Chapter 65: Crowdfunding Entrepreneurship
Strictly speaking, quite a few shinobi clans in Konoha already ran their own industries.
The Yamanaka clan operated flower shops. The Nara clan dealt in medicinal herbs and similar goods. Even the Uchiha clan controlled multiple businesses to supplement the clan's finances.
These industries were the foundation that allowed those clans to sustain themselves.
However, in Yuu's eyes, their operations were nothing special. Their revenue and scale were, at best, child's play.
With Minato's connections and reputation, as long as Yuu did not directly compete with those clan businesses, there would not be any major issues.
Even the Sarutobi clan, the clan the Third Hokage came from, would give him some face and would not reject him openly.
For Yuu, that alone was an enormous advantage.
People always said things were easier when you had someone powerful backing you.
In Konoha, Yuu's situation was not just having someone in a high position.
Everyone at the top was his people.
Under those circumstances, how hard could it be to start a small business?
"Mm. Go ahead and do whatever you want to do," Minato said.
He did not fully understand Yuu's plan, but he understood Yuu himself. He knew Yuu would not act without confidence, so he simply gave him a free hand.
"I might actually need your support for this, Sensei," Yuu said softly. "Otherwise, it'll be hard to take the first step."
Borrowing Minato's influence was only one reason he came.
There was another, even more important reason.
He needed money.
Yes, Yuu had no money.
That was perfectly reasonable.
He had graduated from the Academy, but he had only worked at Konoha Hospital for a short time. He had some savings, but nowhere near enough to start a business.
In contrast, Minato was wealthy.
He was an elite jonin, and he had very few places to spend his money. Over the years, his savings had piled up to a considerable amount.
"So there are things even you can't solve, Yuu," Minato said, smiling in amusement.
He was used to seeing Yuu calm and confident. It was rare to see him in a situation like this, and Minato could not help finding it funny.
Without hesitation, Minato took out all of his savings and handed them over.
"This is everything I have on hand right now. If it's not enough, Kushina should have some too."
"However, getting money from her might be a little troublesome."
"So it's probably better not to."
Compared to Yuu, Minato was well off.
But Kushina was truly rich.
She had come with an inheritance from the Uzumaki clan. Even though most of it was lost after the clan's destruction, what remained was still enough to make her a wealthy woman.
Unfortunately, borrowing from her private stash was not easy.
With her fiery temper, a lecture was guaranteed.
Minato did not want that headache.
"It's fine." Yuu smiled. "This is enough. There's no need to trouble Sister Kushina."
He only lacked startup capital, and Minato's money was sufficient.
As for Kushina, he had no interest in walking into that storm.
"Consider this money an investment, Sensei," Yuu said with a smile. "Maybe before long, I'll be able to give you a surprise."
"Then I'll wait and see," Minato laughed, not taking it too seriously.
In Minato's eyes, Yuu was clever, but he was still young, with no business experience. Success was far from guaranteed.
Business was not that simple.
Minato gave him the money because he wanted Yuu to try, not because he expected a return.
Yuu could more or less sense Minato's thoughts.
He did not explain. He only smiled, turned around, and left.
He moved quickly, recruited people in no time, and immediately pushed forward to the next step.
First, he went to the Uchiha.
"A factory?" Fugaku looked puzzled when he heard Yuu's intention. "Why would you do that?"
"It's part of the plan," Yuu explained. "If it's handled properly, it might even help with the Hokage election."
Help with the Hokage election?
The moment Fugaku heard that, his eyes sharpened.
Without hesitation, he allocated a large sum of money to Yuu and gave him an unused piece of Uchiha clan land as a production site.
As the clan head, he had that authority.
Putting the site aside for the moment, the funds alone were already an enormous amount for Yuu, several times more than Minato's savings.
It could not be helped. Fugaku was the Uchiha clan head, and he could afford to be generous.
After securing Uchiha funding, Yuu proceeded at a steady pace and visited the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans one after another.
Many people in those three clans were Minato's former comrades. Even the clan heads had once served under Minato.
There was plenty of goodwill.
With Minato's name behind him, Yuu was almost unstoppable in those places.
The heads of all three clans met him quickly. Once they learned he was preparing to start an industry and that Minato supported it, they did not waste words.
They invested on the spot.
In an extremely short time, before Yuu's factory and storefronts even opened, he already had the backing of the Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Uchiha clans.
And that still was not the limit.
With Minato's reputation, if Yuu wanted to, he could have pulled in even more investors.
If he were shameless enough to borrow Jiraiya's name too, he might have even gotten the Sarutobi clan to invest.
The reason he stopped here was simple.
This was enough.
With funding secured from multiple major clans and no shortage of land for production and sales, it was time to get to work.
He acquired a similar business model from outside Konoha and, after a few minor modifications, put it into production.
Within only a few days, Minamikawa Food Stores opened in multiple locations across Konoha.
The initial product line was limited, mostly portable instant noodles and other convenient items that tasted good.
In Yuu's eyes, that was clearly not enough.
In the coming days, he would keep sending people out to purchase more products and fill the shelves.
But even that small variety was met with overwhelming enthusiasm.
On opening day, every Minamikawa Food Store was packed.
A huge number of people from the Uchiha, Nara, and Yamanaka clans flooded in, pushing each location into chaos.
Why?
Because Yuu issued vouchers.
As a businessman, he did not forget to give benefits to his investors.
On the day Minamikawa Food Stores opened, any shinobi from the Uchiha, Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans received free shopping vouchers.
With vouchers in hand, they could spend in the stores.
Naturally, that drew a massive crowd.
And once those crowds formed, they attracted even more customers, who came in and spent real money.
As for the cost of the vouchers, it was simply an opening promotion.
Unsurprisingly, the stores performed extremely well.
Konoha's residents had strong spending power. Most families had at least one shinobi, and shinobi in this era were unquestionably a high income group.
As long as their needs were met, they did not mind spending.
More importantly, Yuu's products did not taste bad at all.
He had hired specialists for development and held multiple tasting events to select the best types and flavors.
With no similar competitors and strong demand, the results were naturally excellent.
"Everyone, be careful."
At the orphanage, Kabuto carefully directed the children as they worked.
The opening of Minamikawa Food Stores changed many lives.
And among all of them, the ones changed the most were these orphans.
There were many children in the orphanage. They were young and could not do heavy labor, but they could handle basic tasks like packaging and labeling.
To improve their lives, Yuu deliberately outsourced part of the work to the orphanage.
As long as the children completed the tasks on schedule, they received payment.
It improved their lives dramatically.
In the past, they had food and a place to sleep, but everything was stretched thin.
Pocket money was out of the question.
Now, because of Yuu, they could rely on their own effort and exchange labor for real compensation.
And it was not just the orphanage.
The same was true inside the clans.
After the Minamikawa food enterprise started, most of the workers came from the Uchiha and the Ino Shika Cho clans.
Even inside shinobi clans, ordinary people made up the majority.
After all, many lacked talent for ninjutsu.
Konoha's finances were limited. It was impossible for everyone to be placed on the official shinobi payroll.
And with industries still scarce in this era, even within the clans, most people could only farm or run tiny side businesses to survive.
Now Yuu's factory gave them another option.
Working there offered decent benefits, stable work, and it was much easier than scraping by in the fields.
The better Minamikawa Food Stores performed, the better the treatment for the workers.
In this short period alone, the enterprise had recruited over a thousand employees.
All of them came from those clans.
.....
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