An inspirational story about a post-80s boy selling price online

In the Binjiang district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, business buildings are filled with large and small companies, Hangzhou Green Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. is one of them. In this entrepreneurial story, we want to introduce the story of Wang Anping, the founder of "Gu Lu Agricultural Products", whose online sales of rice exceeded 100 million yuan.

Wang Anping, the founder of Hangzhou Green Agricultural Science and Technology Co., LTD., was born in the 1980s, graduated from the Department of Business Administration of Zhejiang University City College in 2007, and graduated from the Department of Economics of Zhejiang University with a master's degree. The company's current main business is high-end organic multigrain products, including agricultural products, nuts, scented tea, and so on.

Starting a business is a trek between two hills

When Gu Green was founded, there were only three people in the company. Because of the joke "we sell rice", Wang Anping and two friends from the university hit it off and formed a Chinese partner. The beginning of the story is tortuous, the recent graduation of college students is too young and too naive.

Wang Anping is naive to describe their own business at that time. They didn't know anything about agriculture because they just started doing it. They didn't know what kind of rice was delicious in the market. So they went to the farmers' market to ask the aunts, and the answer they heard most was "Wuchang". "Good, then sell Wuchang rice", said Wang Anping amused by himself, their road to sell rice unexpectedly began so "sloppy".

The next step is to find suppliers, but where are the suppliers? So Wang Anping went to Heilongjiang Wuchang and asked from house to house. "At that time, I just started to ask someone for 1 ton. It was just a trifle. Who cares?" Recalling that period, Wang Anping waved his hand to speak of the past. Fortunately, he finally lived in Wuchang for 3 days, and he caught the "noble man" who supported college students' entrepreneurship with his tenacity. But with suppliers is far from enough, and the sales channel is more difficult to open, "I thought we can get the goods, communicate with the supermarket people to sell there, but we were kicked out, or too naive", because the entrance fee is 200,000 yuan, there are a variety of bar code fees and so on, so Wang Anping they hit a wall.

About three months later, Wang Anping's two small partners gave up, feeling that the prospect is not good, the road is confusing, and the real version of the Chinese partner Qu is not finished but scattered. Although Wang Anping felt lost, he still stuck to it, relying on the teachers of the city yard to "pull the knot", he met Jiang Zhang, who graduated from the same school. Since then two people hand in hand, the valley green to do the wind and water. Especially on the road of agricultural e-commerce, can be said to be rejected by physical stores after the Jedi counterattack.

"Entrepreneurship is a trek between two mountains, standing on the top of the mountain can see the opposite mountain's beautiful but ethereal scenery, but the road between is full of bumps, and the initial downhill is inevitable, so don't aim too high, first do down-to-earth and firm", Wang Anping compared the process of entrepreneurship.

Valley green gradually into a good situation and put forward the "project team" reform management

Although the valley green in today's agricultural industry has a voice, there has been a bottleneck. In 2012, the second year after Gu Green started, the company was growing but Wang felt that development was slowing down and employees were not as enthusiastic as before. So there needs to be a little innovation in management to inject new vitality into the company because people directly affect the product.

Finally, Wang Anping put forward the concept of a "project team". Everyone could propose new products to be made, and the participants and funds could also be decided by themselves. For example, the baking team of Valley Green, a total of three people, only does the baking work, and eventually, in addition to the bottom salary, they can get 70% of the profits of the project. The better they do, the higher the profits. And as long as one has the ability, even can undertake a project, the benefits are also considerable. Under the incentive of these "rules of the game", every employee can fully mobilize their creativity, gain cohesion in the project, and bring greater benefits to the company, which is a win-win situation.

The concept initially met with resistance from employees because of the high pressure of the job, but Wang says, "When you join Gulu, you don't come to take a boat and ride the Gulu Express. You come to be a sailor and explore on your own." However, Wang Anping still tries to give everyone a free and relaxed environment. There is no employee handbook in Gu Green, and there are not many rules and restrictions. At most, when you are late, you will be fined some money into the "happy fund". "I AM LATE ALSO FINE MONEY, HAPPY FUND to buy snacks for everyone." Wang Anping chipped in.

"Gu Lu agricultural products" with quality and quantity is the first seller of grain and oil on Tmall

Data has become particularly important in the era of big data. For example, the transaction volume of 35 billion yuan on Taobao on Singles' Day has attracted the attention of countless people on Weibo. "Gu Lu Agricultural Products" has also left a string of indelible data changes in its three years of development. Team line: 3 people -- 10 people -- more than 100 people; Product line: 1-28 - more than 300; Company area: 60 square meters - 130 square meters - nearly 400 square meters; Online sales: 10-20 million -- 70-80 million -- 130 million -- the sales volume of the previous year was completed in the first half of 2014.

There are a lot of data also revealing the rapid development of the company, Tmall grain and oil sales first is easy to conquer, a glance at the mountain's small momentum. In this regard, Wang Anping put it plainly, "now online product homogenization is increasingly serious, want to stand out, quality is the key, packaging and other changes are just playing tricks."

So how do ensure the quality of grain green products? It goes back to the origin of the product. Take rice as an example, perhaps many people do not know what is "organic rice" it refers to the planting in soil that has not touched chemical pesticides for three years, the use of the natural farming method, the use of organic fertilizer rice, eliminating the possible heavy metals or pesticide residues. And Wang Anping rice base choice in the "special rice township" Heilongjiang Wuchang, where more than 60,000 mu of land belongs to the grain green, from seed selection to harvest monitoring.

However, Wang Anping believes that ensuring quality at the source is not enough, because the organic market is so mixed that many organic certifications are needed to give consumers visible peace of mind. For example, you can paste the trace code on the valley green products on the national certification Commission website to check the authenticity, and food from which company, which base, and even can go on the field trip. What's more intimate is that Wang Anping also made a taste evaluation of his rice, and got 86 out of 100 points. Because of the difficulty of the exam, there is not much rice with more than 80 points, which is already regarded as the "outstanding student" of rice.

Under the quality control of Wang Anping, Gu Green's products are gold that can shine everywhere, so both online and offline sales have begun to be popular. "Forty percent of sales are physical, and 60 percent are online. Last year, online sales exceeded 100 million yuan, and in the first half of 2014, they surpassed last year's sales. I hope online can help offline promotion, and offline can help online improve consumer trust, and the two complement each other. "Wang Anping believes that this is still the general direction of the future development of Valley Green.

Would rather not general for ten years than one day without arch and death

Wang Anping has always stressed that he is really lucky, and even joked that "doing agricultural e-commerce in 2009 caught up with the good times, should be the words, at the right time, standing in the air outlet, pigs can fly".

But to catch up with the good times also have to work hard, there is a saying that "would rather not general for ten years, not one day, not arch-pawn", and Wang Anping is very recognized. The lesson he shared was to have a small immediate goal and work toward it a little bit each day. Flashy plans don't work in his eyes. Wang Anping said that in the college students' Entrepreneurship Alliance, he heard many college students say that they want to be listed in companies, and the blueprint of the future is very moving. When others asked "will Gu Green be listed", Wang Anping did not answer directly, "entrepreneurship is completed step by step, the scenery on the opposite hill is beautiful, but also ethereal, and the current work is the most important to complete."

In 2014, Wang Anping was hired as the entrepreneurship tutor of the college. He guided college students to start their businesses in his Alma mater. He sincerely suggested that when starting a business, how to do it in the future is not as important as how to do it now. Even do not know how to also can start, as long as there is a concrete idea, you see the valley green is not from a "to sell rice" start. But once you start, you have to keep working hard. Does West Lake Art walk? no! Xiaomi coffee at Starbucks? no! Hang out with friends? no! I don't even have time for girlfriends! All in all, you spend your time building a business, which Wang famously calls "black hole entrepreneurship."

From selling rice to selling agricultural products, Wang said the next step is to develop an independent platform, integrate the supply chain of agricultural products, and cooperate with the government to promote locally labeled agriculture.

"Valley Green is just beginning! Wang Anping raised the corners of his mouth.