All in Charisma (A LitRPG/Isekai Adventure)

The rest of the day was spent on final preparations. Rinna had completed her initial batch of summoning charms, while Lila and Ardabel produced a solid supply of potions. The front showroom displayed what they expected to be their best-selling items. Although there wasn't enough inventory to fill the entire space, it would have to suffice for their launch.

Justin, Lila, Rinna, and Ilsa gathered in the showroom to review material costs and pricing strategy.

"And how much did you say each bronze charm costs to produce?" Ilsa asked, consulting her ledger.

"I used a lower-quality crystal," Rinna explained, "worth about a crown and twenty silvers, if I had to guess. From that single crystal, I've made one hundred bronze charms, twenty silver ones, and five gold charms for our couriers."

Justin was impressed. "That's more than your initial estimates."

"The crystal went further than expected," Rinna agreed. "Though the math gets complex. Bronze charms require the least aether to produce, silver charms need twice as much, and the gold ones—with their location glyphs—require ten times what the silver ones do."

"Ten times?" Justin asked.

"It's the location tracking enchantment. Not necessary for customer charms, but essential for our couriers. They're all linked to your world map, so you'll always know where everyone is."

Justin nodded. "What's our cost breakdown then?"

Rinna calculated quickly. "Each bronze charm costs about fifty coppers to enchant plus fifteen coppers for the medallion—sixty-five coppers total. Silver charms cost one silver fifty total. The gold charms are twelve silvers, but those aren't for sale."

Lila looked at Ilsa. "Does the math check out?"

"Assuming the crystal valuation is accurate," Ilsa replied. "We should get our next crystal professionally appraised by several reputable Enchanters to establish a proper baseline for future production costs."

"Which brings us to pricing," Lila said. "We know our production costs now, or at least, close enough. The question is markup and market positioning."

Justin leaned against the display counter. "Should we give away bronze charms for free to drum up business? Get people hooked on the convenience, and they'll keep ordering?"

The three women exchanged glances before Ilsa spoke up diplomatically.

"That's... an interesting approach, and I remember you mentioning something like that a few days ago. But I see several problems with it."

"Such as?" Justin asked.

"First, the financial risk," Ilsa said, ticking off points on her fingers. "Even at sixty-five coppers each, giving away hundreds of charms represents a significant upfront investment with no guaranteed return. If customers don't follow through with purchases, we absorb total losses."

Rinna nodded. "And there's the security angle. Free charms would be easier for criminals to obtain. They could use them to set ambushes for our couriers."

"Plus the perception issue," Lila added. "Free often signals worthless in people's minds. We want these charms to feel valuable, not disposable."

"And practically speaking," Ilsa continued, "without any financial investment from customers, they have no incentive to use the charms responsibly or even remember they have them."

Justin considered their points. "What about charging a nominal fee? Say, one silver for the bronze ones—enough to cover most of our costs while keeping them accessible?"

"Much better," Rinna said. "Customers who pay something are more likely to value and use the service."

"A bit of margin is good," Ilsa said. "Makes it easier to scale and reinvest the profits. And we need to remember all our other expenses, too. Inventory, payroll, profit share for the owners, taxes. We won't get a good sense of the cash flow until we have money coming in."

"Makes sense," Justin said.

"We could also offer a trial period," Lila suggested. "Charge a deposit that gets refunded after their first purchase. But that gets complicated."

"It does," Ilsa confirmed. "And for now, I suggest we keep things simple. Let's prove the concept first."

Justin was definitely impressed with Ilsa's business acumen. He supposed her background in that gambler's den was at play here.

"Another idea," Justin said. "Maybe we can focus initially on premium customers who can afford the silver charms."

"I think that's a great idea," Ilsa said. "Wealthy customers may be limited, but they are more likely to use a service like this. They tend to live in the countryside, farther from markets, which means they have delivery needs and the money to pay a premium for convenience."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Something to look into for sure," Lila said. "That said, I've been working on some special potions with my new class. That should be a sure sale at local Adventurer Guilds, given their uniqueness."

"We should definitely target those places," Justin said. "So, how much should we charge for the silver charms?"

"At least two silvers," Lila said. "That gives us fifty coppers of margin."

"I'd suggest a higher margin," Ilsa said. "Not just on the charms, but generally speaking. Again, we're launching as a business with multiple employees, and there will be unexpected costs. If we can't expect our customers to pay a fair price, we need to ask ourselves if this concept is truly viable."

It was a harsh statement, but Justin knew she was right. "What kind of margins are you thinking?"

"50% minimum on all products. We can discount later if needed, but that would mean a silver thirty for a bronze membership, and three silvers for the silver membership."

Lila paused, considering. "Maybe we should bump it up to a silver fifty. That number makes more sense."

"Even better," Ilsa agreed. "Someone willing to pay a silver thirty will also pay a silver fifty."

"Will people go for that?" Justin asked, a bit doubtful. "I mean, that's a lot of money for ordinary folk to give up all at once, especially when our concept is not proven."

"Maybe they can get the bronze charm free if they place an order exceeding, say, five silvers," Ilsa said. "It forces them to have skin in the game."

"Smart thinking," Lila said. "And again, that changes our target market. More affluent people, nobles, established businesses..."

Justin nodded. Originally, this wasn't what he had in mind, but for his concept to even work, the customer had to have the charm to begin with.

"I think we have our outline," Justin said. "Tomorrow, we're ready to launch. Now, Lila, did you and Ilsa finish going over the price points for all the potions we have?"

"We did," Lila said. "Here's what we came up with..."

As Justin listened, he was impressed by the array they had in stock, as well as the price points Ilsa had suggested based on material costs. Besides Kilgan's original inventory, which tended to focus more on symptoms and cures, as well as general fortification, Lila had her new brews from her Songbrewer class. She had created some attribute-boosting potions with her Bardic Inspiration, some defense-based potions channeling her Descant Defense boon, evasion boost potions using her Acrobatic Tumble, and increased accuracy for ranged attackers.

"Sounds like you could specialize in supplying people with Coordination attributes especially," Justin said once she had finished.

"Hence why I want to target Adventurers' Guilds," she said. "But I think as the week unfolds, we'll get a better sense of what to focus on."

After some more basic details, Justin and Lila dismissed their employees for the day; there was not much else to do, and they deserved the break. Justin, Alistair, and Lila were the only ones left in the store, enjoying a rare moment of quiet.

"I keep thinking of ways the Aurelians might try to mess with us," Alistair said, "but it seems like the agreement is ironclad."

"I hope so," Lila said. "At this point, I'm more worried about the Crimson Scales."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Justin said. "I'm not sure I like Ilsa's approach of just paying them off, but I see the logic in it."

"We'll play it by ear," Alistair said. "Then there's the Guild, too. They're sure to cause trouble."

"I never asked," Justin said. "Did you get to meet with Mortimer Harvings yesterday morning? I never thought to ask."

"I would have mentioned it, except there is nothing to report. The innkeeper hadn't seen him for weeks. I asked a few patrons who seemed to be regulars, and none knew anything either."

"A shame," Justin said. "I guess we always have Lord Aurelian's favor. If I can't think of anything better in the next one hundred and twenty days, I'll ask him to smooth things over with the Guild, if needed."

"A good plan as any," Lila said. "So... how are we feeling about tomorrow?"

Justin shrugged. Though they had only been preparing for about a week, it felt much longer. Everything had been somewhat of a haze, to the point where he barely had a moment to think.

"I'm feeling fine. I think the first day is going to be tough."

"Really?" Lila asked, surprised. "You seem so confident in the idea."

"I'll be honest," Justin said. "There's a company in my world that operates on the same principle. And yet my world is so much different from this one. That said, this company became one of the wealthiest enterprises on the entire planet."

"How wealthy, exactly?" Alistair asked.

Justin thought for a moment, trying to find a comparison that wouldn't sound absurd. "Put it this way—if you took the treasuries of every major kingdom in the known world and combined them, this one company would probably still be worth more."

Lila's and Alistair's eyes widened at that comparison.

"I can tell you're not joking," Lila said slowly. "That's... that's almost impossible to imagine."

"Certainly is," Alistair agreed. "And they achieved this simply because people preferred ordering things from home?"

Justin chuckled. "Sort of. They do a whole bunch of other stuff too, but that's how they got their start—delivering books, and then expanding from there. We chose potions instead, and the summoning charms add a different dimension, but I think it can work. If we can get customers to take the plunge on a membership, that's where the real money is. They have the membership, and they feel like they have to buy from you because they've already spent that money."

"I see," Alistair said. "It's ingenious, really. If it takes off... Count Aurelian will be fuming he made that truce with you."

"Yeah," Lila agreed. "If we are even a tiny part as wealthy as that company, we could create a lot of enemies."

"We'll get there when we get there," Justin said. "Belmora wasn't built in a day, right?"

"An apt saying," Alistair said. "You know, I've had my doubts, but... by Arion, I might be starting to believe too."

Lila chuckled. "That's Justin's Charisma for you."

Justin held up his hands innocently. "I'm not trying to channel it, I promise!"

"Believing isn't always a bad thing. But we need to remember our goal isn't merely to get rich; it's bringing down Valdrik. If we even make enough of an impact, I reckon we're making enough of an impact to hit him where it hurts."

Lila smiled. "Oh, no. My goal is to get rich."

"Still a long way until we get there," Justin said. "But with the right playbook, and a little help from my new class, we stand a good chance."

"I hope so, Justin. Well, let's see what tomorrow brings."

As they prepared to close for the evening, Justin found himself glancing toward the windows more often than usual. The Aurelian threat was neutralized for now, but Belmora had shown them time and again how quickly circumstances could change.

Tomorrow would bring their first real test—not just of their business concept, but of whether they could operate successfully while staying beneath Valdrik's notice.

The irony wasn't lost on him that success itself might become their greatest danger. The higher their profile rose, the more likely they were to attract the very attention they were trying to avoid.

But too much had gone into this. It was long past time to launch Summon & Suppy.