Poor infrastructure, lack of funds, difficult road for college students to start a business in rural areas

At the age of 29, Liu Zhenhua completely changed the direction of his life amid the confusion and ridicule of his relatives and friends. The Suzhou white-collar worker, who once "leaped over Longmen", returned to his rural hometown in Heze, Shandong Province, and began his entrepreneurial career of planting fruit and vegetable greenhouses.

He devoted himself to the land where his parents were "growing poorer and poorer". After hard work and investment in science and technology, he reaped a surprise that his parents had never had before: he made a profit of nearly 200000 yuan in the first half of 2014 alone. In his long-term plan, we can also see the growing scale of fully automatic seedling greenhouses and cooperatives.

It took Liu Zhenhua six years from graduating from university to embarking on the road of starting a business in rural areas. Yes or no? How difficult is this entrepreneurial road? When the difficulty of college students' employment as a hot topic hits the public view year after year, these problems begin to be concerned by more college students.

On August 30 this year, Shandong released the first investigation report on the current situation of college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas, which was completed by 197 student volunteers led by Shen Zhao, secretary of the General Branch of the Communist Youth League of the Business School of Shandong Construction University. "the research gives me a deep feeling that compared with the relatively mature and relaxed entrepreneurial environment in cities, the situation of college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas is more severe. Apart from policy and institutional factors, traditional social prejudices, backward infrastructure in rural areas, and uncontrollable climate have all invisibly increased the hardship and difficulty of starting a business. " Shen Zhao said.

67.12% of the fresh graduates have the willingness to start a business in rural areas, and only 6.85% of them put it into practice.

The survey lasted two months, including the current situation of college graduates who have started businesses in rural areas in 17 prefectures and cities in Shandong, and the willingness and cognition of college students majoring in agriculture and business in the province to start a business in rural areas. The data were collected by the combination of questionnaire survey and interview records. 4943 questionnaires were sent out, 4651 questionnaires were collected and 4543 valid questionnaires were collected.

The cause of this investigation is closely related to the growth of a student association.

In 2010, Shen Zhao instructed students to set up a group called "Wing column", which relies on the business school curriculum model to train farmers' brokers and ignite rural entrepreneurship. Over the past four years, the association has trained more than 200 student brokers, 80% of whom are from rural areas. Students give full play to their professional advantages and help farmers around Jinan sell unsalable agricultural products for many times.

When he graduated, Shen Zhao was surprised to find that only two students chose to go back to the countryside to start a business. "at that time, I really wanted to know what the students really thought. What factors restrict their choice? "

In the survey of fresh graduates in 2014, 67.12% of the students planned to start a business in rural areas, while only 6.85% of the students were ready and implemented. As for the circumstances under which they would choose to start a business in rural areas, 47.21% of the students said they needed to "identify new business opportunities". This means that the willingness of most graduates to start a business in rural areas has not really been put into practice.

Among the college students who are willing to start a business, nearly 70% of the students know something about starting a business in rural areas, but only 2.56% of them can do so.

In addition to the low awareness of relevant policies, some cognitive biases obviously hinder the entrepreneurial choices of college students. The survey of college students shows that the main obstacles to rural entrepreneurship are lack of experience and lack of social relations (43.58%), followed by lack of funds (29.57%).

"the traditional concept of employment and the long-term dual structure between urban and rural areas, as well as the huge gap between social security and public welfare, are the main reasons for the low willingness of college students to work and start businesses in rural areas." Shen Zhao summed up.

From the intensity of entrepreneurial willingness in rural areas, the closer the life is to rural areas, the more willing students are to return home to start a business. College students' willingness to start a business in rural areas is also affected by the main income channels where the family is located, and the desire to start a business in rural areas is stronger for college students who take agricultural planting as the main income channel in their hometown. This reflects from the side that the more college students come out from backward areas, the greater their willingness to return home to start a business.

Money! 57.69% of college students who have started a business regard this as the biggest obstacle to starting a business in rural areas.

Different from college students' imagination of rural entrepreneurship, those graduates who have rolled up their trouser legs and worked vigorously in the fields have a deeper understanding of rural entrepreneurship.

In 2004, Zhang Qiu college graduate Li Shaoqing and his wife started their business from a veterinary clinic, which was strongly opposed by their families and was denounced as a "nine-rate job of castrating cows and pigs." Today, the couple have set up a black pig farm with annual sales of 10 million yuan and become famous star farmers.

Even so, Li Shaoqing is still worried about raising money to expand the scale of breeding: "We use the house as a mortgage loan of 2 million yuan, which has not been approved for two months." In contrast, we have reached a certain scale, not to mention those college students who have just started their own business. "

The results of the investigation confirm this. 57.69% of college student entrepreneurs believe that the first problem of rural entrepreneurship is lack of funds, followed by lack of experience (39.01%).

For all entrepreneurial college students who start from scratch, the lack of industry experience is the primary problem they face. In 2012, Si Yanhui, who resigned as a vocational college teacher, returned to his hometown of Heze to run a wood processing factory. at first, he didn't even know the off-season time of the product, and it was common for him to be uncertain about the ruler when measuring the diameter of wood.

How to deal with complex interpersonal relationships is another difficult problem they face. Liu Zhenhua recalled that when he first returned to his hometown, he did not know how to "manage" human affairs during the holidays, and his work often ran into a brick wall. Once, a leader even left a message to his face: "many things are very difficult and easy to do, it depends on what you do."

Shen Zhao also listened to students more than once about how to encounter hidden rules in the process of starting a business in rural areas and how to give gifts to village cadres and leaders of competent departments.

The survey results show that more than half of the respondents (51.65%) think that the rural entrepreneurial environment is general, 55% of the respondents are only basically satisfied with the services of the relevant local government management departments, 37% of the respondents are not satisfied, and only 6% are very satisfied.

"for the group of entrepreneurial college students in rural areas, the state has introduced some relevant policies, but many respondents reported that the policy is difficult to land." Shen Zhao said.

In addition, the survey also shows that among college graduates, more than 25% of entrepreneurs have not received government policy support; among entrepreneurs who have received government policy support, more than half (56%) of the respondents think the effect is mediocre. 33% think that the effect is not good and do not understand government policies.

In Li Shaoqing's view, at present, the training received by rural entrepreneurial college students is out of touch with practice, and "there is basically no training in financing business, low-cost publicity, rights and interests protection that we need more."

How to make the road of college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas more smoothly?

"the choice of starting a business in rural areas should not be a blind decision, but requires a certain amount of social experience and sufficient psychological preparation, as well as capital accumulation, family support and entrepreneurship in areas that reflect personal advantages." Liu Zhenhua said.

According to the survey, 66.48% of the respondents believe that the best time to start a business is 2-5 years after graduation. College students' entrepreneurial motivation in rural areas is first to achieve personal ideals and self-worth (27.91%), and the second is to cope with the severe employment situation (24.12%).

The survey results also show the advantages of college students in starting a business in rural areas: college students have strong learning ability, innovative spirit, young and energetic, dare to work hard, and are better at finding business opportunities.

How to make the road of college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas more smoothly? The research report suggests that we should improve the development mechanism of the integration of urban and rural areas, realize the return of "farmers" from identity to occupation, and strengthen national propaganda on rural development, entrepreneurial policies and entrepreneurial typics. to create a social environment conducive to stimulating college students' enthusiasm for entrepreneurship in rural areas.

The difficulties in financing and land use are the key factors that affect and restrict the success of college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas. In this regard, the report recommends that we should deepen the reform of the rural land system, build a three-dimensional compound modern agricultural management system, innovate the model of financial services, and implement and improve various preferential policies to support entrepreneurship.

In view of the complexity of departments involved in college students' rural entrepreneurship, and the difficulties and gaps in coordination and coordination, the report suggests defining the management and service departments, exploring the establishment of college students' rural entrepreneurship database and project resource database, and establishing rural entrepreneurial youth associations and network information platforms to help college students change their rural entrepreneurship from survival to opportunity.

The survey also shows that entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities plays an important role in promoting college students' entrepreneurship in rural areas. Therefore, the report suggests that a new type of professional farmers and peasant brokers dominated by agricultural products e-commerce should be integrated into the talent training and entrepreneurship education system of colleges and universities, and the number of rural entrepreneurship of college students should be included in the employment rate statistics of college graduates. give full play to the professional and intellectual advantages of colleges and universities to provide continuous follow-up guidance for rural entrepreneurial graduates.

As one of the entrepreneurial college students in rural areas, Liu Zhenhua now rarely feels the loneliness he felt when he first came back, although in this village of more than 1000 people, the young people left behind can't even put together a game of cards. "now they think more about how to get things done."

However, Liu Zhenhua said frankly that he hopes that more college students will join the entrepreneurial team. "the countryside needs more fresh blood, and if everyone changes a little, it will add up to a new world."

In Shen Zhao's view, with the country firmly getting rid of the institutional drawbacks and comprehensively deepening the rural reform, the current situation of college students' low rural entrepreneurship rate and survival-oriented is bound to be gradually improved. "College students' entrepreneurship in rural areas is of great significance, broad prospects and wonderful prospects." Shen Zhao said.