In 2015, as a fresh graduate, I did not choose to work in an employer. Instead, like many "ambitious" young people, I chose to return to my hometown to start a business. My first entrepreneurial project was to breed Muscovy ducks, which are very popular among our locals.
Compared with many people who return to their hometown to start a business, I am relatively lucky because my decision is supported by my family. With the help of my family, I successfully scraped together 50,000 yuan of start-up capital by borrowing from relatives and applying for college student entrepreneurship loans from banks.
After having this money, I spent almost 10,000 yuan to build a simple duck house, and then started raising duck seedlings.
Because this is the first time to breed, there is no breeding technology and no sales channels. So I prefer a farming model that includes technology and recycling.
Under the guidance of this idea, I found a manufacturer in Suqian, Jiangsu through the Internet. They promised to provide technical training and signed a recycling contract. After many online communications, I felt the "sincerity" of the other party, so I bought a ticket to Suqian. But who knew, this decision would make me unable to extricate myself for the next 6 years.
I still clearly remember that the person I connected with online was named Zhong Mudan, and she was a woman. During the communication, she has been enthusiastically inviting me to visit their company, saying that the round trip expenses and accommodation expenses can be reimbursed for the visit.
At that time, I thought, in this case, it would be okay to go and have a look. If the cooperation succeeds, it will be a good thing. If the cooperation fails, nothing will be lost, so I went alone.
The other party’s factory is called Dadi Duck Hatchery, but the specific address is unclear. I only remember that I took a bus to Suqian Station, and then the other party arranged for a car to pick me up at the station. It took about more than an hour's drive from Suqian Station, and finally we stopped in what looked like a small town in Shuyang County.
Since it was already past 11pm when I arrived, they arranged for me to stay in a hotel and told me to get up early the next morning to visit the factory.
When I got up the next day, when I contacted Zhong Mudan, who had been in contact with me before, she said that she had a cold and could not come to receive me today, so she arranged for another person to pick me up and take me to the factory. Visit here. I didn't think much about it at the time. After asking her to take care of herself, I got into the car that came to receive me. But later I learned that this was actually the beginning of the trap they designed.
After about half an hour’s drive, I arrived at their breeding farm. It really has everything inside. There are duck breeding farms, duck hatching workshops, offices and so on. However, when I asked to see their business license, they said that the business license had been taken to the industrial and commercial office and it would take two or three days to get it back. I believed it to be true at the time and didn’t think much about it.
Under their "warm" reception, combined with the complete "company industry chain" I saw in front of me, my doubts were completely dispelled. I decided to cooperate with them, I breed and they recycle.
The price of Muscovy ducklings that year was more expensive than in previous years. Our local market price is about 9 yuan a piece, but what they gave me was 7 yuan a piece. I was even secretly happy at the time, secretly glad that reading some books was still useful. Otherwise, how could I have found such a good resource and such a good opportunity?
In the end, I signed a contract with them to raise 3,000 Muscovy ducks. The price of duck seedlings is 7 yuan each. When the duck seedlings are brought over, their technicians will follow me to the farm to provide on-site guidance. They will not withdraw until I have learned the lesson.
In addition, the contract also stipulates that after 100 days of breeding, the ducks will be recycled after the average weight reaches 8 pounds. The recycling price is 15 yuan per pound.
Based on this calculation, the recycling price of a duck is at least 120 yuan. And they calculated an account for me. The cost of raising Muscovy ducks for 100 days is only about 50 yuan. The profit equivalent to a single duck is as high as 70 yuan or more. For such a batch of 3,000, my net profit will be at least 200,000.
After signing the contract and paying the seedling payment, I came back and waited for the seedlings.
Four days later, they informed us that they were bringing ducklings over, but their technician had a "cold" again that day, so he couldn't come. But it doesn’t matter, you can be guided through online methods such as video and phone calls.
In desperation, I had no choice but to agree. The contract was signed and the money was paid. I didn’t want to ruin the cooperative relationship because of this. After all, I wanted them to make a fortune with me.
Later, their so-called technicians did not give me any practical guidance. After a few days, the ducklings began to die in large numbers. I asked them several times to send someone to the scene to help solve the problem, but they all refused with various reasons.
However, with all my efforts, I managed to save half of the ducks in the end. At that time, I also felt that since it was my first time to breed, it would be good to keep half of it. But who knew that these half of the surviving ducks would be the beginning of my entrepreneurial “nightmare”.
At that time, I had already spent all my 50,000 yuan, and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from here and there to buy feed. But ducks eat so much, tens of thousands of dollars won't solve the problem at all. Later, I borrowed feed on credit from the owner of the feed store.
The back and forth, from building a duck house to purchasing duck seedlings, and then breeding them in the following months, cost more than 100,000 yuan. But what's worse is not that I spent so much money, but that the duck I spent so much money to raise is not the Muscovy duck I want.
After raising it for more than two months, I found that this duck did not grow big no matter how much I raised it. It only grew more than one pound in two months. If this continues, how can it be possible to reach the average weight of more than 8 pounds stipulated in the contract after 100 days of raising it?
In desperation, I found an experienced local farmer to help me. As a result, when they saw my duck, they slapped their thighs and said I was cheated. I was confused at first, but after the explanation from the old farmer, I woke up from a dream, but it was too late to regret.
It turns out that what the manufacturer sent me was not a Muscovy duck at all, but a male laying duck that no one had raised. This kind of seedling is very cheap, usually only two or three cents each. It is specially used as feed for carnivorous animals. No one raises this kind of duck at all.
In addition, this kind of duck can only grow to weigh more than two kilograms at most, and will never reach the eight kilograms or more stipulated in our contract. If I sell it on the market, almost no one will buy it. It only costs 5 yuan a piece, which is pretty good.
So, they were setting me up from the beginning. Starting from the "cold" of the relevant personnel to the absence of business licenses, these are all connected one by one.
After learning about this situation, I negotiated with the other party many times, but the other party insisted that there was nothing wrong with the seedlings they distributed. In desperation, I finally chose to call the police. But the police said this was a contract dispute and they had no authority to dispatch police. They suggested that I go to court and sue the other party.
So, I found a lawyer and decided to take legal channels to protect my rights to the end. But the lawyer said that the evidence I have now is not enough to prove that there is something wrong with the seedlings they distributed, so he suggested that I first send a lawyer's letter to the other party outlining the entire incident.
If the other party replies after receiving the lawyer’s letter, we can use this as evidence to sue them in court. And if the other party does not reply to the letter after receiving it, then legally they can be deemed to have acquiesced to this fact, and we can also sue them on this basis.
So, I spent a thousand yuan to hire a lawyer to send them a lawyer's letter. But who knew, they were more "cunning" than we imagined, and they refused to sign the lawyer's letter directly. This is equivalent to the lawyer's letter being sent having no effect.
In the end, after many fruitless negotiations, I was exhausted both physically and mentally, so I gave up on defending my rights and considered myself unlucky. This is the ending of my first breeding business.
After this incident, I owed nearly 150,000 yuan in debt. It has been more than six years since that year, and I am still "filling in the gaps" on this matter.
A few days ago I just paid him back the last 5,000 yuan in feed money I owed him from the feed store, and I could finally put an end to this matter. But I also have mixed feelings at the same time, so I wrote it down in the hope that more people who want to breed can see it and avoid stepping on "pits" like mine.
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