Give up the job of a villa designer and return to Hunan to start a business
I went to Beijing for four years as a villa designer after graduating from university. I felt that it was too difficult to get from scratch in the city of Beijing. I happened to have a classmate working on Taobao, so I didn’t do design anymore, thinking about transforming into Taobao.
So, I started an e-commerce business in 2015. Because I studied design at university and later studied photography, I had advantages in all aspects. In addition, I had a SLR camera myself, so I decisively quit my job and left Beijing and returned to my hometown to start a business. In short, I have been starting an e-commerce business for seven years.
In fact, in addition to these reasons, there is another important thing, which is that I am optimistic about e-commerce. I worked in Beijing at that time, and the villa design salary was quite good. I should still have hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Because I am optimistic about it and am interested in this aspect, I saw that my classmate’s e-commerce is doing well, so I started an e-commerce business.
In recent years, the categories I have been making have been home-based daily products, including storage supplies such as stationery and small department stores. I used my experience in villa design and good at things I was good at when starting an e-commerce business, such as scene photography. Because I have seen good villa design, the scenes presented give people a different feeling, and I will learn from these and give me a lot of things to learn from.
Earn the first pot of gold with original design
I remember that in 2017, I made my first pot of gold in starting a business for the first time. Because I learned design, I made an original design and made a heated mouse pad with an average customer price of around 70 yuan. That year, we achieved the first place in the category in Taobao's C store based on our original style.
The profit was about 500,000 or 600,000 yuan at that time, and this product exploded. It was the first time that the order peak was. We didn’t have registration activities at that time, just for normal operations. We were not very good at operations at that time. I think it was the main product. Maybe it just met the market demand point at that time. It was a brand new product and category. We made a brand new original design ourselves, which was different from other companies. We unexpectedly became popular on Taobao and got a lot of natural traffic.
Starting a business is like your own child, never thinking of giving up
When I left Beijing and returned to my hometown in Hunan to start a business, I also experienced many difficulties. The most important difficulty was that I was more difficult to endure in the early stage. I didn’t make money in the early stage, and it lasted for more than half a year. Later, I started to make profits one after another, but the profit was very low. Later, I met a partner who left, leading the team alone and working on the products alone.
But I never thought of giving up. I gave up my job in Beijing and returned to my hometown to start a business. I just wanted to do this like my own child. I never thought of giving up, but just solving the problem. The partners left and they left, and this child was mine.
When he first started his business, his partner left. Because the other party felt that he was not profitable, he could not hold on and left. After a few years, his own horizons became broader and found that the possibility of e-commerce was very high. Unexpectedly, the company had a relatively big breakthrough in a few years and he came back.
Of course, there is another main reason, which is that I took the initiative to find him back. He is my classmate and a good friend. I also hope that he can get better and better together. When he started his business, he also spent a lot of energy. Since we are better now, I want him to share the fruits of victory together and go to a further road together.
The store encounters life and death, and learns from one mistake and wisdom.
When we were in the most difficult time, we also experienced the problem of life and death of the store. At that time, we launched some illegal products because of ignorance. Because we had many department stores, the control of the products delivered during the launch period was not so strict. Later, we were punished by some industrial and commercial penalties, and the products were removed from the shelves. The punishment was not so great, but it attracted great attention.
After this incident, my biggest feeling is that we must pay attention to the red line issue . We began to strictly control the products and establish a complete system to prevent product violations from happening again. Today, the team now has about 60 people, and it costs about 50 to 60 million in a year. The scale is not very large and it is still continuing to make breakthroughs.
I joined Laogao E-commerce Club and felt quite profound. I saw many excellent e-commerce people inside. They have been learning and communicating outside, and they will reflect on why they have made slow progress in the past two years. The big reason is that they have been working hard and have not looked at the outside world or learned more about the outside dynamics.
In fact, I realized that I needed to go out to study a few years ago, but I have never been able to escape, which is related to the development of the company's talents. All aspects have been restricted and have not been laid out well, so I have been stuck in a state of being unable to escape. It was only in 2020 that each department was slightly established to ensure that the rear base was stable, and that time was taken out to learn and learn.
As early as the beginning of our business, we had no management at all. In other words, we realized that management is very important in the past two years and have been adjusting. Fortunately, we have not stepped on any major pitfalls until now, because we worked in Beijing for a few years before, and were more conscious in management and would avoid some in advance.
The pace of e-commerce is faster now, and more and more things are being learned. In many cases, it may not only require the boss to have the ability to learn, but also the team’s partners, otherwise it will be difficult to implement new things in place and do them in place. But I am still full of confidence in the future of e-commerce.
From being blocked to helping others, learn to take the initiative to benefit others
We have been doing traditional e-commerce for many years. We know Lao Gao and Lao Gao E-commerce Club and recognize this platform, so we chose to join. Laogao e-commerce club also has a threshold, and we don’t want to enter, everyone’s level is not at the same level. There is no way to communicate with each other when the gap is too big.
The e-commerce circle is very important. There is a group of like-minded friends together. If you have any questions, you can help each other.Because doing e-commerce is actually quite lonely. Most of them are founded by one person. They rarely communicate with the outside world. I feel very good about having a group of partners who can communicate with me.
I haven't been in the club for a long time. Now I'm mainly changing my thinking and cognitive changes. I have participated in several activities and heard some of my sharing by Lao Gao himself. I agree with many of my ideas. I also slowly practiced them. I believe that if I adjust this way, the effect will gradually be seen and become bigger and bigger.
I used to be relatively closed and lacked communication and mutual help. After listening to Lao Gao's sharing, I realized that the spirit of altruism is still very important. Now I will take the initiative to do something. As long as I can do it, it is not to expect others to repay me. It's just that I can help, so I did it.
As entrepreneurs have come along, my personal feeling is that if you have not succeeded in entrepreneurship, you will never fail. The future of entrepreneurship is bright and the road is tortuous. Starting a business is also a very happy thing, because 80% of people cannot do it and cannot persist. People who start a business are learning and growing, constantly breaking through their personal abilities, and their finances and dreams will be reflected.
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