Early spring had just arrived, and winter’s footsteps had not yet gone far when Su Zelin got busy.

The plan for the year lies in spring; sowing the seeds of hope now might yield a bountiful harvest this year.

This year, New Era was about to break out of Lin’an, to make a name for itself throughout Zhejiang Province, with much to do and no time to stop.

Compared to continuing to open direct-sale stores, there were three major plans for this year.

First, buy TV commercials.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the internet wasn’t very developed, computers weren’t widespread, and mobile terminals like phones—don’t even mention it.

Today’s mobile terminals have no intelligence to speak of, let alone internet access.

The world’s first mobile phone supporting WAP wireless internet was the Nokia 7110, released in ’99, but it was practically useless.

Its small monochrome screen could only display meager text, requiring complex settings to connect to the internet, unlike future phones that just need a SIM card.

The connection was dead slow, taking about half a minute to connect to WAP, and browsing a regular WAP page took five to six seconds.

The browsing experience was extremely poor, and mobile data was expensive.

So the WAP function of the Nokia 7110 was almost ornamental, used only by some business people to check emails.

In fact, even by 2002, even though more mobile terminals supported WAP, no one really bothered to use their phones for internet surfing.

The Internet, especially mobile terminals, hadn’t developed, so the most influential media channel was still television, and buying TV ads was quite cost-effective at this time.

Many brands became household names through TV commercials and got popular that way.

Second, establish a headquarters for New Era.

At present, New Era had five direct-sale stores and one franchised store, a total of six outlets, but no headquarters yet.

For a chain enterprise not to have a headquarters is unacceptable.

Where would journalists go for interviews?

Any single outlet would obviously be inappropriate.

So establishing a headquarters was imperative.

Third is to recruit talented people; if you want to expand quickly, the core team must also keep pace, especially for setting up franchised stores, a professional training team must be established.

If any investors intend to join New Era in the future, this team would be fully responsible for inspection, store planning, and staff training.

Fourth is to expand the business scope.

Currently, New Era’s business mainly revolves around computers and related digital accessories; besides this, there is MP3, brand after-sales agency, and computer assembling which undoubtedly contributes the bulk of the profit.

However, there’s another digital product with extremely high profits, almost on par with computers, which is mobile phones.

Not only are phones lucrative, but they also upgrade faster than computers.

You might use a computer for four or five years, some even last seven or eight years.

However, no one’s phone works that long; even if it’s not broken, many people want to buy new models when they come out, and affluent enthusiasts change several phones a year.

With computers, no matter how enthusiastic, you won’t be assembling several setups a year.

Quick upgrades and frequent consumer turnover mean considerable profit increase in the long run.

In this era, casually opening a phone store was almost profitable, as long as you started early and were willing to invest.

In a few years, with more phone stores and fierce competition, it would be another story.

And then with the impact of online shopping, the physical mobile phone market would slowly cool down, but even when profits were considerably compressed, phone stores would still abound, reflecting the vastness of its market.

After all, phones are a necessity; modern people can do without computers but not without phones.

The phone business in colleges is also tough, similar to computers.

However, once New Era made a name for itself and earned consumers’ trust, this would be no problem.

In fact, Su Zelin had long planned to venture into the phone business; it’s just that New Era hadn’t opened enough branches, and the computer business hadn’t stabilized, so it had to be postponed.

Su Zelin convened a meeting with Brother Xiao Yang and Kang Baohong to discuss it.

In fact, those two had heard about the plan from Zelin before, but when he talked about it, Yang Fen and Kang Baohong were still greatly shocked.

Because the pace of these four plans was extremely tight, almost nonstop, some even meant to proceed simultaneously.

"Aren’t we moving a bit too fast?"

In the manager’s office, Yang Fen took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaled through his nose, and expressed his concerns.

"This is a good era; we must not dawdle, the market trends change rapidly, the faster we establish our foothold, the better!"

Su Zelin took a sip of tea, put down the cup, and said calmly.

He was referring to the impending impact of the e-commerce boom on physical stores.

Before that wave hit, New Era must quickly broaden its ranks, make maximum profit, and complete its transformation in time.

Currently, Taobao hasn’t been established, and even with Brother Xiao Yang’s keen insight, this trend was unforeseeable.

So Su Zelin could only explain it in a somewhat mystical way.

Fortunately, Brother Xiao Yang also understood this principle; the computer market’s changes were swift, and competition had become much fiercer than before, with only well-established stores surviving well.

He nodded slightly but raised another concern: "But in that case, our funding might not be enough."

Though the income from several profitable stores was rapid, like hens laying eggs nonstop, it was still insufficient to support the concurrent implementation of so many critical plans.