An Jing expressed her surprise, "You even have the servitude contract for your family cooks?"
Wang Youbao said, "Originally, they were family servants who sold themselves to my family. Later, because they helped out in the kitchen, they gradually learned how to cook and then became our cooks. My father gave everything to me, so naturally, I have their servitude contracts."
An Jing understood and then replied, "Then tomorrow, I’ll show them how to do it, and since I’ve also written down the recipes for you, even if they can’t remember my steps exactly, they can still make the dishes quite well by following the recipes."
Wang Youbao: "That would be very good."
After a pause, Wang Youbao added, "When you go teach them tomorrow, I estimate that the day after tomorrow or the day following, Qian Wei Tavern will have its grand opening. You and Changyi should come take a look then as well. It will also allow the tavern’s shopkeepers and helpers to meet you both, the partners."
An Jing shook her head, "No need, we’re leaving it all to you. It doesn’t matter whether they recognize us. Recognizing you is enough." She paused, "You just need to remember to distribute our share of the earnings when the time comes."
Wang Youbao was immediately amused, laughing, "If I forget, you two must remember to come and claim it from me."
An Jing also laughed, "Of course, we’ve partnered with you in opening the tavern to earn money."
After some thought, An Jing still asked, "Are you really planning to just open ?"
Wang Youbao wondered, "Not just open , then how else should we do it?"
An Jing was silent for a moment before saying, "Aren’t you going to do any promotions? Like on the opening day, half-price dishes, or some free ones."
Wang Youbao was quite astonished and exclaimed, "How can that be? How will we make money that way?"
An Jing fell silent again before explaining, "A lot of people have the mentality of loving small bargains. If you offer discounts or freebies, you can attract more customers to dine on that day. And with more customers, if the food is delicious, the word will spread more, people will pass it on, and only more people will come to the tavern to eat. There’s a slight loss at first, but in the long run, we should make a profit."
Although she had never been in business in the modern world, she had seen some stores’ promotional strategies, which all seemed to work quite well.
Here, there had never been promotions or discounts, at most giving a slight advantage for purchasing lots of items, so it’s no wonder that Wang Youbao reacted so strongly.
Upon hearing what An Jing said, Wang Youbao’s eyes lit up immediately, and he exclaimed in admiration, "An Jing, you truly are a remarkable woman! Not being in business is such a waste of your talents!"
An Jing could not help but laugh and cry. What was so remarkable about her? She was just more exposed to modern practices and knew a bit more.
Still, she humbly said with a bit of pretense, "Not at all, it was something we discovered when we set up a stall in town. At first, very few people bought our fermented bean curd. But when the word spread, everyone came to buy it, and that gave me the idea."
Wang Youbao still looked at An Jing with immense admiration.
Xiao Changyi silently moved his bamboo chair from beneath him to between An Jing and Wang Youbao, then just sat there, effectively using himself to block Wang Youbao’s line of sight to An Jing.
An Jing held back her laughter. Her husband, ah...
Wang Youbao coughed awkwardly twice, seemingly realizing that staring at someone else’s wife was quite improper. After a couple of forced chuckles, he finally asked, "So, in your opinion, should we sell the dishes at a discount on the first day of opening, or should we offer everything for free to attract customers?"
An Jing said, "It would be best to offer them for free, and you could have two helpers call out at the tavern’s doorway, saying it’s for free. With the mindset of ’if it’s free, take it,’ people will likely enter the tavern to dine."