The Entrepreneurial Life of Huo Family's Third Generation Fire in Guangzhou: The First Failure and the Second Confrontation with Huacheng

This is Huo's second venture in Guangzhou.

"I've always wanted to start my own business from scratch like my grandfather Henry Fok." On 20 15, 10, Huo founded the "Cross-border Mall of Self-Postal Bank" in Nansha, Guangzhou, bringing together high-quality goods from all over the world and starting a cross-border e-commerce.

This is his first adventure. Unfortunately, the first venture did not achieve his expected results.

However, Huo did not give up his dream of starting a business in Guangzhou.

In 20 18, a new team was formed, and the brand of "endorsement selection" was founded, hoping to return again through the model of "cross-border e-commerce+community". He moved his family to Guangzhou last May. Now I will only stay in Hong Kong for three or four days a month. He said that he was used to the convenience of life in Guangzhou. Even if you feel hungry after working late at night, your mobile phone is relaxed and the takeaway will be delivered to you soon.

Give up the investment bank offer and return to the family business. There is no shortage of construction sites.

Huo is the grandson of Henry Fok, a famous entrepreneur in Hong Kong, and the son of Huo Zhenhuan, the chief executive of Henry Fok Group in Hong Kong.

Dark gray short-sleeved shirt, hooded coat and sweatpants, a pair of casual sports shoes on his feet, and Huo's young and energetic casual clothes came to the office of Goldlion Building on Sports East Road in the afternoon. This is his most comfortable and accustomed clothes. He smiled and said, "This is the style of young people, and sometimes people wear it like this." This year 1 month, after the company moved to a new office, he often appeared in this office building until the evening, even late at night.

As the third generation descendant of Huo family, Huo is much lower-key than other active Huo families.

Vice President of Fok Ying Tung Group and Vice Chairman of Guangzhou Youth Federation, these titles are quite dazzling, but there is no shadow of "overbearing president" in him. In his early 30 s, his first impression to many people was that he was steady and elegant, low-key and restrained. Compared with other members of the Huo family, they rarely appear in the media. In some self-media reports, he will be labeled as "cousin Huo" and "brother-in-law Guo Jingjing" to attract traffic.

He has a lively side by nature. During the interview and shooting, he was holding the company mascot in his hand, which looked very handsome and had a little "contrast". At Weibo, he would laugh at himself for being criticized by his colleagues in the public relations department for "not caring enough about his fans", and he would also send photos to share his interaction with his pet dog at home.

Huo 14 years old to study abroad. Studying abroad, he found that the topics discussed by his classmates were politics, economy, culture and entertainment. As a teenager, he was surprised that his vision could be so broad. Suddenly he felt the gap and struggled to catch up.

At the age of 22, Huo received a double degree in finance and accounting from Durham University. He was faced with two choices. One is to stay abroad and work in an investment bank, and the other is to go back to Hong Kong to join the family business. In the end, he gave up the employment contracts of two investment banks and returned to Fok Ying Tung Group to take charge of real estate development and finance in property leasing and the mainland.

This is Huo's first job. He is very enthusiastic about it and hopes to do it as well as he can. Among the many Hong Kong properties managed by the Huo family, Bida Bank in Central, Hong Kong has a history of nearly 100 years. Although it is located in a prime location, the floor efficiency of commercial buildings has actually been very low, because most buildings are traditional retailers.

How to enhance the architectural value while maintaining the original architectural style? When Huo Wen Qi first set foot in the family business, he found business opportunities. Considering that the building has enough height, Huo found another way to change the original layout of the building and introduce high-end consumer goods such as contemporary galleries and liquor stores. After a long time of "changing cages for birds", this century-old building has regained its vitality and turned into an art hall. This case has been highly praised by the industry.

After several years of tempering, Huo started the Nantianmingyuan real estate project in Panyu, Guangzhou on 20 12. From drawing design, finance and taxation, raw material procurement, construction progress, communication and coordination with government departments, he personally followed up every link of real estate development. During that time, I stayed at the construction site almost three or four days a week. Today, this property is still being developed by stages, and Huo also has multiple roles. In addition to doing his own entrepreneurial project, he should also take care of the real estate project. During his stay in Guangzhou, running around Panyu and Tianhe became his daily routine.

The first time I chose cross-border e-commerce, I bluntly said "I paid a lot of tuition fees" afterwards.

With the aura of "being rich but not rich for three generations", he made a great success in the family business and chose to join the 20 15 entrepreneurial craze.

People who are familiar with him will not be surprised, because he has planted the seeds of his entrepreneurial dream since he was a teenager. It is Huo's request to stay in the enterprise and start a business. "Although my generation has a better entrepreneurial environment and commercial resources accumulated by my parents, I still hope to start a business from scratch like my grandfather."

Due to geographical proximity, language similarity and cultural homology, many young people in Hong Kong regard Guangdong as the first choice for starting businesses in the Mainland. The Huo family has a long history of entrepreneurship, and it is no exception. After visiting several other cities in the mainland, he chose to land his entrepreneurial project in the familiar and cordial Guangzhou.

Of course, the process of starting a business will not be smoother because he is the third generation of Huo family, but he will also be unhappy.

Feeling the strong demand for cross-border e-commerce policies and overseas products in the Mainland, he started his business for the first time and chose the cross-border e-commerce field. Behind the seemingly willful decision of others, it has actually been carefully thought out by Huo.

With the supply of Hong Kong brands, the Nansha offline store that Huo Jia has been deeply ploughing for many years, and the policy support of cross-border e-commerce at that time, in Huo's view, it can be said that it is the right time and the right place, and this business will definitely have a bright future. Among them, he also took a fancy to the broader market in the mainland. "Hong Kong has a population of 78 million, and Everbright Bay has a population of 80 million, which is not an order of magnitude."

20 15,10 In June, after more than a year's planning, Huo set up the "Cross-border Mall of Self-Postal Bank" in Nansha, Guangzhou, bringing together high-quality goods from all over the world. Through the combination of bonded warehouse distribution and direct mail, on the one hand, he built a platform for Hong Kong suppliers interested in entering the mainland market, on the other hand, he created a "free travel" for mainland customers at home, that is, he could buy overseas products without going to Hong Kong. In April of the following year, the offline store "Free Travel Experience Hall" of "Free Travel Cross-border Mall" opened, with an initial area of about 4,000 square meters.

However, the first entrepreneurial project did not meet Huo's expectations. Due to policy tightening and insufficient team management, the "Postal Savings Bank Cross-border Mall" officially stopped operating after June 30, 2008. "Starting a business is not easy at all. I paid a lot of tuition this time. " Huo doesn't think that the difficulty encountered in this adventure is failure, but prefers to "learn a valuable lesson by yourself".

In the closing announcement of "self-mail cross-border shopping mall", the last sentence reads: "We will meet you in another brand-new way in the near future, so stay tuned." Indeed, Huo Wenqi didn't keep everyone waiting too long. At the end of 20 18, he formed a new team and founded the brand of "endorsement selection", hoping to return to the e-commerce industry again through the model of "cross-border e-commerce+community".

The office display wall of Goldlion Building is covered with the cooperation authorization between the company and major brands and the major activities since the company was established. Relying on the mature supply chain system and strong executive team, this new project, which has absorbed the experience of "self-mailing cross-border shopping mall", is gradually on the right track under the command of Huo. As a founder, Huo's work is getting bigger and bigger, and now he is too busy to even exercise.

Moving home to Guangzhou, Guangzhou entrepreneurship is very attractive to young people in Hong Kong and Macao.

From June 1 day, Guangzhou officially implemented the Guangzhou Action Plan to Support Youth Development in Hong Kong and Macao (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan). This is the first comprehensive policy document in mainland cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to support the development of youth in Hong Kong and Macao. This policy aims to support young people from Hong Kong and Macao to study, practice, exchange, find jobs, start businesses and live in Guangzhou.

"There are still many bright spots in the New Deal to attract young people from Hong Kong to start businesses and innovate in Guangzhou. For example, through tax differential subsidies, taxes will be the same as Hong Kong. " He believes that this will help attract high-end talents to start businesses or work in Guangzhou.

Since May last year, Huo has moved his family to Guangzhou, and he only stays in Hong Kong for three or four days every month. He said that in recent years, a series of new policies and traffic construction in Guangzhou have brought a lot of convenience to the people of Hong Kong and Macao. For example, it takes 47 minutes to take the high-speed train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, and online booking and self-service ticket collection can also be realized by purchasing tickets. This is not just Huo's feeling. He once heard passengers say in high-speed railway station that it is faster to go from Hong Kong to Guangzhou than to go back to his hometown in Hong Kong.

"If I had to start over, I might start a business earlier and try something new earlier." As the "forerunner" of youth development in Hong Kong and Macao, Huo suggested that young people should not only try more, but also try as soon as possible. Today, Guangzhou provides thousands of internship positions for young people from Hong Kong and Macao every year. Young people from Hong Kong and Macao can actively come to Guangzhou for internships and learn about different industries.

Southern Reporter Xia Caixie