After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian looked at Zhang Yuan. “Currently, what’s the financial situation of these internet cafés?”

Zhang Yuan immediately answered proudly, “It’s quite optimistic!”

“The flagship store currently has a monthly revenue of around 700,000 yuan. After deducting expenses, the net income fluctuates between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan.”

“The other branches are doing slightly worse, but they’re generally breaking even.”

“The Mingyun Manor branch was initially losing the most money, but its revenue has increased recently. It’s expected to turn a profit soon.”

Hearing these words, Pei Qian felt his heart bleeding.

However, this also provided preliminary confirmation of the idea he’d just had.

Pei Qian asked further, “Currently, the main income for the cafés still comes from beverages, right?”

Zhang Yuan nodded, “Yes. The café’s current income mainly comes from alcoholic drinks, coffee, and commission from tips given to singers. Internet fees are also an important part of the income, but although our occupancy rate has improved significantly compared to before, it’s still not very high.”

Pei Qian now had a clear understanding.

“We need to expand.”

“Open new branches in locations with the most expensive rent!”

Ma Yang’s earlier comment about “continuing to expand” had given Pei Qian an idea.

Pei Qian instinctively didn’t want to sink more money into Slackin’ Internet Café, a failed project.

Now, the flagship store was popular, the Mingyun Manor branch was also popular, and on Public Reviews, Slackin’ Internet Café had received good ratings. This reputation had already been established locally in Jingzhou.

Once this high-end brand awareness took root in consumers’ minds, opening new branches would likely attract many customers.

So, opening new branches would be a negative-return activity for Mr. Pei.

If it couldn’t generate losses, what was the point?

But upon further reflection, Pei Qian discovered a new problem.

In terms of spending money, Headwind Logistics would still take the lead.

But Ma Yang was the CEO of Slackin’ Internet Café after all. Now that Slackin’ Internet Café was doing well, turning losses into profits and establishing a good reputation, how could they just stop?

How could Pei Qian explain this to Ma Yang?

Of course, Mr. Pei didn’t need to explain to anyone. He could arbitrarily set Slackin’ Internet Café aside. After all, making a few hundred thousand a month was a small burden that Mr. Pei could still handle.

But would others become suspicious because of this?

Ultimately, it seemed inappropriate.

So, Pei Qian came up with a better solution.

It didn’t matter if they made a little money now; there was still more than a month until the settlement. Spending this money on Headwind Logistics and new Slackin’ Internet Café branches would work, wouldn’t it?

The existing Slackin’ Internet Café branches were making money, but what if the new ones didn’t?

These cafés were indeed all about to turn losses into profits, but this was based on two prerequisites:

First, a large portion of the income came from beverages and tips given to singers. Currently, most consumers preferred to treat Slackin’ Internet Café as a coffee shop or bar rather than a place to go online and play games.

Pei Qian found this quite frustrating.

His original intention was to create a mishmash, making the café’s positioning very unclear to reduce the chances of it becoming popular.

But unexpectedly, everything except the internet business had become popular—the coffee and bar businesses were all thriving.

It could only be said that man proposes, but God disposes.

Second, the current locations of these cafés were all in remote areas, so the rent was very cheap.

The locations were all specifically chosen by Pei Qian to keep a low profile, minimize foot traffic as much as possible, so that the Slackin’ Internet Café brand wouldn’t get noticed. With insufficient high-end clientele, they naturally wouldn’t cover the costs required for daily operations.

But now, the situation had changed.

Since the Slackin’ Internet Café brand had already gained recognition, hiding away wouldn’t necessarily work anymore. Why not rent some particularly popular commercial spots and spend more on rent!

Pei Qian figured that as long as these two issues were addressed, wouldn’t Slackin’ Internet Café wouldn’t continue to lose money.

So, one must learn to think in reverse.

Are the resident singers helping me make money? Get rid of them!

Is the current rent cheap? Find expensive locations!

After a brief consideration, Pei Qian immediately thought of a perfect solution.

“That being the case, it’s about time for Slackin’ Internet Café’s layout to enter its second phase,” Pei Qian said with an air of importance.

Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan immediately became alert, listening attentively.

The second phase!

It seemed that their work at Slackin’ Internet Café had indeed been effective and gained Mr. Pei’s recognition!

Pei Qian continued, “After entering the second phase, we need to further build the Slackin’ Internet Café brand and, at the same time, try to return the business to the essence of an internet café.”

Ma Yang listened with partial understanding.

Zhang Yuan listened with complete bewilderment.

What did “return the business to the essence of an internet café” mean?

Wasn’t diversified operation Slackin’ Internet Café’s biggest advantage?

Currently, coffee and beverage services are the main sources of profit!

With these doubts, Zhang Yuan continued to listen.

Pei Qian took out his phone, opened the map, glanced at it briefly, and locked onto several large shopping malls in Jingzhou.

“For the second phase, we’ll first open a new branch to test the waters. As for the location… let’s choose one of these large shopping malls.”

“The space definitely won’t be as spacious as now, so we won’t consider beverage and coffee services anymore. All the space will be used for computers.”

Pei Qian’s idea was very clear.

Currently, many branches are just breaking even. Even the most profitable Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store was only making 200,000 to 300,000 yuan per month.

What if the monthly rent increased by another 300,000 to 400,000 yuan?

Wouldn’t that instantly turn profits into losses?

Moreover, Slackin’ Internet Café’s main income now came from its bar business, including beverages, coffee, and commission from tips given to singers.

Getting rid of the singers in the new branch meant no more tips and no more commission.

Of course, there was no need to change the five existing branches; they could continue as they were.

Only the new café in the shopping mall would operate as a pure internet café.

Zhang Yuan looked at the map, somewhat confused. “Mr. Pei, are we really opening in this location?”

Opening in a large shopping mall would ensure sufficient foot traffic, but the problem was that the rent was too expensive!

Most of Slackin’ Internet Café’s current rents were around 3 to 4 yuan per square meter. Renting a 3,000 square meter space would cost about 300,000 yuan per month.

But the rent in these large shopping malls was not so cheap!

Almost all of them were heading towards 7 to 8 yuan, or even more.

This immediately doubled the price.

The shops in these large shopping malls were basically all international brands of clothing, jewelry, bags, cosmetics, and the like. Otherwise, ordinary shops couldn’t afford such high rent.

Slackin’ Internet Café hadn’t made much money yet. Shelling out such a large sum for rent would definitely result in losses, wouldn’t it?

Moreover, this new Slackin’ Internet Café branch would be different from the previous approach.

Previously, they had diversified operations, with the internet café simultaneously serving as a coffee shop and bar.

If the new branch maintained this model, opening in a shopping mall would at least sell more beverages and drinks, which would be profitable.

But now Mr. Pei wanted Slackin’ Internet Café to “enter the second phase” and “return to the essence of an internet café as much as possible,” meaning this new branch would only focus on internet services.

Wouldn’t that be even less feasible?

Who would travel all the way to Jingzhou’s most upscale shopping mall just to play games at an internet café?

Wouldn’t that be a waste of money?

Of course, Zhang Yuan also knew that some men might get impatient while shopping and have such gaming needs.

But this demand, for the time being, shouldn’t be the norm.

Even if a girlfriend was truly merciful enough to let her boyfriend play games while she went shopping, how long could he play?

One hour in the morning, then lunch, then another hour after watching a movie and shopping in the afternoon, and it would be about time for dinner and heading home.

This gentleman would play for a maximum of two hours, and that’s if his girlfriend was being merciful.

For such people, their gaming experience would be quite poor, and the café couldn’t make much money from them.

Considering this, the possibility of the café recovering its costs was minimal.

Unless… they raised prices!

Zhang Yuan hurriedly asked, “Mr. Pei, should the pricing for this new branch also be accordingly increased? For example, 20 yuan per hour?”

Pei Qian immediately shook his head, “No, Slackin’ Internet Café’s official guidance price is 10 yuan per hour. We absolutely cannot arbitrarily raise prices.”

Zhang Yuan: “…”

Ma Yang had been silent all along, but now gave a thumbs up, “Good! Brother Qian, this idea is good.”

“Now is the crucial moment for Slackin’ Internet Café to establish its reputation. We can’t keep hiding in these remote places anymore. To build a brand, we need to go to such large shopping malls!”

“We’ll be alongside those internationally renowned cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry brands. The brand effect will be fantastic!”

Pei Qian gave Ma Yang a high five, “Great minds think alike!”

Zhang Yuan: “…”

Seemingly noticing Zhang Yuan’s confusion, Ma Yang smiled, “Temporary losses are not important at all!”

“Reputation is our long-term goal.”

“Look at the Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store when it first opened—wasn’t it losing money terribly? But later, didn’t it gradually turn losses into profits and now flourish?”

“Look at the reviews for Slackin’ Internet Café on Public Reviews—they’re all positive. What does this mean? The seeds we planted earlier are now bearing fruit. It’s precisely because we’ve consistently prioritized reputation that we’ve achieved today’s success!”

“Do you understand?”

Pei Qian: “…”

This Old Ma had stolen all my lines!

But thinking about it, it made sense. He had repeated these words to Old Ma at least four or five times, and after such repetitive brainwashing, even if Old Ma wasn’t the quickest learner, he would have remembered by now.

Although his lines were stolen and his wounds were exposed, Pei Qian didn’t feel uncomfortable. Instead, he felt a bit gratified.

Old Ma truly understood him more and more!

If all my employees had the same level of comprehension as Old Ma, would I, as the boss, still be so exhausted and anxious?

After giving a few more instructions, Pei Qian confidently entrusted the matter of the new branch to Ma Yang.

Having thought of a new way to spend money, Pei Qian didn’t feel as distressed as before.

Although Mingyun Private Kitchen had run into problems, upon careful consideration, it seemed still controllable. As long as the newly opened Slackin’ Internet Café could lose more money, and they opened a few dozen more Headwind Stations, generating some losses at the end should not be a problem.