Chapter 102: Positioning

Ever since school started, Hong Tao could no longer spend his whole days in the salon. He could only run over after school let out in the afternoon and work a few hours. By now, the customers who came to get their hair done had pretty much figured out the pattern—if you wanted a more special style, you had to wait until after four in the afternoon to find the young master. The only exception was Sunday, when he stayed all day. But this young master was rather particular: he only took jobs paying ten yuan or more, and wouldn't touch ordinary trims or perms.

If you wanted a slightly more conventional style, you could come during the day and find Master Yanzi. While her cutting skills weren't quite up to the young master's level, she could still handle ordinary work without any problem. As for the salon's other stylist, Hong Tao's cousin, she had just barely learned to independently roll hair for perms, and her cutting skill was hardly worth mentioning, so nobody ever came specifically looking for her.

Hong Tao had also set up a reservation book in the salon, specially for logging the appointment times of high-end clients with particular requirements. These were usually arranged for the evening and could be booked in advance, which avoided the problem of suddenly having several clients show up at once on one day and being too busy to handle them, or having none at all on another day. It made Hong Tao's work easier, saved the clients time, and improved the quality of service.

The young married woman in the white suit who lived near Beixinqiao, together with her colleagues, had already become regular customers of the salon. In fact, even if they wanted to go elsewhere to have their hair done, it wouldn't have been possible. Without exaggerating, Hong Tao could guarantee that so far, you couldn't find another barbershop anywhere in all of Beijing that could do these hairstyles. Nor was Hong Tao worried about others learning the new styles—those barbershops were all state-run units. Not only were the jobs fixed, even the hairstyles were assigned by the leadership. Year after year they offered the same few fixed styles, whether you came or not.

And the old masters in those barbershops looked down even more on Hong Tao's unorthodox approach. Not only would they never come to learn of their own accord, even if you forced them, they probably wouldn't agree. Craftsmen of this era still placed a great deal of importance on the rules of the trade. As for other private barbershops, Hong Tao didn't know if there were any—at least within his circle of activity, he hadn't found one. But sooner or later they would appear. Yet Hong Tao wasn't afraid. He could accurately grasp the general direction of trends, and he had plenty more fresh ideas stored in his head that he could pull out at any time. If it came down to fair competition, nobody could beat him.

Besides, getting your hair done was like having clothes made—once you got used to a familiar place and a familiar master, unless the quality deteriorated badly, you wouldn't be eager to switch to some unfamiliar establishment. Hong Tao was now slowly cultivating his own client base, and he was deliberately catering to the needs of the high-end market. His plan was to use his advantage of being a step ahead to gradually turn the tailor shop and the salon into high-end establishments. That way, even if other tailor shops or salons opened a year or two down the road, he wouldn't have to compete with them.

But in that era, were there so-called high-end clients? The answer was yes. No matter the time, there were always rich people—the only question was how many. The young woman in white and her colleagues belonged to this category. Their jobs were rather special: they worked in the old Ministry of Foreign Affairs building inside Chaoyang Gate, but they were on the staff of the Ministry of Commerce, and they frequently had to meet with foreign merchants. So besides having relatively high salaries, they also had a substantial clothing allowance and makeup allowance at their disposal.

Moreover, the circles they moved in were higher and broader. Through word of mouth and their role as trendsetters, people from their social circles gradually got drawn in as well. Several times Hong Tao had seen these female customers step out of cars parked by the roadside—even if they were only old-model Volgas or Shanghai sedans, in this era, anyone who could ride in a government car was no ordinary person.

As for the more personal details of these women's private lives, Hong Tao never asked, and he'd also cautioned Sister Daling and the Han sisters not to take the initiative to ask either. If they volunteered on their own, that was their business; if they didn't say, then don't pry. As long as he could earn the money, provide attentive service, and keep the customers satisfied, that was the greatest reward.

Since Hong Tao had made up his mind to take the high-end route, he might as well use pricing to separate the wheat from the chaff. That way, without having to spell it out to customers, those who pursued quality, service, and comfort would naturally stay, while those who came merely for proximity, convenience, or novelty would gradually drift away. The number of customers would slowly decline, but the revenue would keep rising, and the quality of service would improve accordingly.

When the ratio between mid-to-high-end customers and low-end customers reached a certain point, the low-end customers would quickly drain away without Hong Tao having to lift a finger. As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together—only people with the same tastes feel comfortable and natural in each other's company. Ask an ordinary person to go hang out in a private club all the time, feeling envy, jealousy, and resentment, and after a few visits they'll stop going on their own—there's no face in it at all!!!

But this would take a relatively long process to adjust gradually, so Hong Tao wasn't in a hurry. According to his plan, once this winter passed and next spring arrived, he would make a big move. By then the tailor shop would have to be renamed a fashion boutique, and the salon would become a beauty and hairstyling center. What mattered most right now wasn't expansion but the cultivation of talent.

Whether it was the fashion boutique or the beauty center, even if he had eight hands and eight heads, he couldn't manage it all alone. Besides, he still had to go to school—he couldn't devote himself single-mindedly to business. So he needed to train helpers. His aunt was fairly stable at the moment; her craftsmanship grew more refined with each additional garment she cut, and at least in production, she had already surpassed Hong Tao's skill. Her classmate Juanzi was also a girl with clever hands. Back home she'd already known how to cut simple clothes, and after two months of training under his aunt, she could now handle many tasks independently.

Sister Daling's side of the salon was more troublesome. She'd been studying with Hong Tao for all these days, yet she still couldn't work independently. She just wasn't cut out for patiently learning a craft—she spent the whole day chatting with customers and could forget everything else once she got going. Han Yan, on the other hand, had excellent aptitude for this field. She could already hold her own, at least handling simple styles by herself. And she genuinely enjoyed the work. Every night after closing, she practiced rolling, blow-drying, and setting on her own hair. Whenever she had free time during the day, she'd follow Hong Tao around asking questions about this and that. When Hong Tao worked on a customer, she'd watch intently from the side, and that was when she talked the most—she'd ask immediately if anything was unclear.

Han Xue was a rather special case. Hong Tao had talked with her before, suggesting she leave her old life behind and come work at the shop with her sister. But she'd neither agreed nor refused—who knew what she was hesitating about. She clearly had plenty of worries. When she was in the shop, she'd help with the work. In terms of clever hands, she and her sister Han Yan had inherited the same gift. After barely a month of learning, she'd already left Sister Daling several streets behind, though she wasn't yet as skilled as Han Yan.

If expansion was to happen later, relying on just the three of them definitely wouldn't do. According to Hong Tao's plan, just for the hairstyling side alone, he'd need at least three or four senior stylists of Han Yan's caliber, with the same number of junior assistants to match. If you added in the staffing for the beauty side, he'd need at least ten employees in total.

But Hong Tao only entertained the thought; he didn't dare actually do it. Because according to the laws at that time, a private business owner—an individual entrepreneur—could hire at most seven people. Eight or more meant you were an exploiter. Although reform and opening-up had already begun, there were still many issues that needed to be sorted out gradually. The once-famous Fool's Melon Seeds had run into exactly this problem, being criticized as a capitalist exploiting surplus value. If not for the chief architect himself stepping forward to speak on his behalf, his fate would likely have been very grim.

Hong Tao certainly couldn't count on the chief architect to step forward and speak up for him. Setting aside whether the old man would even be willing, his little matter would probably get stopped at the district level at most, and then he'd be flattened by the people's democratic dictatorship—it would never even reach the old man's ears.

As for exactly which year and month that regulation was relaxed, how could Hong Tao remember? Anyway, he'd already made up his mind: at most seven employees, not a single one more. The only way to work around it was to use the tailor shop as a cover—register employees under the tailor shop's name while actually having them work in the salon. Even so, the maximum was around ten people, because the tailor shop needed extra hands too.

But where was Hong Tao supposed to find that many people? At present, the status of individual business owners was lower than that of street sweepers or latrine cleaners. He'd considered every relative and friend he could think of, and none were suitable. Should he just put up a sign and hire off the street? Who from a decent family would let their child come? And anyone brave enough to come—would he even dare to take them? Hong Tao racked his brains for several days and ultimately could only think of two paths.

The first was to go recruit from his grandmother's hometown. Any young woman or married lady of suitable age with clever hands could come and give it a try. If they couldn't manage beauty and hairstyling, they could learn tailoring from his aunt—that was still some help. Besides, when you know someone's roots, trouble is less likely. The second path would have to rely on Han Xue. Hong Tao intended to play the saint who rescues wayward youth. Although there weren't many whole and sound people among those street girls, if he could pick out a few like Han Xue, they'd do well enough—at least their nature was essentially normal.

"Han Xue, let me ask you something—among your circle, are there any other girls in a similar situation to yours?" Hong Tao found a free moment, called Han Xue outside the shop, and planned to start by asking her.

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