Chapter 167: Chapter 146: Lu Fan: My Daughter Wants My Help?

In just half a day.

As if by some unspoken agreement, the business owners all started demanding to either terminate their contracts or have their accounts settled immediately. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

But they were already working with over a dozen shops off-campus. It was a massive task for just the two of them, Jiang Sifan and Wen Wan.

And since they both had classes to attend, they simply didn’t have much free time.

When Jiang Sifan saw the messages, his face fell.

Wen Wan noticed something was wrong and quickly asked, "What is it, Class President?"

Jiang Sifan answered, "A few of the shops are complaining that we’re too slow with the bookkeeping. They want to terminate their contracts."

"What?" Wen Wan was stunned. "How could this be happening?"

"I don’t know. I’m going to go talk to them now, see if I can salvage this." Jiang Sifan was incredibly frustrated.

He couldn’t understand it. His startup had been going so well, but now he was running into one problem after another.

’Looks like starting a business isn’t so easy after all!’

It was then that he recalled what Lu Fan had said about risk profiles.

During that lecture, his mind had been completely clouded by resentment.

He hadn’t truly absorbed any of the key points Lu Fan had made.

But Jiang Sifan had no time to sit around and contemplate it further. He got on his electric scooter and said to Wen Wan, "Thanks for all your hard work last night. Could you start on the books for the other shops? I’m going to go talk to the ones who want to cancel."

"Okay." Wen Wan nodded, then added with concern, "Be careful, Class President."

"I know."

Even though Jiang Sifan’s mind was in turmoil, he had to maintain a positive and healthy attitude in front of Wen Wan.

After all, she was a sensitive girl, and he was worried he might say something thoughtless and hurt her feelings.

Soon, Jiang Sifan made his way off campus.

He first went to find the owner of the wholesale store.

"Boss," Jiang Sifan said, approaching with a friendly greeting.

When the wholesale store owner saw Jiang Sifan, he paused for a moment, then said sternly, "You don’t need to say anything. Let’s just terminate the contract."

"Boss, I’m not here to convince you," Jiang Sifan explained. "I’m just curious why you no longer want to work with us. Is it because we’re too slow? If so, you can rest assured. Our workshop has already found a space, and we’ll be able to hire more people and organize the work after tomorrow."

But the wholesale store owner just shook his head. "I originally wanted to support you, since it’s not easy for students to start a business. But after my wife found out, she said that this bookkeeping and tax filing stuff is no big deal, and there’s no need to hire someone special to do it."

"How about this? We’ll do this month’s bookkeeping and tax filing for free. Once we’ve prepared the data, you can show it to your wife. If she’s satisfied, we’ll continue to work together. If not, then no hard feelings." In his desperation to hold onto a hard-won client, Jiang Sifan once again ignored Lu Fan’s previous advice.

The owner thought for a moment and finally replied, "Alright, fine. Go ahead and run the numbers. Bring them to me when you’re done, and I’ll show my wife. But let’s be clear, I’m not paying for it."

"I understand. Don’t worry," Jiang Sifan said with a nod.

He then went to the next shop.

The owner of this shop used slightly different words, but the sentiment was more or less the same.

Essentially, they felt the service was unnecessary. They’d been sweet-talked into it by Jiali, and now the more they thought about it, the more they regretted it.

Gritting his teeth, Jiang Sifan offered the same deal.

He would do one month of their bookkeeping and tax filing for free, and after seeing the data, they could decide whether or not to continue the partnership.

He used the same approach on the next three shops.

After dealing with them, he had temporarily managed to placate all five shops.

’But the question remained: what would he do if they still insisted on terminating the contract after he’d done a month of free work for them?!’

But Jiang Sifan couldn’t worry about that now. The priority was to keep the clients from leaving, whatever it took.

He then went to their workshop and told Wen Wan what had happened.

After hearing him out, Wen Wan thought for a moment before nodding encouragingly. "Don’t give up, Class President. I’m sure we can keep those clients."

But Jiang Sifan could tell from her expression that she had something on her mind. He prompted her, "Wen Wan, if you have something to say, just say it. Do you have a different idea?"

"I..." Wen Wan hesitated. "I just think... based on what Uncle Lu said at his seminar, we really need to establish our own principles for partnerships. If someone really doesn’t want to work with us for whatever reason, then we should just let the client go. We shouldn’t keep lowering our standards for them over and over again."

After listening, Jiang Sifan asked curiously, "So you think what he said made sense?"

Wen Wan nodded. "I think what Uncle Lu said made a lot of sense."

"Fine, I’ll think about it," Jiang Sifan said, turning to the computer to quickly work on the accounts.

But after a moment, he looked back at Wen Wan. "Wen Wan, you took notes during that seminar, didn’t you?"

Wen Wan was already prepared. She handed her notes to Jiang Sifan.

Jiang Sifan felt a pang of embarrassment.

After all, he had given his own father such a hard time during that very seminar, challenging him again and again.

It wasn’t that he disagreed with what Lu Fan had said, but he hadn’t taken any of it to heart.

Now, the problems with his startup were lining up perfectly with the issues Lu Fan had described.