Chapter 192 - 144: Price Hike
「October 20th, Monday. 9:30 AM.」
Chen Lin yawned, a cup of hot soy milk in one hand and two meat buns in the other, as he ambled into the Yanhai Company office.
As the boss, he had a few small privileges, like not having to rush into the office right before nine every day.
In fact, he had never intended to set any strict rules about clocking in and out for Yanhai Company. When the company was first established, he had just casually mentioned, "Work starts at 9 AM and ends at 5:30 PM, with a lunch break from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM."
As a result, his offhand suggestion was written word-for-word into the company’s official policy by his rigorous and conscientious assistant, Huang Yiyi.
And Huang Yiyi and Sun Yu, two full-time employees who came from large corporations, adhered to this rule with extreme strictness. They were always on time, never arriving late or leaving early.
This even influenced Shen Yan and Yunqing, who joined later. Although they were interns and didn’t have to come in every day, they would consciously observe these hours on the days they were in the office.
Over time, he, the boss, had ironically become the only one in the company who occasionally lost track of time.
Chen Lin walked into the office and habitually scanned the room.
Everyone was here today.
Sun Yu was facing his computer screen, fingers flying across the keyboard, muttering to himself. He was probably communicating with a potential client.
Yunqing and Huang Yiyi were huddled together, seemingly discussing a document. Huang Yiyi nodded from time to time while Yunqing took notes.
His gaze finally landed on the workstation diagonally across from him.
Shen Yan was sitting upright, her long black hair tied back with a simple hair tie, revealing a smooth, clear forehead and the delicate lines of her profile.
Her expression was focused, her eyes glued to the computer screen in front of her. She was clearly completely absorbed in her work.
’Looks like catching up on sleep last Thursday and Friday did her a lot of good.’
Chen Lin nodded to himself. ’She’s back at 100%.’
He walked to his own desk, placed his breakfast on it, and pulled out his chair to sit down. He started up his computer while munching on a bun.
The moment he logged into WeChat, Sun Yu, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, immediately spun around. With a pained expression, he reported, "Boss, you’re finally here. The number of client requests we’ve been getting these past few days... Shen Yan and I can’t even get through them all."
Hearing this, Chen Lin polished off his breakfast in a few quick bites, wiped his mouth, and beckoned to Sun Yu and Shen Yan.
"Come over here for a second. I have something to tell you all."
Sun Yu and Shen Yan walked over immediately. Seeing this, Yunqing and Huang Yiyi curiously came over as well.
Chen Lin cleared his throat and got straight to the point. "I have a new idea regarding client requests. Starting today, I want you to notify all our current potential clients."
He paused, then dropped a bombshell.
"Tell them that the fee for Yanhai Company’s technical consulting services will be officially raised from one million to five million."
"Five million?!" Sun Yu was the first to cry out, his eyes wide as saucers. "Boss, isn’t... isn’t that a bit too high? That’s a fivefold increase! I’m afraid we’ll scare all the clients away."
Chen Lin looked at Sun Yu’s nervous expression and couldn’t help but laugh inwardly.
’Scare them away?’
’I wish they would all be scared away.’
Ever since his last paper went viral, the company’s fame had grown exponentially, and the number of consulting inquiries had skyrocketed along with it.
In fact, Chen Lin had noticed this problem even earlier.
Back when they completed projects for Era of Creation and Huanrun Pharmaceutical—both domestic leaders in their respective industries—Yanhai Company’s valuation from the [Little Financial Planner] had solidly increased by five million for each project.
But later, they took on projects for two obscure smaller companies. Although the fee was also one million each, after completing both projects, the company’s valuation had only increased by a total of five million.
The logic behind this wasn’t hard to understand.
After receiving technical consulting from Yanhai Company, when listed companies the size of Era of Creation and Huanrun Pharmaceutical achieved breakthroughs in domestic industrial software or optimized their clinical trial processes, these achievements would either be reported extensively by major financial media or reflected in their impressive financial statements.
𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Then, if the company’s upper management casually mentioned "this was thanks to the help of Yanhai Company" during an interview or in a public announcement, the boost to Yanhai Company’s reputation and the advertising effect would be enormous.
As for the smaller companies, even if their problems were solved, their own limited influence meant they could hardly provide Yanhai with the same level of positive feedback.
Therefore, Chen Lin had been thinking about raising the price for a while.
Firstly, using a high price as a barrier would directly filter out the vast majority of clients who lacked either the financial strength or the genuine commitment, which would significantly lighten Sun Yu’s and Shen Yan’s workload.
Secondly, if a company was actually willing to pay five million, it meant they were either a well-funded industry giant or were facing a critical problem that was a matter of life and death for their business.
In either case, it would be a substantial income for the company.
As the major shareholder with a 46% stake, the more the company earned, the more profit Chen Lin would naturally receive.
Of course, he wasn’t about to explain all this in detail to the people in front of him.
He just waved his hand and said in a nonchalant tone, "Don’t worry, we’re not short on clients right now. Raising the price will help us filter them.
"Just notify them as I said. For those willing to accept the new price, continue to follow up on their needs. For those who aren’t, don’t waste any more time on them."
Sun Yu and Shen Yan exchanged a look. Out of their unconditional trust in Chen Lin, they both nodded without hesitation.
Sun Yu: "Okay, Boss. I understand!"
With that matter settled, Chen Lin waved for everyone to disperse and sat back down at his desk.
He turned on his computer but didn’t immediately resume his self-study of AI large model programming. Instead, he first used his phone to transfer a bunch of photos he had taken of Yaoyao the day before to his computer.
October 11th, the Saturday two weeks prior, had been a mandatory makeup workday. Adults had to work and children had to go to school, so Chen Lin had to cancel Yaoyao’s tutoring session.
As a result, the little girl wasn’t happy.
On the 18th, which was last Saturday, when Chen Lin brought her to the company for a makeup tutoring session, she clung to his arm and pestered him relentlessly, claiming her academic pressure was too high and insisting that he give her another "makeup session" on Sunday.
This so-called "makeup session" was really just her way of getting Chen Lin to take her out to play.
Chen Lin couldn’t say no to her, so he had no choice but to call Yaoyao’s mother.
In Yaoyao’s mother’s eyes, Chen Lin was a "super academic" who was more effective than any top-tier tutor. When she heard he was willing to proactively give Yaoyao an extra tutoring session, she agreed without the slightest hesitation.