Chapter 84: The Success of Cooperation and the Beginning of Expansion
The negotiations between both sides dragged on for several more days.
Every day, Yang Wendong and Robert would hash out various terms during daylight hours, and each night, Robert would report back to 3M headquarters in the United States.
After a week, in the presence of lawyers from both parties, they finally reached an agreement:
First, 3M would receive a 10-year exclusive distribution right for Post-it notes in the U.S., with an additional 5-year priority renewal option following the initial term.
Second, Yang Wendong would receive a loan of $30,000 USD from 3M, at a low interest rate of 3%, with the loan collateralized against future revenue generated from the U.S. market.
Third, 3M committed to an initial order of 500,000 units, with future order quantities to be determined based on demand.
Fourth, the payment model would proceed as follows: 30% as a down payment upon order confirmation, another 30% upon warehouse delivery and inspection in the U.S., and the remaining 40% to be settled two weeks afterward.
Fifth, …
…
A total of sixteen terms were included, with restrictions on both sides.
For example, 3M, as the distributor, was also bound by several conditions to prevent them from deliberately neglecting the product, which could result in significant losses for Yang Wendong.
If one didn't know who the two parties were, the terms might seem quite fair. But considering one was just an ordinary man from Hong Kong and the other a major American corporation, such a balanced agreement was already a rarity.
This outcome wasn't because 3M was particularly kind or unwilling to pressure their partner. Rather, it was because there were many other companies in the U.S. that had already spotted the commercial potential of Post-it notes.
While Yang Wendong was in talks with Robert, two more companies reached out to him expressing interest in cooperation.
Yang Wendong had done some research on both. While they were sizable companies, their sales networks were nowhere near the level of 3M's.
Still, this didn't stop him from leveraging their interest to apply pressure on 3M, ultimately securing an agreement that appeared relatively fair on paper.
…
The day after Robert left, inside the Changxing Industrial Factory:
Su Yiyi entered the small office with an irrepressible smile on her face and said, "Brother Dong, the money from 3M just came in. That was fast!"
Yang Wendong smiled. "They're one of the top companies in the U.S. Thirty thousand dollars is like a drop in the bucket for them.
Besides, getting the money to us sooner means we can start production immediately. That benefits 3M as well, which is why their actions are so efficient."
Only by ensuring mutual benefit in a partnership could everyone progress and grow together.
Su Yiyi grinned and said, "It's also because the Post-it notes are just too tempting. You used that perfectly to keep them on the hook, Brother Dong."
Yang Wendong replied, "That's just standard business logic. You should read up on Li Ka-shing's rise to power—he used the same mindset to achieve the success he has today."
"Li Ka-shing?" Su Yiyi asked curiously. "Brother Dong, I've heard you praise him more than a few times. Is he really that amazing?"
Yang Wendong nodded. "Yes, very impressive. I'd say he's one of the few people I actually admire."
Although Old Li's methods in later years left many feeling bitter—many criticized him as greedy—if you looked strictly at his business dealings, his success was undeniable.
Even putting aside all his real estate plays in the future, his current main business—plastics manufacturing—had already, under his leadership, become the largest factory in Hong Kong within ten years.
In terms of capability, the man was top-tier.
Su Yiyi laughed and said, "Then Brother Dong, you'll have to work hard to surpass him."
"Of course," Yang Wendong said with a grin. "If we manage the Post-it business well, surpassing Li Ka-shing won't be that hard."
Plastic flowers might be hot in the Western market now, but they were a short-term trend. A few years later, they would become yesterday's news.
Though Li Ka-shing would use the millions of Hong Kong dollars in profits from this phase to move into real estate, he still couldn't compare to someone like Yang Wendong, who already knew the future trajectory of Hong Kong's property market thanks to time travel.
That said, entering the real estate market would require a vast amount of capital—so there was no rush.
Su Yiyi asked, "Now that the funds are in, are we going to place the equipment order from Japan?"
"Yeah, start by ordering five units," Yang Wendong said. "But the Japanese machines are really expensive, and shipping takes time. Let's also approach a few capable machinery manufacturers here in Hong Kong and see if they can replicate the design. That way, we'll have an easier time scaling up in the future."
Although Hong Kong's industrial capacity was still relatively limited, for simple machines, reverse engineering shouldn't be too difficult.
"Five units—will that be enough?" Su Yiyi asked, a bit uncertain. "Post-it notes were already super popular in Hong Kong. Now with the U.S. involved…"
"It's fine," Yang Wendong said. "Like you said, America is huge. 3M will roll things out gradually.
And we'll scale up our own production gradually too. If we rush and end up with quality issues, it could be a disaster."
Five machines would serve as a new starting point. More would definitely be needed later.
Just the U.S. market alone was likely hundreds, even thousands of times larger than Hong Kong's. And the combined potential of other countries was even greater.
Still, even for a company as well-connected as 3M, rolling out Post-it notes nationwide in the U.S. would take time.
The production side would need time too. Even if Post-it notes were structurally simple, manufacturing errors could still happen. Running a real manufacturing business required careful attention to detail. A single quality issue could ruin the entire operation.
"Alright, I'll go inform Liming in a bit," Su Yiyi said with a smile.
"Where is Liming, anyway? Haven't seen him today," Yang Wendong asked.
"I think he went to a cardboard import trading company," Su Yiyi replied.
"Oh, right. That's something I asked him to handle," Yang Wendong recalled. "Once he's back, let's all go find a nice restaurant and celebrate a little."
"A restaurant? Great!" Su Yiyi said happily, grinning ear to ear.
…
A little over an hour later, Zhao Liming returned and came straight to Yang Wendong.
"Brother Dong," Zhao Liming greeted. "Here's the hard cardboard you asked for. It's a lot tougher than standard packing paper, and it's waterproof too."
"Nice. What about the price?" Yang Wendong asked, taking the cardboard and testing its texture with his hand.
"It's a bit expensive," Zhao Liming said. "I asked around, and it's about eight cents per sheet—assuming we buy in bulk."
Yang Wendong frowned. "That's more than twice the cost of the plastic boards we can injection mold ourselves."
"Yeah," Zhao Liming nodded. "Because it's imported. There's very little demand for this kind of cardboard in Hong Kong, and we need custom sizes too. Plus, the importers need to make a profit, so…"
"Fair enough. Imported materials will naturally cost more," Yang Wendong nodded. "How many did you bring back?"
"Just over a dozen sheets," Zhao Liming replied. "The rest are outside."
"Alright, here's what we'll do," Yang Wendong said. "Have someone apply glue to the cardboard sheets, then hand them over to Haoyu. He can have someone deliver them to nearby warehouses for field testing—see how effective they are at catching mice."
The reason for sourcing cardboard, naturally, was to make better mouse glue traps.
Back in the mainland during his previous life, the mouse boards Yang Wendong saw were almost all made of cardboard. When he initially attempted to make glue traps, he also considered using cardboard.
But in practice, he found that cardboard was vulnerable to water and could easily be torn apart by large rats. So, he eventually dropped the idea and stuck to using wooden boards or plastic ones instead.
Now that the company had grown a bit, he finally had the time and resources to explore whether there was a type of cardboard sturdy enough to replace plastic boards.
"Alright," Zhao Liming acknowledged and left the office. Not long after, he returned and reported, "I've got people working on it already. I also ran into Haoyu, he said it's no problem. It's just that now that the weather's cooled down, there are fewer rats, so it might take a while to get proper results."
Yang Wendong frowned and said, "We can't just sit around waiting. The current temperature is still okay, but if a cold snap hits, we might go ten days or half a month without seeing a single rat.
Maybe it's time we bought some specialized testing equipment—to measure the glue's stickiness and manage it all with data."
"Data management?" Zhao Liming looked a bit confused.
"When we have more funds, I'll purchase some professional testing devices," Yang Wendong replied casually. He was well aware that some of the founding team members might soon struggle to keep up with the company's growth.
Now that they had secured their first round of funding to expand production—though not much—it was still time to start preparing to bring in a more professional management team.
"Got it," Zhao Liming didn't ask any more questions.
Yang Wendong continued, "Right now, the top priority is the Post-it note production. As for your glue trap tests, just stick to the old-fashioned methods for now. We can buy the equipment later.
Actually, even for the Post-it notes, we'll eventually need proper testing equipment. We can't rely solely on 'feel' forever—after a while, that's bound to cause problems.
Talk to the workers later and remind them that although we're still doing things manually for now, they need to be extra careful."
Running a factory might be profitable, but it also meant spending money in many areas—facilities, production machinery, testing tools, materials, labor—all of it added up fast.
If this were just a small backyard operation, then maybe they could make do. But both the Post-it notes and mouse traps were products he intended to export in the future. In the short term, these two items were the backbone of his business, and they needed to be taken seriously.
Besides, it took time to train a team to understand quality. If they slacked off on the "simple" products today, they'd do the same with more complex items tomorrow.
Zhao Liming nodded. "Got it. The only issue is, many of the workers can't read. They're cooperative, sure, but it's still hard to manage sometimes."
"Yeah, that's definitely going to be a problem," Yang Wendong agreed. Literacy was a basic requirement for factory workers in many roles. "I'll start looking for literate workers we can train to be team leaders—it'll make things easier."
Zhao Liming laughed. "That'd be great. Those recent complaints had me on edge."
"Complaints are good too. We need to take the reasonable ones seriously," Yang Wendong nodded.
"Don't worry, Brother Dong. I've been working hard to improve things just like you said," Zhao Liming assured him.
"Good. That's what I like to hear." Yang Wendong paused for a moment before continuing, "The glue trap stuff will take time to get right. But you know how we just landed that big client for the Post-it notes, so that's where most of our focus is going now."
"Yiyi just mentioned that we're looking for a local Hong Kong manufacturer to make the machines," Zhao Liming said, following up.
Yang Wendong smiled. "Yeah. It's an important step. But we've come a long way together, and I think we should celebrate a bit. Let's have a light lunch, then go to Central on Hong Kong Island this afternoon and treat ourselves to something nice."
"Central?" Zhao Liming was surprised. "Isn't that area super expensive...?"
"It's expensive, sure, but there's a limit. It's not ridiculous," Yang Wendong said with a faint smile. "We're not rich yet, but we can afford one luxurious dinner."
"Alright, I'm in. I want to see what it's like too!" Zhao Liming grinned.
…
At 4 p.m., the four of them arrived in front of Alexandra House in Central.
Zhao Liming tilted his head to look up at the towering building and said, "I never thought I'd set foot in a place like this in my whole life!"
"These buildings aren't as fancy as you think," Yang Wendong chuckled. "The lower levels are just retail stores. Lots of places to eat. As long as you've got some money, you can get in."
"Still, most people can't bring themselves to spend money here!" Zhao Liming had picked up a lot of new phrases since working with Yang Wendong, and "high-end" was definitely one of them.
"Let's go in," Yang Wendong said with a smile.
By now, the four of them had achieved modest success. Their clothes were nothing like before—maybe not designer brands, but definitely presentable.
There was nothing unusual about them entering a place like this. Though Zhao Liming and Lin Haoyu clearly didn't get out much—they were wide-eyed and full of curiosity.
After walking around for a while, Zhao Liming and Lin Haoyu huddled together, then asked, "Brother Dong, how about we go for a buffet?"
"Sure," Yang Wendong thought about it for a moment and nodded.
After arriving in Hong Kong, he had struggled for the first few months, just barely managing to fill his stomach. Even in recent months, while the situation had improved and he never went hungry, he still hadn't had a proper buffet.
In his previous life in the mainland, he had been all about healthy eating and would never have touched a buffet. But now? Things were different.
This buffet cost 22 HKD per person. In a city where the average monthly salary was 80 HKD, it was far beyond what most people could afford.
Of course, this place was also on the higher-end side.
"So much food!" Zhao Liming's eyes widened as he looked over the dozens of dishes on display.
Any one of these dishes was better than what he'd normally eat. And that was with a little money in his pocket now—back a year ago, he wouldn't have gotten to eat any of this even during the Lunar New Year.
"Eat slowly. Soon enough you'll be wishing your stomach was bigger," Yang Wendong laughed. He was a buffet veteran, after all. Then he added, "Don't eat rice or noodles, stay away from overly fatty sausages or meats. Avoid carbonated drinks. And go easy on the cakes and sweets…"
Su Yiyi listened carefully, then curiously asked, "Brother Dong, why all those rules?"
Yang Wendong smiled. "Those foods fill up your stomach too fast or give a false sense of fullness. When eating at a buffet, that's the last thing you want."
He had known someone in his past life who once paid over 100 RMB for a buffet—and started with a big bowl of fried rice…
"Ohhh," Su Yiyi nodded.
Yang Wendong added, "Aside from that, just eat whatever you like."
…
By the end of the meal, everyone was stuffed.
The next day, Yang Wendong returned to the company and called up Kaga Machinery in Japan.
From this point on, the expansion of Changxing Industrial Company had officially begun.
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