"That's the problem, Mr. Andre, it's a fact that the construction cost of the locks is high, but don't you need to be obsessed with recovering all the project money at once, and you can't start construction without getting the full project money?"

Roland's questioning made Andre feel angry and amused, "Paying with one hand and delivering with the other is the basic principle of doing business, what's wrong with that?" We're not a small street shop, and we don't do it on credit. ”

"However, 'pay with one hand and deliver with one hand' is not a business principle that contains truth, in fact it is just a relic of the barbaric era, and excluding the inexplicable self-esteem of the mages, I don't see any reason for the Mystery Project to refuse to take credit."

Finding Andre's brows furrowed, Roland smiled and waved his hand, "Don't be angry yet, let's not talk about credit, in other words, you may be able to accept it." ”

"What's that?" Andrei asked angrily.

"Pay in installments." Roland said with a smirk.

"Installment ......" Andrei gently stroked his bald head, "I heard Kosygin talk about this phrase, is it related to bank loans?" ”

Roland nodded, "For example, I want to build a lock on Koras Island, and the project cost is estimated to be 3 million gold tales, but I only have 500,000 cash in my hand, what if I can't pay for the project?" At this time, if a bank reaches out to me and agrees to help me build the lock in installments, the problem will be easily solved, I can first hand over 500,000 gold taler to you as a down payment, and the rest of the insufficient project money will be made up by the bank on my behalf, and you will start construction when you get the money, and the money I owe to the bank will be secured by the lock on Koras Island, and will be repaid in installments over several years, so that you, me, and the bank will be very happy. ”

"You wait first!" Andre raised his hand to interrupt Roland's words, "You got the lock, I got all the project money, you and I are very happy, but why should the bank lend you money?" ”

"First, of course, because I'm in good financial position to earn the trust of the bank, and secondly, because I'll pay the principal in installments and pay the bank an additional amount of interest on the loan, even if I can't repay the loan in the future, the bank can take my collateral – the ownership of the Koras Island Mystery – as compensation." Roland replied calmly.

"Oh...... I understand that the so-called installment payment is actually an advance of future income to meet the needs of current consumption, and the additional interest you pay to the bank is the price you pay for advanced consumption. Andrei said suddenly.

Roland couldn't help but be in awe, and André said the essence of "installment" in a few words - interest is the pricing of time, and the intelligence of the legendary archmage is terrifying!

He suggested to André that "installments" be used to stimulate the demand market for the lost lock, in fact, borrowing from the experience of the real estate industry on the planet. The "installment" is a good financial lever, but if you are not careful, it can be abused and turn into a speculative tool. Roland didn't want the same speculative frenzy in the Far East as on Earth, so when André was still hesitant to accept the business model of "installments", he threw out a new idea.

"Mr. Andre, if you don't want to accept the bank as a third party to intervene in our business, I have an alternative here."

"Tell me about it." Andrei came interested.

"I can use the 'concession' instead of some cash as payment for the project."

This is nothing new, the "franchise (BOT)" is actually the model that Roland used to finance the construction of the Far Eastern Railway, and now it is used to finance the Mystery Project.

"For example, Beacon Hill is building a lost lock on Koras Island, and I use a 20-year concession to offset the project payment, and in these 20 years, Beacon Mountain can send someone to Koras Island to be responsible for operating various toll businesses of the lost lock, among which the force field enchantment is a public service provided by the government for the public, and the relevant expenses can be extracted from the government's annual fiscal taxes, and the magical effects such as flying, teleportation, clever words, rejuvenation, and restoration loaded by the maze can be classified as commercial services, and the user pays for it."

Roland saw that Andre listened attentively, and was obviously more interested in this business model, so he simply said a few more words.

"Running a mystery lock is like a landlord collecting rent, it's easy to say, but to make this business bigger and better, you still need to put more thought, for example, the business magic service of the lock needs to charge a fee, how to attract as many customers as possible to try these paid services?"

"I think it's necessary to run promotions from time to time." Andrei understood.

"That's right, in addition to the usual charge by the number of uses, we should also focus on developing those retail customers into wholesale customers, for example, we can recommend customers to apply for membership cards, recharge 1,000 gold thalers, and get an additional 3 free use of 'flying arts', recharge 10,000 gold thalers, in addition to 3 times of 'flying arts', we will also give an additional 3 free 'teleportations', recharge 100,000 gold thalers, and use 'flying arts' for free for life."

"The money charged to the membership card cannot be refunded?" Andrei asked.

"Normally, no, if a member needs money urgently, they can sell their membership card or pawn it." Roland said lightly.

Andrei smiled with relief, "No wonder Old Man Kosygin is so optimistic about you, he will definitely like your idea!" ”

Roland smiled tacitly.

The money in the membership card is theoretically still the customer, which is a nominal "advance payment", but the real money is in the hands of the lock service provider, will he be stupid to lock the customer into the safe and eat ashes? Even the most business-minded person would think of keeping this cash in the bank for interest. If the number of members is large enough, the total amount of money in the membership card is large enough to even use it as capital to set up a financial institution such as a bank or money market fund and use the customer's money to generate money. This kind of business strategy is still a new thing in the world of Vares, and in Roland's hometown on Earth, countless smart people have already played this kind of financial magic to make money, such as the "President Ma" who is too busy to spend money......

"'Installments' and 'franchises' are both very creative, and I prefer the latter relatively speaking, but it's not up to me to do it alone, and I need to convene a meeting of the heads of the various universities to discuss and vote on which option to adopt."

Finally, André stood up and made a promise to Roland.

"Whatever financing option we ultimately choose, there's no doubt that Kolas Island will soon have a lost lock!"

"I'm looking forward to that day sooner rather than later." Roland stood up and shook hands with the legendary archmage, and made a sincere and passionate prediction before taking his leave: "Mr. Andre, if these two models of financing are proven to be feasible in practice, then people living in small and medium-sized towns in the Far East have reason to be glad that they are living in a good era, and they have reason to believe that in the near future, the locks will become the commonplace urban public service facilities around them, and will become the standard infrastructure configuration of all emerging towns in the Far East!" In the future Far East, there may not be towns where there are locks, but there will be locks where there are towns. ”