African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 8: Chapter 5: The Booming Manufacturing Industry

The 19th century was undoubtedly a paradise for entrepreneurs, in this era of increasing industrialization, the returns on investing in industry were quite substantial.

Although the risks were also high, for Ernst, they were practically negligible, after a year of tug-of-war.

The ”Gillette” razor was already familiar to people, and the customers who had bought it were firmly grasped, with returning customers visible.

”Gillette” was on the path to profitability, but Ernst would not stop there, in his past life, ”Gillette” truly grew strong by capitalizing on the opportunities presented by world war, when the US military introduced Gillette to the world.

And Ernst also caught a good time, with Bismarck as the Iron Chancellor, who was quite focused on the military, proposing the famous ”Iron and Blood Policy” upon taking office.

It called for an increase in industrial construction to serve the military, while simultaneously enhancing the union of military forces within the German states.

According to Ernst’s knowledge of history, next year would be the precursor to Prussia’s unification war for Germany, wherein it would ally Austria in declaring war on Denmark, reclaiming the northern duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.

Therefore, when Prussia was integrating its military, Ernst personally went to the Prussian royal palace to pitch the ”Gillette” razors to William I.

Ernst mainly focused on the urgency of time in the event of war, traditional razors were not only unsafe but also difficult to operate, and the blades required separate time for maintenance, while ”Gillette” only needed blade replacement, thus saving time.

Of course, to dispel William I’s concerns, Ernst proactively proposed to assist with twenty thousand ”Gillette” razors at a loss to support the kingdom’s military construction efforts.

Loss or no loss was not important; what mattered was letting these Prussian soldiers feel the convenience of ”Gillette.”

People are inherently lazy; if one can sit, one won’t stand; if one can lie down, one won’t sit. During his university years in the previous life, Ernst deeply experienced this, like buying cigarettes, people were too lazy to even go downstairs.

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At this thought, Ernst was suddenly taken aback, hmm, ”cigarettes.” Ernst felt his mind was going to explode!

However, still being in the palace at that moment, Ernst tried hard to calm his emotions, and after settling the military trial deal for ”Gillette” with William I, his mind was already not solely focused on orders.

Upon leaving the Prussian palace, Ernst sat in the carriage and began to dream, wondering why he hadn’t thought of the practically costless business of cigarettes. No, he still needed to utilize his brain thoroughly.

Write down some things from the previous life, and in the future, when producing these things, wouldn’t he just get rich?

During this era, of course, there were cigarettes, but they were handmade, and machines for mass-producing cigarettes hadn’t developed and become widespread yet.

For Ernst, he only needed to find some experts to overcome the technology for large-scale production of cigarettes, then he would be the first to take the risk.

Moreover, cigarettes, as something meeting human needs on a mental level, had huge demand, although there were competitors, relying on relatively expensive and inefficient manpower couldn’t compete with machine mass production.

Ernst decided to return and find collaborators, and to jot down many things of convenience from the past life but low in technical content, and get them out ahead of time.

Yes, it was also time to establish a new company; currently, ”Gillette” was essentially a factory for producing razors only.

If he were to have many things in the future, there would definitely be more than one factory, and at that time how to control these factories, he would still need to hire some professionals to help manage.

As Prussian troops began equipping the ”Gillette” razors produced by Ernst’s factory, just as Ernst had anticipated, these soldiers greatly appreciated the time-saving and labor-reducing razors, the blade consumables had usage limits, but the low price and convenient practicality overshadowed this drawback, and orders for blades followed suit.

Thus, the subsequent outfitting of new razors and ordering blades by Prussian troops could also be simultaneously carried out, and Ernst was not idle.

Besides Prussia, there were other states within Germany! Naturally, Ernst would not miss the opportunity and began increasing the promotion of his razors in the armies of various countries.

What, you don’t need it? Even the Prussian army said it’s good; how could you feel at ease? The successful use by the Prussian troops became a classic case for Ernst in promoting his product.

If one doesn’t believe it, they can personally visit the Prussian camp to take a look, through which Ernst successfully promoted these razors in many small countries.

Good news kept coming in; the razors being spread in the army soon attracted the attention of some perceptive individuals, with some precision instrument manufacturers also beginning to introduce them.

Hair was a big problem for precision instrument factories, and requiring workers to shave was necessary; now these factories demanded workers directly use Ernst’s ”Gillette” razors.

The new razor industry had already entered the fast lane of rapid development, and the ambitious Ernst began planning even bigger moves.

The newly founded Heixinggen Development Company started sending marketing teams to other countries, with the Austrian Empire and Russia as important markets.

For conservative countries like Russia, Ernst emphasized to the marketing team members to highlight the advancement of the new razors. This was the crystallization of industrialization, representing hygiene and safety.

At this moment, Russia was still in the Tsarist era, known for the Russians’ yearning for the West, especially during the Tsarist era.

Regarding the Austrian Empire, the marketing team mainly used the advantages after equipping the razor by Prussia to convince Austrian officials.

At the same time, Ernst actively developed other national markets, primarily in Europe, while seeking agents in North America.

North America in the past life was ”Gillette’s” main base; Ernst wasn’t going to personally run to the US to direct factory construction.

Just the issue of patents was a big problem; the US at that time was a thorough nation of copycats, Ernst didn’t want to test the Americans’ conscience.

Simply establish an office in North America and cooperate with those big capitalists in the US.

With the background of having European noble status, Heixinggen Development Company had some influence in the Americas, at least no one was making things difficult for this small company with old-world noble background.

Moreover, ”Gillette” razors hadn’t yet been widely promoted, capital wouldn’t step in directly, through communication with an American capital group, Ernst succeeded in equipping the US military with ”Gillette” razors internally, although that’s a matter for the future.

But it’s merely a patent authorization, however, the factory and construction funds were sorted out by Americans, Ernst could take ten percent of the US Dollar annually for free.

That was already a good result, and as for the future explosion of ”Gillette,” by then Ernst wouldn’t have to focus solely on this single venture. According to Ernst’s vision, Heixinggen Development Company should already be a diversified operation at that time.

Now Ernst has received good news that his cigarette mass production line is already completed.

In no time, cigarettes akin to those from his past life (of course, without filter tips yet) would appear in convenience stores and factories throughout Germany, certainly not excluding military demand households.

During this era, no one paid attention to the harmfulness of cigarettes, Ernst didn’t even need to print ”Smoking is harmful to health” on the packaging.

Certainly, industrialization had filled Europe’s major cities with black chimneys, smoke and dust were not necessarily less harmful to health than smoking.

While selling the ”Gillette” razors, Ernst had already begun focusing on the production of various small products.

For instance, the not yet widely popularized flush toilet, Ernst also planned to set up a separate factory, Britain already had mature products, Ernst mainly focused on expanding the promotion of this product, establishing an OEM factory would not be excessive, later it could even do branding.

Having cigarettes, then lighters certainly couldn’t be left out, Ernst decided to get the kerosene lighter out first, this could also be considered Heixinggen Company’s leading product.

There were many other ideas Ernst wanted to roll out, but currently, his capacity couldn’t reach them, just funding alone posed some risks.

Ernst had passed the startup phase, now stable expansion was enough, and with the increasingly nearing war, good days were still ahead!