After escaping from the big factory, I returned to the county to open a store. No one was optimistic about it, and I made 100,000 yuan a month.

There are many ways for young people to realize their own value. In addition to working in big cities, there are also many young people starting businesses in small towns. This article shows five young people who returned to their county towns to open stores. Some of them started their own businesses with tens of thousands of yuan. Some of them earn 100,000 yuan a month, while others earn less than 3,000 yuan. But with creativity, there are endless possibilities. Let's take a look at their stories.

Mianping County belongs to the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. Poverty is an indelible label for Liangshan. Among the 17 counties in the prefecture, 11 were once deeply impoverished counties. Some outsiders even feel that this place is still in the state before liberation.

In Mianning, the specialty snack is fried potatoes, and Yibao, born in 1995, and his sister want to open a light meal shop.

Apart from the open-minded parents who supported it, no one was optimistic. "Will anyone buy these if we sell them in Liangshan?" "It will definitely go bankrupt in less than half a year."

But the result was very disappointing - there was a long queue in the store, and they earned 100,000 yuan in just one month.

There are many young people like the Yibao sisters who return to their counties to open shops. According to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, by the end of last year, the number of people returning to their hometowns to start businesses had exceeded 12.2 million. There are many related posts on Xiaohongshu: "Starting a business in a small county is much better than going to work", "Selling roasted sweet potatoes in an 18th-tier county is a big hit"...

Usually, small shops such as milk tea shops, bakeries, and grocery stores are within their range. Although starting from scratch, with their experience outside, understanding of operations, and the original intention of "craftsmanship first, business second", their small shops have a unique texture.

But not every store opening story is as smooth as Yibao’s. Some people were hesitant to make up their minds after renting a store, and ended up being preempted by their "friends". Others chose a location in a hurry, and had monthly sales of less than 3,000, so they backed out.

This issue of "Financial Story Collection" interviewed five young people who returned to the county to open stores. They were once employees of large factories, university teachers, and elites of foreign companies. Behind their return to the small county, there is a special story, whether it is due to life and death separation, or to pursue self. Now, they have a common identity - county entrepreneurs.

1. After quitting my job in the Internet industry, I opened a snack bar with 20,000 RMB and made my investment back in two months

Qi Ya, born in 1995, from Linquan County, Anhui Province, invested 20,000 yuan, and opened a 20-square-meter snack bar.

After working in the Internet industry for a year after graduation, Qi Ya was fed up with the involution of the workplace and resolutely quit her job last year.

Opening a small shop of her own was always her idea, but due to the risks, she followed the procedures and chose "normal" employment when she graduated.

After quitting her job, the inner voice resurfaced, especially when she saw her friends making a lot of money from running restaurants, she was encouraged.

Since she had little savings from her work, low cost was the only option, so Qi Ya thought of returning to her hometown in Linquan County to open a teppanyaki tofu snack shop.

Linquan is a large agricultural county with an underdeveloped economy. It has been the poorest county in Anhui for many years. Its per capita GDP has been ranked last in the province for many years. Its first high-speed rail station was only opened four years ago.

But Qi Ya is not worried, "Snacks are consumed by the masses. As long as the taste is good and there is a large flow of people, you can make it successful."

Fortunately, after half a month of site selection, she found a 20-square-meter subleased store on an ancient specialty snack street. There was no sublease fee and the store had been simply decorated. She only needed to pay the remaining 10 months' rent of 12,000 yuan and a custom-made storefront for 900 yuan.

She then found a local master to teach her how to make iron plate tofu. She learned quickly and finished it in two days. The tuition fee was 3,000 yuan.

The bulk of the store and technology were solved, and the remaining miscellaneous items, such as materials, tools, etc., cost about 5,000 yuan, adding up to a total of about 20,000 yuan, and a snack bar was opened.

The shop officially opened on October 31 last year. The iron plate tofu was 6 yuan per portion, and the fish cake and rice cake were 7 yuan per portion. On the first day, sales totaled 659 yuan, and three plates of tofu and two kilograms of rice cake were all sold out.

Just as Qi Ya expected, as long as the taste was good, customers would help promote the store, and the store had more and more repeat customers, and it made back its investment in two months. Especially during the peak period of the Chinese New Year, the sales in half a month reached 20,000 yuan, and Qi Ya began to save a small treasury.

She is full of energy and is not idle even during the epidemic lockdown.

In early November last year, the residential area where Qi Ya lived was sealed off due to the epidemic. However, she still had some tofu ingredients and couldn't bear to waste them, so she set up a temporary stall in the community. Unexpectedly, it was so crowded that she sold out in less than half an hour.

However, there are always troubles on the road to entrepreneurship. Snacks are easy to start and the competition threshold is low. Recently, an aunt set up a similar snack stand 15 meters to the left of Qi Ya.

According to the "disclosure" from the owner of the stinky tofu shop next door, she has been "observing" Qi Ya for half a month, and sometimes even secretly filmed Qi Ya's operations.

Although Qi Ya felt uncomfortable, she did not feel threatened. "In the end, it all comes down to taste, especially my understanding of young people's tastes. I have confidence in that."

2. I left Byte and returned to Daliangshan to open a light food restaurant. I made 100,000 yuan in a month.

Yibao, born in 1995, from Mianning County, Sichuan, with an investment of nearly 200,000 yuan, a 40-square-meter light food store

They take no more than three minutes of rest during the day, have to run to the toilet, and fall asleep as soon as they get home at night. This has been Yibao and his sister’s daily routine since they opened a light meal shop in January this year.

Last year, the two sisters both quit their jobs in the city, and people around them thought they were crazy.

Previously, Yibao was a computer teacher at a college in Liangshan, and his sister worked in operations at Chengdu ByteDance. One was a civil servant, and the other worked for a large Internet company. These two people discarded jobs that others could not get.

The reasons are very different. Yibao loves freedom and is tired of the constraints of school rules and regulations and the life between the classroom and the office. His jumping thoughts are sealed; his sister can't find the meaning of her work, so she decides to go home and adjust.

The idea of ​​opening a light food shop came about by chance. During the period when she quit her job and was unemployed, my sister saw a light food blogger on Xiaohongshu. She has always had no resistance to good-looking and delicious food, so she signed up for a week of training.

It was this study that inspired them, “It turns out that light meals don’t have to be raw, cold and bland, they can also be so delicious”, and this also inspired their greater passion - to make healthy meals suitable for the Chinese stomach, so that more people can break the stereotyped perception of light meals and the backward impression of their hometown.

It's inevitable that everyone around me is "pessimistic". Mianning is an old revolutionary base area. You can tour it in half an hour by electric car. There are still no large shopping malls. The high-speed train to Chengdu was just opened a few months ago. The average salary of local young people is only 3,000 yuan. Can the light meal "culture" unique to big cities find a foothold here?

But Yibao and his sister are 80% sure about this. The only verification they have done is that they see many local young people going to coffee shops, so they judge that they are willing to accept new things.

As for the 20% risk, the two agree: even if the result is not satisfactory, you will not regret it if you give it a try.

The cost was controlled within 200,000 yuan, which was the maximum loss the two could bear. They deliberately avoided the downtown area and commercial center and chose a street shop with sunlight, a small shop of more than 40 square meters with a tree outside.

"We want to create a warm store and don't want others to think that we are just doing business to make money."

The original intention determines the pursuit of excellence. For example, for the sake of aesthetics, they changed the vertical cutting of cherry tomatoes into four small halves to horizontal cutting into two halves, even though this consumes more materials; they are willing to spend two or three times more to buy authentic longli fish; after trying the frozen tricolor beans which did not taste very good, they will spend more time and money to buy fresh ones at the vegetable market.

In order to ensure stable product quality, they will turn off takeout orders with larger volumes during the lunch rush to ensure the quality of dine-in meals.

Not limited to light meals, the shop has 100 dishes on its menu, including pasta and Korean bibimbap, with the highest price not exceeding 30 yuan.

They will adjust the dishes in time according to feedback. For example, since local people like spicy and strong flavors, they prepare spicy sauce and pair it with local fried potatoes. Some people are not used to eating hard brown rice, so they mix brown rice and white rice for customers to choose from. They also launch confinement meals for different groups of people.

Customized packages such as fat-reducing meals.

With careful efforts, the scene we saw at the beginning was achieved. Some customers came almost every day, and those who could not wait in line would send messages to Yibao, saying, "There are so many people today, I can't eat there again."

The two were caught off guard by this and thought they could handle it themselves, but they had no choice but to ask their mother and part-time staff for help.

Since officially opening on January 7, over the past two months, the shop has averaged 100 orders per day and a monthly turnover of 100,000 yuan, which is nearly three times the average annual salary of local young people.

In addition to the surprise, the two sisters reminded themselves not to get carried away and have made intensive arrangements for their further studies in the second half of the year. They plan to go to Yunnan to learn about Dai snacks, and then go to Shanghai and Guangzhou to learn about local specialties in order to develop fusion cuisine.

In fact, running a store is no easier than working nowadays, especially since the two have suffered from anemia since childhood. Sometimes they feel dizzy from exhaustion, but the feeling is fulfilling. "Working is just doing a task, while starting a business is doing what you love to perfection, which can infinitely extend your potential."

3. The milk tea shop made 100,000 in 5 months, and I paid off my debts

Yu Fuguier, born in the 1990s, from Wuji County, Hebei Province, invested 50,000 yuan, and opened a 20-square-meter milk tea shop.

A green pedal tricycle filled with various drinks and a big Tiffany blue bow tied on the side. Yu Fuguier's dream of opening a milk tea shop began with a stall.

Opening a milk tea shop was her dream since childhood, but it didn't come true until she was 26. Before that, Fuguier worked as a hospital cashier, accounting assistant, gym salesperson and other different jobs, which were "plain and boring".

In May 2021, she saw someone setting up a stall on a tricycle on the Internet. The decorations were beautiful, so she was attracted and wanted to give it a try.

She had the idea in the morning and resigned in the afternoon. Her boss thought she was joking.

At that time, Fuguier had just gotten married. Her husband was in debt of 200,000 yuan for buying a house, and had a monthly mortgage and car loan of about 8,000 yuan. Even so, he still supported Fuguier and wanted to buy her an electric tricycle.

An electric tricycle costs two to three thousand yuan, but Fuguier was reluctant to spend that money, so he drew the design himself and spent 600 yuan to have someone weld a pedal tricycle, paint it green, and tie a big bow on it. "Before, I had to ask my boss for everything at work, but now I can arrange everything on this tricycle, and I want to organize everything I like."

Unexpectedly, this bow made her a "net celebrity" selling things on the street in Shijiazhuang. Starting from the third day, there were long queues every day and she earned about 1,500 yuan a day. But later the night market was rectified and she could no longer do the business.

But this experience gave Fuguier confidence, and she had the idea of ​​opening a milk tea shop in the city.

It's not that she didn't hesitate. She was a little worried about the epidemic, but she also felt that if she thought too much, even if the epidemic was over, she would have other worries again, so it would be better to just get started.

The cost of opening a store in the city is high, and she and her husband are already living a tight life in order to pay off their debts. Fuguier is trying to save the situation by taking a detour, and plans to give it a try in her hometown, Wuji County.

"Poor and deep, broken Wuji", Wuji is a small place, you can visit it in 20 minutes by electric bike. There are no big shopping malls, Starbucks and Luckin Coffee. People here like to drink Mixue Bingcheng.

But the advantage is that the rent is cheap, only ten thousand a year, and Fuguier's budget is twenty-five thousand, so he wants to take a gamble with a small cost.

At the beginning of last year, she went to Wuji alone to prepare to open a store, while her husband was still working in the city.

Saving money is the top priority. Fuguier designed all the details herself and then hired workers to help implement them. When she didn’t have money to buy a cabinet, she moved one from home. When she bought a mirror online and it broke, she used clay to repair and decorate it, making it look as good as new…

However, it still exceeded the budget. "I didn't understand the first time, so I took a detour. A lot of the equipment I bought was too small and I couldn't handle it, so I had to spend more money to replace them." In the end, the cost of opening the store was nearly 50,000 yuan.

In April last year, the "Carp Couple" milk tea shop officially opened for business. Many customers in the city who had met at the stall drove 50 kilometers to support the shop. Some came every week and brought ice cream and watermelon to Fuguier. The sales in five months plus the cost of training students reached about 100,000.

All the income was used to pay off the debt, and the hole was filled up little by little, which made Fuguier very relieved.

But the price behind this is not small: due to irregular meals, Fuguier gained 15 kilograms and took Chinese medicine for a month; his arms were beaten with lemons too much and were sore every day; sometimes there were malicious bad reviews. A customer once ordered 6 drinks for takeout and said that every one of them was very unpalatable. The inexperienced Fuguier got emotional and refunded the other party.

But she is still willing to persevere. "Every day in the store is very healing. This is the store I built with my own hands. How can I not love it?"

Seeing that the business was stable, in August last year, my husband also quit his job and came back to help Fuguier. They were looking forward to paying off their debts quickly and having another baby. "We don't ask for great wealth, we just want peace and happiness."

4. After my mother passed away, I gave up my job in a foreign company and returned to my hometown to open a handmade bakery

Yinglu, born in the 1990s, from Lu County, Sichuan, invested 150,000 yuan, and opened a 50-square-meter bakery

There is a sad story behind Yinglu opening a store.

In the summer of 2021, Yinglu's world collapsed.

My mother died of lung cancer. She had been strong for three years since her diagnosis, but that summer, she said it was very hard and she couldn't go on.

The home suddenly felt empty. Yinglu was working in Shanghai, her younger sister was in her senior year of high school and was busy with her studies, and her father was left alone. The home seemed to be falling apart, so she resigned and returned to her hometown to be with her family.

There is no need to hesitate about this decision. The original job was not bad, but the challenges were huge. Yinglu worked as a strategic analyst for a global shipping company. A pricing plan had to be revised five times, one revision every half a day on average. After the finalization, it was immediately urged to be implemented. She was chased every week and there was no end in sight. She often cried while writing.

After this unexpected change in her family, Yinglu no longer had the "willingness" to face challenges. What she urgently needed was healing.

Her mother's illness changed a lot of things. Yinglu used to stay up late, eat without restraint, go to bars, and be involved in social circles, but now she realizes that her life is fragile, so she started to exercise, eat healthy food, and learn to be alone.

Yinglu has no goals for the future. After lying down for half a year to recover some energy, she went to a bakery to learn baking based on her hobby. At first, it was just to kill time and forget about her worries, but gradually she tasted a different kind of happiness - she would be happy because of such a simple thing as the bread she made by herself coming out of the oven. This is a feeling she has not experienced for a long time.

Moreover, making bread gave her a sense of control. "Unlike the previous analytical work, which was unpredictable no matter how much experience I accumulated, making bread is a real skill that I can touch and control."

Her energy was restored bit by bit while she was toasting bread. She recalled the conversation she had with her mother when she went to the United States for treatment. She said she could not find the value of her job and she liked cooking. Her mother, who had always been a pushover and hoped that she would succeed, encouraged her to try it while she was still young. She might fail, but she would regret it if she didn't try.

Yinglu decided to open an artisanal bakery, targeting civil servants, teachers and children in the county. This was not an impulse decision. She carefully analyzed the feasibility and judged that there was a 90% chance of survival.

The economy of Lu County is not bad, with three industrial parks. Although the average monthly income of young people is only around 3,000 yuan, they are happy to "live in the moment" and are not very frugal on food, drink and entertainment. Three years ago, Luckin Coffee opened here and was quite popular.

The previous analytical work also gave Yinglu business acumen. "There are several old-fashioned chain bakeries in the county. I can estimate their gross profit. Friends tell me that my bread tastes better, which shows that there is a market for it. Although my material costs are higher and my profit is not as big as theirs, I can basically survive."

In February last year, she rented a shop of less than 50 square meters, but the implementation was not smooth.

Because she was not a professional, she felt that her skills needed to be improved, so she visited shops everywhere. It was more than 10 months later that she began to decorate the store, and it was not until the end of March this year that she opened for business. During this period, she told her idea to an aunt she knew, and the aunt got there first and opened for business in early February.

This made her want to give up for a while, but her senior’s words woke her up, “I started a business one year later than my peers, but I achieved the highest repurchase rate among all bakeries in Chengdu in just half a year. As long as the products are good enough, it doesn’t matter if you start early or late.”

Yinglu regrouped and many late nights, she went to the store alone to make bread and practice her craft. Listening to the echoes left by the audio book of "The Three-Body Problem", she felt as if she was in the empty universe, walking alone.

But she doesn’t feel sad. “The harder you struggle in life, the stronger your vitality will be. Once you get through it, you will upgrade yourself.”

5. I only have one or two customers every day, but they say my nail art skills will definitely become a hit

Jiang Xiaoyu, born in 1995, from Huichang County, Jiangxi Province, invested 80,000 yuan, a 30-square-meter nail salon

At the beginning of last year, 28-year-old Jiang Xiaoyu felt that he was too old and didn't want to stay in Ningbo anymore, so he decided to return to his hometown, Huichang County, Jiangxi Province, to take care of his parents.

She has been working as a manicurist for 5 years and wanted to find a similar job after returning home. However, the salary in her hometown is more than half of that in Ningbo, so she inevitably feels disappointed.

Her former boss advised her that instead of working for others, she should open her own shop since she already had the skills.

Jiang Xiaoyu hesitated for two months, firstly because he did not have enough funds, and secondly because he was afraid that the business would not be good.

After all, Huichang's economic level ranks middle and lower in Jiangxi Province. It was only two years ago that it got rid of the label of a poor county. Young people tend to work elsewhere, and the average income of those who stay is only more than 2,000 yuan. Xiaoyu has no idea how the nail art business is doing.

But she was unwilling to continue working, and her friend encouraged her, "You are still so young, even if you fail, what are you afraid of with a few tens of thousands of dollars?"

Xiaoyu thought of his parents who had worked hard all their lives. If he succeeded in starting his own business, it would not only improve their lives but also make them proud, so he decided to give it a try.

But she never imagined the difficulties of opening a store alone.

The first difficulty was site selection. She was no longer familiar with the county town and didn't know where there were shops for rent. She was still staying at a friend's house at the time and was anxious to settle down, so she hastily chose a shop on a commercial street, about 30 square meters. There were 10 nail salons nearby, which made Xiaoyu feel relieved, "So many shops means there is demand."

During the renovation phase, she didn’t know how to find workers. Sometimes when there were workers decorating nearby, she was too shy to ask. “It seems so simple, but it is very difficult to implement.”

When decorating the store, sometimes the materials had not arrived yet, and she had nothing to do when she arrived at the store, but she had to force herself to find something to do to relieve her anxiety.

During the one-month preparation period, she backed out two or three times. Although it was only emotional, she still felt wronged. A long time later, when she had a quarrel with her mother over a trivial matter, she poured out her grievances and "questioned" her mother if she knew how tired she was and why she didn't care about her during that time.

When the shop finally opened in September last year, she encountered an even bigger blow - she thought the commercial street where she was located was very prosperous, with at least three customers a day and a turnover of at least 200 yuan, but in reality there were only one or two, or even none, and the monthly turnover barely broke even with the rent of more than 2,000 yuan.

“I know business needs to be accumulated, but when it really comes to it, it’s still very painful.”

During that time, Xiaoyu would cheer herself up every day after getting up, but she would feel very depressed the next second, with a strong heartbeat and shaking all over. Fortunately, her cousin came to help and comfort her.

It was not until the Spring Festival holiday, with students and young people working away from home returning home, that the store finally welcomed a small peak. Many people came because of Xiaohongshu, and Xiaoyu was very busy.

The most tiring time was from 8 am to 1 am, with no time to eat, drink water or go to the toilet. "At the beginning, I could still talk and laugh, but later I lost my expression."

Although it was tiring, the results were encouraging. During the Spring Festival, the daily turnover increased tenfold, reaching a maximum of eight or nine hundred yuan.

The more important gain is that after experiencing Xiaoyu's service, some young people were amazed that such manicure technology could be available in a small county town.

One of the customers observed the effect of the manicure after more than 20 days and gave Xiaoyu a favorable comment, "After more than 20 days, the nails have not peeled off and the nail surface is still smooth. Your technique is the best I have ever seen at this price. You will definitely become famous in the future!"

Xiaoyu was very touched, which made her more determined to take her time to do a good job and the future of her shop - using the technology learned in big cities to "strike down" the small county. Although many customers have returned to the city and the shop has returned to only one or two people a day, Xiaoyu is no longer panicking. She plans to take advantage of her free time to study technology, learn marketing, do a good job of publicity, and then wait for accumulation.

"I hope to earn back the principal by the end of this year, buy a car, and take my parents on a trip."

(All interviewees in this article are pseudonyms)

Written by: Wang Shuran; Edited by: Chen Jiying

Source public account: Financial Story Collection (ID: cjgshui), experienced observer, cautious commentator, original and in-depth interpretation across finance and technology.