Collective micro-entrepreneurship in cafes with more than 100 owners

In June last year, Dalian boys Wang Lianli and Sun Xiaolong issued an invitation to the public, hoping to find people with common ideals and goals, and crowdfunding to open a cafe. This entrepreneurial wind has made many young people itch, and on December 24 last year, their idea finally came true. A cafe with 92 young owners appeared in our city, turning a lot of seemingly impossible things into reality. It was not the first time for everyone to raise money to open a coffee shop in Dalian. Last year, a similar situation occurred in many big cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. However, recently, news of poor operation has been reported from "many cafes" scattered in various places, and some stores have even been listed for sale. This can not help but make people worry, is our "many people Cafe" in Dalian all right?

With neither loss nor profit, only one of the 111 bosses changed shares and quit.

Goal: 500 shares, 1.5 million yuan, this is the ideal state before the opening of "a lot of people", although from June to December last year, only raised more than 130,000 shares, more than 400,000 yuan of funds, but because to find a storefront with high performance and price, "a lot of people" were born in the expectation of everyone. It has been operating for nearly half a year, and many people are more concerned about its business situation. Under the condition of continuous crowdfunding, the number of its bosses has increased from 92 at the beginning of business to 111. For the status of the operation, the 111 bosses can learn about it regularly from the emails of the shareholder group. For outsiders, Wang Lianfu's words may answer the doubt: "in the past six months, we have been in a state of trial operation, which can be said to be flat. We have not made any money, nor have we closed the shop." Wang Lianqi said that the monthly labor cost in the store is more than 10,000 yuan, the rent is more than 10,000 yuan, and the cost of food is 7,000 to 8,000 yuan. Together with other consumption, the monthly expenditure is about 30,000 yuan, while based on the per capita consumption of more than 20 yuan, the average daily passenger flow is about 60. Income and expenditure offset each other, and there is little left.

Do not make much money, this state is not unique to "many people" in Dalian, affected by the economic environment, some "many people", including Hangzhou, because they do not make money, bosses have begun to talk about transfer. Sun Xiaolong said that of the 111 shareholders since crowdfunding, only one left because the family was in urgent need of money, but this person did not withdraw the shares, but transferred the shares to someone else. "where there is a man, there is hope." This is the unswerving belief of "many people".

There are so many shareholders that only two "shareholders' meetings" have been held since its opening.

Many people become bosses, vote system, dream come true, many people are agitated by this new entrepreneurial trend and finally experience it, but there are some hidden worries behind the passion, that is, "too many people and miscellaneous hands" is difficult to decide. As a result, some "many people" scattered all over the country are facing the dilemma of disintegration, but the "many people" in Dalian have taken a different attitude before this threshold.

In the weekends before the store opened on December 24 last year, Wang Lianfu's mobile phone was recharged almost all day, with the location, name, rent, clerk and pricing, and they held a shareholders' meeting almost every week to vote on these major decisions. At most, more than 40 people attended the meeting at the same time. 'at that time, the core shareholders were as busy as a top, but they had a strong sense of achievement, 'Mr. Wang said. However, when "a lot of people" was born, the "shareholders' meeting", which is held almost once a week, faded out of the shareholders' view. "since its opening, we have only held two shareholders' meetings, one attended by more than a dozen people, and one attended by more than 20 people." Wang Lianfu explained that almost all the owners run cafes part-time, and each has its own business. It is not a major decision and will not organize a large-scale shareholders' meeting. Instead, it is decided by some shareholders who often come to the store and know about the operation. It is reported that there are more than 20 people in this decision-making circle, which is not fixed. Some people continue to fade out and people continue to participate. The idea of Mr Wang and some core shareholders is that business things are changing so fast that they need to seize the moment, and that if more than 100 shareholders are called to vote on everything, they may not even be able to buy a mop.

The price has just increased by 15%. Can the coffee shop break through the bottleneck of operation?

Although since the gathering of crowdfunding, "many people" have raised a total of more than 500,000 yuan, but these funds have long been consumed by decoration, advance rent and fixed equipment investment. "in order to open a shop, some shareholders and I even borrowed more than 300,000 yuan from the store." Wang Lianqi said that the 800000 yuan expenditure has not yet been recovered, and publicity methods such as Wechat marketing and Weibo marketing are also unable to be effectively realized because of financial constraints.

Although the cafe breaks even every month, the extra rent money is filled with the investment needed to expand its operation. At first, the store only sold coffee, fruit juices and desserts, but now there are more soft drinks, sandwiches, French fries, homemade pizzas and other varieties with the increase in the flow of people, Wang said. The purchase of raw materials for these foods and the investment in manufacturing equipment is not a small sum of money.

On Monday, a new decision was made in "many people", that is, to raise the price of products. Wang Lianyu and some shareholders decided to raise the price of the products sold in the store by 15% as a whole. Although the decision puzzled some shareholders, the decision did not hold a shareholders' meeting. Wang Lianyu said that he investigated parameters such as the resale rate of the cafe and came to the conclusion that even if the price increases, it will not affect the existing passenger flow. Price increases are imperative.

Can the increase in prices make "a lot of people" cafes out of the bottleneck? Wang Lianfu's answer is intriguing. He said that making money is an important goal of cafes, but it is not the ultimate goal. They are not raising prices in order to make more money, but they are doing it in accordance with the correct business strategy. Of course, the extra income from price increases is also what they need.

Biannual cycle

There is a clear statement about whether to share out dividends or to dissolve.

Compared with one person opening a coffee shop and two people partnering to open a coffee shop, hundreds of people partnering to open a coffee shop makes people feel powerful. Wang Lianyu said that although he has not conducted a systematic survey on the operation of all the cafes in Dalian, after communicating with a number of people in the industry, he learned that although the coffee shop has not yet made a profit, the number of customers in the shop is good in Dalian cafes. This also gives "many people" the strength and confidence to stick to it.

However, some people are curious that there are hundreds of bosses in a store. If these bosses had mobilized the effective resources around them, the customer flow of "many people" might have doubled long ago. Wang Lianyu said that their entrepreneurial model is crowdfunding. Except that the fund-raising model is different from that of ordinary companies, the business model is close to that of ordinary companies, and shareholders are only responsible for capital contribution and have no obligation to find ways to make profits. All shareholders have to do is look at the financial statements every month.

In addition, Wang Lianfu feels that going to a coffee shop to drink coffee is a kind of sentiment of life, not the necessities of life, food, and other fast consumer goods. Coupled with the fact that people are different from the coffee shop, the nature of their work is also different, so it is of little significance to do "publicity for everyone." The reporter learned that the shareholders in the cafe are not indifferent to their own store, although most people do not participate in the specific operation, but spare time to help watch the store, change the light bulb for the store, as far as they can, shareholders will be enthusiastic to participate.

According to the original contract, coffee will be operated for two years after opening. At that time, there will be a clear statement on whether to share out dividends or dissolve. It will take another year and a half to test Wang Lianfu and others. What kind of answer will he hand over in the future? will crowdfunding cafes exert unknown pressure on the "brain" of his organization?

"some shareholders are enthusiastic about the coffee shop, while others stand on the sidelines, but most people do not forget the original intention, that is, the ultimate goal of opening a coffee shop is out of our common interest, love of coffee and passion for starting a business." Wang Lianfu said that two years later, even if he didn't get a bonus, he believed that the fun of learning to start a business and realizing his dream would make everyone feel that he had not invested in vain. As for the question of whether they will be stressed by too many people, the post-80s generation answered in this way: "if there are too many people, there will be differences. This is certain, but there is no problem. As long as we respect each other, we will OK."