Chapter 5 The hot manufacturing industry
The 19th century has to be said to be a paradise for entrepreneurs. In this era of increasing industrialization, the returns from investing in industry are very considerable.
Although the risk is also high, it is basically nothing for Ernst. After a year of tug-of-war.
"Gillette" razors are at least well-known by people, and the customers who have already purchased them are also firmly grasped, and repeat customers can be seen.
"Gillette" has already embarked on the road of profitability. Of course, Ernst will not stop there. In the previous life, "Gillette" truly became bigger and stronger because of the opportunity period of the world war. The U.S. military took Gillette to the worldwide.
And Ernst also caught up with the good times. As the iron-blooded prime minister, Bismarck paid great attention to the army and proposed the famous "iron-blooded policy" after taking office.
That is to say, it is necessary to increase industrial construction to serve the army, and at the same time increase the alliance of military forces among the states in Germany.
According to Ernst's familiar history, next year will be the precursor to Prussia's war to unify Germany, uniting with Austria to declare war on Denmark and take back the two northern principalities of Schleswig-Holstein.
So when Prussia was integrating its army, Ernst personally went to the Prussian palace to sell "Gillette" razors to William I.
Ernst mainly focused on the urgency of time in the event of a war. Traditional razors are not only unsafe, but also difficult to operate. The blades also require separate time to maintain, while the "Gillette" only needs to replace the blades. Save this time.
Of course, in order to dispel William I's concerns, Ernst offered to donate 20,000 sets of "Gillette" razors at a loss to support the construction of the kingdom's army.
It doesn't matter whether they lose money or not, what's important is that these Prussian soldiers feel the convenience of "Gilead".
People are inert. They will never stand if they can sit, and they will never sit if they can lie down. In his previous life, when he was in college, Ernst had a deep understanding of it. As long as he wanted to buy cigarettes, he would basically not even bother to go downstairs.
…
Thinking of this, Ernst suddenly froze, um, "smoke". Ernst felt like his brain was going to explode!
But still in the palace at this moment, Ernst tried to calm down. After negotiating with William I about the military trial of "Gilead", Ernst was not only thinking about the order.
After leaving the Prussian palace, Ernst sat on the carriage and began to wonder why he had not thought of such an almost costless business as cigarettes. If it doesn't work, you still have to squeeze your brain.
If you write down some things from your past life, wouldn’t you be able to make a fortune by producing these things in the future?
Of course there were cigarettes in this era, but the machines for hand-made, mass-produced cigarettes had not yet been developed and popularized.
For Ernst, as long as he finds some experts to conquer the technology of mass production of cigarettes, he will be the first to try it.
Moreover, cigarettes, something that satisfies human needs on a spiritual level, are so marketable. Although there are competitors, how can relatively expensive and inefficient manual labor compete with machine-based mass production.
Ernst decided to find someone to cooperate when he returned, and he also wanted to write down many low-tech things that were convenient for life in his previous life and develop them in advance.
Well, it's time to set up a new company. At present, "Gillette" is actually a single factory that produces razors.
If I produce a lot of things in the future, I will definitely have more than one factory. How to control these factories will require hiring some professionals to help take care of them.
As the Prussian army began to equip the "Gillette" razors produced by Ernst's factory, as Ernst expected, these big-headed soldiers liked this time-saving and labor-saving razor very much, and used it as a consumable blade. There are usage restrictions, but the low price and convenience and practicality cover up this shortcoming, and orders for the blades followed.
In this way, the Prussian army could be equipped with new razors and order blades at the same time, and Ernst was not idle either.
In addition to Prussia, there are other countries in Germany! Naturally, Ernst would not let it go and began to increase the promotion of his razors in the armies of various countries.
What don't you need? The Prussian army agreed to use it, so why are you so embarrassed? The successful use of the Prussian army also became a classic example of Ernst's product promotion.
If you don’t believe it, you can go to the Prussian military camp and see for yourself. Ernst successfully promoted these razors in many small countries.
Good things always keep coming. The razors promoted in the army quickly attracted the attention of interested people, and some factory owners who produced precision instruments also began to introduce them.
Hair was a nuisance in precision-instrument factories where shaving was a necessity, and these factories now required workers to use Ernst's "Gillette" razors directly.
The new razor industry has entered the fast lane of rapid development, and the ambitious Ernst has begun a bigger plan.
The newly established Hechingen Development Company began to send sales teams to other countries, with the Austrian Empire and Russia being important markets.
In a relatively conservative country like Russia, Ernst emphasized that members of the sales team should focus on the progressive nature of the new razor. This is the crystallization of industrialization and a representative of hygiene and safety.
At this moment, Russia is still in the era of Tsarist Russia. It is well known that Russians' yearning for the West was at its peak especially during the Tsarist Russia period.
As for the Austrian Empire, the sales team mainly used the advantages of Prussia equipped with such razors to convince Austrian officials.
At the same time, Ernst is also actively developing markets in other countries. Its main business is throughout Europe, and it is also looking for agents in North America.
North America was the home base of "Gillette" in its previous life. It was impossible for Ernst to go to the United States himself to direct the construction of the factory.
Patents alone are a big problem. The United States is a complete copycat country at the moment, and Ernst does not want to test the conscience of Americans.
Simply set up an office in North America to cooperate with the big capitalists in the United States.
The Hechingen Development Company, which has a European aristocratic background, still has some influence in the Americas. At least no one is making trouble for this small company with an old continent aristocratic background.
Moreover, "Gillette" razors have not yet been promoted, and capital will not personally take action. Through communication with an American capital group, Ernst successfully equipped the US military with "Gillette" razors. Of course, this is the future. thing.
It was just an authorized patent, but the factory and construction funds were provided by Americans, and Ernst could get a 10% share of the US dollar every year for free.
This is already a good result. As for "Gilead" to break out in the future, Ernst will no longer have to focus on this single seedling. According to Ernst's vision, the Hechingen Development Company should already be a large company with diversified operations.
Now Ernst has received the good news that his large-scale cigarette production line has been completed.
In a short time, the cigarettes of the previous life (of course, there are no filters yet.) will appear in convenience stores and factories across Germany, and of course there will be demanders such as the military.
In this era, no one paid attention to the dangers of cigarettes. Ernst didn't even need to put the words "smoking is harmful to health" on the package.
Of course, industrialization has led to large cities in Europe being filled with black smokestacks, and thick smoke and dust are not necessarily less harmful to the body than smoking.
While selling Gillette razors, Ernst had begun to focus on the production of various small commodities.
For example, for flush toilets that have not yet been popularized on a large scale, Ernst is also planning to set up a separate factory. The UK already has mature products. Ernst is mainly responsible for increasing the promotion of this product. It is not too much to set up an OEM factory. In the future, it will also Can do OEM.
Now that cigarettes are available, lighters must be indispensable. Ernst decided to come up with kerosene lighters first, which can be regarded as the flagship product of the Hechingen company.
There are still many ideas that Ernst wants to come up with, but currently his capabilities are not up to it, and the funding alone is somewhat risky.
Ernst has passed the entrepreneurial stage and can now expand steadily. As the war is approaching, good times are still to come!