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A post-80s who has experienced three entrepreneurial failures

A post-80s who has experienced three entrepreneurial failures

By Mohandas YorkPublished 2 years ago 7 min read
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Li Ke, a post-80s college student who failed three times to start his own business, finally found his way to wealth -- cleaning home appliances. In just three years, the company has grown from an initial investment of 20,000 yuan to millions of yuan. A few days ago, Li Ke told reporters about his business bitterness and happiness, experience, and harvest.

Goal: To be listed on GEM

Li Ke founded Zhengzhou Lanqing Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Lanqing) in 2006. By 2009, the turnover had exceeded 3 million yuan, and the net profit had increased to more than 1.5 million yuan. The rapid growth of the enterprise and the good prospect of the industry laid the confidence of Lee Ke to make the enterprise bigger. "Listing on the Growth Enterprise Market is already in the company's plan." "The young man, born in 1981, said firmly.

Lanqing, which started as a home appliance cleaning business, has now focused on live cleaning because Mr. Lee has found that this is the key to profitable growth. "The so-called live cleaning is the use of special cleaning agents, in the normal operation of all kinds of precision electrical equipment, electrical machinery equipment, etc. The purpose of cleaning is to maintain this expensive equipment, prevent leakage, short circuit, weak signal and extend the service life."

"For example, Zhengzhou Mobile Company, Henan branch of China Telecom, Henan Provincial Party Committee, Xiaolangdi Hub Administration, and many other units are our customers, switches, mobile base stations, and other internal dust is easy to cover, thorough cleaning, can prevent equipment failure, improve the efficiency of the equipment." Leake, who has already tasted the sweet spot, believes that this is an area where there are not many competitors. At this time, Lanqing's plans have been born in his mind.

Part-time jobs bring entrepreneurial dreams

In three years, the company's address has changed three times, representing three different stages, from its initial residential building to a somewhat dilapidated office building and, more recently, to the bustling Zhengzhou World Trade Center. Standing on the 22nd floor of his company, Leake looks back on his six years as a start-up with mixed feelings of sadness and joy.

After graduating from college in 2003, Lee chose to start his own business, a decision that stemmed from a part-time job he had during college. During the summer vacation, to earn some pocket money, Rick looked for a job on the street and rushed into a chain store storm shelter as a waiter. Unexpectedly, because of the hard work, after the opening of the store manager just pulled him not to let go, not only promoting him to the foreman but also agreeing to Lee go to school in the morning and work in the afternoon.

"It was that experience that got me started," Leake says. "The Safe had a formal business model, and I managed over 30 people. After graduation, I felt I could start a business." So, Lee opened a Cha chaan teng near his school, modeled after a typhoon shelter. DIY interior design, and good cost control, after only four or five months, the Cha chaan teng began to make a profit.

A series of blows

Unexpectedly, the original noble person turned out to be the memory that Li Ke did not want to mention the most in the future, which also let him end his first business and enter a two-year low.

In the tea restaurant business thriving, a person carrying 800 thousand yuan to find Li Ke, hope and Li Ke jointly run the tea restaurant. Leake also saw an opportunity to expand the store and jumped at it.

Unexpectedly, not only did they have different business ideas, but the partner was also very possessive. Rick slowly felt excluded, infighting is deadly to a business, and business is slow. Finally one day, Rick took the turnover of the day 300 yuan net out of the house.

"At that time, I simply did not sign the contract for this partnership." "Said, Rick. The failure left Rick with nothing. Every day, a lot of hair fell out, and suffering and injustice filled the young man's fragile heart.

Leake says he has always regarded time as his life. After a short adjustment, he opened a hotel and a tobacco hotel, which were small investments, but also failed.

Find a business opportunity in a desperate situation

"If you find yourself on the wrong path, throw in the towel quickly to save time for the next step," Leake says.

Inadvertently seeing news about residents looking for home appliance cleaning, let Li Ke feel great business opportunities here. Since this is a new industry, he first studied the development trend of the whole industry without knowing anything about quitting and then went to many places to conduct field market research. After deciding that this was a good project, Rick went into a local appliance repair department and started from scratch, learning basic skills about the internal structure and maintenance of appliances.

After six months of painstaking study, with a project and technology, Lee began to look for funds. This time, he learned the initial lesson and, based on finding a like-minded investor, used the contract to elaborate on the responsibilities and obligations of both parties.

In 2006, Lanqing opened for business. During the day, Li Ke took only three employees to run the market, distributing leaflets on the street under the hot sun, sweeping the building, doing activities in the community, running units, watching marketing CDS at night, and now learning and using.

In the days filled with entrepreneurial passion, he did not feel tired. A month later, they got their first sale -- the cleaning of 40 air conditioners. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give Rick confidence that there was a market for my project!

The entrepreneurial journey continues

In Leake's view, minimizing costs in the early stages of a business is the only way to survive the difficult early stages. He likes the saying that most entrepreneurs die on the eve of success because they don't take that extra step.

"Now the comprehensive strength of Lanqing has ranked first in the province, and I will achieve the goal of listing before I am 40 years old and become an industry leader," said Li Ke. But the young man faced several obstacles. Since 2008, the company has changed a lot and grown faster, and he works 16 or 17 hours a day. He was so busy that he had to go home early during this year's Spring Festival to recover from his illness, which the doctor diagnosed as "too tired".

Like many entrepreneurs, it is hard to go from a hands-on striver to a manager who is a master of his own hands. Although Leak is slowly trying to relinquish power, he is faced with a problem - talent.

There are difficulties, hope, frustration, joy, disappointment, and accidents, the entrepreneur Rick continues to walk on the road of entrepreneurship.

It is very important to select customers, and the business volume of a single order is directly raised from one thousand yuan to ten thousand yuan or even hundreds of thousands of yuan.

At present, Lanqing's main customers and future development focus are administrative institutions, and large state-owned enterprises, including government departments, hospitals, schools, banks, telecommunications, and so on. "Amid the economic crisis, our company expanded rather than shrunk, which has a lot to do with our current customer distribution," Lee said with a laugh. Another important group of his customers is private enterprises, such as Internet cafes, hotels, and various entertainment venues. "Business owners are concerned about wear and tear and cost, so we often present specific numbers directly to our customers about the savings in energy, the reduction in damage, and the reduction in repair costs," Leake says.

"It's important to choose a project, but it's just a good start," Leake says. "Otherwise, the best ideas and ideas are just a dream."

After his first deal, Rick made a lot of summaries. "Asking clients how they got in touch with us, their advice, what other services they need from us, and of course, as the business grows, the experience grows." Leake slowly separated its business and technology areas and increased efficiency, adding businesses such as central air conditioning cleaning and live cleaning of telecommunications and power equipment

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Mohandas York

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