Chapter 49 Shoes are best sold where no one is wearing them

The purpose of doing business is to maximize profits, so you must go to the place where you need it most. If everyone gathers in one place, there will be little profit left. In recent years, Wu Jianhai, vice president of the Cameroon Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, can be said to have flourished. In 2005, since he was elected as the chairman, he has been invited to attend the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference many times. At the 6th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference held in Nanjing, he was also praised by the International Business Daily as a "model of Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa". .The stories about him are very unique.

In May 1995, Wu Jianhai, a businessman from Wenzhou, traveled to Africa alone with a few suitcases and started his business trip in Africa.Before going to Africa, Wu Jianhai has been doing business in Europe, and his career has been quite successful.However, he resolutely put down the European market he had been in for many years, competed in Africa, and went to Cameroon. The original intention of making this decision is that he heard by chance that there is no Chinese store in Cameroon, and Chinese products are very popular among local people.Therefore, Wu Jianhai came to Cameroon decisively and established Hailan International Trading Co., Ltd., specializing in the distribution of Chinese goods.

The market environment in Cameroon is far from that in Europe, which means that he has to overcome many difficulties and go through a lot of trials. With the unique hard work and tenacity of Wenzhou people, he finally gained a firm foothold in Cameroon.Two years later, there are more and more Chinese businessmen here, and a problem has also become prominent, that is, language restrictions, choice of storefronts, and security issues.This has added a lot of trouble for Chinese businessmen to do business locally, and many people even gave up halfway and returned angrily.At this time, a new idea was also brewing in Wu Jianhai's mind - to set up a Chinese mall, specializing in selling Chinese products.If Chinese businessmen can be brought together to form a large-scale operation, these concerns will be greatly eliminated.

Wu Jianhai's idea of ​​setting up a China Mall became more and more intense. At the end of 1999, Wu Jianhai founded the "China Mall" with sole proprietorship.At first, there were only 25 stores, with a construction area of ​​4,000 square meters. Later, small commodities such as glasses, leather shoes, and clothing from Wenzhou entered China Mall, and the scale grew day by day.At present, China Mall imports more than 100 containers of goods from China every year, and the import value exceeds 10 million US dollars. There used to be such a story, two salesmen were sent by the company to a desert island to inspect the market to see if they could sell the leather shoes produced by their own company.After a while, two salesmen came back, and one of them was dejected and returned empty-handed. What he saw was "the locals all wear straw sandals, and no one wears leather shoes", so he concluded that there is no market for leather shoes on the island.But the second salesman was very excited when he came back. He also saw that "there is no one wearing leather shoes in the local area", but concluded that there must be a market on the island, because there is no competition from other leather shoe companies there!If you seize this opportunity to open the market on the island, you will definitely make a lot of money.

"The more closed the place, the more suitable for development" is such a simple and philosophical truth. Wenzhou businessmen are such a group of people. They always prefer to do business in places that are more closed and less competitive.Wenzhou people left their hometowns and went to various places to do business. In the early 1980s, most people were still unfamiliar with the commercial market. Wenzhou people had already traveled all over the country, started small businesses, and fought hard in the market. People in Wenzhou are very mobile and always move around in small markets, but they also have strong adaptability. Everywhere they go, they can find the most beneficial business opportunities with a unique vision, adapt quickly and survive. All of this has a lot to do with Wenshang's experience.

Due to the lack of a mature business environment in closed places, there will be huge market gaps. In backward places, you can see markets that others cannot see, and seize market opportunities that others ignore.Wenzhou people believe that doing business is not about joining in the fun. If everyone flocks to a market, the market will be divided.On the contrary, if you go to a backward place to open up a new market, although it is more difficult, as long as you open up the market, you will have all the opportunities for yourself. Are you afraid that you will not be able to make a lot of money?Just as a Wen businessman who started his own business in Tibet said: "This place is relatively backward, with limited information and lack of resources. Many consumers cannot buy products from outside, so as long as they find the products they need locally, they will always be sold."

Go to the place where it is most needed, just like the shepherds in the nomadic people live with the grass, where there are delicious aquatic plants, they will take root there, Wenshang is equivalent to a shepherd, wherever there is a market, he will do business there , Wherever you need it most, go there. Wenzhou people who have experienced ups and downs in the business world are always changing their own market, but they never easily change the industry they operate. They start with the simplest hardware, shoes and socks, clothes, etc. These industries are not high-tech , the profit margin is not large, but these products always appear in the most needed market, so they are often in short supply and out of stock.Often also a lot of profit.Regardless of whether you are dealing in large commodities or small commodities with meager profits, as long as you find a market full of business opportunities and quickly seize the opportunities, you can make a lot of money.By the time others start doing business, Wenzhou people have already made enough money and are looking elsewhere.

What is a market? In the view of Wenzhou merchants, there is a special explanation. Wenzhou people never care where they do business. What they value is whether their products are needed here. go there. In the early 1980s, there were still relatively few Wen merchants in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The four uncles of Wen merchant Su Desheng's family came to Yuci, Shanxi to run a clothing business. At the beginning, they only set up clothing stalls, which was very difficult.Later, he separated from his family and started his own business. After several years of hard work, the world has changed. He already owns the largest clothing city in North China in Taiyuan.

Opportunities in the market are like "cat and mouse".When a cat catches a mouse, it always spends a lot of time quietly observing it, and then attacks after finding out the behavioral rules and trends of the mouse.Once the time is right, the clever cat will stretch out its claws and attack and catch by surprise.Wenzhou merchants have the responsiveness of cats in business. They have a unique vision of the market. Before they decide to invest, they will conduct sufficient observation and research in advance. Once they find an opportunity to make money, they will quickly attack. In terms of seizing business opportunities, you must be as fast as a cat and never hesitate. In today's information-driven business market, thinking twice is no longer applicable.The status of big fish eating small fish in the shopping mall is more replaced by fast fish eating slow fish, so there is no room for you to wait for a long time.

◎Where no one wears shoes, there must be a market——in some places, no one wears shoes, maybe no one really wears them.When entering an unfamiliar market, a comprehensive and accurate inspection and research must be carried out.If you just see others doing this, and you also rashly intervene, I'm afraid you can only end up empty-handed.