Several days later, Xu Honglei's Credit Card arrived. The Gold card had a limit of 50,000 yuan, more than enough for his current preliminary expenses and the initial preparations for the Internet Café.
The bank also notified him that his Loan had been approved and that the funds would soon be deposited into his account.
With the Credit Card and the bank's news, Xu Honglei felt confident.
Although he did not have much cash on hand for the time being, he could use the card.
For a Drudge wage worker accustomed to Huabei, Jiebei, and all kinds of online loans, a Credit Card's advance spending was nothing noteworthy.
Of course, Xu Honglei was not wasting money. He had serious business to handle.
Although the Loan had not yet been disbursed, he still had to begin preparing for Opening an Internet Café. He needed to apply early for a 《Network Culture business license》, find suitable Internet Café premises, and find channels for purchasing computers.
Xu Honglei planned to pay an Agency Company to handle the 《Network Culture business license》 application. If he handled it himself, he might spend several months or even half a year running around without obtaining approval.
But if he had one of these Agency Companies handle it, they had special channels and could win over the approval in as little as twenty days. Those who understood, understood.
When doing Business, you have to spend the money that needs spending. Trying to save some money only creates more trouble for yourself.
What if the authorities delayed approval of the Licenses indefinitely? Could he still open his Internet Café?
If he did not open it, he would still be paying for the rented premises and purchased computers every day.
If he opened it without all the Licenses, did he think the relevant authorities would not fine him into bankruptcy?
People with connections might receive some leniency, but Xu Honglei had none.
Without connections, he had to remain honest, Lawful and Compliant, and give no one an excuse to find fault with him—not even an obvious one.
Once the Licenses were sorted out, Xu Honglei had to visit the Computer Mall to learn about popular Computer Specifications and their prices. That way, he would know what to expect when it was time to buy in bulk.
For opening an internet café, computers were the major expense. Choosing the right computer specifications could save him a great deal of money.
Using what he knew about computers from his previous life, Xu Honglei walked around the Computer Mall and settled on the Computer Specifications.
An AMD Athlon 1.7G single-core CPU.
At this point, dual-core processors did not exist, much less the quad-core and eight-core processors that would come later. Intel CPUs were good but expensive, with poor cost performance. They suited home use, not Internet Cafés, where Computer Specifications were replaced too quickly.
512M of DDR266 memory, twice the current mainstream capacity of 256M.
More memory made games run smoothly. In this era of severe memory shortages, it was crucial.
An MSI motherboard with a 128M dedicated graphics card. A dedicated graphics card was standard for gaming; no matter how well integrated graphics were advertised, they were not good enough.
An 80G Western Digital hard drive.
The current mainstream capacity was 40G, but junk would make the operating system on the C drive grow over time and squeeze its cache space. Leaving more room on the C drive reduced lag, and an 80G hard drive cost little more than a 40G one.
A 17-inch flat-screen monitor.
（Although liquid-crystal displays had already appeared in this era, their cost-performance was low, and bulky CRT monitors remained mainstream.）
The computers had no optical or floppy drives. The power supplies and cases were ordinary, but the mice and keyboards were the highest-quality models.
Many Internet Café Owners paid little attention to peripherals such as mice and keyboards, but these small items had a greater effect on the customer experience.
The headphones were mid-range models with good cost performance.
Some Internet Café Owners used speakers, but the sound from one speaker interfered with that from the others, creating a poor customer experience. It could even disturb nearby neighbors' sleep and lead to complaints. Headphones were more suitable.
However, headphones from this era were generally poor in quality. Even the best models broke easily; one side could stop producing sound at any time.
In Xu Honglei's experience, buying reasonably good headphones and replacing them often was better than buying high-end models.
After learning that Xu Honglei planned to open an Internet Café, the Counter-Shop Owner quoted him 3,700 yuan per computer.
Xu Honglei was satisfied. In the current computer market, 3,700 yuan was a low price.
After adding computer desks and chairs, as well as the various pieces of equipment for the bar counter, the average price per computer could be kept at around 4,000 yuan.
The bank valued Xu Honglei's two properties at 300,000 yuan. The loan officer reported that he could receive a maximum Loan Amount of 200,000 yuan. Adding the Credit Card's 50,000-yuan limit, he could raise no more than 250,000 yuan.
He had to make this money work as hard as possible. Spending it where it mattered was the key to success.
It was the sweltering summer after the National College Entrance Examination. For Internet Café customers to have a good experience, an Air Conditioner was essential.
Many Internet Café Owners refused to turn on the Air Conditioner for customers, putting the cart before the horse. Xu Honglei therefore had to set aside part of his limited budget to buy Air Conditioners.
Xu Honglei made a rough estimate. The funds he could mobilize amounted to no more than 250,000 yuan, which meant he could add only forty to fifty units.
He had two choices. The safer option was to rent Commercial Premises along the street that could accommodate Forty to Fifty Units. The other was to rent a larger place and fill it with more computers once the Business improved.
After considering it for a while, he decided to choose the latter.
He had noticed the surrounding conditions and saw that an Internet Café with Forty to Fifty Units would not meet market demand. He also wanted to earn more money.
Most Internet Café customers came to play games, especially 《StarCraft》, 《Counter-Strike》, and other Local area network multiplayer games. Players interacted intensely, and the more players there were, the livelier the atmosphere became.
Many people chose a particular Internet Café for Local area network multiplayer games because it had better teammates. They were willing to play there even if the price was slightly higher.
Customers interacted less in Online Games such as 《Legend》 than in Local area network multiplayer games, but they could still find teammates who played the same game.
That was why many people played games at an Internet Café even when they had a computer at home: playing together felt better.
If an internet café was too small, it would lose this competitive advantage.
An Internet Café's Moat was shallow; anyone with some money could open one. Each advantage brought in more customers and could determine whether the Internet Café survived.
Furthermore, a larger Internet Café had lower overall costs. If it was too small, the Boss might not even afford a Cashier and would have to work the counter himself.
Opening an Internet Café was different from opening a Convenience Store. A Convenience Store Owner could keep the store running alone, more or less, but an Internet Café operated overnight and required someone to stay up late. One person could not handle it alone.
Moreover, Xu Honglei intended to hire people. He had no intention of working the counter as a Cashier himself, so the Internet Café had to be large enough.