Chapter 196: 196 Blast From The Past (From Another World)

Guy's elder sister was an ambitious businesswoman. She was tenacious and ruthless and built her entertainment empire from scratch with no help from the family. It was a task she took upon herself to prove that she was more than just the Larks name.

She always had the entrepreneur's spirit and a natural-born insight unlike any other. She was quick to observe the changes in market trends while working as an intern in a record label company.

After two years of accumulating experience and knowledge, she set off to create her own unique company that recruited talent and trained them to thrive in the perilous industry. She took a page from the systems employed in the East and tweaked it slightly to achieve great success.

For one, the West encouraged individuality and self-expression. Yet because of this mentality, the artists were forced to set out on their own and find opportunities by themselves. Although they could employ agents, the support they received from that side was limited to finding and landing auditions, negotiating pay, and so on. There was little to no support for growth and development, which was available in the agencies of the East.

When an actor failed an audition, or if an album flopped, they would rarely receive tangible feedback on how to improve. There was also little training on how to handle their fame and the media. His sister's goal was to create an agency that could fill in that role. To act as the incubator that nurtured artists and supported them through their journey.

Guy's sister pitched her company to many investors, but most did not believe in her vision. They figured that investing heavily into unestablished talent was futile since they would simply jump ship when offered a better contract, which was understandable. But his sister did not give in regardless of the many denials she faced. Ultimately, one woman felt moved by his sister's proposal and she offered her support. His sister would later marry this woman, but that was a separate story.

During her time pursuing investors, his sister had conducted unbelievably thorough research of the market. In the process, she recruited Guy's assistance to help her put together the business proposal. Guy was more than willing to help his sister for free, but she insisted on paying him saying, "Until I can prove my mettle, you aren't my brother. I am no Larks. I am simply an acquaintance hiring your services."

Through this favour, Guy learned a great deal about business management from his sister. He accumulated many valuable skills that he never thought he would ever use again until he died, transmigrated, and resolved to create his own sect.

Guy followed his sister's method by the book to put together the business proposal for his venture. He spent two weeks moving from place to place, stalking outside stores and shops and even interviewing many folks both willing and irritated. It was hard, but it was necessary.

This is because no one wants to willingly give their money to others. The rich may throw their wealth willy-nilly, but that is only because they know that the expenditure will net a guaranteed return immediately. But such guarantees aren't always present when investing.

With investing, what they get are probabilities. Probability of successfully recouping the amount invested, the probability of amplifying their invested amount, and the dreaded probability of making a loss. Based on how these probabilities are spread, an investor will decide to invest or pass on a proposal.

The probabilities are generated in large part based on the data presented to the investors, and in minor part based on the entrepreneur's drive and vision for their business. A confident entrepreneur with a losing business model is the same as a money-making business model with a half-hearted or nervous entrepreneur. However, the former will be kicked out of the room immediately, while the latter can salvage the situation by selling their business model to the investor and working as an employee in the business.

To convince Karmin, Guy had to show that he was motivated by his business, and he had to present to him the data that supported the need for his business.

After collecting a wide range of raw data through primary research, Guy took half a week to compile everything into human-readable form. At this point, he was grateful that he had his computer in the RoK. With the help of the spreadsheet program, the word processor, and the printer, the process was trivial. His efforts definitely paid off as Karmin's eyes sparkled and latched on to the colourful graphs presenting the data visually. Rather than seeing abstract numerics sprawled across the page, graphs are the easiest way to make sense of data so that even a layman can understand it.

"While you bring forward good points, I am confused as to what your business will do. As in, what is the tangible output from this company?" Karmin asked.

"Good question. To answer it, I would like to propose to you a series of questions, please entertain me," Guy requested as he pulled out a textbook from his satchel.

"This is the 'Compendium of Common Metals and Alloys' from the Guild's library. I borrowed it for today's presentation. Only the Guilds have a copy of this book, why is that?"

"Because it is expensive to print. And it regularly gets updated," Karmin answered.

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"True, so if I wanted to purchase this book, how much would I have to spend?"

"At least a few gold coins. No one really bothers to purchase these," Karmin responded. "You would have to pay scribes to copy over the content and artists to copy the illustrations. It's a huge hassle."

"What if I told you that it was possible to reduce the cost to a few silver coins?" Guy probed mystically.

Karmin narrowed his eyes and nearly snorted at what he perceived was a joke. But when he noticed Guy's confident smile, he realised that the man was being serious.

"You're kidding!"

"I am here today to propose to you the first product envisioned and designed by Verum Trading Company, the Gutenberg Press," Guy declared. He then reached into his satchel again and pulled out a scroll the length of his forearm.

As he unfurled it, he revealed a descriptive diagram that presented, in Karmin's eyes, a grandiose machine that could take in sheets of paper and output uniform text.

"This machine utilises a mechanism that we call the Gutenberg Mechanism to stamp text arranged in proper order in the form of blocks, into blank paper," Guy explained. "It utilises the same techniques people use to stamp their identity in official forms."

"Can you explain how this process works?" Karmin inquired as he squinted at the paper.

"These are called letterpress blocks that contain singular letters extending outwards and reflected. To manufacture these, you can use casts with molten bronze. We can customise these and generate a myriad of typesetting fonts to match the nature of the text. For instance, this textbook is informative and needs to be devoid of flagrant embellishments. To accomplish that, we can utilise the following font which is called Simple Serif or Simple San Serif. For more vibrant text, we can use fonts like this one which I call Cursive," Guy explained while pointing out sections on the scroll.

"The blocks can be arranged in a line, note that the text is backwards since when you print it the imprint reflects. You can arrange multiple lines to form a page."

"This seems to take a lot of time," Karmin commented. "Wouldn't it be easier for a scribe to write out the page?"

"That would be true if the intention is to write one page at a time. But the way this press works is by printing out multiple batches all at once. You see, after typesetting a page, all you need to do is affix it here and dab the ink over it like so. Finally, you place the paper over this and bring down the lever of the Gutenberg mechanism. After a few seconds, the lever can be pulled back and voila!" Guy finally gestured at the last diagram. "You get a completely typeset page immediately. While typesetting takes time, printing takes barely a minute. You can print over a hundred copies of a page within an hour. Then you set it for the next page and repeat the same. Within a week you can output over a hundred copies of a book with only four people working the machine. The best part is that every book will be exactly the same. And if the workers are properly trained and educated, the margin of error is low. As a businessman, you should already be able to envision the benefits of this machine."

Karmin nodded enthusiastically as his eyes widened into saucers. "You no longer have to worry about variations in the script due to differences in scribe habits. Heck, you don't have to hire droves of scribes in the first place! The unbelievable fact is that this miraculous machine doesn't even rely on magic or mana, so just about anyone can use it."

"This machine!" Karmin exclaimed as financial mathematics rattled off in his mind. "How much will it cost to manufacture?"

"Through my research, I found that the issue does not lie in the cost of the materials but rather the time and expertise. Most of the parts needed to materialise this require some intricate tool work for which we will need some expert blacksmiths and woodworkers, which I am sure you have connections with. I have developed blueprints for these parts, which I will share in due time. But before that, I will need to hear your opinion and decision on the proposal," Guy concluded.

"So, what do you say?"

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