Now that Arjun was introducing another new product Ravi did not want to miss out on this, if he could replicate even half the success Union had with the All in One's it would mean another windfall for their company which was already having trouble to stay in the market had it not been for Arjun's products. They had already commissioned other teachers to make their own All in Ones and it was just a matter of time before Arjun's monopoly in that section would be broken but that did not mean he turn back on the extra money coming his way.
This was also the reason Arjun wanted Ravi to attend the meeting which frankly did not have anything to do with him if not for the matter regarding the drawing books. He too understood Ravi's thoughts and did not feel bad about them making their own versions as he had always known this rush sale would only last for this year.
But still Ravi waited for Arjun to name the price for each edition of the book since he estimated such quality books would not be so cheap which could impact the sales figures by a lot. He did not need to wait for longer as soon Arjun mentioned that the distribution price was going to be twenty rupees a piece while the MRP was going to be twenty five rupees or anywhere in between which could be decided by the sellers themselves.
This was a new concept to all the people present as in the current times retailers could charge as much as they wanted as there were no such labels on the products. This was a major problem in the current times and would be soon corrected by a new law the upcoming year but Arjun had no idea of such matters or else he would have never proposed such terms since he too could make more money.
The most shocked by the new proposal of all the people present were Madan and Ravi as they had most experience with the consumer market. Ravi wanted to back out of the deal as soon as Arjun proposed this but soon remembered about the previous figures Arjun mentioned and thought more into it.
He soon realized that even though Arjun had mentioned there would be a fixed retail price written on the back of the book since most people were unfamiliar with the term MRP and there was no law regarding this he could practically disregard this term. Madan meanwhile thought more about the political side of things, he felt it was worth it to work more on this at was one of the major problems plaguing the consumer market right now with the retailers charge arbitrary amounts from the consumers trying to extract the most value from them leading rise to the bargaining culture which their country was very renowned for. If this could be implemented by the government customers no longer need to bargain so hard for each penny and go by the sticker on the back of the product, still he needed to think more into this and soon put this in the back of his mind and shifted his focus back to the discussion.
Just by looking at the glint in Ravi's eyes Madan knew he had already figured out a work around this while Arjun had no clue what was going on in their minds and just waited there patiently for them to say out their thoughts. Just before Tharun got up from his seat though Arjun motioned for him to sit down and mentioned this time they would have to pay twenty five percent of the order cost earlier during ordering as this would ease their press economies by lot since right now it was mainly dependent on the firms money to print which could bring negative impact in the long term.
Arjun felt this was the right time to put such condition since he was sure neither the union or the distribution firm would back out even with such terms conditions but still he knew when to stop and also mentioned this was the last condition which made Tharun and Vikram converse in hushed voices while Ravi too was thinking deeply making some calculations on his notepad.
The union initially wanted to order fifty thousand copies of the new books with ten thousand copies of each edition but Arjun's new condition brought their enthusiasm down by a lot and they began to discuss more about what would be more realistic. Finally they settled on twenty thousand copies which would contain four thousand of each edition would be more possible and since it was only twenty thousand copies they would only need to hand out one lakh rupees which they already had in hand.
Arjun was satisfied with the quantity the union had requested since he always knew this line would never be as successful as the earlier All in Ones meanwhile Ravi looked up and requested for forty thousand copies of all editions together which made all the people in presence look at him in surprise. Arjun was the same, he had imagined most the firm would ask for would be the same as the union but when he saw into Ravi's eyes and saw his determination he understood that Ravi was going to take a gamble on this one which were exactly the thoughts Ravi had.
They were already fighting a losing battle against the other presses and distributors and this new drawing books which had all three languages could expand their reach by a lot and even though there was an MRP on the back of the book Ravi was sure he could sell them for at least thirty rupees if he could position the books in right rich markets where people did not really care about the prices but more about the learning and enjoyable experiences which the new drawing books had plenty to offer.
Even though confused Arjun accepted the order with a smiling face and asked them to hand the deposit cheques over to Lalitha while leaving. The people understood this was Arjun's polite way of mentioning he had other matters to discuss and took their leave from the office.
Once only Madan, Pratap, Bhargav and Arjun were the only people remaining in the office Arjun took out the cheque for seven lakh thirty five thousand rupees which were supposed to be Madan's share for the previous three months and handed it to Madan. Initially this would have put their finances in a tough spot since they would have less than one lakh rupees with all of the spending Arjun had been doing in the past days but with the new deposit policy Arjun did not need to worry about those matters any more since the orders could basically pay for themselves at least for their proprietary products.
Madan though handed the cheque back to Arjun which made him surprised and look curiously at Madan waiting for an explanation. Madan understanding his thoughts put out his proposal, instead of taking the money he wanted Arjun's help in making and printing pamphlets and other stuff which would be essential in his campaign and he wanted friendship prices for these products too.
Arjun thought for a while and replied that they would offer the products at cost price to Madan instead of some arbitrary friendship prices which made Madan smile in recognition that he did not back the wrong guy.
Arjun too felt this was the right thing to do as their press would not have much to do once the orders were printed and it was better to keep the machines and people running rather than lazing around. Madan was also another crucial piece for him to take this decision, if he became an MLA and Arjun had at least some hand in it he would have more leverage to ask for favors in the future as he felt ashamed of himself for relying so much on Madan till now already.
Then Arjun proceeded to mention the matter of distributing ninety thousand dividends to the Yadav family which both Pratap and Madan rejected immediately as soon as he mentioned the idea.
Madan explained that Arjun was already generous enough with his earlier act of handing them out three percent of shares and even though one could be generous they should not do it too much as it could potentially back fire on themselves if the Yadav's started neglecting their work once they received such huge amount of money.
With nothing to say in response Arjun instead proposed a bonus of ten thousand rupees combined to all the press employees which both Pratap and Madan were completely fine with. With this Arjun's first business meet after his rebirth came to an end.
Arjun came out of the office and handed the ten thousand rupees to Mallesh Yadav mentioning that this was the bonus to all the press employees combined which included the Yadav father and son duo too.
What surprised Arjun though was neither Mallesh nor Gopal took out a cent from the ten thousand and instead divided it among their other three employees evenly which made him a lot happier as it seemed they were already considering themselves the owners, Arjun's move while it was positive also put them in a tough spot as they understood to Arjun they too were still the employees in the factory but they were already mature enough to handle such issues.