Wu Ping, founder of Shanghai Nibo Catering Co., Ltd., which started its business in Huangpu District , has been at home for more than a month, and the company's two dessert stores, "Bunny Wonderland", has also been in the back for a long time. Many colleagues started community group buying , but Wu Ping could only sigh: "The raw materials and equipment are all in the store, and the employees are isolated at home. What else can we do? We can't help but have big brands, and the fate of independent coffee shops is the same."
For the past month, its revenue has been zero, and the costs of rent, labor, etc. have to be carried. In Shanghai under the epidemic, the difficulties faced by Wu Ping is also a microcosm of the situation of all walks of life, especially small and micro enterprises. Fortunately, many entrepreneurs have tried their best to save themselves after experiencing the initial anxiety, and have also received rescue from the public department, such as the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.
Now, as the epidemic situation is stable and improving, they have a common wish: companies should survive and live better.
"Boss, you have to hold on!"
In mid-March, the "Bunny Wonderland" store located in Bansongyuan Road Street, Huangpu District was suspended due to the epidemic. Store closures not only reduce turnover, but also lead to a decline in exposure. Wu Ping saw that the store's ranking on the takeaway platform was "falling all the way down", from more than ten of the original 1,000 stores to "invisible places".
"My first reaction was over at that time!" Wu Ping felt a little desperate. She is born in the 1980s and is a native of Shanghai and graduated from the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy . Out of her hobby for baking, she opened two dessert shops, one located on Xietu East Road and the other located on Yanqingli, the riverside of Suzhou .
Wu Ping introduced that the Hokkaido sea salt bread, American coffee and others in the store are all ranked very high on the review website. With its excellent taste and good location selection, the business conditions of "Bunny Wonderland" before the epidemic were quite good. For this reason, she even had the idea of expanding again. However, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic gave her a blow. What she didn't expect was that the lockdown that, which was originally thought to be at most half a month, lasted for more than a month, and the entire city also pressed the pause button. Now 10 employees are quarantined at home. Wu Ping has paid them basic salary and asked them one by one if there is any difficulty in life. "If so, I will try my best to help." During the special period, the employee also cheered her up: "Boss, you have to hold on!"
conversation between Wu Ping and employees
Not only the catering industry, but all walks of life have been affected by the epidemic. In 2019, Fang Xuemeng, who is still a student at Donghua University, founded Shanghai Chenxi Uniform Co., Ltd., which is committed to designing and producing group uniforms. Over the past three years, the company's business scale has steadily expanded and has established cooperative relationships with many enterprises, universities and social groups. "Group uniforms are updated every year, so our order volume has always been very stable." Fang Xuemeng said that in the two or three months after the year, enterprises and schools began to operate, and it was the peak order season. However, as soon as the epidemic came, all expected orders were cancelled, "I feel particularly weak at home."
I thought the ban would end soon, but Fang Xuemeng left U shield in the studio. When he needed to settle the payment, he realized that he could not use the company account and could only rely on the working capital he had to turn over. "He was a little nervous, but it was still acceptable."
Chenxi uniform design works
The head of the Entrepreneurship Guidance Department of the Municipal Employment Promotion Center told reporters that the most common difficulties for entrepreneurs in recent times are cash flow and psychological anxiety problems.
"If the invoice cannot be issued, it is difficult to recover the funds." Shanghai Liugan Technology Co., Ltd. Financial Manager Shao Meiqing said bluntly. This is a key high-tech enterprise in Hongkou District , committed to using gamification technology to create digital, gamified and virtual reality solutions in DLM, new retail NLM, and user value promotion ULM, as well as investing in personalized vehicle products and content IP. The OEMs that cooperate with them are GAC Toyota, SAIC-GM-Wuling and other manufacturers at the forefront of the industry.
"In the past, I had to issue almost 50 invoices per month for business settlement with customers. Now I can't issue one."Shao Meiqing said that this affects the normal operation of the company's cash flow, and if the capital chain breaks, the stability of employees will also become worse. In addition, working from home leads to a decrease in communication efficiency. "For example, the development team originally had a bug that could be solved on the spot, but now they can only wait for the code to be handed over and find the problem after running, so the rework rate will become higher." It is even more difficult to promote business expansion.
Shanghai Business, Tourism and Culture Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. also faces cash flow problems. This is an enterprise engaged in new retail services and commercial design and planning of transportation hubs. The business scope is centered on Yangtze River Delta , covering Anhui, Hunan, Hubei and other places. "After the outbreak of the epidemic, people's demand for travel has decreased significantly, which has a huge blow to our industry. "The founder Wang Chao mentioned that the company participated in the design of Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway and many large airport commercial plans, including Shanghai Hongqiao Station , Nanjing South Station , Pudong Airport, and Anhui Expressway Service Area, etc., the passenger flow today is no longer the same as before. However, the rent that should be paid and the wages that should be paid have not decreased at all.
"Can the company still hold on? "When the epidemic prevention and control was the most difficult time, Wang Chao had such an idea.
"Timely Rain" in extraordinary times
In response, the Municipal Employment Promotion Center issued the "Notice on Seriously Implementing Policies and Measures for Entrepreneurship Guarantee Loans during the Anti-epidemic Period", requiring public entrepreneurship service departments at all levels of the human resources and social security department to continue to do a good job in publicity, consultation and explanation of entrepreneurial guarantee loan policies, and guide entrepreneurs to apply for suitable inclusive financial products online.
At the end of March, Wang Chao began to prepare materials related to entrepreneurial guarantee loans. However, because the core certification materials remain in the company and the processing elements are missing, it is impossible to fulfill the current situation. The field evaluation mechanism has been hindered. Fortunately, the Jing'an District Employment Promotion Center, the Municipal Small and Medium Enterprises Policy Guarantee Fund Management Center and Industrial Bank decided to open a green channel, use electronic approval methods to carry out the original offline approval process, and realize the process fidelity through video verification. Wang Chao said that the process that originally took at least half a month, but this time it took only 5 working days to implement the loan. In late April, the loan was received, which solved the urgent needs of the company.
Shanghai Liugan Technology Co., Ltd.
"I really didn't expect it to be so smooth. "Shao Meiqing also sighed that in order to apply for a loan, she asked the staff of the Hongkou District Employment Promotion Center for help. Two days later, the other party replied, "It's done." It turned out that the Hongkou District Employment Promotion Center not only helped her connect with the district's small and medium-sized enterprise center, but also solved the certification problem of small and micro enterprises, but also reported to the Municipal Employment Promotion Center in the shortest time and issued a timely approval, so that the company's loan extension review can be carried out smoothly. On April 22, the company received a guaranteed loan of 3 million entrepreneurial organizations.
Wu Ping and Fang Xuemeng also received a reminder for the promotion center to apply for entrepreneurial guarantee loans. They still have savings on hand and decided not to apply for a loan for the time being. Another good news is that Wu Ping learned from the property that small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households that rent state-owned enterprises can be exempted from 6 months of rent. She said that the rents of the two stores are not high and are at a medium level that dessert stores can bear. "We have paid the rent for the past two months and are very at ease with the implementation of subsequent reduction and exemption procedures."
Fang Xuemeng's studio is located in the "Shangchuanghui" Donghua University College Student Entrepreneurship Incubation Base in Changning District, , with an area of 46 square meters and a monthly rent of 3,000 yuan. Not long ago, she also received a notice from the park that the 6-month rent was exempted, and she felt much more relaxed.
Fang Xuemeng's studio in the "Shangchuanghui"
Jiading The Shanghai Game Industry Incubator of District is a city’s entrepreneurial incubation demonstration base, gathering hundreds of start-ups in the fields of games, e-sports, meta-universe, etc. Chen Lu, the person in charge, introduced that the park has actively implemented the rent reduction and exemption policy, and has currently reduced the rent of 1.719 million yuan for incubated small and micro enterprises that rent houses. She said that compared with other industries, these companies are not greatly affected by the epidemic, but each has its own difficulties. "I hope they can all survive and grow well in our park."
It is understood that as of April 30, 168 urban and district entrepreneurial incubation demonstration bases in the city have responded to the call of the human resources and social security department and determined that they will reduce and exempt entrepreneurs’ rents, of which 48 have reduced and exempted rents of 85.0568 million yuan. During the lockdown period, the city approved 26 entrepreneurial guarantee loans, 8 were issued, with an amount of 18.9 million yuan.
At the same time, the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau has researched and issued the "Work Guidelines on Further Maintaining the Harmonious and Stability of Current Labor Relations", which clearly stipulates that if enterprises have no ability to pay wages due to production and operation difficulties due to the epidemic, they can postpone the wages of workers (usually not more than one month) after consultation and approval with the trade union or employee representatives, which also reserves a buffer room for many enterprises. The person in charge of the Entrepreneurship Guidance Department of the Employment Promotion Center of
introduced that in addition to helping enterprises alleviate financial difficulties through measures such as ensuring the issuance of entrepreneurial guarantee loans, reducing rent from entrepreneurial enterprises, and calling on enterprises and workers to overcome difficulties together, the human resources and social security department also fully utilizes the power of the volunteer group of entrepreneurial instructors and entrepreneurial guidance experts in various districts to provide targeted services such as entrepreneurship guidance and assistance, policy consultation, and resource docking to entrepreneurs affected by the epidemic to help entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs overcome difficulties.
"Working hands to fight the epidemic - Minhang Expert Group Online Financing Series"
Liu Daxue, Architectural Design Director of Design Research Institute of China Construction Eighth Bureau Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd., is a member of the Municipal Entrepreneurship Guidance Expert Volunteer Group. In the past month, while participating in the design tasks of the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) Fixed Cabin Hospital, he also held lectures on topics such as financing, strategic planning, and fiscal and tax planning, private board and "online clinic" classes for entrepreneurs.
"I have also come from young and know how hard it is to start a business. With the impact of the epidemic, entrepreneurs are under greater pressure now." Liu Daxue said that while entrepreneurs are working hard to overcome the difficulties in front of them, it is recommended to use this period of time to reconsider the corporate brand positioning, clarify the customer group, and actively find new development models.
Happiness and sorrow after the epidemic
As suggested by entrepreneurial guidance experts, many entrepreneurs have begun to think about new directions.
"Enterprises should still dig deep into the field of transportation hubs." Wang Chao believes that in the future, the company will also deepen its efforts in the field of transportation hubs, and also need to develop in the direction of diversification. He turned his attention to community business, "At present, the community business is unevenly distributed, lacks industrial planning, and has not laid out the core functional layout of some street shops, so he cannot play the blood transfusion function of the basic planning supporting the 'last mile'."
In his opinion, these problems highlighted by the epidemic have provided new ideas for the company's business expansion. "Organically combine some community businesses that realize the 'last mile' function with community units. This should be a more promising area in the future." Zhou Haibo, founder of
Liushen Technology, said that the company's growth has ups and downs, and once the main channel is determined, it will not be changed easily. "However, after the epidemic is over, we will definitely re-examine the strategic arrangements related to customers, make timely adjustments, and will be more crisis-aware, so that we can be able to deal with the next black swan ."
Jishe Space
is located in the prosperous area of Bund , gathering a group of entrepreneurial teams with art and aesthetic education as the main types. Qin Wei, the person in charge, told reporters that during the epidemic, the Huangpu District Employment Promotion Center issued an initiative to encourage the park tutor team to actively maintain communication with entrepreneurs, discuss early issues of the project, plan arrangements for the next stage, and seek key promotion directions after the epidemic.
Whale Warbler Media is one of the entrepreneurial projects for college students. This is a content company that uses experts to incubate and helps brands build brand planning, new media operation , e-commerce sales and other full-link marketing systems on platforms such as Douyin , Xiaohongshu , etc. Due to the impact of the epidemic, merchants cannot open up and experts cannot explore stores, so it is difficult for cooperation plans to continue to promote.
"Our mentor team reviewed the matter with the Whale Ying Media team, planning to add new e-commerce and live broadcast services, and at the same time promote the recruitment and training of campus experts, thereby expanding the scale of the matrix and providing capability guarantee for the future development of local businesses." Qin Wei introduced that, including Whale Ying Media, most of the teams in the park have grown under the test.
As the epidemic situation in Shanghai is generally stable and improving, entrepreneurs are increasingly looking forward to the arrival of full resumption of work and production.
Wu Ping has 3 "Bunny Wonderland" fan groups on WeChat, each with about 200 people. Although there was no group purchase, the group was still very lively, and guests expressed their longing for her desserts and coffee. A customer told Wu Ping that after the lockdown was unblocked, he would buy 5 cakes of different flavors in one go. "Everyone is so tired." Wu Ping said that once work resumes, they will increase their productivity and try their best to meet the needs of customers.
However, she also has some concerns about resuming work, mainly focusing on the supply chain. "Our short-term raw materials are about to expire and need to be purchased as soon as possible, but many imported raw materials need to be purchased through foreign trade dealers. I don't know if these supply channels can be restored at that time." She hopes that all channels will be smooth after the resumption of work and production.
is not idle at home, and Wu Ping and his employees are starting to develop more new products
Wang Chao believes that it takes a process for cities to go from static to recovery. "People's travel needs will gradually climb, and it is estimated that they can return to normal in 6 months." For entrepreneurs, how to successfully overcome this recovery stage is also a big challenge.
"After the epidemic, we still have to continue to produce self-healing and repair ourselves." Zhou Haibo said.
Qin Wei is also an entrepreneurial guidance expert. He observed that many companies can basically grit their teeth and persevere during the epidemic. The situations that cannot persist are often six months after the epidemic, because "the harm of the epidemic is gradually revealed after the end."
For this reason, he suggested that entrepreneurs increase revenue and reduce expenditures during the period after the epidemic, reduce costs as much as possible, maintain a certain amount of cash flow, continue to pay attention to user needs and deepen their own ability to solve problems, optimize and improve their business models, and seek new growth.
Although there are many difficulties, entrepreneurs did not choose to "lie down".
Many of them are serial entrepreneurs: Wu Ping's first store went bankrupt after the epidemic in 2020, and Liushen Technology was the fruit of Zhou Haibo's sixth entrepreneurship... After Fang Xuemeng started her business, she went from "sleeping in seconds" to often insomnia, but she was still willing to toss and accept failure and start over.
"This may be the entrepreneurial spirit!" she said with a smile.
column editor: Zhang Jun
Image source: Interview object provides
Source: Author: Zhou Chengyi
