A porridge shop is so magical? The author came to Shuangliu with curiosity to find out the truth. Unexpectedly, the "porridge king" who made the porridge business to the extreme turned out to be a laid-off couple with little culture. They made millions of dollars in just five years by selling porridge. How is this miracle of getting rich created ... what is failure? Failure just gives you a chance to start over.
Li Jie's name is Li Chunhua. She and her husband Gu Qiang are both from Chengguan Town, Renshou County, Chongqing. The couple used to work in a factory, but the business was sluggish, and 1992 was laid off. After experiencing the pain and hesitation in the early days of being laid off, the couple set up a smoke stand near their home and worked hard in the dark.
By 1997, they have accumulated more than 200,000 in tobacco business. But just when Li Jie and her husband were going to buy a big house beautifully, an unexpected disaster almost killed them.
1998 One day in February, a friend came to see Sister Li in a hurry and mysteriously said to her, "Sister, I have a friend who works in a cigarette factory. He can get the goods directly from the factory, and the purchase price is much lower than that of the tobacco company. I suggest you buy from him. "
Sister Li asked with a grain of salt, "Can you guarantee the quality of cigarettes?" "I dare to lie to others, also dare not lie to your sister! The Spring Festival is coming soon, and cigarettes are very scarce. If I am not a friend, I am too lazy to help you! " My friend swore.
After seeing off their friends, the couple seriously discussed: Seeing that the Spring Festival is coming, there must be many people who wholesale cigarettes. If they don't buy some goods earlier, they will make a lot less money. So, the couple took out all their savings from the bank, borrowed more than 200,000 yuan from relatives and friends, collected more than 500,000 yuan, and returned 100 cigarettes, with the intention of making a fortune during the Spring Festival.
Looking at the room full of cigarettes and smelling the strong smell of tobacco in the air, Sister Li was full of joy and looked forward to making a lot of money.
However, the nightmare came soon. Two or three days later, someone came to the door to ask for a refund, and someone reported to the local industrial and commercial administration that she sold fake cigarettes. Soon, the industrial and commercial managers came to seize Li Jie's cigarettes and deal with her at the same time.
After detailed investigation, the industrial and commercial management personnel confirmed that Sister Li was the victim, so she was not dealt with. However, after all this tossing, Li Jie, who originally had more than 200,000 deposits, was not only penniless, but also shouldered more than 200,000 yuan in debt. And the friend who introduced her to buy cigarettes has long since disappeared.
Faced with such a blow, heartbroken Li Jie spent a whole day in Lacrimosa. Creditors regularly go to her house to collect debts, which makes the house fidgety. One afternoon, after Li Jie and his wife finally sent away a creditor, the exhausted couple couldn't help crying.
Sister Li said guiltily to her husband Gu Qiang, "It's all my fault. I was careless at the moment, which caused such a big loss. Now, it's no use sighing, let's try to start over! As long as we have hands, we will turn over one day. "
"But what can we do to turn over? I have no money, even if I sell porridge, I still want money ... "The husband sighed.
Porridge? These two words, like a bright light, suddenly lit up Li Jie's chaotic mind-why not start with selling porridge! Selling porridge basically does not require any investment. Although the profit is very small compared with selling cigarettes, as long as there is profit, we can do it! So she solemnly said to her husband, "Yes, we sell porridge!"
In order to persuade her husband to sell porridge, Sister Li didn't waste her breath. Finally, her words touched her husband: "Even if a bowl of porridge earns a few cents or a dime, as long as it is measured, it can still make money. What is failure? Failure just gives you a chance to start over! "
The husband finally agreed to sell porridge. But he doesn't want to sell it in Renshou County, because there are many creditors here, and it is definitely not clean. So, the couple decided to go to * * *. Because creditors can't find that far away at once.
1In the spring of March, 999, Sister Li and his wife came to Chengdu, and they were going to * * *. However, the couple were dumbfounded when they asked about the fare. A ticket from Chengdu to * * * costs more than 1000 yuan. If you take the bus, you can't get to * * * for a week. But Li Jie has a bad heart and high blood pressure, so she can't take a long-distance bus at all. After hesitation, they stayed near Chengdu Shuangliu Airport. During their stay, the couple decided to sell porridge in Shuangliu County near the airport.
Next, they broke their feet and their mouths, only to find a 6-square-meter facade in Tang Cheng Middle Road, Shuangliu County, and rented it at an annual rent of 3,000 yuan. After completing all kinds of formalities, their money has been spent. Gu Qiang had to quietly return to his hometown and told his relatives that he had borrowed more than 6,000 yuan. With this money, Li Jie and his wife invested a total of 1.5 million yuan, and the porridge shop finally opened.
Have you tried the porridge that prolongs life? Have you ever had beauty beauty porridge?
Porridge is really not good to sell! The husband and wife work from morning till night, but the business of the porridge shop is not good. After opening for three months, I lost more than 3000 yuan. In the face of all this, Li Jie couldn't sleep. She knows that if this goes on, she will not only make no money, but also increase new debts.
One day, comrades from the industrial and commercial bureau came to collect management fees, and Sister Li poured him a cup of bitter water. The comrade only said one sentence, and Li Jie was shocked: "To open a porridge shop, we must change our business philosophy and have a sense of innovation." Sister Li doesn't know much about "idea" and "innovation". But she understands the meaning: change is the only way, and unchanging is a dead end.
How to change it? As soon as the party was over, the couple lay on a "bed" made up of several benches and started a "sleeping party". Sister Li said to herself, "It is a tradition in China to drink porridge in the morning, so is it feasible to drink porridge at noon or at night?" "yes! Why can't porridge be eaten as food? " The husband is also very excited.
As soon as the idea was opened, the couple had a heated discussion in this direction. Sister Li thinks it is feasible to drink porridge at noon and evening. There are two reasons: first, now that life is good, people are tired of eating big fish and meat, so it is necessary to drink some porridge to refresh themselves; Second, if you eat porridge as dinner, you must change some characteristics. "Vegetarian porridge" certainly can't meet the demand. Only by bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new, improving the variety of porridge and introducing nutritious and delicious "meat porridge" can we do it! For example, fish porridge series, bacon porridge series, turtledove porridge series, fat sausage porridge series and so on. In addition, you can also configure various dishes according to the characteristics of porridge. This combines the dietary characteristics of a big meal. Selling porridge can no longer be a meager profit industry.
The more the couple thought about it, the more excited they became. The next day, they began to split up: husband Gu Qiang was in charge of "research", that is, cooking porridge; Sister Li continued to study "strategic issues". In order to build her own porridge brand, she gave her porridge a popular and easy-to-remember name-Li Jie porridge king.
Husband and wife perform their duties and cooperate tacitly. In order to build the brand of "King of Porridge", Gu Qiang developed more than a dozen kinds of meat porridge in just a few months, and also invented a kind of delicious food he was most proud of-"Wild glutinous rice porridge". This is a kind of green food, all natural, all wild and all green, and it also has the medicinal effect of clearing away heat and toxic materials.
In order to cook porridge, Gu Qiang must make rice the night before, make a fire at 3 am, and then add well water to simmer. The rice he uses is Renshou's new rice, and all the ingredients are delicacies or wild plants in Renshou County. In order to ensure quality and hygiene, he carefully selected and cleaned every raw material. At the same time, Li Jie, who is in charge of outreach, made a series of advertisements on Shuangliu TV Station, and boldly put forward a new catering concept of "changing the traditional way of drinking porridge, treating porridge as a dinner and porridge as a nutritious meal". This move is really clever. Many old people and women come to "Sister Li porridge king" to try new things and see what will happen.
On the day when the new porridge was officially opened, the couple cooked five pots of different kinds of porridge early in the morning and gave them to customers for free. The guests were full of praise and surprised after eating, because they had never seen porridge make so many tricks. In this way, it was not long before the number of customers in the store increased several times than before, and they asked to taste those special porridge by name. Since then, there has been an endless stream of guests who come to taste porridge. The daily passenger flow reaches several hundred people, and the daily turnover is sometimes as high as two or three thousand yuan.
So many customers have added a lot of work pressure to the couple. They are so busy that they can only eat two meals a day. In the evening, they have to prepare the raw materials for porridge the next day, and they have to stay busy until late at night. In this way, Li Jie and his wife slept on the wooden stool "bed" in the store for a whole year. Due to long-term overwork, Sister Li has scapulohumeral periarthritis, which will occur every once in a while.
The business of small shops is getting better and better, and there are more and more customers, which often makes Li Jie and his wife feel at a loss. Sister Li's mind began to calculate again. She thought: It is better to go to a bigger place to sell porridge and make the porridge industry bigger. In the summer of 2000, after careful discussion, the couple decided to move the porridge shop to the second section of Changye Road in Shuangliu County. They rented a farm of about two acres there. Then, according to the psychology that people in the city like rural pastoral style, they invested 654.38+10,000 yuan to decorate the farm yard into a rustic flavor, which made people feel comfortable and cordial as soon as they entered the door. They also recruited a group of peasant women and peasant men with delicate eyes, dressed as peasant women and peasant men, which were very lively and beautiful and pleasing to the eye.
Everything is as Li Jie expected. Soon after the opening of the new store, the business of porridge shop is really more popular. On weekends, the open space in front of the compound is densely packed with vehicles. Gu Qiang looked at the gratifying scene of booming business in front of him and often praised Li Jie happily: "My wife is still far-sighted. It seems that we really want to sell porridge! " Every time I hear her husband say this, Li Jie's heart is full of joy. But she also knows that if she wants to retain customers, she must innovate, not just stay at the original level.
At the suggestion of his wife, Gu Qiang devoted himself to the "porridge classics" and thought about how to cook porridge that others didn't have all day. After a period of practice, the couple finally developed the variety of porridge from seven or eight to more than twenty. Gu Qiang also invited many old Chinese medicine practitioners to make suggestions and find ways to successfully develop porridge with medicinal value, such as appetizing and spleen-strengthening porridge, heat-clearing and detoxicating porridge and beauty beauty porridge. The names of these congees are also very nice, such as Geelong Flower Porridge, Happy and Sustainable Porridge, Longxu Muer Porridge, Spring Flower Green Porridge, Lotus Leaf Lotus Rice Porridge and Pumpkin Taiji Porridge. Just listening to the name makes people's appetite open, and many customers exclaim, "This place is simply an exhibition hall for porridge!" "
200 1, Sister Li and his wife not only paid off all their debts, but also accumulated a lot of funds. Li Jie, who has a bulging pocket, has created a new world for herself by selling porridge, and her name is also fragrant throughout Shuangliu County.
Doing business, doing business, Sister Li knows the truth that "business is done". In order to improve the service level, she often takes the lead. In the summer of 2000, a customer came to Sister Li's shop to eat porridge. Because the waiter was busy greeting, the customer was very angry and called Li Jie to personally bring him mung bean porridge. Li Jie immediately filled a bowl of mung bean porridge and served it to the guests with a smile.
The guest said, "I don't want mung bean porridge, I want black rice porridge." Without further ado, Li Jie brought him black rice porridge. Before the bowl of porridge was served, the guest said, "I don't want black rice porridge, I want potato porridge." In this way, Li Jie came to * * and scooped six different porridge for this guest.
Finally, the guest smiled and said, "Sister Li, I really admire you! Please forgive my bad attitude just now! " Later, this guest became an old customer in Sister Li's shop.
Sister Li is not only warm to the guests, but also honest. Once, a guest left a wallet with 6000 yuan in cash and 430000 yuan in passbook at the porridge shop after dinner. After Li Jie discovered it, he immediately found the owner according to the business card of the guest in the bag. Later, every time guests went to Shuangliu County for business, they would come to Li Jie's restaurant for dinner.
Due to the heavy passenger flow, Sister Li found more than 30 mobile phones in the store, and she returned them to the owner. The guests all said, "I don't have to worry about eating at' Sister Li Porridge King'. As long as you drop something in the restaurant, Sister Li will definitely get it back for you. "
With her honesty and enthusiasm, Sister Li finally made the porridge business bigger. There is a saying in Shuangliu County: "Come to Shuangliu, if you don't eat the porridge of Sister Li, you won't come to Shuangliu." When business was good, Sister Li had a new idea: treat guests to porridge for free.
The husband is puzzled: "Business is good, why should it be free?" Didn't you say small profits but quick turnover? Isn't there no profit in giving people porridge for free? Li Jie pointed to her husband's forehead and said with a smile, "When your business grows bigger, you can turn some meager items into' free consumption', which will bring you at least ten times the popularity and profit." The husband is still dubious.
After the implementation of "free consumption", the passenger flow of porridge shops has increased sharply, and 30 pots have to take turns to go into battle five or six times a day. Even the coolies are worried that people will eat for free, and the porridge shop will be eaten down, and my husband is also worried. But Li Jie is cheerful all day. Everyone doesn't know what Li Jie is thinking.
To everyone's surprise, a month later, "free customers" consciously became "paying customers". This change has led to the emergence of a new fixed consumer group. Moreover, this group will not be easily shaken, but will only become more and more "iron", because this is cultivated by Sister Li with emotion. At that time, the coolies had to admire Li Jie's clever brain.
Now many laid-off workers and young migrant workers want to learn from Li Jie to sell porridge, some want to cooperate with her to open a branch, and many people call. Many people go to the store to learn technology, but the feeling is not mysterious and the operation process is simple. They all asked her what was the secret of her success.
Sister Li always warned them: "Don't think porridge is cheap, it's better than nothing. I look down on those who are so poor that they always dream of' getting rich'. Don't take advantage of petty gain or do it. When a small enterprise grows bigger, it will become a big enterprise. " This is Sister Li's unique business experience.
Sister Li has a new idea recently. She wants to learn some knowledge about hotel management. She is going to Chengdu to open a branch of "Sister Li Porridge King" so that more urban people can taste her unique porridge.
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