Chapter 179: The Art of Persuasion with Nothing but Words
Article 1 of the General Provisions of the Cooperation Agreement: In order to ensure the consistency of the interests of HT Company and franchisees, HT Company cancels all schemes for the establishment of directly operated stores, flagship stores, model stores, etc., which are independently operated and constructed by HT Company! All stores must have at least one operating partner!
"Article 2: To ensure normal and good operational order. The shareholding ratio of HT Company in any store shall not be less than twenty percent! In addition to providing refined site selection services, standardized decoration design services, brand authorization services, franchise support services, and other services that help you open stores as soon as possible and better, HT Company will also provide a direct economic support of $20,000 to each store! Reduce the opening costs for everyone, achieve opening as early as possible, and achieve returns as early as possible!
"Article 3: In order to ensure the interests of partners, the maximum shareholding ratio of HT Company in any store shall not exceed 49%! To ensure that the store belongs to the bosses, HT Company will not usurp your labor results from a legal perspective. Even if we have malicious intentions, we cannot succeed! We will effectively guarantee everyone's rightful interests!
"Article 4"
Counting on his fingers, Carter systematically explained the contents of the cooperation agreement. As the bosses heard this plan, their expressions became extremely complex. Their interests and concerns were more complicated than those of the employees.
For example,
"Mr. Blake! May I ask, you just said that the shareholding ratio of HT Company in any store is not less than 20%. So, according to the minimum standard of 20%, is the so-called support of $20,000 considered your investment, or is it considered an additional reward! While obtaining this share, will you also invest more practical funds?"
At the end of the presentation, when the Q&A session had just begun, a well-built middle-aged man couldn't help but ask loudly. Although he didn't raise his hand and just asked directly, it was a bit impolite.
But seeing the boldness of his voice, Carter chose to answer this question first. Because, this question was indeed a trap set by Carter!
"Of course, it's an additional incentive reward! Does this gentleman think that the free legal, financial, educational training for one year, two years, five years, or even ten years, several times a year of real money store bonuses, and the investment of promotional resources are not worth you giving up 20% of the profit?"
"You're confusing the concept, Mr. Blake! Regardless of whether these supports can be delivered as promised, or whether they can be sustained as you said, even if they can. You also have to understand, every year you do these things, we also have to share profits with you."
The middle-aged man's face turned red, and he shouted excitedly, almost directly accusing Carter of being a cheat.
"Are you saying that these things are really worth that price? One-fifth of the income every year! That's not a small amount! Legal issues, we mostly don't encounter them, let alone mention them. We hire our own accountants, calculate taxes, and the annual expenses will not exceed four hundred dollars. Just calculate it based on our net income of ten thousand dollars a year, twenty percent, that's two thousand dollars! With one thousand six hundred dollars left, you have to show me the value of it being spent!"
"Sorry, sir! I can't show you that value for now. But since you want to do the accounts, let me help you calculate."
Facing the accusation, Carter's expression remained calm. After all, this scene before him had long been anticipated by Carter and Goodman. Since the moment they thought of deceiving people with empty hands, such doubts were bound to arise.
"First, your $1600, similarly, I won't talk to you about any activity subsidies. I won't even discuss the effectiveness with you. I just want to ask this gentleman, are you willing to use the $1600 to do advertising, to do promotion, and what can you achieve with $1600?"
"A space in a local newspaper, text only, $200 per issue, with a picture, it's $400. Even if you choose the cheapest text version, you can only publish eight issues, and these newspapers are usually published every other day, which means you can only run text ads for half a month! And nowadays, who reads newspapers regularly?"
"TV commercials, $1600, even in a local television station in Georgia, how much airtime can you buy? 10 seconds? Or 15 seconds? Even if you can buy it, where is the cost of filming your commercial? You have to understand, just renting a camera costs $40-50 a day, and that's not even for a very good one."
"But if you give this money to us? $1600 for one store, $16,000 for ten stores, $160,000 for one hundred stores! With ten stores, I can run 80 issues of newspaper ads! Similarly, based on every other day publishing, completing a month-long newspaper advertising in a local newspaper only requires about 15 issues. I only need to spend 75 issues of funds to continuously bombard five cities or regions with newspaper ads!"
"The remaining five issues, which is $1000, I can also use it to hire an outstanding writer to polish our text, write more touching and penetrating advertising slogans. Let our advertising effect be more excellent!"
"Similarly, when we have one hundred cooperative stores, with $160,000 in promotion funds, it's enough for us to buy prime time on national television! The extra money, I can also use it to hire a professional photography team, hire a talented director, to help us shoot better quality commercials. In this model, as long as we use the same brand, then everyone will benefit from this advertising!"
After patiently analyzing and convincing the skeptic, Carter suddenly sighed, pretending to be distressed, and said:
"Gentlemen and ladies! I don't know if you ever lie awake at night, with various thoughts racing through your mind. I often lie awake, and every time I do, I think about many, many things: maybe a pretty girl on campus gave me an extra glance today, does she like me? Maybe Mrs. Brownie from next door suddenly brought me a box of chocolates in her pajamas today, and they even had hearts on them. Is she trying to imply something to me? Should I go next door and see if that big iron gate is tightly closed?"
Amidst the audience's confusion or low laughter, Carter suddenly changed the subject:
"But actually, what I think about most is the future! About me, about my hometown, about America, and even about the future of this world! What do you say, what should the future look like?"
"Cyberpunk? Artificial intelligence? Mechanical life? And so on, many possibilities may emerge, right? Just like our ancestors couldn't have imagined that we would have computers, telegraphs, telephones today, and even be able to fly out of the earth. Based on this understanding, I would think, where would these things appear? Where should they be born? In some military laboratory? Or in some high-tech corporation?"
"They are all possible, but looking back at our history. I don't know if you've noticed, in the early stages of scientific and technological development, it was the achievements of pioneers who could be hailed as forerunners of human civilization, and today, geniuses such as Edison, Faraday, and Maxwell are increasingly less known to us."