Business is booming

  He inadvertently picked up an electronics engineer, Lin Zhenhua was very pleased. The next day, he took Peng Shaozhe to the county middle school to meet with Wei Jingwen, and after agreeing, they would contact each other directly, and Lin Zhenhua would no longer be involved in specific matters. Peng Shaozhe, influenced by his father, was also a small science and technology enthusiast and had even assembled radios before, so he still had some common language with Wei Jingwen.

  Regarding the part-time job of Wei Jingwen, Lin Zhenhua did not tell his sister in detail, but only said that Teacher Wei's level was very high and was helping Labor Service Company design some products and solve major technical problems. Lin Fanghua was also very happy about this and felt that she had also made a contribution to this matter, and finally helped her brother do something.

  After Wei Jingwen and Lin Zhenhua formed an employment relationship, in class, Lin Fanghua naturally received a few more points of attention. However, at this time, Lin Fanghua was already the top student in the class, and receiving such special attention was also a matter of course. No one would have thought that there were other reasons behind it.

  The technical issues have been resolved and all aspects of Hanhua Industrial's business are now on the right track, with development momentum much smoother than Lin Zhenhua had previously estimated.

  Chu Hongyang began to live in Nandu City, and only occasionally returned to Fenghua. The Hanhua Machinery Factory had an office in Nandu with several rooms, and Chu Hongyang occupied one of them as his residence. The office was originally under the management of the Supply and Marketing Department, and Chu Hongyang's father was the head of the department, so he had the advantage of being close to the water tower. Sometimes, customers did not trust Chu Hongyang and wanted to visit his unit in person, so Chu Hongyang would bring them to the office, which also served as a kind of witness.

  After following Lin Zhenhua on several business trips, Chu Hongyang's business cells were activated, and everything he saw was money, his pupils almost turned square. In a few months, he had run through all the units in Nanshi City, from the gate of the unit to the coat rack and washbasin in the office, as long as it was a business that could be negotiated, he didn't care about anything, and he picked everything into his own basket.

  At that time, the country's financial resources were very limited, and each unit could only take out a small amount of money to improve office conditions. Therefore, it was difficult to discuss large business deals. However, Chu Hongyang would claim to be an unemployed youth wherever he went, evoking people's sympathy, and eventually managed to scrape together some small businesses on the side. After several months, he had actually pulled in 700,000 to 800,000 yuan worth of business. All of these businesses had costs that did not exceed 50%, with some even as low as 10% or 20%. Lin Zhenhua roughly calculated and found that the company's gross profit could already reach over 50,000 yuan. Calculating this way, it was not difficult to make a gross profit of 100,000 yuan in a year, and he had easily fulfilled his promise to the factory's contractor.

  Chu Hongyang was able to hold up the business, Lin Zhenhua shifted his energy to the internal management of the company. He made a bold attempt and implemented a performance-based salary system in the company, which is very common in later generations, taking into account factors such as piecework, time, savings, and quotas. The cultural level of the young workers was not high, and few people could understand these complicated calculations, but they knew one thing: as long as they worked hard and did a good job, they would be able to earn more money.

  The power of money is always the strongest. In that era when everyone's life was very difficult, money was even more a hard truth. In the first month after Lin Zhenhua took over the contract, each young worker received an average bonus of 15 yuan, plus their original salary of 24 yuan and 50 cents, bringing their total income to nearly 40 yuan. Some individuals who received more had already achieved their goal of earning over 500 yuan per month ahead of time. Suddenly, the entire Hanhua Machinery Factory was stirred up.

  The young workers who had never received such a high salary in their lives were naturally the happiest group. With special permission from their parents, they took the bonuses they had just received and went to celebrate at several small restaurants outside the factory with their friends. For a time, the business of these small restaurants was booming, buying meat and fish, almost emptying all the butcher shops in the county town. Some far-sighted farmers immediately decided to raise a few more pigs this year, and next year's pork sales would definitely be better. Lin Zhenhua inadvertently drove a huge industrial chain.

  The young workers got the money, gained status at home and face in front of their boyfriends or girlfriends, and gradually regarded the labor service company as their own business. Now, when they talk about the company, they always use the word that Lin Zhenhua taught them, called Hanhua Industry. In their hearts, they feel that the dream described by Lin Zhenhua is already very close.

  Zhao Yongqun, who was in charge of production, didn't understand many management techniques. What he could do was lead by example, working day and night with the young workers to rush orders, never letting any orders signed by Chu Hongyang go unfinished. In addition, he had a very simple idea: if you can save a little, then save it. He even organized people to collect scraps from the workshop, and even wanted to pick up half-used welding wire.

  Regarding the behavior of young workers picking up waste materials, Lin Zhenhua initially agreed with it, after all, the saved money would fall into the company's pocket. However, as business volume increased and the company's work became busier, Lin Zhenhua discussed with Zhao Yongqun whether to stop picking up waste materials altogether and instead take some materials from the warehouse for processing.

  Zhao Yongqun glared: "Xiao Hua, the materials in the warehouse are too expensive! If we go through a bit of trouble, we can save quite a bit of money."

  "But everyone is so busy with work, who has time to clean up these scraps?"

  "Overtime is overtime, Xiaohua. Don't worry about this matter anymore. Everyone is willing to work overtime, just pay the overtime fee and that's it."

  As Zhao Yongqun said, the young workers are willing to work overtime. What they lack most is RMB, and what they lack least is time. In order to save a steel pipe, the young workers are willing to pick up some half-length pipes from the scrap heap, then use sandpaper to grind off the rust, and weld them together one by one. After applying a coat of paint on the surface, it looks no different from a new pipe.

  Han Hua Industrial's orders were all for things like big gates, fences, and trash cans, which didn't have any special requirements for structural strength. So using scrap materials to process them wouldn't affect the product quality at all. Lin Zhenhua saw that everyone didn't have any complaints, so he also didn't say anything more.

  In some places that require fine work, such as the transmission part of the Ministry of Finance's gate, Lin Zhenhua had to ask the master craftsmen from the factory for help. The master craftsmen were more than happy to do jobs for the service company, mainly because their children mostly worked in the service company and when the service company did well, their children looked better and earned more money, which made these parents very pleased. Another minor reason was that Lin Zhenhua never treated these workers poorly, although due to the factory's rules, he couldn't pay them labor fees, but every time they came to help, he would give them a carton of good cigarettes, and when they left, they could take a pack with them, who wouldn't be happy to do that?

  The development of the business solidified Lin Zhenhua's position in the company, and no one dared to disobey him because of his youth or past mischief. Except for a few close friends like Chu Hongyang, all the other young workers began to address Lin Zhenhua as "Manager Lin" or "Director Lin", according to his identity in the factory. What Lin Zhenhua said also became very authoritative in the company, and many people unconsciously followed his words in their actions.

  Taking the opportunity to work, Lin Zhenhua vigorously advocated for a culture of learning technology within the company. He developed an internal technical worker grading system, creating a small badge worn on each worker's chest, with different levels distinguished by color, and lower-level workers would feel embarrassed even when greeting others. As a result, young workers seized their spare time to learn technology, some learned from their parents, while others brought cigarettes and wine to find their original masters to learn, this scene had never appeared in the Hanhua factory before.

  Peng Gang and others' retirement reports have finally been approved, according to the agreement between Lin Zhenhua and the factory, the Labor Service Company signed a re-employment contract with these workers who had retired due to illness. The Labor Service Company pays them a monthly re-employment fee, and they continue to work in the factory. In exchange, although their children have gone through the formalities of entering the factory, they still stay in the service company, with wages paid by Hanhua Factory and bonuses paid by the Labor Service Company. Of course, the parents who retired must sign on the bonus receipt, otherwise it won't be accounted for.

  This set of tricks is a change in soup but not in medicine. Except for the children getting a formal worker's identity, everything else remains unchanged. This flexible approach neither deceives the top nor the bottom; both the factory workers and the leaders of the Light Industry Bureau are well aware of it. However, since Hanhua Factory has not violated any regulations, everyone just doesn't say anything about it.

  This approach of rehiring retired employees on a large scale has not caused any criticism from previously retired employees, because the number of retirees at Hanhua Factory was very small. From its establishment to date, a factory with 500 people had only more than 20 retired employees, and many of them were already old and weak, so they wouldn't bother to dispute this matter.

  There were few retired workers, which was a common situation for most state-owned enterprises at that time. China's state-owned enterprise construction was during the First Five-Year Plan to the Great Leap Forward period. From the early 1950s to the early 1980s, just 30 years, workers who entered the factory at around 20 years old were only just over 50 years old by then, still under retirement age. However, 10 years later, when this batch of workers began to enter the retirement team in large numbers, state-owned enterprises shouldered a heavy burden. On the other hand, township and private enterprises without retired workers dragging them down could easily push many state-owned enterprises into bankruptcy with ease, but that's another story.