On August 26th, 2008, Chen Yun set out from Yiwu headquarters and went to Tianjin via Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Beijing. All the way down, I signed a regional general agent. This is the fourth provincial and municipal general agent he signed after Xiamen and Lu 'an. There was another girl who wanted to start a business in Tianjin that day. This girl may become his fifth general agent or the 24th cooperative store.
Talking about products, this is my only business.
Just a few hours after arriving in Tianjin, Chen Yun, dressed in plain clothes, hurried to negotiate. In a coffee shop, he met the Tianjin girl and her assistant, Zhao Dong, the boss of an advertising company. Zhao Dong is obviously a business expert. After a brief look at the paper-cut samples and investment promotion materials brought by Chen Yun, he asked, "Do you have patents on these products?" "Of course." Chen Yun answered quickly. Can thousands of paper-cuts handed down from generation to generation still apply for patents? Yes, because the paper-cutting in Chen Yun is not made of paper.
There are two products printed with red shirts, paper-cut clothes and new DIY paper-cuts. Paper-cut clothing is made of ultra-thin paper-cut patterns, and this environmentally friendly paper-cut material is one of its patents. The new paper-cut DIY is to let customers make personalized paper-cut decorative paintings by hand or computer. This material is also patented, so it can be pasted anywhere without glue, unlike paper cutting, which will leave traces and fade. Both sides are the same color, unlike wedding tiles, one side is always black, which affects the appearance. He said that he is further developing new products, such as paper-cut darts calendars and magnetic decorative shop stickers.
"With a patent, my business is unique. A few days ago, I found a person using the name "paper-cut clothing" on Taobao. Although there was no product, I made a phone call and Taobao deleted it. While speaking, Chen Yun picked up a paper-cut portrait of a red figure and stuck it on the wall, then forcibly removed it. Zhao Dong nodded, satisfied with the product effect.
Chen Yun's new material, paper-cutting, made up for the moisture of many paper-cuts, and was optimistic about the market from the beginning. Needless to say, the paper-cut market in China will use paper-cut in festivals, decorations, artworks, weddings and red tourism development. According to the statistics of China Paper-cut Association, tens of billions of paper-cuts will be used every year. Chen Yun thinks: "These tens of billions are just the traditional paper-cut market. My product can not only replace its traditional functions, but also have greater application space. In addition to the application of traditional festival market, it can also be well combined with what is popular in the market now. Take paper-cut clothing as an example. " There is no place in the world where you can't see clothes. " This market is too big. The leader of the paper-cut association once told me that your paper-cut market is limitless, and it will be a new paper-cut kingdom when it is built.
Zhao Dong agrees with Chen Yun's market analysis. Because he is in the advertising business, one of the reasons why he wanted to shoot this paper-cut was that he thought it could be combined with advertising, but later he asked, "Did you make these materials?" ? Can't others find materials and do it themselves? "Before Zhao Dong finished, Chen Yun smiled and said," Don't worry, patent protection is on the one hand, I can only produce materials in our factory. "
In order to stabilize its own market and prevent others from copying, Chen Yun has been innovating its products. A year ago, his paper-cut material was a few millimeters thick, but now it has become only 0.5 millimeters, and the cost is equivalent to that of traditional paper. He thinks:
"No matter how new the products of small enterprises are, they will inevitably be copied by others, so they should only be diligent and run one step ahead of others."
When it comes to business, I am fascinated by "tradition"
After reading the product, Zhao Dong turned the topic to the most critical business issue and asked bluntly, "How can you ensure that we can make money?" Chen Yun was asked this question for countless times, and calmly replied: "No one can guarantee that 100% will make money in the current market, and I have also lost money. At present, my franchise stores earn an average of 200 yuan a day to 300 yuan, and can earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan in January. Of course, it is also maintained, mainly because sales have not been found. " Chen Yun's words are like this. In fact, he has many ways to make a profit in this industry, and these ways are all explored by himself.
Paper-cutting is an obvious off-season industry, except around the Spring Festival, other periods are considered off-season. Especially in summer, the basics of paper-cutting are changed temporarily, and it is rare for people to do this. It's miserable to earn hundreds of thousands a year. They are all enterprises that mass-produce paper-cut with molds. Products are nothing more than traditional folk goods such as hanging money, Spring Festival couplets and window grilles.
In 2002, Chen Yun considered the long off-season before doing paper-cutting business, because franchisees could not do a project for seven or eight months a year without business. In 2003, during the SARS period, Chen Yun, who stayed at home, came up with an idea to combine paper-cutting with clothes and T-shirts, and make personalized paper-cutting clothes according to the paper-cutting pictures requested by customers. This paper-cut can also sell well in summer, and the problem in the off-season will be solved. Coupled with the folk elements in China, paper-cut clothing, facial makeup clothing and window decorations with China characteristics have been formed. Combined with local characteristics, red tourist T-shirts can be developed. Form the only casual T-shirts and lovers' T-shirts mainly based on paper cutting in China. Everyone likes these products on sale. In the three years to 2006, paper-cut T-shirts can bring him hundreds of thousands of profits every year.
The creativity of DIY paper-cut decorative painting originated from the popularity of Chinese style in recent two years, which made Chen Yun's paper-cut penetrate into new markets. For example, advertising, education, tourism, decoration, collectibles, lovers' supplies, etc. Among them, tourist attractions are the most profitable, and a paper-cut with 50 cents can sell for tens of dollars; The advertising volume is the largest, and a list is at least 10,000 yuan. The most noteworthy is advertising and education, two markets where paper-cutting seems difficult to participate.
Chen Yun introduced. I have been doing research in 2005 and 2006, and I know that many enterprises give back gifts to customers on holidays, and usually send some advertisements in the form of gifts, among which China traditional craft gifts are more popular. But porcelain, glass and bronze are all over the street, and the advertising effect of general stickers is not good, so enterprises have been looking for some more distinctive gifts with good advertising effect, so I thought of my paper-cutting. One is strong traditional characteristics, which can easily engrave the company's logo and advertising patterns without affecting the decoration. The other is that it is not as easy to paste and uncover as ordinary sticker advertisements. No matter where I stick this paper-cut, it will fall down with a light touch, leaving no trace. This kind of non-mandatory product placement advertisement, customers are willing to hang it as decorations at home, and the advertising effect is naturally better. In 2007, two large group companies, Site Liquor and David Paper, used our paper-cut gifts, and one company was hundreds of thousands of orders. Now my products are magnetic paper-cut door symbols. Decorative stickers, darts calendar, water-based paper-cutting, etc.
The combination of paper-cutting and education is another great discovery of Chen Yun. At the beginning of 2008, Chen Yun saw on the Internet that the Shanghai Education Department was organizing a summer camp for primary and middle school students, with the theme of traditional culture education in China. "I had formed a habit at that time. As long as I saw the word China tradition, I would immediately think of whether my paper-cutting could come in handy." Chen Yun introduced that I tried to contact the organizer and introduce my paper-cutting. A few days later, the other party agreed to buy my DIY paper-cut as the theme activity of the summer camp. After receiving the order, Chen Yun did not simply deliver the goods, but took the initiative to make suggestions for the organizers. He made a set of paper-cut bags according to the hands-on characteristics of primary and secondary school students, and each bag was equipped with linear paper-cut materials, safety scissors, pads and so on drawn in advance by the computer. Supposedly, Fuwa can't be used casually, but this time it was in cooperation with educational institutions. Chen Yun won the favor for the consideration of the organizers, and the other party helped him get the commercial authorization of Fuwa's graphics and texts. "I didn't expect a summer camp to have hundreds of thousands of people, and it is also related to the Olympics. There are at least thousands of summer camps, experience classes and art classes every year in China. This market is worth doing. " Chen Yun said with a little surprise.
Inspired by this summer camp, Chen Yun realized that the education market is profitable. In July and August this year, he cooperated with more than a dozen primary schools to open paper-cutting classes, and he also held training classes. He found a new buyer with an annual salary of more than 100 thousand.
After hearing these ways to make money, Zhao Dong and the girl nodded frequently. At this point in the negotiations, the two sides have some meaning of "congenial".
When talking about cooperation, don't lie to anyone.
After talking about products and markets, the topic entered the stage of substantive cooperation. "How to join? Can you make qualified paper-cuts by opening a shop? " The girl asked.
Chen Yun's agent joining has its own uniqueness. There are no joining fees and agency fees, as long as the goods are purchased. The lowest is about 65,438+00,000, and there are more than 65,438+00,000 paper-cutting styles that can be used. Provide samples worth several thousand yuan for free. Paper-cutting technology is very simple, and adults and children can learn it.
"In this case, isn't it a simple relationship between supply and marketing? How can it be an agent? " Zhao Dong has some questions.
"No," Chen Yun explained, "only my franchisees can get the goods at low prices. I want to prevent someone from taking my goods to "set up another mountain". Whoever disturbs the market, I will cancel his qualification as an agent and never want to get goods at a low price again. At the same time, as long as you become an agent franchisee, no matter how big your local order is, even if customers come to our company directly to ask for goods, I will transfer this business to you. No matter how much money you earn, I won't rob the business. The local market is entirely yours. I will not participate, and other agents cannot participate. "
Besides the low price of goods after joining, Chen Yun also provides some follow-up services. For example, orders of more than 10000 pieces cannot be made in franchise stores. This arduous task will be undertaken by Chen Yun. In addition to raw materials, there are constantly updated paper-cut styles and materials, which are the guarantee for the long-term survival of franchise stores.
"Will the price increase in the future? Now the cost of many raw materials is rising. " The girl then asked:
"Don't worry, our total sales are increasing, and the annual cost is very low. The price we will give you in the future will only fall, not rise. " Chen Yun said confidently.
"How do we know if the price you gave me is high or low?" The girl answered the question.
"You go to our company's website. The purchase price of all agent franchisees is the same, so franchisees can also supervise each other, do business with an open mind, clearly make money, and no one should cheat anyone. " Chen Yun replied.
After each store opens, Chen Yun will help for a period of time. The launch of the opening tracking service was one of the important reasons why he later created an average 10-day store.
● Sanqingshan's application for heritage talks about starting a business and making a fortune.
The negotiation is coming to an end, and the intention to join is preliminarily determined. Several people talked about their entrepreneurial experiences. There are many stories about Chen Yun. His home is in Jiangxi, and he is a soldier in Xuzhou, because paper-cutting has also made a third-class merit. Since then, I have been fascinated by paper-cutting. After leaving the army, I worked as an air conditioner installer in Beijing, a security guard in Xiamen, sold clothes to others and sold them online. It was not until 2003 that I returned to Shangrao, Jiangxi Province to open my own shop. He has always been optimistic.
Chen Yun's first bucket of gold came from Sanqingshan, and his home is not far from Sanqingshan. At that time, the new paper-cut had just been finalized, just in time for Sanqingshan's application for World Heritage. There is a lot of publicity about Sanqingshan's application for World Heritage. At that time, the management Committee was looking for suitable publicity materials. Of course, China should have China characteristics. Chen Yun took it for granted that his paper-cut was the most suitable, and immediately rushed to make a batch of paper-cut T-shirts printed with the famous scenic spots of Sanqingshan as team uniforms for applying for the World Heritage. "At that time, they were very satisfied, and the cooperation behind them started smoothly. My shop in Sanqingshan was only a few square meters, but do you know how much it can sell in a month? Four or five hundred thousand. Since then, I have the money to move to Yiwu. " Chen Yun looked very proud.
Chen Yun has many things to be proud of. The strangest thing is the story of him making paper-cuts overseas. He didn't have the right to export, and he didn't ask a foreign trade company for help. ; It's not illegal. How did he do it?
This happened in March this year. Two customers, Koreans and Singaporeans, have been in contact online for some time. However, since Chen Yun has no export right, cooperation has been unsuccessful. By chance, Chen Yun learned that the export problem could be solved with the help of foreign chambers of commerce in China. He quickly told the news to two foreign customers. Later, with the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce, he commissioned the import, and the goods with a profit of 400,000 yuan went abroad. Now these two customers have become their overseas general agents, and the foreign stores are handed over to them.
When he left, Chen Yun sent another sigh with emotion: "Entrepreneurship is a word-bitterness. I don't really know how to do business yet. Take your time! Fortunately, I am young. "