I grew up with reform and opening up (3) | China's first self-employed business: handing over the "baton" of getting rich to young people

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In the Wenzhou Elephant City International Garment Accessories Market, in the shop of merchant Zhang Huamei, there is a sign of "China's first individual industrial and commercial household" that is particularly conspicuous, and next to it is a copy of the old version of the individual industrial and commercial business license. This license, numbered "Dong Shang Gong Zheng Zi No. 10101", was issued by the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Dongcheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province on December 11, 1980, and is also the first individual industrial and commercial business license in the country after the reform and opening up. At the bottom left of the license is a black-and-white photograph of a girl with two braids smiling brightly, she is 19-year-old Zhang Huamei in 1980.

Sitting in her shop, 62-year-old Zhang Huamei recalled to the New Yellow River reporter the story and perception of 45 years ago: "After the reform and opening up, why did the first and first batch of individual industrial and commercial business licenses appear in Wenzhou, Zhejiang? Our group of Wenzhou people are lucky to catch up with the good times and good policies. As for me, my luck may be better, compared to the same batch of more than 1,000 Wenzhou people, mine submitted it first. ”

Now, Zhang Huamei, who has passed the age of sixties, is still full of energy. A few years ago, she handed over the company she had run for most of her life to her son and daughter-in-law, and she "took a back seat", but did not retire. She expects that after the "baton" is handed over to young people, they can continue to carry forward the entrepreneurial spirit of Wenzhou people, continue to make good use of the good policies of reform and opening up, break out a new business, and get a new "license".

At the age of 18, he began to set up stalls to make a living, and obtained a "No. 10101" business license

Zhang Huamei was born in 1961 in a family of urban workers on Jiefang North Road, Wenzhou City, her father worked in a factory, and she was the youngest of 7 brothers and sisters in the family. My father had to pay off half of his monthly salary to pay off the family's foreign debts, and he had to support seven children, so life was very difficult. The youngest Zhang Huamei was even forced to drop out of school halfway.

In 1979, Zhang Huamei was 18 years old, and she faced a problem of a way out. Zhang Huamei's father had been in the cloth business before the founding of New China, and his mind was more flexible, so he encouraged her to set up a stall to make a living. Zhang Huamei followed the example of others, put a small table at the door of her house, and sold some small goods such as buttons, needlework, flower cloth heads, and straps bought from grocery stores.

Jiefang North Road in 1979 was the most prosperous place in Wenzhou, where state-owned garment companies, state-owned hotels and other state-owned enterprises were concentrated, and the sound of "cracking down on speculation" in the street radio speakers continued to linger in the sky.

Zhang Huamei's stall was placed at the door of her house, and the goods did not dare to be placed too open, so that as soon as the person "wearing red sleeves" appeared, she could quickly close the stall and hide at home. "Those who are worried all day long will be fined and confiscated all the goods by the people who are caught by the 'Bang Bang' (cracking down on speculation and turning the office). Later, the 'fight' was gone, and the uniformed people from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau came again, and everyone was scared to death. ”

Even in such an environment, many unemployed young people in Wenzhou's cities and towns still insist on setting up stalls in the streets and alleys to "fight guerrilla" with managers.

One day a year later, a staff member of the newly established Wenzhou Gulou Industrial and Commercial Office came to Zhang Huamei's door, stopped her who was about to close the stall in a panic, and told her that the national policy had been liberalized and she could apply for a business license.

Hearing the news, Zhang Huamei thought and hesitated at home for many days. She was only 19 years old, and she didn't understand the meaning of applying for a license, so she couldn't make this decision. She told her father, who encouraged her to get it, saying that with that document, she would no longer need to be so sneaky and hidden. After listening to this, she went to the industrial and commercial office the next day to fill out the form and hand in two photos.

At that time, there was no sample of individual industrial and commercial business licenses in the country, so the staff of the Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce designed one by themselves and took it to the printing house to print 20,000 copies. The registration information on the license is filled in by the staff with a brush. At that time, there were 1,844 individual industrial and commercial business licenses issued in the first batch of Wenzhou.

Zhang Huamei clearly remembers that on the afternoon of December 11, 1980, Chen Shouzhu, then deputy director of the Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, handed her an individual industrial and commercial business license that was not much larger than the palm of his hand, numbered "No. 10101". At that time, she did not know the meaning of the number, let alone what it would mean to her in the future.

With the spirit of daring to fight, lead the whole family on the road to prosperity

After receiving the business license, Zhang Huamei was able to set up a stall to do business in a bright and bright manner. With a smart mind, she began to expand the scale of her business, and the variety of goods increased to dozens. The original stall could not meet her business needs, so she changed the first floor of her house into a façade, found carpenters to make cabinets and opened a haberdashery store.

At the end of 1982, Zhang Huamei and her neighbor Yu Xinguo got married. She handed over the store to her mother's family, stopped doing business herself, and taught her husband and children at home. In 1985, Zhang Huamei spent 9,000 yuan to buy a small house of more than 40 square meters, and most of the money was borrowed. Yu Xinguo, who works in a collective enterprise, has a monthly salary of only more than 50 yuan, and the debt weighs down the couple a little, so Zhang Huamei considers starting a new business.

Once, Yu Xinguo went on a business trip to Guangzhou and stumbled upon the sparkling beads on his clothes in Guangzhou. At that time, there were already a number of garment companies in Wenzhou, and there was also a woolen sweater production base, but no one did the bead business. The discovery of this business opportunity made Zhang Huamei and his wife very happy. In 1986, Zhang Huamei went to the bank to borrow more than 10,000 yuan, and borrowed more than 10,000 yuan from her brother. An ordinary woolen sweater is decorated with some beads, and the price can immediately increase many times, and the bead business of Zhang Huamei and his wife suddenly became popular. In less than a year, the couple not only paid off their debts, but also became the "10,000 yuan household" that the government vigorously promoted at that time. At the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner that year, their family of three ate very happily.

Later, more and more people came to Wenzhou to do bead business, and in 1990, the bead business began to decline, and the couple decided to change careers and took out all their savings of more than 100,000 yuan to set up a leather shoe factory. Due to the lack of familiarity with this industry, in just one year, the leather shoe factory closed down at a loss, not only spent all its savings but also owed others tens of thousands of yuan in material money.

This defeat did not defeat Zhang Huamei. In 1994, the button market in Qiaotou Town, Yongjia County, Wenzhou City began to flourish, and there were more and more button shops in Wenzhou City. She and her husband rented a shop in the small commodity market of Miaoguosi in Wenzhou, specializing in button wholesale, and the business is booming again. After more than two years of hard work, the couple paid off their foreign debts again and spent 300,000 yuan to buy a Santana car, becoming the first group of car-owning people in society.

In 2004, Zhejiang TV held an interview activity of "Looking for the No. 1 Individual Industrial and Commercial Household in the Country", and the film and interview team finally found Zhang Huamei and told her that the license she received was the first individual industrial and commercial business license in the country after the reform and opening up.

Zhang Huamei was very happy when she learned the good news. Zhang Huamei recalled that at that time, more than 1,000 people from Wenzhou went to get a business license and filled out the form, and she was one of them, but she was lucky to be the "first".

This interview report of the TV station made Zhang Huamei's name a household name. In 2007, Zhang Huamei moved the store to Renmin West Road, Wenzhou City, expanded the store area to more than 200 square meters, and registered the establishment of "Wenzhou Huamei Garment Accessories Co., Ltd.", as the chairman, officially completed the identity transformation from individual industrial and commercial households to entrepreneurs, and the annual turnover has also increased to several million yuan.

He is still not retiring after 60 years old, and he is looking forward to young people creating new careers

Recalling several special Spring Festivals in her life, Zhang Huamei was particularly impressed. In the Spring Festival of 2018, she held a special family meeting, and she announced that she would hand over "Wenzhou Huamei Garment Accessories Co., Ltd." to her son and daughter-in-law to operate, and she slowly "retreated to the second line". But she does not plan to retire, Zhang Huamei explained, in her entrepreneurial history, the business address has changed many times, the business license has also changed four times, the company currently has millions of yuan in performance, but in recent years, she has found that she has gradually failed to keep up with the pace of the times. "In the past, customers were door-to-door pick-up, but now marketing relies on live broadcast and e-commerce, and business negotiation relies on WeChat and conference software. ”

Fortunately, the son and daughter-in-law are good at this, and the son has even opened up his own business. At present, the company is mainly managed by daughters-in-law, the company has 2 stores in Wenzhou Elephant City International Garment Accessories Market, there is an attic above, and there are tens of thousands of styles of clothing accessories such as buttons in several rows of cabinets.

Looking back on her entrepreneurial history over the years, Zhang Huamei said that she was able to get the country's first individual industrial and commercial business license by luck, in fact, the world should pay more attention to the first batch of more than 1,000 Wenzhou people and Wenzhou entrepreneurs. "Be the boss during the day and sleep on the floor at night", this sentence is said by the famous Wenzhou entrepreneur Nan Cunhui, which is also a true portrayal of the spirit of Wenzhou people.

In Wenzhou in 1980, after Zhang Huamei received China's first self-employed business license, the whole city and even the whole country were undergoing earth-shaking changes. By the end of 1981, the number of individual industrial and commercial households in urban areas had grown to 1.85 million, employing 2.27 million people.

Today, the number of registered market operators in Wenzhou has exceeded 1.36 million, including nearly 400,000 enterprises, the number of provincial science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises has increased from 24 in 2002 to 16,500 at present, and the number of high-tech enterprises has increased from 91 in 2008 to 3,714 at present.

At present, Wenzhou is speeding up the breakthrough leap from the capital of entrepreneurship to the city of innovation, and the future-oriented modern industrial system is accelerating the formation. Zhang Huamei said that after the baton is handed over to the young people, she hopes that the young generation will continue to carry forward the spirit of Wenzhou people, continue to make good use of the good policies of reform and opening up, and create a new cause that belongs to them.

Reporter: Chen Guoliang Planner: Pan Qingzhao Planner: Guo Jigang Camera: Chen Guoliang Editor: Zhang Chenglin Editor: Lu Ting Editor: Yang Yiqing Proofreader: Tang Qi