The post-80s auto finance dream

biographies

He WAS BORN IN JINHUA, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE IN December 1980 AND GRADUATED FROM THE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF Peking University

The current position

Chairman of Zhejiang Car Rental Co., LTD. Chairman of Jinhua Youth Federation of Zhejiang Province Executive Committee of Jinhua Federation of Industry and Commerce of Zhejiang Province CPPCC Member of Jinhua City Vice Chairman of World Outstanding Chinese Businessmen Association

But seven years, Zhang Xiaolin in the fierce competition in the car rental industry to find their place, find their piece of the blue sea, now, he led the Zhejiang Car rental Co., Ltd. has firmly occupied the top three positions in the car rental industry.

POLO shirt, jeans, iPhone, and Apple computers, like most young people born in the 1980s, fashion and popular elements are not uncommon in Zhang Xiaolin. When I first met Zhang Xiaolin, it was hard to connect this young, slightly shy but calm, fashionable young man, with the head of such a large national chain car rental company.

Perhaps many people will put today's "after 80" Zhejiang merchants as rich second generation. But the same label "after 80" Zhang Xiaolin is different, the young Zhejiang business and no prominent family, he just relies on their own efforts step by step to today. He says the post-80s generation is a label for him, but he is not on the same path as most of them.

"Starting a business should be every young person's dream." Mr. Zhang says he is no exception.

For more than 20 years, his family has been in the Buddhist hand business, a unique Jinhua plant variety that has great ornamental and medicinal value. When he was in primary school, he and his brother would pack two baskets of Buddhist hands on their backs on weekends and travel for hours by train to Shanghai and Hangzhou, hoping to get a good price for them. Since then, an inborn seed of entrepreneurship has been quietly sown in 13-year-old Zhang Xiaolin.

After graduating from school in 2003, Zhang couldn't wait to make his way. He first went to Guangzhou full of passion and began to operate the project of Buddha Hand export. Later contracted more than 100 acres of land to cultivate Buddhist hands.

But there is always a huge gap between the ideal and the reality. When Zhang Xiaolin was full of confidence, heavy snow destroyed more than 100 mu of land he contracted, and his original dream of starting a business was crushed.

With only assets, a horse 6 car, Zhang Xiaolin lonely ground back to Jinhua. But what Zhang Xiaolin did not expect was that it was the horse 6 sedan that would change the rest of his life.

His strong personality allowed him to take no money from the family and insisted on supporting himself. So, he put the horse 6 in a friend's car rental shop to rent, a month can receive more than 10,000 yuan rent.

This gave Zhang a sudden Epiphany. "Just as Alibaba [17.20-1.71%] opened that door, I was immediately filled with confidence in the investment prospects of this industry."

So he borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from the local credit union, bought a car rental company, and started his new business. This year, 2003, he just stepped out of school, and just experienced the first setback on the road of entrepreneurship, but also became the beginning of car rental in the future.

Blue ocean strategy

However, the car rental market is not as beautiful as Zhang had imagined. Mixed, uneven, and competitive, business never seemed to pick up. Despite gaining a foothold in the market, Zhang and his company seem to be drowning in Jinhua's plethora of car rentals. Young Zhang Xiaolin often thinks about how to find his blue sea in this "red Sea".

An accidental opportunity changed Zhang Xiaolin and car rental.

Two years later, at the end of 2005, the Jinhua branch of China Mobile opened the bidding for rental cars to the public. Many car rental companies in Jinhua have taken part in the bidding. Young Zhang Xiaolin considered for a long time and finally signed up to participate in the bidding.

"After all, 56 cars, tens of millions of cost is not a small number for a start-up company." With the help of his family, relatives, and friends, he raised the money and won the contract.

The winning bid once again made Zhang Xiaolin into thinking: about whether to change the middle and low-end market of individual customer rental models, to face large enterprises, large groups, as well as enterprises and institutions of high-end customers.

It is also after 80 young people dare to think, dare to try, and let car rental find their piece of the "blue sea".

In the following time, Zhang Xiaolin constantly invested in the purchase of rental cars including Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, and Buick, respectively corresponding to high-end business, mid-end business, high-end personal, and mid-end personal market segments, providing diversified choices for users with rental needs.

Last year, the company cooperated with Shanghai GM, Guangzhou Honda, Bank of China, SINOPEC, China Mobile, China Telecom, and many other Fortune 500 companies.

Improved new model

Zhang Xiaolin says that he is a very conservative person, but he does not lack enthusiasm. The reporter found in contact with Zhang Xiaolin, and the older generation of Zhejiang merchants, he is conservative but radical. Compared with the older generation of Zhejiang businessmen who often copy and copy the business model, he was born in the 1980s and is more willing to add his ideas and improve.

In addition to taking the middle and high-end route, Zhang found that the global car rental giant Hertz has more than 1 million cars on his overseas visits.

"Although the numbers are surprising, the bottom line is the chain network." According to Zhang, Americans can make a phone call at home and the rental company can deliver the car to their door.

In 2006, Car Rental opened a second store.

Subsequently, Zhang Xiaolin began to spread in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou large and medium-sized cities. Now, in more than 50 cities in the country's airports, docks, stations, commercial centers, and tourist attractions, there have been nearly 200 shops.

In the next two years, the company aims to expand its network to 50 first - and second-tier cities, including cities in the central and western regions, and increase its operating fleet to 100,000 vehicles.

The same business model, but in the hands of Zhang Xiaolin, is better suited to China's conditions. He boldly introduced a new car rental model with two licenses and one card (ID card, driver's license, credit card) without guarantee and deposit.

All it takes is a credit card, an ID card, and a driver's license to rent a car from a motorist. Isn't Zhang afraid of the risks?

"The risk? Of course, there is." 'The key is how to control the degree of risk and find the best allocation between risk and business,' Mr. Zhang said.

"We have launched a credit card rental service, which is equipped with ID card identification system, bank POS system, global positioning GPS." Zhang Xiaolin said that through means such as credit cards, banks have provided the first layer of screening for car rental, coupled with global positioning and GPS, and the degree of risk control is greatly enhanced.

The company also implements credit rating management for its customers. Customers with high credit ratings can enjoy more value-added services, while those who fail to keep their promises will be blacklisted.

Auto Finance Dream

Although the post-80s Zhejiang businessmen are highly receptive to new things and new business models, there is also the use of financial leverage.

Zhang Xiaolin said that in Europe and the United States, not only car rental has become mainstream, but the rent-for-purchase model has also become common. "More than 40 percent of car sales in the U.S. are rent-to-purchase, compared to 55 percent in Europe."

Leasing means buying a new car according to the model specified by the customer and signing an agreement with the customer. According to the agreement, the property right of the car will be transferred to the customer after the customer leases the car for a certain period. It is a kind of leasing mode which is based on car leasing and defined by vehicle property right transfer.

It is understood that in the developed countries of Europe and the United States, leasing and car purchase mode is not only an important part of the auto finance business, but also a very popular means of auto marketing.

Could such a model work in China? After much deliberation, in May 2010 he teamed up with BNP Paribas, Europe's largest bank, to develop a rent-for-purchase car business in China.

"The post-80s generation has more learning opportunities and strong learning ability, but the key is to have the courage to practice." Zhang Xiaolin believes that enterprises want to be the first, to learn from many worlds first. Enterprises want to be big, with the help of IT, with the power of finance.

Zhang Xiaolin has also recently reached an intention with strategic investors from Europe to absorb the other side's venture capital. Strong domestic venture capital also basically finalized capital injection car rental. This year, ZHANG Xiaolin set up a new all-foreign company - Haina International Car Rental, intending to become the first domestic industry in the capital market enterprises.

At the age of 30, Zhang Xiaolin's dream of the auto finance is already within reach, and the dream of the post-80s generation to start a business is best illustrated by him.