"Entrepreneurship Star" started with 60,000 yuan to set up a bamboo rat porcupine breeding base.

Zhang Ming shows a bamboo mouse that meets the hurdle standard.

Last year, the state issued a call to vigorously promote "mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation." over the past year, a number of innovative "founders" have emerged in Nanning, either jumping out of the old planting and breeding model. or through the way of "Internet +" to promote the employment of more people. Along with the upgrading of economy, the struggling image of "founder" has become an important symbol of innovation and wisdom.

From now on, this newspaper has launched a series of reports, focusing on new entrepreneurial ways, telling the story of "creators" using innovative entrepreneurial ways to achieve their life goals, and encouraging and driving more "creators" with ideal and loving actions to release unlimited vitality.

Fund-raising, e-commerce sales, and network distance training, Zhang Ming has set up a bamboo rat farm with 60, 000 yuan at first, and now has four bases in Nanning, Laibin, and Guilin, with annual sales of 8 million yuan. Zhang Ming, who has wanted to work in the zoo since childhood, tells everyone with his own experience that college students can find an unusual way to get rich through independent entrepreneurship and innovation.

At the beginning of starting a business: raise money everywhere with technology

The reporter walked into the bamboo rat porcupine breeding and training base of Shili Flower Corridor in Santang Town, which is Zhang Ming's entrepreneurial base. There are three cement brick houses, one for bamboo rat breeding and two for raising new species of porcupine.

Zhang Ming graduated from Southwest University majoring in Animal Science and postgraduate students majoring in Animal Nutrition from the School of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi University. Zhang Ming said that he has liked animals since he was a child, and when he filled out volunteers for the college entrance examination, he filled in animal science for all the volunteers. Thinking about going to work in the zoo after graduation, he didn't expect a chance when he was in graduate school and became an expert in bamboo rat breeding.

When he was a graduate student, his learning style was relatively flexible. Zhang Ming often went deep into the enterprise with his mentor and came into contact with some entrepreneurs in the aquaculture industry, which gave him the idea of starting his own business and becoming a boss. In April 2009, Zhang Ming, who had not yet graduated as a graduate student, saw a bamboo mouse on a business trip and learned that the animal was not only lovely, but also fresh and tender, with high nutritional value, good market prospects and low feeding costs. feed only needs bamboo, forage and corn, which are common in Guangxi. After investigation, in June of the same year, he rented a piece of land in Zhongliang Village, Shibu Town, Xixiangtang District, established a bamboo rat farm and began to start his own business.

"I have plenty of skills, but I am short of funds." Zhang Ming, who completed his university and graduate studies with loans, raised 60,000 yuan from relatives and friends, started renting land and bought 80 pairs of breeding rats.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: expanding sales through E-commerce

"what you do can't be plain sailing, and I've taken a detour." Zhang Ming said. Although there are preferential policies for college students to start their own businesses, there are only more than 100 square meters of breeding farms, and they have no money to recruit employees, so they can only ask their parents for help. Due to lack of experience, dozens of bamboo rats died overnight at the beginning of the business, which made Zhang Ming feel the hardship of starting a business. However, Zhang Ming did not give up, making use of good interpersonal resources, actively seeking technical support from his alma mater, and constantly improving the breeding technology of bamboo rats. After more than a year of groping, the farm is gradually on the right track. In 2010, with the support of the Youth League Committee of Xingning District, Zhang Ming leased 12 mu of land in Santang Town and invested 500000 yuan to register the company. from the beginning, there were only 80 pairs of bamboo rats, which developed into a demonstration base with 600 pairs of breeding bamboo rats.

At present, many people in the aquaculture industry are operating in the mode of direct operation and "company + peasant household", and Zhang Ming is no exception. However, there are some changes in his sales model, mainly through e-commerce sales, using a combination of online publicity and offline online sales. Companies have registered to open official websites, Wechat Mall, public service numbers and other e-commerce platforms.

Now, more than 50% of the company's customers come from e-commerce channels such as Taobao, Wechat and QQ, which has greatly increased product sales, and this proportion is still on the rise. E-commerce not only increases sales, but also reduces publicity costs and sales costs. Because e-commerce directly faces the end customers, the intermediate links are omitted and the profits are also increased. The e-commerce business model has not only created good economic benefits for Zhang Ming, but also created a new way to get rich for the sales of traditional aquaculture products.

Keep trying: distance training and wide spread of technology

Today, Zhang Ming has breeding bases in Santang, Feng Lin Fang Junshan Branch, Laibin City and Guilin City in Nanning City. Zhang Ming said proudly that at present, the company has 5000 pairs of breeding rats and 800 pairs of breeding porcupines, with annual sales of 8 million yuan.

For bamboo rats, the deadliest thing is the cold weather in winter every year. In the bamboo rat breeding house, the reporter saw that the high bed floor warm bamboo rat pond more than a foot from the ground, which was researched and invented by Zhang Ming after breeding bamboo rats, and has obtained the national patent certificate for utility model.

"my biggest advantage is that I have skills, because what I do is what I am most familiar with." Zhang Ming is not satisfied with the success of his own person. since he started his business, he has held 78 training courses with thousands of students from all over the country. For netizens who did not have time to study in Guangxi, Zhang Ming boldly tried long-distance correspondence training to guide farmers' friends to learn bamboo rat breeding techniques through CD-ROMs, books, telephone, and the Internet, and solved their technical problems.

From a single bamboo rat culture to a diversified enterprise such as breeding, service, leisure and sightseeing, Zhang Ming, who is innovative and entrepreneurial, has become a model for driving rural development and helping young people to start their own business. it has won many honorary titles such as Xixiangtang District Star of Entrepreneurship in 2009, excellent migrant Youth in Xingning District in 2012, and "Entrepreneurship Star" of Guangxi University in 2012. In 2014, Zhang Ming received 600000 yuan in support from the key projects of the National Spark Program. Today, his breed has also gone from ordinary Chinese bamboo mice to red-cheeked bamboo rats and porcupines.

During the interview, Lu Fengfeng from Wuming drove to inspect. After he heard about Zhang Ming's bamboo rat breeding in a vacant chicken house, he specially came to understand that he wanted to lead the project back to Shuangqiao Town and combine it with his own vineyard to do farm music. This is also an innovative way to start a business.