Women’s entrepreneurial stories

A person must be good at finding new ways to live in the world. If you only follow the footsteps of your predecessors, you will not be able to find a paradise. Here are a few articles I recommend for everyone.

1: A female man’s steamed bun business started a business with sales exceeding 10 million in three years

With her beautiful curly hair stuffed into a sanitary cap, 28-year-old Zhou Xin immediately looked like a steamed bun when she put on work clothes. "Old expert", "This is because the dough has been fermented for a long time", "This is steamed at a low temperature"... In front of a row of newly developed steamed buns, she can "diagnose" the problem at a glance. Five years ago, she gave up the opportunity to be a radio anchor and built her own steamed bun kingdom - extracting essence from organic vegetables to make healthy and beautiful creative steamed buns. In less than three years, annual sales exceeded 10 million Yuan. She predicts that in the next two years, the annual output value of the newly built factory will exceed 100 million.

"I think this direction is right. I never thought I would lose. I am young anyway!" When talking about resigning to start a business, the tall girl with a fair face in front of me has a look in her eyes. Determined and mature beyond his years.

Zhou Xin, who has lived on campus since high school, has always been a child with "good ideas" in the eyes of her parents: she chose a boarding high school, majored in broadcasting at Tianjin Normal University, and gave up her stable career. Job opportunities to start a business.

"My dad almost used a kitchen knife with me because of this." Zhou Xin pouted. The father did not know at the time that when he was in college, his daughter would be known as "Boss Zhou" to her classmates.

While other college students are still going back and forth between classrooms and dormitories at two o'clock every day, "Boss Zhou" has opened four jewelry chain stores of his own, covering several universities in Tianjin.

Why is it called a chain store? "At the beginning, I had the idea of ??building my own brand. All the accessories purchased from the south were labeled with my own brand design. I made them all by myself for the four stores. "Promotional posters." She said with a smile, excluding rent and hiring expenses, she could earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month when she was in college.

Boss Zhou earned all her college tuition and living expenses by herself. Not only that, she also saved a lot of money.

When he was about to graduate, Zhou Xin, who was studying broadcasting, naturally went to Tianjin People’s Broadcasting Station for an internship in economic broadcasting. By chance, she met the manager of an agricultural and sideline products company. Through this manager, she learned that there has always been a bottleneck in the sales process of organic vegetables: because of their high requirements for freshness and high prices, it is easy to cause hoarding and waste. Zhou Xin is a thoughtful person, and her mind is spinning rapidly. If these endlessly sold organic vegetables are squeezed into juice, and the vegetable juice is used to make creative steamed buns of various colors, it will be nutritious and beautiful, and it will also reduce waste.

During that time, whenever she had free time, she would go to the pastry counters of major supermarkets to chat with the aunts to understand the market demand; she went to Tianjin University of Science and Technology to ask experts for advice on the nutritional knowledge of making steamed food with organic vegetables. and technical requirements.

“At that time, there were no creative steamed foods such as pumpkin steamed buns and tomato steamed buns on the market. When I shared my idea, everyone thought it was very fresh.” After Zhou Xin completed the market research, she felt that this idea was quite new. , capable!

Using some of the savings she earned from working as a boss in college, she persuaded a friend to lend her the 1 million yuan needed to buy a house. At the end of 2009, she registered her own company, Xinkelu Food Co., Ltd., and became "Boss Zhou who sells steamed buns."

In addition to courage, starting a business also requires unimaginable hard work. Zhou Xin said with a smile: "I have a boyish personality, and I am the legendary tomboy."

For the first time, she was really "fighting alone." At first, she had no resources, so she found several traditional pastry-making factories to "outsource" production. While she was focusing on developing new recipes, she was looking for sales channels everywhere.

After the batches of pasta are prepared, they must be placed in a cold storage to keep them fresh. “For more than half a year, I had to stay in the cold storage for a long time every day. Boxes of finished products were all mine. People can move it by themselves!" Zhou Xin said, "As long as it's a hardship that people can endure, I'm not afraid of it. It's okay."

After finding the right group buying sales channel, Zhou Xin's creative steamed buns became popular as soon as they debuted. .

In the first year, 8 products including grain steamed food and vegetable steamed food, which Zhou Xin personally participated in the design, were officially put into production and launched. In the Spring Festival of 2010, the sales exceeded 1 million yuan; by 2011, it reached 4 million yuan. At the end of 2012, the sales exceeded 1,000 yuan. million, with an average annual increase of over 200%.

But Zhou Xin was not satisfied. In 2013, when the entire group buying industry in the country experienced a sharp decline, she gritted her teeth, staked all her wealth and took out a loan, investing nearly 10 million yuan to build a new one. factory. "Many people ask me if I am out of my mind!" Zhou Xin insists that the industry must be upgraded. Her goal is to build a large-scale, standardized and branded "Xinke Green Pasta and Baked Food Production" Center" to build a comprehensive pasta service center integrating the production, warehousing and distribution of various types of pasta.

Nowadays, Zhou Xin is no longer alone. She has gathered a group of young teams around her. But she is even busier. She leaves early and comes back late every day, while sticking to the front line of production to "fixly monitor" product quality; while trying her best to expand sales channels.

“I have always prepared the fillings for these creative steamed buns myself, and I am a master at adjusting fillings!” Zhou Xin has always believed that product quality is the basis of survival, and she has personally gone to Japan learned from well-known pastry masters and combined it with traditional Chinese tastes to develop a unique filling secret recipe. "What we want is that people will not forget it after eating it."

The fat blue guy, the cute Hello Kitty, the cute Dabai... Nowadays, the "righteous steamed food" created by Zhou Xin has attracted the love of many young "foodies" online.

In 2013, the group buying market was hit hard, and Zhou Xin “lost millions.” This also made her determined to adjust the marketing model. While steadily promoting the construction of normal downstream self-owned outlets, she also actively cooperated with major e-commerce platforms to combine online sales with physical sales and develop both online and offline.

“The online target customers are foodies aged 20 to 35, so the products must conform to the concept of modern sales.” Zhou Xin established a R&D team and required product iterations and updates every 15 days. She said that this is very difficult to do in the traditional pastry industry because "all the molds have to be remade."

Persisting in product innovation has helped Zhou Xin’s “Creative Steamed Buns” gain brand awareness. Now there are more than 1,000 online sales every day, with daily sales of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, accounting for the entire turnover. About 80%.

Currently, she is planning to build a "food workshop" in the new factory as a maker space for universities. It will not only serve as an industry-university-research base for corporate research and development, but also provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for college students. She said that it is very difficult for college students to start a business now. "There is no platform, no funds, and no space." These were the problems she encountered when she started her own business.

"I am a very lucky person. Many people have helped me along the way. I can't let everyone down." Zhou Xin always remembers that when she borrowed money to register a company, she had no money and no experience. . First, the Tianjin Women's Federation provided her with a free venue for company registration. Later, in order to build a specialty store and gain more recognition for the "Xinkelu" brand, she approached the Tianjin Municipal Committee and received an interest-free loan of 60,000 yuan from the Tianjin Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Foundation.

Now she wants to combine the survival and development of her business with helping college students to start their own businesses and find employment. “I provide space and funds to college students so that they can take the first step of starting their own businesses with the help of my brand. " She used her own experience more than once to tell college students who are willing to start a business: "Why not give it a try while you are young?"

2: Nanchong's "Military Wife" has been in business for 18 years. 4 Kindergarten

Tang Lan was born in Zhengyuan Town, Peng'an County, Nanchong City. After graduating from junior high school, he went to the county teacher training school to study early childhood education. In July 1996, at the age of 19, Tang Lan became a substitute teacher, teaching preschool at Zhengyuan Town Primary School. After the Spring Festival of the next year, Tang Lan came to Chengdu to make a living and worked in a kindergarten in Fuqin West District. After staying in Chengdu for a year and a half, she returned to Nanchong in July 1998.

“I always want to do something on my own!” After returning to Nanchong, Tang Lan did not rush to find a job, but inspected places everywhere to prepare to start a business in the field of early childhood education that she was familiar with.

The first place was on the second floor of a building opposite Wufeng Middle School. At that time, Wufeng was still a town on the outskirts of Nanchong, and later it became a street office and became part of Nanchong city. "I have a relative who works as a village cadre there. The rent is cheap and it's close to Nanchong City. The site is not big and needs simple decoration. But I don't have any money, so my father, who is a businessman, handed over his 60,000 yuan savings to Tang Lan. , "Are you sure you can run the kindergarten successfully?" "Dad, I am confident! I have learned a lot about early childhood education. "The 60,000 yuan was originally the dowry money prepared by the family for her. Tang Lan held it in her hand, and it was heavy.

Without students, teachers, and partners, how on earth should we run a kindergarten? Start a business. At the beginning, the difficulties were understandable. Tang Lan made two recruitment brochures: one for kindergarten recruitment, and one for kindergarten admissions.

She was reluctant to spend money to print two brochures. They were all written by hand, "My hands are numb from writing more!" After writing, Tang Lan mixed flour with water to make a paste, and went to Nanchong City to post advertisements in various communities and markets.

The first person to apply was Teacher Zhong Feng, who had an early childhood education qualification certificate and was the principal of a kindergarten in Nanchong. Her unit was restructured and laid off. She saw Tang Lan’s recruitment advertisement at the Jinyuling wet market; second The first person to sign up was Lin Xiaoli, whose parents opened a restaurant near the kindergarten. When they saw a new kindergarten here, they came to tell them that their daughter was majoring in early childhood education and hoped to work here. The third one was Tang Lan's biological sister, who studied there. Art major.

Recruiting three teachers, plus Tang Lan himself, the kindergarten teaching team was initially established. Nanchong is known as the "Fruit City", and the road beside the city is called Guozhou Avenue. His kindergarten was named Guozhou Avenue Kindergarten.

He had just started his business and no parents believed it. Tang Lan and three teachers took the enrollment brochure and went door-to-door to promote their kindergarten philosophy. In the first phase of the kindergarten, 40 children were enrolled, divided into three classes: large, medium and small. There were three teachers in each class. Tang Lan was the principal and the "logistics nanny" who did various chores, including shopping for vegetables, cooking and washing the children. Even though the tuition fee was very low, there were very few private kindergartens at that time, so Guozhou Avenue Kindergarten had no choice but to pay monthly fees. ", including lunch, 100 yuan per month, you can even study first and pay later. Tang Lan has forced himself and the kindergarten into a dead end: only by improving quality and providing good service can parents be reassured and spread word of mouth. In order to increase income, the kindergarten also opened a "full day care class" with about ten children.

After the kindergarten opened, we realized that "water" was a big problem in this building. , there has been no water supply. The boss dug a well for his own use on the first floor. The kindergarten is on the second floor, and the restaurant is on the third floor. The first thing the four teachers have to do every day is to draw water from the well and bring it to the second floor. The third floor is used for kindergartens and restaurants. “They are all female children. They are afraid of falling into the well when fetching water. They have little strength and cannot carry much water every time. Especially in winter, their hands hurt. "

There is not much well water, and washing clothes has become a problem. Tang Lan, the "logistics nanny", takes the clothes of the nursery children after closing every afternoon and goes to a nearby weir pond to wash them. Just one person, in the winter, his hands were red from the cold, but he didn't complain. At that time, the area near the kindergarten was still desolate. Every morning around 6 o'clock, Tang Lan took the first bus and went to the city center to buy the freshest vegetables. After buying groceries, the kindergarten didn't open until almost 8 o'clock, and we had to cooperate with the teachers to pick up the children.

In 2002, four years after the kindergarten was opened, the number of children increased, and Tang Lan could not accommodate more than 100 children. More than an acre of land was rented in nearby Renjiagou to build a kindergarten. Eight years later, the land was requisitioned due to urban redevelopment in Nanchong. “Due to its good reputation, the kindergarten moved back to Guozhou Avenue. Wherever they move, parents will follow them!" The kindergarten has been moved several times, and more and more children have been moved. Until now, Guozhou Avenue Kindergarten is still located on the edge of Nanchong City. Although the conditions are average, it is still overcrowded.

Just started a business , no parents believed it, so Tang Lan and three teachers took the enrollment brochure and went door-to-door to promote their kindergarten philosophy. After all, 40 children were enrolled in the first phase of the kindergarten, divided into three classes: large, medium and small. Each teacher has a class. Tang Lan is the principal of the kindergarten and a "logistics nanny" who does odd jobs. She buys groceries, cooks, and does laundry for the children. If any teacher asks for leave, she has to "take over the shift."

Although the tuition fees were very low, there were very few private kindergartens at that time, and everyone was skeptical. Guozhou Avenue Kindergarten has no choice but to implement "monthly fees", including lunch, which is 100 yuan per month. You can even study first and pay later. Tang Lan pushed himself and the kindergarten to a dead end: only by improving quality and providing good services can parents feel at ease and spread word of mouth. In order to increase income, the kindergarten also runs a "full day care class" with a dozen children.

After the kindergarten opened, I realized that "water" was a big problem. This building has never had water supply due to procedural issues. The boss dug a well on the first floor for his own use. The kindergarten is on the second floor, and the restaurant is on the third floor. The first thing the four teachers have to do every day is to fetch water from the well, and then bring it to the second and third floors for the kindergarten and restaurant. "They are just a few girls. They are afraid of falling into the well when fetching water. They have little strength and cannot carry much water every time. Especially in winter, their hands hurt from being squeezed."

There is no water in the well either. If there are too many, washing clothes becomes a problem again. Tang Lan, the "logistics nanny", would take the nursery doll's clothes after closing every afternoon and go to a nearby weir pond to wash them, all by herself. In winter, her hands were red from the cold, but she didn't complain. At that time, the area near the kindergarten was still very desolate. Every morning around 6 o'clock, Tang Lan took the first bus and went to the city center to buy the freshest vegetables. After buying the vegetables, the kindergarten did not open until almost 8 o'clock, so she had to cooperate. The teacher picks up the child.

In 2002, four years after the kindergarten was opened, the number of children increased, and there was no room for more than 100 children. Tang Lan rented more than an acre of land in nearby Renjiagou to build a kindergarten. Eight years later, the land was expropriated during urban reconstruction in Nanchong. In 2010, the kindergarten moved back to Guozhou Avenue. "Because of its good reputation, parents will follow the kindergarten wherever it moves!" The kindergarten has moved several times, and more and more children have moved there. Until now, Guozhou Avenue Kindergarten is still located on the edge of Nanchong City. Although the conditions are average, it is still overcrowded.

The kindergarten is located at the junction of urban and rural areas in Nanchong. It mainly recruits children from rural areas and urban migrant workers. How to develop to a higher level? Unable to clearly see the future direction and find a development path, Tang Lan encountered the biggest confusion since starting his business. At this time, a report about kindergarten enrollment in West China Metropolis Daily brought her new thoughts. "Parents queued for two days and three nights to wait for the kindergarten to issue a reservation number" reported on Lianchi Road Kindergarten, the best public kindergarten in Nanchong. Parents tried every means to get their babies in. Unfortunately, the scale is limited and most children cannot enter. In June 2011, parents lined up to set up tents on the street outside the kindergarten, and they spontaneously numbered their names to wait for a spot.

If you want to run a kindergarten, run the best kindergarten! Tang Lan suddenly found a way to start a business. Therefore, Tang Lan visited early childhood education institutions in many cities across the country and finally selected "Hongying Education" as her franchise brand. This is the first listed preschool education brand in China, with more than 4,000 franchised preschool franchises across the country. "Let preschool education praise life and let education light up children's future." Hongying's educational philosophy deeply moved Tang Lan.

With direction, spring is coming on the road to entrepreneurship. Nanchong Xingyu Community Kindergarten, Nanchong Lingkai Spring Community Kindergarten, and Peng'an County Donghua Kindergarten were established one after another, all of which are flagship parks of Hongying Education. Tang Lan became the mutual aid team leader of Hongying's flagship garden in the five provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Tibet, became Hongying's "gold medal garden director" and one of the top ten female entrepreneurs in Shunqing District.

My husband is a soldier and is away from home all year round. In addition to taking care of both parents at home, Tang Lan also has to take care of her daughter who is in elementary school, so she can balance her family and career.

In June 2015, Tsinghua University, China Future Research Society and Hongying Education jointly launched the long-standing Yojo brand for rural towns and small and medium-sized kindergartens. Tanglan has also won the agency rights of the Beijing Yojo Kindergarten Alliance brand in Nanchong.

Tang Lanhua spent a lot of money to study full-time at Hongying’s Beijing headquarters for more than a year, mastering the latest early childhood education concepts. A small kindergarten is a big school. Each Hongying franchised kindergarten has 500 control points, and Yojo Kindergarten has 180 control points. "Under the light switch in each room, there is a small note to ensure that there is a dedicated person to turn it on and off."

The hard work pays off. When the school started this spring, the enrollment in Tanglan's four kindergartens exceeded 1,600. A total of 12 kindergartens in Nanchong have become long-standing Yojo franchise kindergartens. A preschool education group in Northeast Sichuan is about to emerge.

“When I started running the school, my belief was that I must establish myself in Nanchong. Now there are more than 220 employees, and I want to take them to start a business together.” Since the start of the business, only 3 employees have left. When every employee leaves, Tang Lan has a farewell party. Every year, all employees are organized to travel, and Tang Lan pays for it. Tang Lan has a strong sense of military sentiment, and there are many retired military personnel among its employees.

"I am the root of all problems; love is the final destination." Tang Lan often said this sentence, and she used brand-new ideas to promote the development of Nanchong's early childhood education.

3: A full-time mother started a bakery shop and earned nearly 100,000 yuan a year

For the sake of her daughter, she learned to make cookies

Yesterday at 10 o'clock in the morning, at Qilinmen Galaxy Bay , before seeing the store door, the Modern Express reporter followed the strong fragrance and found the small store on the corner. "This one is thick, this one is a little soft." Pushing open the store door, in front of the oven on the right, a baker wearing a hat, white clothes, and thick gloves was looking through the green tea cookies on the template. Talk to yourself. She is Yu Xiuhua, 33 years old this year. Since October 2013, she has transformed from a stay-at-home mother to a bakery owner.

"Every mother has the same heart. When she is pregnant, she pays attention to balanced nutrition. After the child is born, she wants her child to eat the healthiest food and wants to cook everything with her own hands." Yu Xiuhua has 6 My 20-year-old daughter especially likes snacks. When their daughter was two years old, the mother and daughter participated in a parent-child DIY baking activity. "I made 6 cookies, and my daughter was very happy. I was thinking, why can't I go home and make them myself."

In the beginning, Yu Xiuhua couldn't even knead noodles, and she borrowed the oven from a neighbor. . "Add water, add oil, add eggs, how much to add, when to add, I have no idea at all. I bought a book to read, but I can only follow the gourd." She said with a smile, burnt, blackened, and undercooked There are many. "For more than half a year, I made it every day and gave it to my family after I finished it. Later, they got tired of eating it, so I gave it to the neighbors, but they couldn't get rid of it." She said sheepishly that although the taste was good, the shape was ugly. And it breaks into pieces when you pinch it, making it completely impossible to pick it up.

However, she persisted and got better and better.

Also developed Laoganma cookies

"Shiitake cookies, purple sweet potato cookies, cocoa cookies..." Yu Xiuhua has developed more than 30 cookies. kind. "There are old people, young people, and children in every home, and everyone has different tastes. For example, the old people, most of whom have high blood pressure and diabetes, cannot eat things that are too sweet, so we made pumpkin powder, hawthorn powder, and lotus leaves. Cookies with other flavors.” Considering the nutrition and taste of children, she made cartoon cookies with flavors such as chocolate beans, carrots, cashews, and walnuts. "Young people just want delicious food but don't want to gain weight, so I launched cookies with cocoa, green tea, coffee and other flavors."

However, Yu Xiuhua said that she has made the strangest cookies It's spicy. "People from Sichuan and Chongqing ordered it online. They like this taste. When making it, mix Sichuan or Hunan chili powder into the noodles, or add some Laoganma sauce to make it spicy."

Yu Xiuhua recalled that many college students came to customize "exclusive" cookies. "Two days ago, a girl in Zhejiang ordered an A4 paper-sized cookie with a heart engraved on it, as well as her and her boyfriend's last names. A couple in Nanjing also ordered a Christmas tree," she said. The price is the same as ordinary cookies, 30 yuan per pound.

The employees in the store are all people in need.

"I am 48 years old. I usually do cleaning work. When I have free time, I come to Xiao Yu's place to earn some extra money." Aunt Song said as she spoke Bag the cut cookies quickly and weigh them. She happily said that she could earn fifty or sixty yuan in one day. "Originally, the store also needed manpower, so I found an aunt. As a result, word spread, and each one took care of one. Now there are seven or eight people here semi-fixedly." Yu Xiuhua said that most of them are outsiders, and they all have difficulties. The largest one is 50 Many years old, the youngest is the mother of a 7-month-old child.

Those who want to make cookies can be taught techniques, those who don’t know how can process and package them, and those who are more flexible can help take photos for marketing. Everyone can find a suitable position here. “They are both old and young, and they all want to increase their family’s income and give out more red envelopes during the holidays.

”

Want to set up a “small dining table” for the elderly

From borrowing a small household oven to now opening a bakery and making nearly two hundred kilograms of cookies every day, Yu Xiuhua became a businessman in Nanjing. Trained at the Ningong Vocational Training Center of the Federation of Trade Unions, a typical example of successful entrepreneurship.

After making money, Yu Xiuhua went to Nanjing Boai Senior Apartment to celebrate birthdays and presented elaborate birthday cakes to the elderly. “I just want to give back to society and don’t think about anything else. ”

Because of the cold winter, she recently sent hats to the elderly to keep them warm.

Next step, Yu Xiuhua wants to organize stay-at-home mothers to provide services to the elderly in the community. Setting up a “small dining table”. She said that many stay-at-home mothers had their own businesses before and knew a lot of things. “They also want to do something to add some income to their families. It just so happens that many elderly people in the community are at home alone with no one to take care of them. I just want to organize young mothers to help the elderly. ”

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