Street stalls are the business enlightenment lessons in the lives of these entrepreneurs

Writer?/ Editorial Department

Editor?/ Zhang Nan

Design?/Zhao Haoran

Title picture?/Li Yue

Overnight, street stalls shouldering the mission of "human fireworks" became the hottest concept and the latest trend, dominating the list for several months The live broadcast was instantly eclipsed.

In the automobile industry, led by Wuling, which “makes whatever the people need”, various street stall trucks have emerged, providing strong support for the street stall economy.

Stimulating consumption, solving employment problems, and restoring the economy are the most obvious purposes of encouraging the street stall economy this time. In fact, as a commercial activity with the lowest threshold and the capillary blood vessels of commercial society, street stalls are ubiquitous at home and abroad in ancient and modern times. It’s just that in recent years, some domestic cities have unilaterally pursued “beautiful-looking” urban management and forcibly eliminated street stalls from the city.

Encouraging the street stall economy is not only related to the city’s temperature and fireworks, it is also the most rudimentary form of business. If you pay attention to the growth history of business tycoons, many of them have had the experience of setting up stalls, and street stalls have become a business enlightenment lesson in their lives. Products, customers, competition, profits, these key elements that large companies focus on, can all be found in the street stall business.

In the automobile industry alone, there are at least Lu Guanqiu, Cao Dewang, Yin Mingshan, Li Shufu, Li Bin, and He Xiaopeng among the entrepreneurs who have experience in street stalls.

Xpeng Motors Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng revealed on Weibo: "When I was a child, I helped my grandfather set up a stall to sell groceries, and when I was in college, I helped my parents sell soy milk. I was most afraid of urban management, and hated most fake products. "

Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, has been helping his grandfather herd cattle since he was 6 years old. During the season when cattle are not sold, his grandfather sells wine, and he helps collect money and keep accounts.

These are typical ways for entrepreneurs to improve their family life when they were young. From then on, they became different from the ordinary people around them. Business thinking was integrated into daily life, and some people directly Obtaining the first pot of gold from street stalls marked the beginning of building a business empire.

So, urban restoration of street stalls is not only an economic stimulus and humanistic care, it also allows a business society to regain its lowest level of soil. It also gives a city and a society complexity, and complexity is a prerequisite for the birth of more possibilities.

Let us once again relive the stall-setting moments in the lives of these auto industry tycoons. Who knows whether the next generation of business tycoons will be born in today’s stall-setting wave.

Li Shufu: Taking photos of people on the street

Before he built a car, Li Shufu was a typical rural youth who wanted to get rid of the fate of farming to make a living. Since elementary school, he has been herding cattle for the production team, earning 15 cents a day. After a summer vacation, he can earn 6-10 yuan. At that time, the textbook fee for primary school was only 1.2 yuan per semester, and tuition was free. Therefore, compared with his classmates, Li Shufu was very wealthy at that time.

In 1978, he was in the first grade of junior high school. That year was the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Although he was still herding cattle happily at that time, he had vaguely understood that rural land could be contracted and managed. Farmers can establish township and village enterprises without leaving their soil and villages, and are even allowed to engage in individual and private businesses. At that time, he had no intention of going to school and began to study documents and policies related to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee.

It took him two years to complete the three years of junior high school. Finally, he was admitted to the top class of Luqiao Middle School and entered high school. He often heard news about getting rich through reform and opening up, so he lost patience with studying in high school. When he was in school, his mind wandered, which caused his father to be extremely dissatisfied and he was punished several times. In the end, before graduating from high school, he began to plan various dreams of getting rich.

At that time, there was a bicycle at home. He asked his father for a few hundred yuan to buy a portable camera, which started his mobile stall career. Walking down the street, I would ask people I met if they wanted to take pictures. Because of his enthusiastic service and good quality of photography, he quickly earned several hundred yuan and later opened a photo studio.

In those days, opening a photo studio required approval from the Public Security Bureau because the photography industry was a special industry. At that time, Li Shufu did not have a special business license and was educated and punished many times. Maybe it was because he had a good attitude and even asked to close the business. Despite the closure, the photo studio continued to operate for nearly two years.

After the photo studio, Li Shufu recycled used batteries and made money by separating the metals; later he provided accessories to refrigerator manufacturers. At the same time, many people made their fortunes in the refrigerator industry, such as Mou Zhongzhong. The refrigerator parts factory moved several times due to factory building problems, and there were also differences of opinion among shareholders. Finally, in 1989, Li Shufu gave it to the local township government. After that, he worked in upholstery materials and motorcycles, and finally switched to car manufacturing and entered the automobile industry at the age of 35.

In the first few years when we first started making cars, the state did not allow private companies to research and produce cars, and they could not obtain car-making qualifications. "Cars were an aristocratic industry in China at that time, and people like us were not allowed to enter." Li Shufu said in an interview with the "Dialogue" column in 2011.

At that time, Zeng Peiyan, then director of the State Planning Commission, went to Taizhou, Zhejiang for an inspection. The local government in Taizhou did not dare to tell him about Geely's car manufacturing, but later asked Li Shufu to give a 5-10 minute work report. .

Li Shufu said at the scene: "Please give me a chance to fail. Let us give it a try. If we fail to build a car, we will fail. We will not embarrass you as the leader and ask the country to give We subsidize. If it succeeds, we can provide some experience to the Chinese automobile industry. If it fails, we can also provide some lessons. Can you give us a chance to fail?"

This was the beginning of Geely Automobile's compliance. Li Shufu also relied on the right time, place and people to make Geely Group the first banner of China's independent brands. In 2019, Geely Group topped the list of independent brands with sales of 1.3615 million vehicles.

Cao Dewang: Sold tobacco, fruits, and fungus

The "Glass King", Cao Dewang, founder and chairman of Fuyao Group, started his business career by running a stall as a boy. started.

At the age of 15, Cao Dewang started to help his father in business. At first, he sold shredded tobacco. He bought cigarettes from Fuzhou and rode a bicycle for more than 100 kilometers for three days. He transported them to his hometown of Fuqing and sold them, earning the price difference. . Later, I sold fruits with my father for three or four years. But selling cut tobacco was more profitable than selling fruit, so I went back to selling cigarettes. In the end, my father was arrested by the businessmen, his tobacco was confiscated, his bicycle was taken away, and his tobacco business was ended.

This incident inspired Cao Dewang's determination to go out and conquer the world. After getting married, Cao Dewang used the dowry brought by his wife and borrowed some money to start a white fungus business. He bought white fungus from the village and took a train to Jiangxi to sell it. But the last time he practiced stalling, his white fungus was detained on the charge of speculation. Only after the commune issued a certificate did he get back the money he paid for selling the fungus.

The experience of practicing stalls in his early years sharpened Cao Dewang's business acumen. Later, he started to do big business. In 1976, he co-founded the Gaoshan Special-shaped Glass Factory, a township enterprise, to produce water meter glass. In 1983, Cao Dewang contracted a glass factory that had been losing money for many years. Later, by chance, he learned that auto glass was very expensive, but only imported and not domestically produced, so he got involved in the field of auto glass and was determined to make his own auto glass for China.

In 1987, Fuyao Glass was established. In 1993, Fuyao Glass was listed on the domestic A-share market. After years of hard work, Fuyao Glass has become the largest automotive glass supplier in China and the second largest in the world. In 2019, the company achieved revenue of 21.104 billion yuan.

Fuyao Group has truly promoted the development of China's automobile industry overseas, but Cao Dewang's achievements go far beyond the field of automotive glass. In the field of charity, his cumulative personal donations have reached 12 billion yuan, and he is known as "China's top philanthropist".

Cao Dewang said, "I experienced poverty in my boyhood and youth. Without reform and opening up, there would be no platform for me to develop. Now that I have made money, the country still has the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor. , I want to try my best to help poor people.

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Yin Mingshan: Selling needlework

Yin Mingshan, the founder of Lifan Co., Ltd., was born in Fuling District, Chongqing City in 1938. His father died prematurely and his family was extremely poor. In 1950, he was 12 years old Yin Mingshan was sent to the countryside with his mother, and he had to give up his studies and go into business to shoulder the burden of supporting his family.

In order to make a living, he became a delivery boy, realizing that it was difficult for residents in mountain villages to buy daily necessities. He borrowed 50 cents from a kindhearted person to buy needlework, which he needed most in life, and then walked to the city to wholesale needlework, and then returned to the countryside to sell it in the villages.

Yin Mingshan, who was born with a business mind, turned out to be a genius. He could earn three or four cents a day, which not only allowed him to support himself and his mother, but also saved some money. After buying enough rice, he saved it for working capital. Within a few months, he became rich and owned several dollars.

This business experience not only gave Yin Mingshan a taste of the joy of diligence and wisdom, but also completed his initial business enlightenment through buying and selling needles and threads, and learned how to transfer and borrow funds.

Later, he was admitted to the best middle school in Chongqing. When he was only one step away from college life, he was first labeled as a rightist because his family was a landowner, and then he was sentenced to jail for "counterrevolutionary" crimes. That’s 18 years.

In 1979, 41-year-old Yin Mingshan was rehabilitated. In 1985, 47-year-old Yin Mingshan founded the “Chongqing Vocational Education Book Club” and became the earliest private second-channel bookseller in Chongqing. Earned the first pot of gold in his life.

In 1992, Yin Mingshan had become the largest private bookseller in Chongqing, and he began to seek the next transformation. He rented a house in the suburbs of Chongqing. With a house of less than 40 square meters, nine employees and a registered capital of 200,000 yuan, Hongda Vehicle Parts Research Institute was established, with the goal of "creating the most advanced motorcycle engine in China within three years." ”

Due to the favorable price and excellent quality of Yin Mingshan’s engines, sales have skyrocketed. As of 2001, Lifan had sold 1.84 million motorcycle engines alone, with revenue exceeding 3.8 billion yuan. The small workshop It also became the "Lifan Group". In that year, Yin Mingshan was listed on the Forbes China Rich List. In 2003, Lifan had become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in China. Domestic car prices also became more affordable, which led to an increase in car sales. By 2002, the growth of Lifan's motorcycle business had stagnated.

In the transformation of the motorcycle business, Yin Mingshan aimed at a higher level. Car. At that time, he said: "If I was carried forward by the tide of life before, now it is time for me to do my real career, hold a spear, and challenge the windmill of fate. "

In the same year, Yin Mingshan acquired 80% of the shares of Chongqing Special Purpose Vehicle Manufacturing Plant, and later increased his holdings to 95%. The "Hongda" trademark was completely changed to "Lifan", and he began to build sedan production in Beibei. Base.

On January 19, 2006, the first Lifan Motors Lifan 520 was launched simultaneously in the world. In less than a month, Yin Mingshan established cooperation with more than ten countries and regions including Russia, Nigeria, and Albania. Signed a sales order for Lifan 520. In the next three years, Lifan launched Lifan 320 and Lifan 620. In 2010, Lifan became the first company in China to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Private car companies were listed earlier than Geely and BYD, and 72-year-old Yin Mingshan became the richest man in Chongqing, worth more than 11 billion yuan.

Lu Guanqiu: Set up a car repair stall

Lu Guanqiu (middle)

Lu Guanqiu, who was born in Jinyi Village, Ningwei, Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, was never "restless and disobedient" in his youth. His desire to get rid of his fate as a farmer and become a worker was too strong - if he couldn't work in the city, he would work in the countryside; if he couldn't work in the country, he would work for himself.

After going through three difficult years. , the country attaches great importance to agricultural production and promotes water conservancy. Lu Guanqiu saw rickshaws and bicycles coming and going on the Qiantang River embankment, but there was no repair shop, so he set up a repair stall on the river embankment and the business was good. It’s bad, but it’s better than farming.

Later, he moved the car repair shop outside the flood control embankment and built a thatched house so that he could repair cars at night and earn more money.

After the Qiantang River reclamation project was completed, the flow of vehicles and people decreased significantly, and the car repair business became deserted. Lu Guanqiu once again put away his tools and went home.

In the mid-1960s, China began to rectify agriculture on a large scale and vigorously develop rural productivity. Lu Guanqiu, who had just closed his car repair shop, happened to catch up with this round of mass production. He found that the villagers' farm tools were broken and it was difficult to find repair points, so he decided to open a blacksmith shop and later founded an agricultural machinery factory. The product was a plow blade and later a universal joint on a car.

The 1980s coincided with the adjustment of the national economy, and the supply in the machinery industry exceeded demand. There were as many as 50 universal joint factories nationwide. Lu Guanqiu resolutely gave up the underwriting plan and directly marketed independently to the market, mobilizing all parties. People and horses traveled all over the country to explore sales.

A typical example is that they participated in the National Auto Parts Ordering Fair held in Jiaonan County, Shandong Province. Since it was an unplanned township enterprise and was not eligible to enter, Lu Guanqiu placed a full load of automobile products outside the venue for promotion. When the buyers and sellers at the venue were in a stalemate over price, Lu Guanqiu decided to lower the price by 20, hoping to make small profits but quick turnover. As a result, this batch of overstocked goods was quickly sold, earning sales revenue of 2.1 million yuan.

Since then, this township enterprise, which was not qualified to enter the market, has snatched orders from major state-owned enterprises. With the flagship product "Qianchao" brand universal joints flowing into the market, it has passed its survival period and the domestic market has been opened.

In his more than 50 years of entrepreneurial history, Lu Guanqiu once set up a bicycle repair stall, and once became famous through a stall outside an auto parts exhibition. His spirit has become the spiritual food of entrepreneurs.

In 1984, when Liu Chuanzhi, who had worked as a street vendor, founded Lenovo, Wanxiang products had begun to be exported to the United States; in 1991, when Jack Ma, who had worked as a street vendor, started his business, Wanxiang's total assets had exceeded 100 million yuan. Lu Guanqiu has appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in the United States; in the 1990s, when Lenovo Liu Chuanzhi, Wahaha Zong Qinghou, Geely Li Shufu, Alibaba Jack Ma, etc., who had run street stalls, emerged in the 1990s, Wanxiang had already become world-renowned.

At 12 noon on October 25, 2017, Lu Guanqiu, a lifelong entrepreneur, passed away in Hangzhou at the age of 73. A year later, he was named a "Pioneer of Reform." Two years later, he was named "The Most Beautiful Struggler."

Lu Guanqiu’s entrepreneurial experience in his life, as a worker, as a boss, building cars and cities, can be described as a veritable entrepreneurial mentor. In China, if Lu Guanqiu humbles himself as "China's second entrepreneurial mentor", then no one dares to call him "first".

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.