Chapter 29 Text Session 8 Maintaining self-confidence is the most important prerequisite for a person to start a business

Player profile Gao Guanglu, 33 years old, from Anhui, college degree.I used to be a teacher, and then I went to sea to start a business and failed several times. In 2006, he founded a technology company whose main business is the production of energy-saving cookers, and is currently the general manager of the company.Gao Guanglu's entrepreneurial dream is to create a well-known brand in China's energy-saving cooker industry. player project statement My entry project is "Energy-saving Cauldron Cover". I will explain the characteristics of this project from two aspects: the first is product innovation.It can use the waste pipe technology to recover the waste heat in the chimney, and then use the recovered waste heat to quickly boil the water in the chimney interlayer until steam is generated. The steam can be used to steam rice and boil water, which reduces the cost of steaming rice and boiling water. Saved.The thermal efficiency of a common large pot cover is 35%, but our energy-saving cover has a thermal efficiency of 76%, which is more than doubled. According to user reports, a large pot cover can save more than 20,000 yuan a year.Therefore, it is a very good substitute product for ordinary cauldron covers, and can be widely used in schools, troops, agencies, enterprises and other units. At present, it has obtained two national patents.

The second is our innovation in the marketing model.We provide free hoods to customers with high energy consumption, such as customers with monthly energy consumption of more than 50,000 yuan. Since our products can produce strong energy-saving effects, we only withdraw the savings from customers in proportion during the contract period Energy costs, once the contract expires, the energy saving hood becomes the property of the customer.This will greatly reduce the difficulty of our marketing. Our goal is to be the first in the energy-saving cover industry within 3 to 5 years.I also firmly believe that under the general environment of promoting energy conservation and environmental protection in an all-round way, our goal will definitely be achieved.

live playback Yu Minhong: Judging from your experience, you have not done any research on energy saving before, and you suddenly started to make energy-saving hoods in October 2006. So how did your energy-saving technology come about? Gao Guanglu: This is the technology of Nanjing University of Technology Research Institute. Yu Minhong: Then why does it give you the technology? Gao Guanglu: Because the technology was only in the experimental stage at the beginning, we injected funds to put it into production. Yu Minhong: How much money did you invest in the beginning? Gaoguang Road: 500,000.

Yu Minhong: How did the money come from? Gao Guanglu: It is the money of our three shareholders. Yu Minhong: Why did you bring in the other two shareholders? Gao Guanglu: Because we have worked together before. Yu Minhong: Are they all your little brothers? Gao Guanglu: No, one shareholder is over 50 years old. Yu Minhong: The Institute of Nanjing University of Technology gave you the technology, what return did you give the Institute? Gao Guanglu: First of all, we invested in the initial research and development expenses, and then we jointly owned the patents we applied for, but we ranked first. Finally, we gave 5% of the profits to the research institute.

Yu Minhong: Doesn't the research institute own shares in your company? Gao Guanglu: No possession. Yu Minhong: Do you have the national patent of the product? Gao Guanglu: It is shared by us. Our company ranks first and is the owner. In addition, a professor from Nanjing University of Technology who participated in the research is the joint owner. (Xiong Xiaoge: You give 5% of the profit to the Nanjing University of Technology Research Institute?) Gao Guanglu: Yes. (Xiong Xiaoge: But what if your company keeps making no profits?) Gao Guanglu: Then they have no money. Yu Minhong: So far, have you paid them?

Gao Guanglu: Not yet, because it is once a year, and it is not yet a year yet. Yu Minhong: Is it because there is no profit yet? Gao Guanglu: It is profitable, but it is not yet the end of the year. Yu Minhong: I don’t think this technology looks very complicated. After all, it can be made with an investment of 500,000 yuan, and I also know that there are many companies that make energy-saving masks, and some of them have already done very large. How do you plan to communicate with them? compete? Gao Guanglu: We have two core competitiveness. One is research and development. Our research and development has been going on. By March and April 2008, our new products will be released again.

Yu Minhong: I believe that the R&D team should not be your strong point, because if another company that makes masks can sell tens of millions of products every year, and then he buys out this technology from Nanjing University of Technology, then It is better than you, right? Gao Guanglu: It cannot be bought out, because we are the patent holders. Yu Minhong: That is to say, it is absolutely impossible for other mask companies to have your technology? Gao Guanglu: No, it might have.Because our patent advocates heat pipes, which is actually very specific, so as long as it does not use heat pipes, it will be fine, but the thermal efficiency will also be reduced...

Yu Minhong: So now in China, except you can use heat pipes, any other institutions that make covers can't use heat pipes, otherwise it will violate your patent right, is that what you mean? Gao Guanglu: It should be like this, but if it wants to imitate, we can't help it if we find out. Yu Minhong: You can file a lawsuit to have the tube pulled out. Gao Guanglu: In fact, we do not want to protect ourselves in this way. I think that only by constantly developing new products and expanding the market quickly can we protect ourselves most effectively. Yu Minhong: You have been a teacher for less than half a year and started your own business. Don’t you love the profession of teaching?

Gao Guanglu: No. Yu Minhong: I know, because you have the urge to start a business, which is actually easy to explain.However, I also read your previous two entrepreneurial experiences, and I feel that both of them have encountered bottlenecks. The first time you started your business to make plastic bags, you did a good job, but in the end because of poor equipment, many defective products were produced, so you had to close the business at a loss. Then it took 4 years to sell vegetables, pour fruits, and set up street stalls to pay off the debt, but this also reflects your sense of responsibility.The second venture was also done very well, with 5 million in the first year, 18 million in the second year, and 30 million in the third year if there was no SARS. After SARS, you felt that direct sales would not work, so you started channel marketing.

But why do you encounter bottlenecks every time you achieve sales of 4 million or 5 million?The product just couldn’t be sold, and this was the case for the first two startups. Why? Gao Guanglu: I was too young when I first started my business. I went into the sea blindly when I was 20 years old. I didn’t understand anything. I bought very cheap Wenzhou equipment, but it turned out that I couldn’t use it within a year. Yu Minhong: Why don't you buy good equipment when you find that the equipment is not good? Gao Guanglu: I have no money. My original capital of more than 100,000 yuan is all from my family.

Yu Minhong: Didn’t the sales volume go very well at the beginning?How can there be no money? Gao Guanglu: It was very good at the beginning, but then all the products were returned. Yu Minhong: All sold out have been refunded? Gao Guanglu: After 3 months, there was a problem with the equipment, and all the sold ones were returned. Yu Minhong: What about the second venture? Gao Guanglu: When we started our business for the second time, our team was very strong in direct sales. There were more than 170 salespeople in major cities across the country.But after SARS, those of us who left Beijing couldn’t sell it at all, and even didn’t want to give it away for free. As a result, the entire marketing team was scattered except for a dozen backbones.In this case, it is difficult to continue relying on direct sales, so we can only cooperate with channels, but there is a big disadvantage of cooperating with channels, that is, the remittance is very slow. Yu Minhong: Do you think these two failures are related to your personality?You are handsome and have a good temper. I liked you the first time I saw you, so I guess, the reason why you succeeded so quickly in the first two startups is related to these two advantages.Because everyone thinks you are very pleasing to the eye, and you have a good temper.But if you don't find the root cause of the first two failures, you may not be able to do it this time. Can you tell me what the root cause of your first two failures is? Gao Guanglu: Maybe it has something to do with my personality? Yu Minhong: What character? Gao Guanglu: I am extroverted and like to expand, so I lack constancy. Yu Minhong: I am also very extroverted, laughing and laughing every day, so this is not the real reason, I hope you can find the reason again. Gao Guanglu: Think about it carefully. Yu Minhong: It's not about introspection, it's about searching, it's about finding yourself back. Comments by Yu Minhong It is very rare for you to maintain the confidence to start a business for the third time after two failures in starting a business. Maintaining self-confidence is the most important prerequisite for a person to start a business.I can feel your self-confidence from your expression and eyes, and not only the self-confidence on the outside, but also your confidence in the future. As I said just now, it is always easy for you to do things and interact with people. At least three of your startups were very easy and successful at the beginning.However, the lack of success in your first two startups also shows that you must still have some kind of problem.But your problem is precisely that you make me unable to find out where the problem is. This is also my biggest worry. There are no obvious problems with your personality, language or business model, which means that your faults are hidden.And a person who runs an enterprise, if he can't find out where his biggest shortcoming is, it is generally not easy to succeed, because it will definitely be the shortest board that makes up the bucket, causing a bucket of water to flow away.