I didn't make any money following the trend of gold rush

In the past two years, many new trends have emerged, attracting many people to follow suit and seek gold. However, how many people can really reap the benefits? The reality of chasing the trend and seeking gold may be much more cruel than imagined.

Chasing the trend of starting a business and seeking gold is often portrayed as a shortcut to wealth and success. But in the real business world, what is the "money outlook"?

In the past one or two years, new trends have emerged, from camping, AI, private board meetings, personality divination and concerts, all of which have become new gold rush tracks that are highly sought after by young people. But now it seems that only a small number of people can taste the sweetness. What people hear more are the experiences and stories shared by some successful people, and these people usually succeeded after experiencing some adversity. In fact, it may be a kind of "survivor bias", which hides many unknown hardships and challenges.

Chasing the trend of starting a business and seeking gold may seem to have unlimited "money prospects", but in fact it is full of uncertainty and risks, and the reality is far more cruel than imagined.

Tech Planet communicates with young entrepreneurs who have flocked to the hottest tracks in recent years to seek gold, hoping that people can have a more rational understanding of the challenges encountered in the entrepreneurial process, and learn from others' experience to provide reference and inspiration to those in the same industry.

1. Invested more than 1 million yuan to test the waters of camping, but it didn't cause any waves

Narrator: Wuhan investor, He Li

Two years ago, because camping was very popular, I threw myself into the camping business with great enthusiasm. I thought I saw the potential of the market and could make a name for myself in this field, but in the end I failed.

Initially, I was attracted by camping, a new lifestyle, and saw people's yearning for nature and pursuit of unique experiences. So I invested more than 1 million to open a camping site in Wuhan, providing a variety of camping-related services and experiences.

In addition to renting land and turf, a large amount of money has been invested in the construction of the site and the purchase of facilities, and a number of camping methods have been introduced to carefully create a beautiful and comfortable camping environment.

But after more than a year, this trial entrepreneurial project ran into trouble. The main reason was the lack of market awareness. Although camping has gradually become popular in some areas, people's understanding of camping is still limited in a wider range. Many people's concept of camping is still at the traditional wilderness survival stage, and they are not interested in the exquisite camping experience we provide.

Moreover, many people thought that my campsite was for public use, and when there was no administrator, they would come in and use it, such as littering, which caused some trouble. We tried to dissuade them but to little avail.

In addition, we have also done publicity and promotion, but the results were not ideal. It was okay during the peak season, but during the off-season, the passenger flow was never up to expectations.

At the same time, site management has also become a thorny issue. The maintenance and operation of the campground requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and our lack of experience in this area has resulted in some facilities not being repaired in a timely manner when they malfunction or are damaged, affecting the customer experience.

Another factor that cannot be ignored is the intensified competition. As the camping market gradually heats up, more and more companies and entrepreneurs are pouring into this market, and the competition has become extremely fierce. We are facing tremendous pressure in terms of price and service quality, and it is difficult to compete with competitors. Previously, the gross profit margin could reach 70%, but now it is only more than 40%, and it is on a downward trend, and we are now making losses.

With all the difficulties, our camping business gradually fell into a dilemma. Although we struggled hard and tried to find a way out, it was still difficult to turn the situation around. The continuous consumption of funds, the loss of customers, and the difficulties in operation finally made the partners choose to withdraw. After deducting the losses in the past two years, we only made more than 100,000 yuan, which was not as expected. Fortunately, we withdrew in time, otherwise we would have lost a lot.

2. Partners exit AI startup halfway through

Narrator: Li Hongwei, former employee of a large Internet company

Through this failure in AI entrepreneurship, I understand that entrepreneurship is a career full of risks and challenges. Failure does not mean the end, but rather a valuable lesson.

Last June, I partnered with four friends from Internet giants to build an AI chat companion product, taking advantage of the AI ​​boom. The entire project investment was about 300,000 yuan. In the early days of the business, we were confident in the prospects of AI products, believing that it would provide a chat space for many people with social phobia, and we also hoped to occupy a place in the market.

However, during the actual development process, we encountered a series of difficulties. On the one hand, technical difficulties were the primary challenge we faced. We developed based on a large domestic model. Although the large model can provide reliable technical support, in detail, we encountered difficulties in algorithm optimization and data labeling during the development process, resulting in the product performance failing to meet expectations. In order to solve these technical problems, we invested a lot of time and energy, and continued to conduct research and experiments, but the results were not ideal.

Moreover, there are already major Internet companies on the market that have launched similar products, such as Tencent Music’s Weiban and Meituan’s Wow. Our competitors are making technological progress faster than us, which puts us under a lot of pressure.

In addition, we found that the market acceptance of AI chat products is not as high as we imagined. It takes time for users to recognize and accept new technologies, and our products did not address consumers' doubts and concerns well during the early testing and promotion process. Some test users said frankly that our product is not much different from another mature AI chat product on the market, and even worse in terms of gameplay, which made us feel frustrated.

At this time, the project had already spent nearly 60,000 yuan, and as the project progressed, some conflicts and disagreements arose among team members, which had a great impact on the team's cohesion and work efficiency. Two members left the team for various reasons, further weakening our strength. This also forced us to interrupt the research and development of AI products.

Looking back now, there are many reasons for the failure of this startup. In terms of team management, we lacked an effective communication and coordination mechanism, which led to confusion and instability within the team. Most importantly, we overestimated the market demand and acceptance of AI products, and did not fully consider the complexity and volatility of the market.

3. The private board meeting was shut down as a scam, and the boss was sued to pay off his debts

Narrator: Private Board Operation, Xiaoxing

Although I am not the founder of a private board of directors, I have always been one of its operators. I have witnessed the entire process of a local private board of directors from its creation to its final closure.

In everyone's impression, private board meetings were originally intended to provide a platform for communication and learning for entrepreneurs and start-ups. However, judging from the recent uproarious private board meeting "leek-cutting" incident, combined with one's own experience, it is not easy to run a private board meeting well.

The private board of directors I worked for did not have many connections in the early days, and it was difficult to attract the attention of investors and corporate executives. In order to maintain the operation of the private board of directors and make money, the team management began to exaggerate their own resources and capabilities, weaving a series of tempting blueprints, promising to bring endless business opportunities and extensive network resources to the members who joined the private board of directors. The private board of directors has become a platform for cutting leeks.

First, they set a membership fee of 8,888 yuan as a threshold for membership, in order to attract entrepreneurs. However, in reality, the fees charged do not match the quality of services actually provided to them, and sometimes they even ignore the members after collecting the membership fees.

A small and micro entrepreneur told me privately that when he joined a private board meeting with great aspirations, he found that the reality was far from the publicity, and he felt cheated.

In addition to membership fees, private directors also charge for activities, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan, by organizing various themed activities such as seminars, forums, and trainings, and charging members for participating in the activities. Originally, these activities not only increased interaction between members, but also brought in additional income for the private directors.

Due to the lack of a professional operation team and management mechanism, the organization of the event was disorganized and the content provided was lackluster. The communication between members only stayed on the surface, it was difficult to touch the real core and could not generate substantial value.

The reason why the private board of directors finally closed down was that they took advantage of the information asymmetry between members and secretly carried out improper business operations. The team management would ask us to recommend some false investment projects or cooperation opportunities, and eventually the cornerstone of trust in the private board of directors gradually collapsed. The boss not only had to pay off the debts in the lawsuit, but also was included in the list of people restricted from high consumption.

4. The short-lived cyber metaphysics became my only loss-making project

Narrator: Internet "digital nomad", Sun Wen

"Knock the electronic wooden fish, you will see the mecha Buddha, take the cyber sutra, you will see Hatsune Miku", this sentence became popular on the Internet. And online metaphysics also attracted many people to join in. Some of my friends made a few tens of thousands of yuan from it. Taking advantage of this wave, I also became an entrepreneur.

Different from other people's simple online fortune-telling and divination services, what I do is "live worship of Buddha", which is a virtual blessing activity on the live broadcast platform. The audience can participate in the interaction by giving rewards, leaving messages, etc., and express their wishes and demands.

The total investment cost of the project is approximately 4,000 yuan, mainly used to purchase live broadcast templates and set up a live broadcast room.

Taking advantage of the popularity at that time, many people came to my live broadcast room, and I could earn a hundred yuan or so. If I met a domineering "big brother", I could make hundreds of yuan a night. But a month later, as the popularity decreased, the number of people coming to my live broadcast room also dropped from hundreds to single digits, and even fewer people gave gifts.

In order to make more money, they also provide some other services, such as divination, MBTI personality test, etc.

These services are charged on an hourly basis, following the example of peers, and the service price is 200 yuan per hour. The specific service is very simple, that is, through the art of language, to convince the other party, make the other party happy, and obtain spiritual satisfaction and emotional value. At first, some people came to ask, but because the price was too high, no one bought this kind of service in the end, even if the price was finally reduced to 10 yuan for half an hour, no one bought these paid services.

To be exact, this was the shortest-lived of my small entrepreneurial projects, and the only one that lost money.

Looking back, the audience's interest in this kind of metaphysics lies in the psychological comfort and entertainment value it provides. But if it is used as a tool to make money, people may be disappointed with this over-commercialization and leave after the novelty wears off.

5. Following the trend and investing in small livehouses is much more difficult than you might think

Narrator: Xiaogang, an individual entrepreneur

I have started businesses in the field of homestays before, but they were not ideal. After the epidemic, concerts became popular, and I threw myself into this hot track again, but when I got deeper into it, I found that it was much more difficult than I imagined.

I am not organizing a large-scale concert, but a small livehouse concert. I have invested millions of yuan in a provincial capital city in the south, and mainly invite some local popular bands or well-known singers to perform.

Building a live house is not easy. First of all, the venue issue became the first difficulty we faced. It is not easy to find a suitable venue in the city. We have to consider the convenience of the location and meet the requirements of acoustics and space layout. We spent a lot of time and energy looking for an ideal venue, but the high rent and complicated lease terms made us feel stressed.

We finally found a relatively satisfactory place. The decoration and equipment purchase required a huge investment, which further increased our financial burden. But when we thought of the high returns from the concert, we became full of enthusiasm.

After the Livehouse venue was built, the lack of performance resources became a key issue. In the fiercely competitive music performance market, attracting excellent bands and musicians to perform is the key. We strive to communicate and cooperate with various musicians and management companies, but it is often difficult to obtain high-quality performance lineups due to our low popularity and limited resources. This makes our Livehouse lack of appeal and it is difficult to increase the number of audiences, which directly affects our income and reputation.

Cost is the biggest drawback of Livehouse. Due to weak bargaining power, the cost is very high. For example, if you invite a well-known Hong Kong star to perform, the appearance fee is 80,000 to 100,000 yuan, and the cost of food, accommodation and travel must be covered. However, after deducting the cost, the ticket revenue for one night is not much, and it may even lose money.

In general, the resources of high-quality performances that can attract audiences are limited, and the cost of signing and inviting them is high. Some small performances or performances by unknown bands are difficult to guarantee sufficient attendance, resulting in unstable income.

As far as I know, the small performance market in our city is also becoming saturated. Three more livehouses were opened last year. Now everyone is competing on price and singer fame, and the competition is even more intense.