of a year is very negligible on Qian Kingdom. A year is pretty much a blink of an eye.
Yi Xian also knew about this, however he decided that the amount borrowed for a year is enough to fund his business hegemony to encroach the whole of North Gate City.
However, the fund was not the greatest gain in this business dealing. It will be proven times and times again in the future. The new business partner will be a very valuable ally. She will be one of his greatest accomplices in the future.