Nonsense, I started my business not to make big money, but for world peace?
For the ideal of life, for living with dignity, for letting people around you live a good life. ......
It can be summed up in three words: make a lot of money.
Vulgarity is a bit tacky, but there is nothing wrong with it.
Of course, I have nothing to say when you say that I started my business just to let life teach me some lessons, or to hand over my property and contribute to GDP. After all, people are born at different levels. For those rich people, maybe they really started their business for world peace.
But most people in life are ordinary people and diaosi.
After all, there is only one reason for ordinary people and diaosi to start a business, and that is to make money.
For me, although entrepreneurship has abused me a thousand times, I still thank it. It makes me make money and lose money, lose money and make money, give me the ups and downs of life, and give me a different vision.
Due to the nature of my work, I have come into contact with many entrepreneurs and I can feel the charm of entrepreneurship more and more.
It is the best way for diaosi to attack and salted fish to turn over, and it is also the best way for a person to lose money.
I still remember when I first started my business. I struggled with my own courage. Although I ended in failure, it is still a rare treasure for me.
The following is my first venture:
Because my parents like doing business very much, I have been in contact with them since I was a child. It happened that when I saw someone around me doing business to make money next semester, I felt that this was what I wanted to do, so I didn't look for a job.
Z is my college classmate, whom I met in the student union. When I had the idea of doing business, he said that he had done some small businesses and made money. Do you want to join us? He just bought goods from Zhujiang Road in Nanjing and set up a stall to sell them. At that time, USB flash drives were popular, needed by students, and the price was opaque. But he was too busy alone, and I thought it was fun, so I played along.
In fact, it is estimated that I have always been a person without insight. From the beginning to the present, almost all the businesses I participated in were done with others. All I have is judgment and the ability to judge whether it will work.
Later, we expanded our business to headphones. The reason for choosing headphones is that there is no shelf life, basically no after-sales, and the cost is extremely low. I bought 1.5 yuan headphones for others to experience, and sold 15, which became an explosion!
We started to make money by investing hundreds of dollars. Earned thousands of dollars in a few months. I don't think doing business is that difficult!
Z changed his mind again. He gave an unreliable suggestion, but because of this unreliable suggestion, I struggled for three years. He said that when we went to the supermarket and got off the elevator, did we stare at the front? You can put a video in that place!
Then he told me the story of Focus Media, that is, put a video at the elevator entrance, and then everyone stared when waiting for the elevator. Companies listed for three years.
Focus Media, which was listed on NASDAQ in July 2005, acquired almost all video media companies at high prices before and after listing.
Z said, if we can put videos in supermarkets and shopping malls that get off the elevator, then we can use them to sell advertisements when everyone is staying! A little bigger, you can buy it! ! !
Well, two young people who haven't entered the society have already exerted all their YY abilities.
Later, we talked to the supermarket, but it didn't work.
Later, we shifted our direction: if the supermarket is too big, we can shift our positioning to the university! Then we told the school that the school didn't care. Later, we locked in university supermarkets, because they were all small supermarkets, so we were interested.
Then decide whether to do it or not!
I bought two video players on Alibaba with the money I earned from selling IT products and pocket money, and started my career!
As a result, Z told me at this time that he still wanted to find a job, so I'd better finish this career.
I want to cry without tears. Give up now? The money has been invested.
Now I won't be so impulsive when I do any projects. I basically decided before I moved. It was an impulse at the beginning.
But everything happened by coincidence, just when I hesitated what to do next. An "opportunity" came and continued to drag me into the abyss.
Because I told everyone around me about my idea of starting a business, the TV station came to our school to do a program to understand college students' employment ideas. Because I am a cadre of the Student Union, I was recommended and shared my thoughts on starting a business.
Three days later, the TV station contacted me and said that a company was interested in my creativity and asked me to talk.
This is an advertising company, and its business development is not good. Want to develop new business. The boss of this company has a good relationship with the TV station. It feels good to hear my thoughts from the TV station.
Finally, we agreed that I would contribute 30,000 yuan and he would contribute 70,000 yuan. Do this project.
Looking back on this paragraph, I wonder why I have a chance to get out every time I have no choice. I can't figure this out either. Similar situations will occur repeatedly in the process of starting a business in the future. I don't know if it is lucky or unfortunate.
But one thing is certain: I will always despair many times before I find an opportunity.
How did this project develop next?
Let's talk about business progress first. We went to almost all supermarkets in Nanjing, installed videos and paid rent to the supermarkets every month. Unexpectedly, we found a company doing the same business as us in the process, which increased my confidence.
Next, we went to the advertising business.
Needless to say, few customers are interested in details.
But even if our campus video ads can't be sold, I still don't think it's a model problem, but correct it: our scale is not big enough! If we can cover universities all over the country, then we will be awesome.
Okay, naive!
There are professional things in any industry. Don't think you have thought it over.
I haven't lost all my money, although I lost all my parents' money. But I am still full of hope.
One more chance. It's so funny.
Some companies began to invest 3 million yuan to support me to continue playing!
The second big investment was because a group wanted to invest in Nanjing's media projects, and as a result, it met me. I exaggerated the prospects of the video advertising industry.
After investing, I started to form my team. My method is very simple, that is, posting in various university forums and soliciting entrepreneurial teams. Then see who in my circle of friends wants to work together.
Because I have settled the investment, many people are interested. As a result, I formed a team and worked with me for three years. Q is my college classmate, D is the master of law of NTU (and holds a lawyer's certificate), and Y is the master of Southeast University. Four people.
At that time, we didn't know much about shares, just for the passionate young people who dreamed of coming together.
I don't know what kind of blood rain awaits us.
In fact, when writing this paragraph, I thought of a sentence by Sun Zhengyi: the starting point of a career often comes from unfounded dreams.
I shouted everywhere with a dream and an idea that I didn't want to give up. Finally won the investment and won the team.
After the new team came together, we improved our thinking, instead of taking the road of university, we took the business circle: we started talking with major shopping malls and hung videos into them. Because of the large flow of people in shopping malls and the higher consumption power of ordinary people.
At that time, the largest shopping malls in Nanjing, Xinbai, Wanda and Laidi, all signed contracts with us one after another. Because we talked about very high rent!
In our eyes, if we can sell five advertisements, we will block the video fee and rental fee to make money. And there are 40 different advertisements on Focus Media at the same time! So we think our creativity will make us fight for more money! And the number of people covered by each video is much larger than that covered by the elevator of Focus Media!
After the pawnshop, we started to attract investment.
Our first customer is Pepsi! Gave us a single advertising fee 1000 yuan to try! But our video 100% is required to be its program! A week after the launch, he lied to us and said, look, your first customer is Pepsi, and the customers behind are easy to talk about.
I thought it was easy to get 1 ten thousand yuan, and it will definitely be easy in the future! So we signed a contract.
Unfortunately, the performance behind it is almost zero. Because Pepsi has a characteristic: it likes to try new media, and because new media is cheap, it tried us. 99% of the big brands are very disciplined in their release strategies. The director of Pepsi became my long-term friend.
Later, we also learned the rules of the advertising industry: large companies need to have advertising plans, not to vote for you when you are good, but to show these plans to the boss by the advertising manager, and then the boss approves them. Therefore, we think: we can still succeed. In the meantime, we should handle the relationship with our customers and wait until these customers consider us later.
Always waiting like this is not the way! The rent is burning day by day! ! !
Our videos are all about cats and mice! No ads!
At this time, I found another "great opportunity"!
Of course, you know, this is still a big trap.
I don't know when it started. I like to watch all the new business news online.
In this way, I seized an opportunity. A company was invested by two top venture capitalists, Softbank and CDH, to be a "business circle video media" ... A crazy idea ignited in my heart: just as Focus Media acquired Juzhong Media for hundreds of millions of dollars, thus monopolizing elevator video media. I began to fantasize that we would become the gathering place of video media in the business circle, waiting for them to buy us for hundreds of millions!
This company is called "* * * United Network".
This company has won the top venture capital of10 million dollars and started to compete in the whole country. ...
Obviously, in fact, we didn't believe in the effectiveness of our advertising at that time, but after all, top venture capitalists are optimistic about such projects, so what are we afraid of? ...
Business is so strange. If you have no judgment and only rely on others, you will encounter waterloo. ...
This campaign lasted from mid-2007 to the end of 2008, and the financial crisis came.
Finally, it proved that this was a bubble just like the stock market at that time. Finally, hehe. Com, like us, suffered from the decline of the bubble.
At the beginning of 2009, the biggest low tide and fear since I started my business came.
Although I still encountered many difficulties before, I didn't make any money, but I didn't feel anything because I had hope ... Now, two years of hard work have turned to ashes, and hope is even more shattered.
This is the most terrible thing.
Our investors are unwilling to continue investing (in fact, they have realized the infeasibility of this business model).
Finally, investors withdrew their capital and transferred their shares to us.
And our team is on the verge of dissolution. Four partners, D and Y, just graduated from graduate school. We advised them to find a job and not to follow us into this muddy water.
As a result, D went to the government and Y went to Huawei.
Now D holds a high position in a government unit in Nanjing, and Y has also held an important position in Huawei, with an estimated annual salary of several hundred thousand.
Prove that I had a good eye for choosing a partner.
Q and I are left. Next, we should solve the problem of food and clothing. We dismissed all the employees, and even one employee said she didn't want to follow us with her salary, but we persuaded her to leave (we still have some personality charm).
At the beginning of 2009, I felt lack of confidence and no direction.
At this time, fortunately, partner Q withstood the pressure. From the previous customers to the middle of the year, we found two customers, and we earned 65438+ million, which means we won't die this year.
But we need to find new long-term opportunities within a year. Where are they?
During this period, I have been analyzing: Why have I worked harder than anyone in the past three years, started better than others, but failed? I hope I can learn from these lessons what I should do in the future.
The most important factor should be "I want to do great things too much!" Because we often hear the successful cases of publicity, all of which are listed and financed by XXX ... so, I always think this is the awesome business model. Now I know that almost 100% of entrepreneurs started from small businesses.
Secondly, because I have been in the advertising industry for two or three years. Probably know the situation of this industry, this industry is a relational industry. And the business model I didn't like most since I was a child is relational (I don't rule out that someone is suitable for this. )
But although I have been in the mall for two or three years, I am still a super layman about how to do business today! So, at that time, I didn't know how to start. From today's perspective, it should be that we have worked hard for two or three years and failed to make a "valuable product". I think this should be the root cause of failure. However, from the point of view at that time, it was incomprehensible.
The first venture ended in failure. As for later switching to the Internet, it was a brand-new entrepreneurial process.
Sharing this experience is to tell everyone that no matter what your original purpose is, as long as you work hard, it is still a life experience. However, I still want to say: Entrepreneurship is risky, and into the pit needs to be cautious!