The road to entrepreneurship with the aroma of coffee

It is the annual "graduation season", and a new group of fresh graduates will enter the workplace from campus. Zheng Qibin, a recent graduate majoring in social work at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, was also a vigilant young caretaker who opened three branches in Foshan and Guangzhou when they were looking for jobs. The boy from Jieyang, Guangdong Province is only 23 years old this year.

When it comes to coffee, many people immediately think of hot films such as "Coffee Prince one" and "36th Story". It is a vain attempt of many young people to open a coffee shop of their own. The goal of Zheng Qibin and his team is not only that, but to build the number one brand of Chinese university coffee chain. Interestingly, the coffee brand they founded is called "Aichens", which means "Benedict" in English. While most of their peers are still immersed in the imagination of the future, they have turned this sweet-scented fantasy into reality through action. In August 2012, this participating team, which does not come from heavy universities, with the "Aichens" business plan, beat the flooding of famous universities across the country and won the Silver Award in the final round of the first phase of the National Huatu University Venture Fund.

The logo of the cafe is a butterfly, which not only represents the aroma of coffee, but also gathers the meaning of "breaking a cocoon into a butterfly". Zheng Qibin's story of keeping the industry is also like the taste of coffee, which is bitter before sweet. "from a small worm egg to a butterfly fluttering its wings, you experience a lot of melodies," he said. No matter how bitter it is, we never give up, because this is our dream and we keep fighting for the butterfly. " He summed up the experience and experience of himself and his team into three sentences: "Dream blossoms because of madness; action, pious because of persistence; sharing, moved by sincerity."

Open pub to test the waters for running a coffee shop

In September 2010, Zheng Qibin left Guangdong University of Finance and Economics with a beautiful vision for the university, and Ma Li adapted to his college career. Recalling the signs of today, he said that his freshman year was my most passionate moment, and at this moment, like other people, he actively grabbed the public on duty and joined the club, but, "if I hadn't met that group of people, I think my reservation went up according to my original beat, and they tampered with the trajectory of my life."

The "group of people" mentioned by Zheng Qibin refers to a team called Rongqi. The team was established in November 2010. "Rongqi" is homophonic "Rongqi", which means "merging all the wizards in the world". The Rongqi team was built by Zheng Qibin's partner and his brother Goh Chee Wee. Zheng Qibin hit it off with his brother Goh Chee Wee and chose to join. "when communicating with him, I think he has a lot of ideas. Rongqi's idea is:'a person can go fast, but a group of people can go farther.' I want to go further, so I choose a group of people. " At present, Rongqi team has developed to the fourth generation, a total of more than 60 people, and has a variety of professional talents, is an efficient combat learning team.

In addition, another notice is that this team is mainly composed of fellow villagers from Jieyang. In Zheng Qibin's view, this team "has an extremely high melting power and a strong sense of belonging, no more than the usual club or structure, and our mutual connection and passion are not only four years of college, but also can integrate the whole students." A year later, Zheng Qibin took over the position of team leader from his brother and became the captain of Rongqi.

In May 2011, Rongqi team took the first step of keeping business theory-Rongqi pub closed down. Nowadays, it is rare for a university to open a pub. Although it is only a small shop of 20 square meters, it has attracted a lot of popularity. On the first night of business, from 6pm to more than 4am the next morning, Zheng Qibin mixed 60 or 70 cocktails and "almost broke the shake." The wine in the shop was nearly sold out, and there was not enough ice, so they even went to the nearest milk tea shop to borrow ice. After closing at more than 5: 00 in the morning, the team still had a meeting in the store to sum up the business situation of the day. Zheng Qibin said with a smile: "it is quite rampant to think of it now. Maybe it was at that moment that I gradually had that kind of wolf nature in my heart and hoped to fight."

After that, the "Rongqi" team attended the "College Student Challenge Cup Business Plan Competition". Brother Goh Chee Wee found him again and shared with him his first idea of opening a coffee shop. "We want to be a coffee shop, first of all, because there is not a coffee shop in our school, and the coffee shop is a necessary place for peaceful communication in a big school garden. Second, we have done a relevant survey and found that there is still a large gap in the market for cafes, and the trend is very good. Third, coffee is a foreign culture, and its international acceptance is not very high. We also hope to be a promoter of civilization, so that coffee civilization can blend with old-fashioned civilization. "

In the process of getting involved in the "provocation Cup," Zheng Qibin, as the captain, often had to follow up the work of various sections. Staying up all night became his meager meal, with a plan of more than 100 pages. He had to check word for word to see if there were any mistakes, and then took it to typesetting. Afterwards, the coffee shop's entrepreneurial project won the bronze prize in the province's college students' business plan competition. In the just-concluded 2014 Guangdong University Student handling Cup, Zheng Qibin and his partners went out again with their business plan, won the Guangdong gold medal and entered the national competition.

Self-taught design into half a "decorator"

Since October 2011, Zheng Qibin and his team have been looking for the right storefront for the cafe from time to time, and several site selection plans have ended up empty, either because the rent is too high or because the astronomical status is not ambitious enough. Afterwards, they shifted their target to the idle coffee shop on the first floor of the library on the Sanshui campus of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics. Zheng Qibin recalled: "I remember when we looked at the vacant lot and said something like this: if only we could have a cup of coffee of our own here later." So they decided to open the first cafe here.

There is nothing more than a steady stream of troublesome matters. Zheng Qibin said: "We are just ordinary students and have no so-called social background." How to write the project plan, how to get the venue, how to get the money. A lot of headlines appeared after a while, and each of them was very difficult for us at that time. "

So Zheng Qibin and the other two founders took dozens of pages of the cafe project plan and went to the school guide one by one to distribute the plan as a flyer. "in the most rampant time, the three of us wanted to have lunch after printing the plan, but there was no money left. The three of us only had 11 yuan, so we simply bought three bottles of eight-treasure porridge, leaving 50 cents left." After that, almost all the school leaders knew how many students wanted to open a cafe in the school. After more than half a year of approximation, the ultimate school was moved by the persistence and enthusiasm of these young people and formally signed a contract with Zheng Qibin's team to lease the garden to them.

Then, Zheng Qibin, they ran into a financial problem. Sanshui has a storefront of 260 square meters, and the first phase of the launch capital needs 150000 yuan, which is astronomical about the three of them as a whole. Unable to do so, they chose to resell the pub they had opened in the past and raise money through financing, financing and lending.

The problem of capital title has been solved, and the rest is the decoration of the storefront. On a summer day in 2012, Zheng Qibin and his team wore jerseys, flip-flops and a tape measure to seal off their decoration trip. As we all have no common sense of design and decoration experience, we can only find a lot of space design drawings for my study. They also found several of the best decoration companies in Sanshui District to see the site, proposed to take the initiative, and then integrated the plan proposed by the decoration company, and decided on the design plan of the Sanshui store.

In order to squander capital, they hired the local decoration construction team, half-contractor and half-package of materials, and became half of the "decoration disciples." Throughout the summer of 2012, Zheng Qibin and his companions spent most of their time designing, polishing boards, cleaning and working as porters. On a hot day of more than 30 degrees Celsius, they were carried and drenched with sweat. Zheng Qibin said with a smile that his clothes "can really wring out water." When making wall cabinets, they learned the whole design spirit and style from a book about space design. Zheng Qibin still remembers that now the carpenter's disciples could not help asking them, "did you guys learn to design?" In November of the same year, their first coffee shop officially closed on the Sanshui campus of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, and the first "butterfly" broke out of its cocoon.

"as long as you meditate and keep, fantasies will not progress at the age of 20."

A person who is full of stories is the most attractive. At the beginning of the business of Sanshui store, what Zheng Qibin did in the store every day was tantamount to sharing their entrepreneurial stories with customers. "every time we share the city, we have a different feeling. Of course, our team has more than one story." He still remembers that the exposition of the oil and the conclusive plot once made many students who came to drink coffee to tears. "We don't share stories to win other people's tears. But when our story excites others, I will naturally be contaminated. " Zheng Qibin said so.

2013 was the busiest year for Zheng Qibin. The 22-year-old has experienced a lot of troubles. Since his inspection in Beijing in January, the cafe has become more and more successful. He opened a second store in April and registered the company in July. This year, they opened a third branch in the university town.

The area of each branch is controlled from 50 to 100 square meters, and the decoration is small, soft and has its own characteristics: in the second branch, whenever the menu is displayed in the form of a handwritten blackboard newspaper, these beautiful handwritten fonts are written by Zheng Qibin. He believes that how to do will make their cafe more campus atmosphere. In the newly opened third branch, they have specially developed a showcase with hundreds of macro books for free, as well as abominable Winnie bears and lush animals to enjoy.

Zheng Qibin stated that every employee in the cafe is now full-time, and they are scattered by their love of coffee and their dreams after the post-90s. Unintentionally, Zheng Qibin's company will also send employees to the skin to participate in training, to learn coffee skills and common sense of scheming.

Although Zheng Qibin started his business as a sophomore, he did not study because of it. He also won a scholarship when he was in college. "I've experienced everything in college except failing." Zheng Qibin said jokingly. In his opinion, reading and practice are a necessary ladder for further study. When he reads a book, there is an atmosphere, which is tantamount to incorporating his resume into it, comparing his heart to heart to feel the content depicted in the book, and to draw common sense from it. He will also take notes while reading books, write down what he thinks and think, and follow orders for progress and study.

Zheng Qibin's parents, both government employees, did not approve of his starting a business at first, hoping that he could find a job that was absolutely comfortable and determined. However, he used his actions to prove the decision of consciousness itself. Once, his father said to him: "since you have made up your mind to do a good job, distracted to do a good job, it does not matter if you fail, do not focus, do not work hard is the biggest failure."

Zheng Qibin said frankly that he hopes to advertise their coffee chain in Chinese colleges and universities in the future, create a coffee civilization that belongs exclusively to the campus, and become the first brand of coffee chain in Chinese colleges and universities. They also plan to turn their stories into micro-movies, share them with you, announce a kind of positive energy, and torture everyone to boldly pursue their dreams.

Recalling my career experience, Zheng Qibin said frankly: "if you have a fantasy, you must be bold to pursue it, otherwise the vain attempt is just a dream." As long as you are single-minded and persistent, your dream will not run aground at the age of 20. "