"Eric, are you going to reinvest in Home Depot?" Bernie asked.

"No, my shares have been 33%, which is enough, I'm talking about another cooperation model, since Home Depot mainly uses the franchise model, it is better to let me join directly." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

Investing in a company's shares, not the more the better, for example, after the emergence of the Internet in later generations, a large number of venture capital funds were also born, these venture capitalists hold a lot of funds, but generally do not ask for too many shares, common angel rounds, generally 15-20%, and then gradually increase according to the situation, but generally will not exceed 1/3 of the shares, only some special cases will lead to higher equity of investors. For example, Yahoo obtained 40% of Alibaba's shares and became a super large shareholder, but later led to the increasingly intensifying contradiction between Ali's management and Yahoo investors, and finally was played by Boss Ma and took back a large amount of equity. Of course, Yahoo's investment is still very profitable, but this is a special case.

The logic is very simple, if the investor's shares are too much, even as high as half, then the entrepreneur will not become a part-time worker? This seems to be a high benefit, but there is a high probability that the founder and the team may leave, or even if they are still there, it is difficult to say whether they will continue to work hard.

Investment is also about the pursuit of win-win, at least let the founders and related teams eat, otherwise, it is very likely that everyone will be empty in the end.

"You mean, you come to join and invest in new stores, and then Home Depot manages it?" Bernie is also a smart guy and understands as soon as he hears it.

"Yes, the current problem of Home Depot is the lack of capital to expand, even if it is to join, you also need to find a suitable partner, plus the investment of trust costs, which requires a lot of money, but if you cooperate with me, you don't need to think so much, I pay, you can choose the site and be responsible for the management behind it, which is convenient for everyone." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

In later generations, many netizens laughed and said that doing business and joining is to send money to others, you want to make money from customers, and the franchise company wants to make your money.

This sentence is reasonable, and it is also common in this era, but this also causes a problem, the average person is very cautious about this kind of joining, which will also lead to the reverse of the franchise company to find people to join is also extremely difficult.

In this era, there is no Internet, there is no ability to accurately deliver advertising, and if you advertise in newspapers or even TV on a large scale, it is also very costly, only those very famous brands, it is easier to succeed, such as McDonald's, this kind of estimate does not need to be considered to join, but the fame is big, and it is also a unique advantage formed by years of investment.

For new brands, it is very difficult to attract people to join, especially Home Depot, which is not an ordinary small store, and the investment of any Home Depot store is millions of dollars, and a good location is tens of millions, which is too risky for those who join. This also leads to the fact that in the early stage of development, even if the franchise model is used, the expansion speed of Home Depot is very slow.

On the contrary, when they grow up later, many people make money by joining and become famous, and it will be easier at that time, but you have to survive until that time.

"If that's the case, it's a very good idea." Bernie nodded, and asked again: "The management of the franchise store, Eric, are you sure that it is all handed over to my family Depot." ”

"Yes, except for financial monitoring, we do not interfere in other aspects in principle, as long as it does not affect our interests." Chen Zhiwen said. He didn't bother to meddle in professional matters, just let professional people make money for him.

"And how many franchise stores do you need to open Eric?" Bernie asked again.

Joining, the first difficulty is to find the right partner, the second is the follow-up management, in general, unless it is a big brand, such as an international level hotel, that can be completely managed by themselves, but the premise is generally to have enough profits, franchisees believe in this big brand, and small brands are definitely not good, a large investment, franchisees must be to manage or part of it, otherwise everyone will worry about whether your company will pit his money through various means.

This is also the reason why it is difficult for many brands to expand rapidly even through joining, the mode of joining, just to save money, can consume more energy, such as economic disputes with franchisees, or some franchisees themselves broke the rules, pit customers, and so on.

Therefore, a suitable distributor is very important to the brand company, even if it is McDonald's, it will choose those who have cooperated for a long time to expand and join.

In the early days of Home Depot's establishment, Chen Zhiwen invested in the company, providing sufficient funds, resources and a large number of talents from Costco to help, it can be said that without Chen Zhiwen's investment, today's Home Depot would not have developed so smoothly.

And over the years, although Home Depot has financed Chen Zhiwen many times, he has never interfered in anything at Home Depot, of course, it may also be because Chen Zhiwen itself has a large number of high-quality assets.

Cooperating with such a person, it is indeed worry-free and labor-saving for Home Depot, and it can also save a lot of publicity costs, and even after there are more stores, it will be much more convenient to find other potential cooperative franchisees, after all, there are many successful examples.

"In terms of quantity, I will take as much as you can give me." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile: "But let's start with the big city, although Home Depot has developed rapidly in recent years, the main force is still in the western United States, so many cities in the east, it is too wasteful not to invest, the home furnishing industry, you are not the only company." ”

The future of Home Depot is the largest home furnishing retail company in the United States and even the world, but there are many competitors at the same level, and the combined scale of these competitors is far more than Home Depot, that is to say, just looking at this market, Home Depot is far from the real upper limit.

In fact, it is also very normal, even the invincible Wal-Mart, it is impossible to monopolize the retail industry, Home Depot in the original history of the 80s, even if it relies on the funds raised after listing, it is difficult to achieve rapid expansion, and, before Home Depot, furniture retail supermarkets already existed, Bernie's special idea can reduce costs to the greatest extent, is the reason why Home Depot can rise in a mature market, but this model, in fact, merchants can also learn, which is completely different from Wal-Mart or Costco, The latter two, even if others can learn, cannot do it at the level of pioneers.

Therefore, Chen Zhiwen needs to push again, but the shares have reached the upper limit, can only start from other places, in recent years, Hong Kong's Hisense Bank has also issued loans to Home Depot many times, but even if there are funds, it is not possible to expand indefinitely, so Chen Zhiwen decided to go down in person, he made a lot of money in the United States, and many of these funds are inconvenient to leave the market immediately, then you need to continue to invest in the United States, and the retail supermarket of the investor Home Depot is very good.

First, Chen Zhiwen knows the future of Home Depot, from each store alone, it is definitely a very cost-effective investment, second, Home Depot is now caught in the initial expansion difficulties, his own capital to be a franchisee, can also promote the development of Home Depot, and finally the development of Home Depot is good, then as the largest shareholder, he will make greater profits, third, is that the United States real estate market in the future development is also good, although it is not as good as Hong Kong, but in the long run, the return is also considerable, fourth, it is also Chen Zhiwen's investment today, It is not necessary to have enough income, if it can drive a large number of jobs, it is also possible, and in the United States, it is difficult to purely manufacture, but the service industry does not matter, the labor cost is high, and then it is transferred to the consumer terminal.

"Eric, you suddenly don't know how to answer." Bernie was stunned for a moment and replied, it is estimated that countless entrepreneurs have never thought that they would encounter such a problem.

"This is not in a hurry, even if you want to build a new home Debao supermarket, it is impossible to build it on a large scale in a short time, and your manpower will not be able to keep up." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

It's very simple to do retail, but it's very difficult to do a good job, the most important of which is the talent team, Walmart can become the first scale in the future, Walton has at least half of the credit, Costco can develop, but also Pierce and his entire team efforts, otherwise, even if Chen Zhiwen is 10 times more valuable, he can't do such a big supermarket, at most play Watsons in Asia, take the opportunity of the mainland to grow up first, but it is difficult to develop into a global super large-scale.

Home Depot has only been established for 5 years, although it has the help of Costco, but in terms of talent reserves, it must not be able to keep up with Chen Zhiwen's capital investment, just like Costco at the beginning, the only factor that restricts expansion is the number of teams.

"Also, if we build a new store on a large scale in the eastern part of the United States, we will need to rebuild the logistics system there, and the capital investment in this area is also very high." "We were gathered in the western United States, and the cost of logistics was a big reason," Bernie said. ”

Everyone knows that priority should be given to the development of large cities, but the big cities in the United States are also scattered, far away from each other, if you build a store in each big city, then there is no way to turn around logistics, therefore, even if Home Depot first develops some small cities in the west, it cannot go to the east or central development, and even needs to develop from point to circle, and gradually develop out, and other different retail supermarkets, in fact, the same.

"Well, this one does require a lot of capital, have you ever considered going public?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Not yet, there has been no shortage of funds before, so I also want to wait until the development is better and the scale is larger, so that the listing can raise more funds." Bernie replied.

"Well,In this way,Hisense,I can arrange another loan for you,For the development of the logistics system in the eastern part of the United States,I will also cooperate with you,Build properties in the cities as close to each logistics center as possible,This is the highest in terms of economic benefits,The risk is also the lowest。 Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "We can make a quick and large investment in the short term, and then do a large-scale, and then we can prepare to go public, preferably within 3 years." ”

"Within 3 years? Good. Bernie nodded and said, 3 years, for a company ready to go public, is enough, and he himself does not resist the company's listing, this is the inevitable route of all startups, not listed, those early investors, how to cash out? Even so many companies around the world have been listed, in addition to the convenience of financing by going public, the demand of investors from all sides is also the most important reason.

"With the current trend of the U.S. stock market, and the speed at which Home Depot is growing, I think, Bernie, you're going to be a billionaire in no time." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

Today's Home Depot,In the western United States,Los Angeles、San Francisco as the center,There are 36 furniture retail supermarkets of different sizes,In the early days,Chen Zhiwen also reminded to pay attention to the training of personnel,Now the preparation in this area can not be said to be perfect,But at least it can support rapid expansion in a short period of time,Besides, you can also poach people from other similar enterprises,With your own capital、Hisense's loans,That in 3 years, in the western United States36 more copies,There should be no problem,After all,Every store of Home Depot, Both the scale and the difficulty of operation are far less than those of Costco, or even Wal-Mart, and the speed of expansion is relatively fast when the funds are sufficient.

And more than 70 retail stores, already have profitability, and then let the investment bank tout and tout, plus the 87 years of the stock market peak, listed to obtain a market value of nearly 1 billion US dollars, it should not be difficult, Bernie as the founder, although after two financing, but also 30% of the shares, it is not difficult to become a billionaire.

"Haha, it doesn't mean anything to me to be rich, even if it's the hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual salary that Home Depot gives me now, I basically can't use it up." Bernie said with a shrug.

"Billionaires have billionaire lifestyles, and you'll know later." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

People who succeed in entrepreneurship often need a period of time to adapt to the change in value, and most of them are busy like dogs in the early days, such as the Dongge of Jingdong in later generations, it is said that he has spent several years in a row, almost half of the night is spent in the company, even if Jingdong has been valued at more than 100 million at that time, there is no time to enjoy it at all, and it is not until the development of Jingdong that his boss begins to relax.

"Not necessarily, my goal is to turn Home Depot into the largest home supermarket in the United States, as for me personally, I don't have to lack money." Bernie said.

"Yes, it's just numbers for us anyway." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, some people may really live a very average life even if they have money, maybe Bernie is such a person. In the original history, Chen Zhiwen didn't know what kind of character this person was.

After staying in the United States for nearly a month, in addition to visiting the Olympic Games, Chen Zhiwen also focused on Disney and Costco, and several other things, such as the acquisition of KFC and visiting Home Depot, are just small things.

When the business was almost completed, Chen Zhiwen took the group to the largest farm in the United States - Wagner, which covers an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers, and has changed a little from the past.

"That's a lot of cows." On the helicopter in the air, Liu Xiaoli kept looking into the distance with a telescope, and so did Chen Zhiwen on the side, with a telescope.

The whole Wagner farm is too big, and there is no official road, if you really drive, you can't see much in a day, and the helicopter is much more convenient, flying to a high place, you can see ten miles away at a glance.

"It's already the largest free-range cattle base in the United States." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, after buying such a large farm and improving the infrastructure, Chen Zhiwen also invested a little money, hired professional people here, and raised a large number of beef cattle.

A small part of the beef produced is naturally mainly supplied to nearby Costco, Wal-Mart and even Celtic supermarkets, and most of it is transported to all parts of the United States through Costco's refrigerated trucks.

After the helicopter circled over the farm, everyone came down, and the current farmer Wana arranged for a few people to hunt for the boss and others, killing several small animals, and catching some fish from the reservoir next to it, and everyone had the most primitive barbecue on the grassland.

After a while, the aroma of several kinds of barbecue wafted out, and Chen Zhiwen, who was tired all morning, also had a great appetite.

However, Liu Xiaoli, who was on the side, did not look very good, and seemed to want to vomit a little. (End of chapter)