The next day was Sunday, and in the afternoon, Shen Yuan had arranged to meet Li Yuhang at the speakeasy they had taken over.
The speakeasy was located on Yudai Street not far from the May 1st Square, which is also a famous speakeasy street in Star City. Shen Yuan had been here a few times before.
However, he used to come here as a customer, and now that he was the boss coming to inspect, his perspective was inevitably different.
At half-past two, Shen Yuan took a taxi to Yudai Street and wandered around roughly.
He noticed that the homogenization of the speakeasies here was quite severe; they were all of the small tavern type with basically the same offerings. There was nothing particularly attractive about their exteriors at first glance.
At least during the day, there was nothing special to see; he didn't know what it was like at night.
Along the street, almost all the shops were doing the same business, naturally, some were doing well, but there were definitely those that were poorly managed.
It was obvious that Li Yuhang had taken over one of the latter.
When Shen Yuan walked in, he saw that the decoration style really had nothing special to offer, mostly consisting of wooden tables and chairs and a vintage bar.
Behind the bar was a large wooden liquor cabinet, but because the previous owner had moved everything out, it was empty.
But the shop was indeed quite spacious; Shen Yuan looked around and estimated that it was at least two hundred square meters.
No wonder the previous owner had backed out; such a large store had correspondingly high rent and expenses.
If there wasn't enough revenue to support it, the daily costs would flow away like running water.
Furthermore, if a speakeasy was too large and didn't have enough customers, it would appear too desolate and lack the atmosphere for drinking.
Even though there is a "light" in the word speakeasy, it's not the lightness of tranquility.
When Shen Yuan arrived, Li Yuhang had already been waiting in the store for about ten minutes and immediately complained, "Why the hell are you so late?"
Although this guy loved to play around, he was serious when it came to business.
But seriousness aside, the outcome, as many harrowing examples have shown, was not solely determined by attitude and effort.
Sometimes, direction and choice are just as important as hard work and dedication.
However, Shen Yuan wouldn't be polite to Li Yuhang for this reason and cut off his ranting right away, "Stop whining, I'm only a few minutes late, I was just taking a look outside."
"By the way, have you contacted the previous manager?"
Yesterday, when Shen Yuan and Li Yuhang were chatting, he learned that the manager hired by the previous owner was currently job-hunting.
Moreover, several staff members were also following her, and it would be great if they could be persuaded to join.
Both he and Li Yuhang were laymen, and Shen Yuan felt they really needed someone with a bit more experience.
Li Yuhang nodded, "I've contacted her, and she should be here soon, just don't know if she will be willing to work here again."
Shen Yuan replied, "Let's talk to her. It's mainly because she's familiar with this place and she's got people under her. If her character and work attitude are good, we could offer her a higher salary."
However, upon seeing the two men, Siao Siyao felt somewhat disappointed.
Although she didn't know which one was the owner, both seemed too young and inexperienced in business matters at first glance.
They didn't resemble bosses but rather looked like the young people who came to the place for fun.
She suspected they might be privileged second-generation rich kids, with their parents funding the bar for them.
But such people often don't run a bar for long.
One reason is the lack of experience, leading to easy money loss, and another is losing interest quickly.
Nevertheless, Siao Siyao wasn't going to turn around and leave; she still needed to show basic politeness.
"Let's sit down and talk."
Shen Yuan approached a table, pulled out a chair and sat down, while Li Yuhang made a welcoming gesture.
"Sure."
After Siao Siyao sat down, Shen Yuan introduced himself and then got straight to the point:
"I won't bother with small talk, as you can see, we are about the same age, so let's skip the pretentiousness."
"We'd like to hear your opinion about the former speakeasy. Were there any issues with how your previous boss managed it, or why do you think it failed?"
Shen Yuan treated this meeting as if it were an interview, wanting to gauge Siao Siyao's capabilities.
He didn't plan on being in the shop every day. After all, he had System, and many more channels to make money; the speakeasy was just a small investment for him.
Not to mention Li Yuhang – with his temperament, he'd likely prefer to be a hands-off manager.
Upon hearing this, Siao Siyao was slightly taken aback, not expecting the first interview question to be this.
She had been to quite a few interviews these past few days, feeling that they all asked pointless questions.
Questions like "Why did you apply for this position?", "What are your strengths?", "Do you think you are suited to this job?", "Do you foresee any difficulties with this work?"
To her, these were all bullshit questions, especially "Why did you apply for the position?"
Of course, it was because she was out of work and needed a job to make ends meet!
But regarding the question just asked, Siao Siyao was actually quite interested, as she did have some thoughts on the matter.
She had discussed it with her boss before, but by that time he had already been losing money for a few months and wasn't invested in the business anymore, not taking it seriously.
"I've been here since the speakeasy first opened and personally, I think there are quite a few problems. First off, the location choice — there are too many speakeasies around here, offering customers too many options, making it hard for a new place to attract clientele."
"Secondly, the development and return rate of new customers wasn't managed well. The consumption here isn't cheap, and there's nothing special about it, so after people come once, they don't really want to return..."
"...."