70 million people watched the live broadcast, and one product made 0.001 yuan. "Small and micro" can also create a multi-million dollar business

In the Internet age, everything has its own vitality and vigor. This article introduces the stories of three small and micro entrepreneurs to show the "cactus-like" survival and resilience of China's small and micro enterprises. Let's take a look at their stories.

Survive like a cactus, take root in the desert, use tenacity and perseverance to create hope and miracles, this is the charm of China's small and micro enterprises.

Cactus-like survival is the foundation of small and micro enterprises. Some of them cross no-man's land, pull their own network cables, open a window to the outside world, and use the tenacity of cacti to connect a lonely and bustling world;

Some returned to the "coldest town in China" to take root and survive, "upgrading and fighting monsters" amid doubts and worries, protecting their loved ones and also protecting their hometown town that gives people peace of mind, warmth and kindness;

Others took over factories on the verge of bankruptcy and, with stubbornness and tenacity, created huge businesses worth tens of millions of yuan by producing one innovative product after another, not afraid of meager profits.

In the Internet age, mobile phones have become new agricultural tools, network cables have become new nutrients, and live streaming has become a new agricultural activity. With the irrigation of digital financial water, the roots of cactus have a broader space to grow.

A patch of cactus can become an oasis. In the new era of the Internet, China's small and micro businesses are telling stories of hope, oasis and miracles one after another.

01 I pulled a seven-kilometer network cable and broadcast live across the uninhabited area

Li Tianyu decided to pull the optical cable through the forest in the uninhabited area and directly to the top of the mountain. But the optical cable used for live broadcasting is very heavy, so he specially bought thick and hard optical cables to prevent it from being damaged in the wild. It is too heavy for one person to pull the optical cable. He called relatives and friends to help pull it together.

It was winter when the optical cable was pulled. The snow on the mountain was almost waist-deep. A group of people pulled the optical cable step by step, through the forest, and moved to the top of the mountain. The mountain is high and the road is long. If people climb up, they have to rest three times on the way to reach the top. This optical cable of several thousand meters covers a distance of about seven kilometers.

This seven-kilometer optical cable that crosses the uninhabited area has provided signals to the top of the mountain, connecting the lonely mountain with the bustling world outside.

Li Tianyu's hometown is Fusong Town, Baishan City, Jilin Province. It is a remote agricultural town. His parents left their hometown to come here to make a living and made a living by logging for many years. In his generation, due to forestry protection, the town gradually withered and young people left their hometown to work outside. He also became a member of the army of wanderers.

The days of wandering were not high and stable, and they were tiring and hard. At the end of 2017, he and his wife ended their wandering life and stayed in their hometown to start a business. After that, they made a living by working as an emcee, host, participating in commercial activities and doing small businesses, but they didn't do it for long.

Because he heard that a distant relative in another city could make money by live-streaming, he decided to give it a try. However, in a remote town, live-streaming is not considered a serious profession by most people, so Li Tianyu didn't dare to tell anyone that he was doing live-streaming, not even his parents.

Live streaming became a lonely journey. At first, he broadcast at home, with wallpaper on the wall for a little decoration. But later, it became boring and boring for others to watch. Although he insisted on broadcasting for 4 hours every day, no one interacted with him or talked to him during the 4 hours.

"If you want to sell eggs, you should stay in the chicken coop. If you want to sell duck eggs, you should stay in the duck coop." He heard this sentence by chance and was deeply touched. In order to let customers see the source of the products with their own eyes, he moved the live broadcast room to the planting base on the mountain and started outdoor live broadcast.

But live streaming in the mountains is like surviving in the wilderness, long and lonely. There is no heating equipment in the mountains, so he just relies on wearing thick clothes. He lives in a temporary wooden house on the mountain, which is also leaky and windy, and is powered by a solar panel and two batteries. There is a pot on the mountain, so he picks up some firewood and uses the water that seeps down from the mountain to make some more convenient food.

There are many dangers in the mountains, including wild boars and hornets with strong venom. Once he was stung and had an allergic reaction, and his hands and feet began to swell. He was really not feeling well, so he quickly went down the mountain and received an IV drip for three days at the village clinic.

In addition to the harsh natural environment, he also had to face the pessimism of his fellow villagers and the doubts of netizens in the live broadcast room. People did not understand naturally grown ginseng and questioned the price. He showed netizens different pictures while digging ginseng to increase their sense of participation. He also created a novel "blind ginseng" gameplay, asking netizens to guess the price before digging, "I will never let fans lose money, and I will cover the bottom line if they guess wrong", and gradually gained the trust of netizens in the live broadcast room.

Since fans wanted to see Ganoderma lucidum, he live-streamed the process of picking Ganoderma lucidum and even built a glass house at the Ganoderma lucidum base.

In this way, the couple has been broadcasting for five years, and they are reluctant to stop even during the Spring Festival. Just like a cactus, relying on their tenacious vitality, they have taken root in the mountains and gained fans from all over the world. The seven-kilometer network cable, like the roots of a cactus, helps them take root deeply in the mountains and grow tenaciously.

An Internet cable and a mobile phone, one end is connected to the lonely depths of the mountains, and the other end is connected to the bustling world outside.

A total of 70 million people have watched his live broadcast online, which was extremely lively.

Li Tianyu's team has become more lively than before. From a small team of a couple, it has grown into a large team of more than 10 employees, and the "logistics center" has expanded into a three-story building.

His hometown also became lively. He went to the mountains and forests and the village, and used a month's sales to buy 2,000 kilograms of hazel mushrooms from the villagers. He spent more than a week under pressure to sell them all. The villagers' soybeans, millet and other mountain products are all popular mountain products in his live broadcast room. Over the years, he has sold more than 8 million yuan of agricultural products. In 2021, he became the most popular farmer anchor.

The wind of the Internet has blown into remote towns. Driven by Li Tianyu, there are now more than 200 e-commerce practitioners in Fusong Town, and he has also trained hundreds of them to become live broadcasters selling goods.

He said: "Live streaming has changed the fate of my family and the fate of the entire Changbai Mountain."

02 I was in the coldest town in China and wrote 120 shipping notes in 15 years

There are countless Li Tianyus in China. Like cacti, they take root and grow in inconspicuous corners. With their tenacity, they carve out their own world and protect their hometown.

Huzhong Town in Daxing'anling, Heilongjiang Province, is known as the "coldest town in the country", with the temperature reaching below -50 degrees Celsius at the coldest time. Dong Feifei was born and raised in Huzhong. In her memory, her hometown was "bustling" when she was a child. There were many people in the town, and the villagers cut wood with the sound of saws. Their parents would go to the mountains to pick wild blueberries and cranberries, go fishing in the river, and hunt pheasants and rabbits in winter. The children would go out to play on ice sleds, climb mountains to the top of the mountain to play, and make snowmen. Life was plain and warm.

But young people always yearn for the outside world. Like some young people, she left her small town when she grew up and went to the bustling big city to make a living. But her father fell ill soon after she started working. Far away from home, she sent the money she saved back home, hoping to let her father know that she could make money, which was also a kind of comfort.

Working in a foreign place makes her feel restrained and uncomfortable. She often thinks of the starry sky in her hometown, the wild rabbits in the mountains, the wild fish in the river, and misses the small town that gives her peace of mind.

Three years later, her father passed away suddenly, which hit her hard. Thinking that she had not given her parents enough money or good company, she did not want to live a life separated from her family anymore, so she resolutely embarked on the road back home to accompany her mother who was alone at home.

But companionship also requires considering the reality of livelihood. How to support herself and let her mother live a comfortable life? In 2007, she started an e-commerce business and became one of the earliest people engaged in e-commerce in the local area. She posted her products on the online store and sold a Ganoderma lucidum in less than a week. That day, she was so excited that she couldn't sleep all night.

But the villagers didn't see it that way. Some thought she came back because she couldn't make it outside. For a while, Dong Feifei "felt a little ashamed." The villagers didn't understand what e-commerce was. Relatives and neighbors saw that she always sent out goods but didn't get the money back, and they questioned whether her business was legal and legitimate. Some people even reminded her, "Don't be fooled."

But she was tenacious and insisted on doing e-commerce because "we can buy things online, so we can definitely sell them." There were many difficulties on the road to entrepreneurship. At that time, she didn't even know how to change the price, and asked the buyers how to change it.

"If you don't learn, and need others to tell you everything, then there will be a lot of things you don't understand in the future." She kept the buyer's words in mind and plunged into learning.

Because there was no one around her to ask for help, she searched online and learned bit by bit. Often after she understood it all, she realized that such a simple thing had taken so long.

Persistence finally paid off. After receiving the first payment, she took her mother out for a big meal - a bowl of beef noodles, to celebrate the success of her business. Along the way, her income gradually increased. In the first month, she could earn 900 yuan, in the second month, 1,200 yuan, in the third month, 1,800 yuan... Later, she could earn more than 10,000 yuan a month. She said that starting a business can really make money.

A year later, Dong Feifei's online store started to gain momentum, so she and her mother moved to Jiagedaqi District, where transportation was more convenient, to continue doing e-commerce.

She offered a higher purchase price than the traditional one, and bought the mountain products from the villagers, so that their hard work could earn more income. The mountains, rivers and villagers in her hometown also warmed her heart. For a while, she sprained her ankle and did not go to buy mountain products. She thought that the uncle and aunt who were not well-off at home had sold the roses, but she did not expect that when she went there, she found that the old couple had kept them for her, which made her feel warm in her heart.

The warmth comes not only from the villagers, but also from a notebook. For 15 years, she has written down all the delivery orders. The shop is not big, but she has written 120 delivery notebooks by hand. She thinks that when she is old, she will take them out and open them page by page. On them are the footprints of her entire youth and struggle.

That was the memory she left for herself and the best proof of her resilience along the way.

03 I sell zippers in Yiwu and earn 0.001 yuan per piece

In the Internet age, "cactus" absorbs more nutrients, grows rapidly, bursts out with stronger vitality, and writes one oasis legend after another in the new era.

Yiwu, China is a place where new legends are constantly unfolding. There, "Cactus" turns straws, buttons, zippers, toothpicks and other inconspicuous small things into a great business.

"Second Brother" is a "second generation factory owner" from Yiwu, whose family runs a zipper business. Once upon a time, his family's zippers were exported to foreign countries and the business was booming. Later, due to the influence of the overall environment, the foreign trade business orders were unstable, and the long payment period and large amount of debts caused the annual sales of zippers to decline.

When the "second brother" was almost 30 years old, he took over the zipper factory that his father had founded nearly 20 years ago. At that time, he was faced with a "mess" - zipper sales had shrunk a lot, and there were only seven or eight employees left in the factory.

The factory was on the verge of bankruptcy, but the "Second Brother" was very tenacious and did not choose to close the factory and change careers. Instead, he "wanted to keep this hard work" and transformed into domestic trade and started e-commerce.

How to "come back to life"? He thought of innovation. Because he observed that masks are easy to fall off, he designed a zipper-made anti-lost mask rope, and later designed anti-knot work badge ropes, anti-knot headphone ropes and other products. Faced with the demand for customized zippers for breastfeeding clothing merchants, he provided an invisible zipper solution, which won the trust of customers and an order of 100,000 pieces.

In recent years, "Second Brother" has invested more than 1 million yuan in innovation and obtained more than 30 patents.

But with such a high cost, how much profit can a zipper make? "Second Brother" said that in fact, the cheapest zipper only sells for 7 cents, and can make 0.001 yuan.

However, it was this meager profit that saved this company on the verge of bankruptcy. The factory sold 20 million meters of zippers a year, and sales doubled year after year, with annual sales exceeding 10 million yuan...

After the enterprise came back to life, "Second Brother" expanded its production capacity, recruited more than 100 new workers, and business is booming.

Making the most of a small investment is the consistent tenacity of Yiwu merchants.

In his opinion, small and micro enterprises will never underestimate even a penny.

Now, the "Second Brother", who has taken care of the family business and brought everyone to life, has not only started researching the internationally renowned zipper brand YKK, but also has a bigger dream. He wants to make the small zipper a brand and a symbol of quality.

In Yiwu, such cactus-like survival can be found everywhere. The profit of a straw is only 0.0008 yuan, a zipper is 0.001 yuan, and 100 toothpicks only make 1 cent...Yiwu bosses have turned these insignificant little things into a big business worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan.

Yiwu is a city that grew up in the market. Here, there are countless examples of how to get rich. It is recognized by the United Nations as the world's small commodity center, and Yiwu ranks first in the list of China's top 50 richest counties.

This is the power exerted by cacti.

With fertile soil and sunshine, growing luxuriantly and looking up at the starry sky, countless cacti will eventually become a vast oasis and create miracles.

Author: Jiang Xuefen

Source: WeChat public account: "Seller (ID: maijiakan)"