The executives of large Internet companies were once given a dazzling halo, beyond the P8, with an annual salary of one million, which seems to represent the ability to surpass most people, and the capital to tell about success, and even occupy the top of the marriage market.
But when the dividends of the times gradually faded, he left the big factory and started his business as an executive, only to find that the aura brought by the big platform was just a short-lived illusion:
I used to work for a company that provided financial services to real estate companies, and I was one of the top 1 in the industry. In more than two years, I rose from the business to the position of general manager of the Nanjing branch, and my position in the company was second only to VP and CEO, holding shares, and also expanding the branch from six people to more than 400 people.
In mid-2019, the company's performance was not very good, and I was a little inflated and felt that I had experience from 0 to 1, so I decided to come out and start a business. At that time, it was completely an individual business, with no capital or partners, and the start-up capital was about 4 million, all of which came from personal deposits. Because the field of entrepreneurship is the Internet and finance that I am most familiar with, I was very optimistic about the market expectations at the beginning.
However, only half a year later, I not only lost 4 million initial funds, lost my house in Nanjing, but also owed more than 1 million debts, which can be said to be a loss of money. The employees who came out of the company with me also began to ask me for wages, worried that they would not be able to pay after the company closed down.
After the failure of the business, I summarized the reasons, which is actually a common problem for executives of large companies to come out and start a business. First, there is a large company disease, and no business has started, so a large number of people have been hired for the company first, and the personnel, finance, operation, experience, supervisor, and director have invested too heavily in personnel.
The second is that there is no precise control of costs. In the past, in large companies, the money for doing projects was tens of millions casually, and professional managers paid attention to data, reports, and KPIs, but they did not calculate the costs and profits behind them. At that time, I only focused on the performance goals I set, ignoring the invisible labor costs, office costs, and market costs, and I was busy for half a year.
The third is that the length of the payment collection cycle is not taken into account. Just in time for the epidemic, the originally expected payment collection cycle was infinitely extended, and there was no cash flow to support the company's operations. In fact, the direct cause of the collapse of many companies is not poor profitability, but the broken cash flow, the inability to pay salaries, and the inability to pay various expenses for normal operations.
In March 2020, I was saddled with more than 1 million debts, and there were only two paths in front of me, either to find a job again or to continue to start a business. To be honest, having been the leader of a first-class company and becoming a boss after starting my own business, it was really difficult for me to accept being someone else's subordinate, maybe this leader's ability is not as good as mine.
Fortunately, my popularity in the industry is quite good, and someone took the initiative to invest a sum of money in me, which gave me a second chance to start a business. At that time, the initial capital was more than two million, and after half a year, our turnover reached more than 10 million. However, due to the epidemic and the relatively weak anti-risk ability of startups, I have not completely changed the fault of starting a business for the first time, so this time it still ended in failure.
This is my third venture, and unlike the previous two times, I walked very slowly, steadily, and definitely not aggressively. If a project is not profitable for 8 months, I will decisively abandon it; until now, I have not found any capital to raise funds, if I really have so much money, not only is it stressful, but I also need to take more risks, it is better to do it slowly.
Taking advantage of the wind of the Internet, many people have become executives of large Internet companies at a young age, and one mouth is tens of millions of projects, but in fact, this money has nothing to do with their own dime. Most people mistake the platform's ability for their own ability, but in fact, they are nothing after leaving, which is the core reason why many executives fail to start a business.
Many of my friends are still working as executives in large factories, but I think the entrepreneurial life is more appealing to me. If you work in a large company, the money you earn will increase linearly, but if you start your own business, once you succeed, the money you earn will increase exponentially, and you will earn 500,000 this year, and you may earn 2 million next year.
After being laid off by the company in mid-2021, due to the relatively high rank and annual salary, I received a good compensation. The reason I didn't look for the next job right away was because at our level, many job opportunities were hard to come by.
I once went to a restaurant with my friends for dinner, and when I saw that their business was booming, I had the idea of starting a business in the catering industry. I admit that I was a bit hot-headed, and I felt that I had a lot of cash flow, so I joined a restaurant chain directly. The franchise fee alone cost more than 200,000 yuan, plus the rent, decoration, tables and chairs, and kitchen equipment, and more than 400,000 yuan were invested before it started business.
At first, the business was good, at least able to break even, but later due to the epidemic, the store was often temporarily closed, and it could only be maintained by takeout. The biggest problem with takeaway orders is that the platform's commission is too high, and coupled with the cost, a single order can't make any money at all.
On the other hand, the logic of opening a restaurant is very different from working in an internet company. In the past, the main job in the company was to do management, but to run a restaurant, there are only four or five employees, management is secondary, and more importantly, it is necessary to do things in a down-to-earth manner, from cost control to publicity, all need to work hard.
About half a year after the store opened, my friend who invested with me wanted to withdraw his investment. We have known each other for many years, and we couldn't save face, so we went out to borrow money and pay him back. I really regret it now that I think about it, and this is also an important reason for the collapse of the store's cash flow.
Later, in order to save costs, I laid off many employees, and most of the chores, such as purchasing ingredients, cleaning up tables and chairs, etc., were done by myself. At the busiest time, I slept three or four hours a day. During that time, I really felt dark, physically and mentally under tremendous pressure, with a monthly cost of more than 40,000 yuan, and "a few thousand yuan less in my bank account every day".
I thought that the situation would be better in 2023, but in fact, consumption did not rebound as much as I imagined last year. By the middle of the year, the losses were so severe that I reluctantly closed the store. In the end, it was liquidated and lost more than 1 million. I'm still very glad that I was able to stop the loss in time, but fortunately I don't have children yet, otherwise I really don't know how to explain it to my family.
In retrospect, if I had been a little more sober when I first started my business and started with a smaller store, I probably wouldn't have failed so much. Of course, in the end, I still have to advise friends who want to start a business, it is best not to try a field that you are completely unfamiliar with, and never start a business with friends, unless you can tear your face with them for money.
The reason for my business is that I was lucky enough to step on the Xiaohongshu outlet, and since 2020, I have shared the content of the workplace and women's growth on it, accumulating hundreds of thousands of fans, and the monthly advertising revenue is still quite considerable.
In 2022, because of the epidemic, I was very bored in Shanghai, and my mood to quit my job reached its peak. At that time, although the title was good, and I was in charge of more than 20 people, in a large company, what I wanted to do, and the process of promoting it was very cumbersome, and I basically lost my excitement and curiosity.
After I resigned, I moved to a new first-tier city, founded an MCN company by myself, and also provided IP incubation and private domain escort services for some people who had the idea of doing self-media. Our company's targets are relatively high-end customers, and I already have relevant contacts and experience, and the net profit margin is indeed quite high. The company has developed rapidly, from a dozen people to more than 50 people in more than half a year.
However, starting a business is really tiring. On the one hand, the difficulty of management increases, as a boss, there are more things to be macro-coordinated, especially in small companies, the distribution of employees' functions is not so clear, and sometimes a little trivial thing needs to be dealt with by you personally.
On the other hand, although the working hours are long, everyone will fish appropriately, but once you start a business, you have to provide customers with two to three hours of consulting services each time, you have to continue to output, and you don't dare to slack off for a minute, and the consumption is particularly large. In the past, if you didn't do a good job, you will be scolded by your superiors at most, and any mistake in making a decision in entrepreneurship may bring hundreds of thousands of losses.
After doing it for about a year, I felt a little overwhelmed. After a year of hard work, although there is no loss of money, after deducting various costs, the profitability is actually not ideal, and it can only be said that it is the same as the previous work. After much thought, I finally decided to stop starting my own business.
Now that I have returned to work in a large factory, although the money I make is not as good as when I started my business, it is much easier physically and psychologically. At the end of the day, some people want to make a leap to a higher class through entrepreneurship, but for me now, it's good to have a dull job.
Interview/Text: Echo
Editor: Bela