"The chicken feathers are very light, but as long as there is a little wind, it can fly into the sky." This sentence is a classic line in a popular drama " Chicken Feathers Fly into the Sky" in 2017 about the reform and development of Yiwu .
The drama tells the story of Luo Yuzhu and Chen Jianghe who dared to make a breakthrough and fight, joining forces to start a business to fight the business world, and finally making their careers all over the world after many hardships. The heroine Luo Yuzhu in the play is based on the prototype of , the chairman of , the chairman of , and the male protagonist Chen Jianghe is based on Zhou Xiaoguang's husband , Yu Yunxin .
Zhou Xiaoguang has many names: China's outstanding women, March 8th Red Flag Bearer, 10th and 11th National People's Congress representatives, outstanding entrepreneurial female entrepreneurs, China's top ten economic women's figures of the year, top ten trendy Zhejiang businessmen, top ten national women's contribution models, top ten philanthropists in Yiwu, Mulan in the business world, the most respected entrepreneurs of "Hurun Rich"... so many that they can't count them.
As the former richest woman in Zhejiang, Zhou Xiaoguang’s story is very legendary and super inspiring. However, it only took her 10 days to go from "richest man" to "first loss". How did a once powerful figure start from scratch to having billions of wealth and then quickly return to zero?
01
In 1962, Zhou Xiaoguang was born in a remote mountain village in Zhuji, Zhejiang. His parents were both farmers who farmed and his family was so poor that they were very poor. Although parents worked hard for many years, they still struggled to solve the most basic problem of food and clothing for the family. In Zhou Xiaoguang's memory, there was only hunger.
Zhou Xiaoguang is the eldest daughter in the family and has 6 younger siblings. It is said that poor children become a family early. As the eldest, Zhou Xiaoguang knew how to take care of his younger siblings since he was a child. He started to work at home at the age of 4 or 5, and would follow his mother to do manual work at the age of 12 to help his parents share the pressure of the family.
In 1978, Zhou Xiaoguang, who was only 16 years old, dropped out of school in the first year of high school because he could not afford the tuition. She followed her mother, took the 20 yuan she saved with the savings of frugality, went out to do business together, and started a difficult entrepreneurial journey.
The first time Zhou Xiaoguang got into a car was when he came out of his home to Yiwu. She sells embroidery needles and embroidery patterns along the street. The business in one place is almost done, so she goes to the next place. In order to save time and money, she set up a stall during the day and took a bus to travel at night.
The first time Zhou Xiaoguang took the train was to Jiangxi and then Fujian. She couldn't afford the ticket, so she got under the seat and slept. Holding a book called "Map of China" and carrying goods about the same weight as her, she traveled around the world and traveled to most of China over the years.
Later, Zhou Xiaoguang went north to Heilongjiang and worked hard in the Northeast for 6 years. He not only accumulated the first pot of gold in his life, but also opened his horizons, gained knowledge, understood the customs and cultural backgrounds of various places, developed the ability to deal with various people, and cultivated a keen intuition for market changes. These became her capital to make a fortune in the future.
As the saying goes, "It is better to travel thousands of miles than reading thousands of books." Hong Kong female writer Yishu also said: "It has its own benefits when traveling thousands of miles. The knowledge in books is flat, not as good as personal experience." There are many things that are not available in books, and even if there is one, you may not be able to learn them. Only by experiencing them yourself can you become your own capital.
In 1985, Zhou Xiaoguang, who was already a "ten thousand yuan household", married his fellow villager Yu Yunxin. After giving birth to his eldest son Yu Jiangbo , they took out all their savings and bought a shop in Yiwu small commodity wholesale market , and started to run a simulated jewelry business.
Zhou Xiaoguang has a unique vision. She gave up embroidery patterns and instead made artificial simulated accessories such as plastic and glass. The couple is in charge of the same mind, one is in charge of the outside and the other is in charge of the inside. Yu Yunxin is responsible for purchasing goods from Guangdong and selling goods from Northeast China, while Zhou Xiaoguang manages the store at home, responsible for processing and sales. Although the
shop is small, the profit is considerable. I made more than 100,000 yuan in just one year, and I made nearly one million yuan in the second year. The couple worked together, and the shop made a name for themselves and quickly became the leader in the market. They were well-known all over the country, which can be regarded as "a chicken feather flew into the sky."
This little girl from the countryside is both smart and capable, and she dares to fight. Few female entrepreneurs have suffered so much like Zhou Xiaoguang. She started from scratch with a tenacious temperament and lived a life of joy.
02
1992, Zhou Xiaoguang was selected by a well-known jewelry company in Taiwan and became an agent. He opened the first retail store in Yiwu jewelry history, selling imported goods and homemade products. This store not only has good business, but also allows Zhou Xiaoguang to approach end consumers through it and understand their preferences more clearly.
At this time, Zhou Xiaoguang had already bought a house in the best residential community in Yiwu and a shop in Chaoyang District, the city center. The jewelry business is stable and the family relationship is harmonious. It seems that she should take a break. However, in Zhou Xiaoguang's heart, an emotion called "career spirit" is rapidly growing and spreading.
Because the retail store sales are too good, there is often a shortage of supply, so Zhou Xiaoguang decided to set up his own factory.
In 1995, the couple invested 7 million yuan to set up a factory, named "Xinguang Jewelry Co., Ltd.", and " Xinguang " is the last word of the couple's name.
This money is all their wealth that they have worked hard for many years, which means that if the business fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. At that time, someone advised them to be cautious, but Yu Yunxin was very supportive of his wife's idea. He said, "I had nothing at the beginning, and at worst I could start over."
Such courage may have helped Zhou Xiaoguang overcome the crisis at that time, but it also put her in many difficulties in the future.
After that, Xinguang Jewelry became a hit with its novel and diverse styles, and quickly opened up the situation in the small jewelry market.
Zhou Xiaoguang, who runs a business for the first time, lacks management experience and is busy and does not touch the ground. She manages production in the factory during the day and studies at night to improve herself. At the same time, she also recruits talents, innovates technology, and upgrades and transforms her products.
With a strong fighting spirit and ruthless spirit, Zhou Xiaoguang made Xinguang bigger and bigger, launching more than 8,000 new products, which are widely popular among the market and customers. Soon, Xinguang attracted many internationally renowned brands to cooperate with them, such as Swarovski in Austria, Czech in Presiosa, etc. Zhou Xiaoguang took advantage of the opportunity to actively expand overseas markets and establish global business step by step.
After years of hard work, Shinguang has developed into a large private enterprise group with certain influence in the same industry across the country and around the world.
In 2006, Yiwu Jewelry accounted for 70% of the national market share, and the number of Xinguang employees once reached more than 6,500. In 2008, Shinkong had nearly 400 retail stores nationwide, and its products were sold to more than 50 countries. At its peak, Xinguang's total assets reached 80 billion yuan.
With excellent business performance and social image of public welfare, Zhou Xiaoguang was successfully elected as a representative of the National People's Congress and became one of the nationwide outstanding women, female entrepreneurs and representatives of Zhejiang business circles.
Zhou Xiaoguang, with such remarkable achievements and honors, began to float away. Her ambitions are growing, and she wants to achieve greater goals. For this reason, she has begun a rapid cross-border expansion.
03
people are afraid of becoming famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. After Xinguang became famous, more than 600 small jewelry factories emerged in the local area. As soon as Xinguang's new products are released, they will be plagiarized and counterfeited by their peers, making business increasingly difficult to do.
Since 2004, China's real estate industry has developed rapidly, and many capable entrepreneurs have been involved in this torrent. At this time, Zhou Xiaoguang was also seeking other ways out.
The financial crisis in 2008 caused the sharp drop in Xinguang's foreign customers and the turnover fell sharply. Zhou Xiaoguang decided to let his son Yu Jiangbo take over Xinguang and transform into high-end retail. She herself began to do other things: enter the fields of trade, the Internet, real estate, financial investment, etc., expand her business territory, and she wants to do anything as long as she can make money.
At this time, Zhou Xiaoguang completely overestimated her ability to control capital and real estate industries.
However, Zhou Xiaoguang's luck seemed to have been used up in the era of jewelry, and her vision of the real estate market is far less sensitive than small jewelry.
As early as 2003, Xinguang invested in the Fortune Building project lost more than 200 million yuan. In addition, the Xinguang Group's stall was too large, and funds had long become the biggest problem. During the 2008 financial crisis, real estate was already in a slump, but Xinguang Group developed several large-scale real estate projects one after another, and its capital chain was in jeopardy.
In 2011, real estate entered a cold winter. A project in Xinguang Group was in serious shortage of funds. Zhou Xiaoguang immediately decided to issue "11 Xinguang Bond" financing and borrow money from outside.
This is the first time Xinguang has issued bonds, and it quickly helped Zhou Xiaoguang solve his urgent needs. Zhou Xiaoguang, who tasted the sweetness, felt the magic of capital. From then on, as long as the capital cannot be turned over, Zhou Xiaoguang will raise funds through this method. While benefiting, it will also lay a lot of mines for the collapse of the building in the future.
From 2011 to 2019, Xinguang Group issued a total of 15 bonds. Only the "11 Xinguang Bond" is truly used to build real estate projects. The rest are used to "repay principal and interest of the payment and replenish working capital". To put it more bluntly, it is to tear down the east wall and repair the west wall.
"borrow new money to pay off old debts", which is essentially the same as using one credit card to pay off the debts of another credit card. But the game of ten pots and nine covers (or even fewer) is not so easy to play, and it will sooner or later it will kill you.
Zhou Xiaoguang's debt is getting bigger and bigger like a snowball. As expected on-payment debt comes one after another, her pressure is getting bigger and bigger.
In 2016, Zhou Xiaoguang made another fatal wrong decision. She signed an "earning 4 billion in 3 years" betting agreement with Fangyuan Support Company in Anhui, and then successfully went public through a backdoor listing.
"Xinguang Yuancheng" has a market value of 11.187 billion yuan, raising 3.2 billion yuan to supplement the working capital required by the real estate sector.
In the same year, Zhou Xiaoguang and his wife ranked 53rd in the Hurun Rich List with a net worth of 30 billion yuan, Zhou Xiaoguang ranked throne of the richest female in Zhejiang, and successively won the titles of "Zhejiang's 30 Years of Meritorious Entrepreneur in 30 Years of Reform and Opening Up", "China's Top Ten Economic Women's Person of the Year", and were in the limelight.
However, on September 25, 2018, Xinguang Group was exposed to "two bonds defaulted totaling 3 billion yuan", confirming the outside world's speculation about its capital flow crisis. Xinguang Yuancheng's shares immediately plunged, falling from 15 yuan to 1.5 yuan. On the second day, Zhou Xiaoguang was included in the list of " breach of trust executors".
On a night, Zhou Xiaoguang went from being an inspirational female richest man to a "deadbeat" who owed hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
At this time, Zhou Xiaoguang was already trapped in the vicious circle of "lack of money - default - even less money can be borrowed - continue to default - asset freeze - lawsuit". In order to pay off her debt, she sold her luxury house and car, but she couldn't block the huge hole.
In 2019, Xinguang Group's debt was as high as 53.9 billion yuan when it filed for bankruptcy.
In August 2021, four villas and luxury houses under Zhou Xiaoguang's name were auctioned to pay off their debts.
On the evening of May 24, 2022, ST Xinguang received the "decision of listing" issued by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Xinguang was forced to delist, Xinguang Group was no longer glorious, and Zhou Xiaoguang fell from the altar. The curtain fell, leaving only a mess.
04
If China's economy had not risen, Zhou Xiaoguang might be just an ordinary woman in the mountainous area of southern Zhejiang. She worked from sunrise to sunset, and lived a poor and ordinary life by the continuous beautiful hills and under the rainy roofs of Jiangnan.
If there was no later excessive expansion, Zhou Xiaoguang and his wife's early entrepreneurial stories could almost be called a business legend and would inevitably be sung by the world.
Unfortunately, there is no if in this world.
This is an extraordinary era that has nurtured countless opportunities and risks. Zhou Xiaoguang, who dares to take risks, has put countless labels on himself with his sensitivity to the market, and has embarked on a path that makes people sigh.
Zhou Xiaoguang used his ups and downs to tell us that pursuing wealth is the nature of human beings, but "a gentleman likes money and gets it in a good way". If a person cannot control his endless greed, then the country he has built through hardships may disappear overnight.
Zhou Xiaoguang has an autobiography called "Women Just Going to Shine: The History of Entrepreneurship of "Embroidery Queen" Zhou Xiaoguang. The book begins with this book: People often go too far on the road, but always forget why they set out.
Now it seems that it has come true.
The capital market has never lacked legendary stories that create wealth, nor is it lacked the tragic plots of spending all their money. Wealth has attracted thousands of pursuers, and you have finished singing and I have appeared. There are always people who can't stop, and there are always plots that repeat themselves.
Author: Huixin Jieyu
Editor: Xiaoqi
Source:
Zhou Xiaoguang's autobiography "Women are going to shine: "Empress of Jewelry" Zhou Xiaoguang's entrepreneurial history"
"Innovation World Weekly" 2021 Issue 11 "Zhou Xiaoguang: Chicken Feathers Fall in the Land" Author: Gao Tong
