Any successful business must eventually expand.

All told, ‘Anjia Building Materials had only been open for four months, and its sales potential was still enormous. Even though high-end building materials weren’t popular yet, Xia Xiaolan, Bai Zhenzhu, and Kang Wei were all confident they could push the store’s sales above 2 million yuan next year.

But 2 million in building materials sales was nothing compared to Pengcheng’s development speed.

Pengcheng’s annual building materials consumption wasn’t just 20 million, or even 200 million!

This market was truly massive. Many projects were business-to-business, sourcing materials directly from manufacturers. Xia Xiaolan’s group was merely catching what slipped through the cracks of the big players’ business.

Yet even these leftovers amounted to far more than 2 million!

No matter how well the store at Renmin Bridge Small Commodities Market performed, its location was fixed, and not everyone could find it through word of mouth. Bai Zhenzhu’s desire to open branch stores was reasonable – seeing money on the ground, how could they not pick it up?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t oppose the idea, but the location needed careful consideration.

“Let’s discuss it with all the shareholders. I generally agree, Sister Bai and the map you had drawn is very useful.”

Though the map was somewhat crooked, it was very detailed. Looking at this “latest and most comprehensive” map of the Special Zone, Xia Xiaolan compared it with her memories of the area, and many recollections began to resurface.

Pengcheng’s building materials market has gone through four phases.

The first phase was the current period, the mid-1980s, with small street-side shops offering basic building materials and hardware.

The second phase saw building materials stalls concentrating around Bagualing and Xibei Fourth Road, forming markets through loose stall rentals.

The third phase brought branded home furnishings, combining home decoration, furniture, and building materials into comprehensive home markets. In these comprehensive markets, consumers could find both specialized building material stores and manufacturer displays, finally achieving one-stop shopping.

The fourth phase saw foreign building material supermarkets enter the market, bringing new business models.

It wasn’t about one model defeating another – foreign models needed adjustment to suit China’s market.

But whether it was comprehensive home markets or building material supermarkets, in Xia Xiaolan’s memory, these were still ten years away. Now she wanted to skip over that decade, bypassing the street-side shop and scattered stall phases, jumping straight to stages three and four.

Creating a large building materials center at once was beyond the shareholders’ capital means, and in 1985 Pengcheng, suitable locations were scarce unless they built it themselves! But the self-construction of a tens-of-thousands-square-meter building materials center required massive investment, bank loans needed collateral, and Xia Xiaolan feared breaking the capital chain.

For a new branch, Xia Xiaolan thought a scale similar to the Renmin Bridge location would be manageable within their means.

After careful consideration, Xia Xiaolan gave Bai Zhenzhu a precise response: “We don’t need to rush. While we continue maximizing our current store’s sales potential – 2 million in annual sales isn’t its limit – we can’t expand the physical space, but we can hire more salespeople to develop the market. Rather than passively waiting for customers, we should actively promote. Of course, breaking into previously closed markets is difficult, but landing one big order will satisfy our sales team’s commission expectations.”

Xia Xiaolan was talking about competing with state-owned enterprises.

Converting business-to-business purchases into business-to-private purchases was possible. If salespeople worked hard enough, what was so difficult about taking business from state-owned enterprises?

Those who couldn’t achieve this weren’t excellent salespeople. General Manager Xia believed she could do it and was full of hope for the store’s sales team.

“Meanwhile, we can select locations and renovate. Don’t touch the dividends for six months after Spring Festival – that’ll be enough for our new branch preparation.”

Starting a store from scratch and entering a new industry required considerable effort.

But with a successful model already in place, opening another store wasn’t so troublesome.

What was half a year without dividends?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t mind, and Bai Zhenzhu, Kang Wei, and her uncle Liu Yong could wait. Everyone had initially prepared for a year or more of investment without returns. Even the poorest among them, Comrade Shao Guangrong, had a salary… At worst, he’d just have to spend less, and he wouldn’t starve. Kang Wei, his creditor, wouldn’t come after him with a knife – what couldn’t young Shao wait for?

The discussion was pleasant, and Xia Xiaolan circled several locations on Bai Zhenzhu’s hand-drawn map, planning to visit them with Bai Zhenzhu and Kang Wei while she was in Pengcheng.

Kang Wei’s car, which couldn’t be driven back to Beijing, had essentially become the store’s official vehicle, making Xia Xiaolan’s travel around Pengcheng convenient.

This was partly why Xia Xiaolan had retained some of the dividends – the building materials store hired others for deliveries, lacking its own truck. Sometimes delivery was inconvenient; it was time to get a delivery truck for the store.

It wasn’t until after nine in the evening that Xia Xiaolan had dinner, having truly experienced the store’s business firsthand.

Though she hadn’t helped with building materials sales, during her half-day in the store, she’d managed to secure two contracts for ‘Yuan Hui’ between other tasks. She couldn’t help it – she was attractive, spoke well, and her words struck right at customers’ hearts. People who had just come to browse after dinner ended up chatting with Xia Xiaolan for hours and deciding to renovate their homes… The store’s salespeople watched in amazement.

They weren’t familiar with Xia Xiaolan, having only met her once before, knowing her only as one of the owners.

Damn, she was a sales goddess!

A tile sales representative secretly pulled Bai Zhenzhu aside, “With Manager Xia in the store, she wouldn’t need to be here every day – just half a month each month would boost business!”

Bai Zhenzhu patted her hand, “You think I don’t want that? Your Manager Xia is too busy!”

This salesperson had joined the store late, missing the time when Liu Yong set up a big TV outside the store to watch the National Day celebration. Another who knew better pulled her aside: “Manager Xia is Brother Liu’s niece, a top graduate from Huaqing University – how could she work here in sales?”

So naive, missing the point entirely.

The saleswoman stuck out her tongue, “She’s that impressive!”

There were just some people like this in the world – you might think they’re just good-looking, but they’re also wealthy.

Not only was she rich enough to be a boss, but when she did something, she was even better than professional staff… Such people were born to be bosses!

Xia Xiaolan was unaware of the sales staff’s discussions behind her back. She felt the store’s salespeople still had room for improvement, but she had no time to teach them, getting a headache just thinking about how she still needed to train staff for the clothing store.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t forgotten her main purpose in Pengcheng. She couldn’t find Zhou Cheng by herself, but since the Special Zone was Tang Hongen’s territory, why should she stumble around blindly like a headless fly when she could ask Uncle Tang for help?