"How did I lose 10 million in two years with my strength?" Xie Yao, the founder of the former Internet celebrity milk tea brand Yuan Zhenzhen, told her failure experience on social platforms, "42-year-old with a debt of 2 million" and "from CEO to stall" are her labels.
In the still hot new tea track, Yuanzhenzhen has long become a faded story.
At its peak, Yuanzhenzhen had nearly 300 chain stores across the country, but now, there are only more than 20 franchise stores left.
The former competitors Cha Bai Dao and Shu Yi Yao Xian Cao, one is going public in Hong Kong, and the other has exceeded 7,000 stores.
Recently, the reporter interviewed the founder Xie Yao, from taking advantage of the wind to start a business, the company's annual income of 10 million, to closing all directly operated stores to set up stalls.
In just 5 years, Xie Yao has experienced ups and downs, and she bluntly said that she failed because she was "shameless, brainless, and floating".
01■
At its peak, there were nearly 300 stores
The annual turnover is nearly 40 million yuan
In 2018, under the leadership of the head brands Heytea and Nai Xue's tea, the new tea beverage track ushered in rapid growth, Internet celebrity brands emerged, and capital rushed to enter the market.
At that time, when Xie Yao was inspecting the market in a certain place, he found that a 100-meter street opposite the hotel was full of bubble tea shops, and decided that "there are still opportunities in this industry." ”
Xie Yao decided to chase the outlet. At the beginning of 2019, with a start-up capital of 500,000 yuan, Xie Yao opened the first Yuanzhenzhen in Chengdu, next to Chabaidao.
At that time, the popularity of bubble tea was high, and she created her own "handmade pearls" as a selling point, but the sales and response in the first few months were not good.
In May 2019, Xie Yao began to place advertisements on self-media platforms, taking advantage of the traffic outlet of Douyin's short video to explore the store, and overnight, Yuan Zhenzhen became an Internet celebrity store.
Xie Yao clearly remembers that at that time, the store's single-day turnover quadrupled in one day and made a profit.
A month later, Xie Yao got an angel round of financing from a friend, and then opened a second store.
She began to carefully polish the brand, placing the window of the clerk rubbing pearls in a prominent position in the store, conveying the concept of "freshly made and cooked" milk tea to attract the attention of consumers.
The competition in the milk tea track in 2019 is very fierce, but Yuan Zhenzhen has walked out of a way with differentiation.
According to data from Tianyancha, there were more than 23,000 newly registered milk tea enterprises in the country that year, a record high. By December 2019, the number of Yuanzhen stores had grown to more than 10.
At the same time, venture capitalists are coming to the door.
According to Xie Yao, she has contacted more than a dozen professional investment institutions, many of which are well-known capital, but the equity issue has become a big obstacle.
Tianyancha shows that there are 9 natural person shareholders in Yuanzhenzhen's affiliated companies.
"Many investors asked me to sort out my equity, but I couldn't let my friends who trusted me at the beginning get off after the development was good, and I couldn't give several times the return," Xie Yao said, and finally rejected the venture capital because of his indecisive personality and other reasons.
Taking advantage of the new tea drink, Yuan Zhenzhen expanded rapidly. Since 2020, Yuanzhenzhen has opened a franchise model and recruited franchisees across the country.
It can be seen from the franchise advertisement that year that the official estimate of the franchise fee is between 100,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan, and the threshold for joining is low.
Coupled with the popularity of new tea drinks, it has attracted many entrepreneurs, Xie Yao said that at that time, a franchisee from Hangzhou opened six stores in one go.
In the first half of 2021, Yuan Zhenzhen opened nearly 300 stores across the country, and Xie Yao said that at the peak, the annual turnover of stores nationwide was nearly 40 million yuan.
02■
"Blind" innovation misses the opportunity for expansion
The loss was 10 million yuan in two years
The turning point came in the second half of 2021.
At that time, Xie Yao confidently planned to upgrade the brand, found a new way in the milk tea category, and created the concept of "chewy tea", and invested a huge amount of advertising money to promote it. According to his account, 300,000 yuan was spent on the bus stop advertisement alone.
However, the new concept of "chewy tea" has not been recognized by consumers, and the huge marketing has not driven the growth of performance. Xie Yao found that since June 2021, the performance of Yuanzhenzhen's directly-operated stores has been declining.
On the other hand, with the rapid expansion of stores and sales scale, Xie Yao and his team's management ability has not kept up with the pace of Yuanzhenzhen's rapid development. One of the prominent issues is franchisee management.
According to Xie Yao, when she visited the restaurant in other places, she found many problems such as dining standards and hygiene, and after she came back, she made up her mind not to open franchises outside Sichuan. "There are too many foreign franchisees, which makes me feel that the management is more difficult, and if the management is not good, I am not responsible for the brand. ”
"It's so stupid", in an interview with reporters, Xie Yao regretted what he did at that time. "In order to upgrade the brand, I made up a word - 'chewy', and lost the original brand concept of 'hand-made pearls'. Not opening up to join outside Sichuan also deprived us of the best opportunity to expand our scale. ”
Just when Yuan Zhenzhen and Xie Yao were in trouble and stagnant, the players on the new tea drink track had opened a huge gap with them.
In 2022, Tea Yan Yuese and Bawang Tea Ji will explode, promoting the transformation of the new tea drink track to "light milk tea", on the other hand, the head brand Heytea suddenly announced a price cut, and Nai Xue's tea also followed, and the competition became more intense.
Since then, Yuanzhenzhen's franchise stores and directly managed stores have begun to close one after another. In 2023, Xie Yao will close the last directly-operated store, and the company will have a cumulative loss of 10 million yuan.
Xie Yao once tried to start over by setting up a stall. In the second half of 2022, Yuanzhenzhen's directly-operated stores will be closed one after another, and Xie Yao and the only remaining employee will begin to try to make milk tea on the stall.
From the founder of the company with an annual income of 10 million to the stall, the sense of gap is self-evident. "My previous office was dozens of square meters, but now I am embarrassed to push the stall truck, from the warehouse to the night market, and it is fake to say that I am not sad," Xie Yao told reporters.
"You lost 10 million, I lost 200,000, just because I joined you", under the video of Xie Yao's self-described failure experience, a franchisee commented.
On the day of the interview with reporters, Xie Yao released a video apologizing to the franchisee, "Because of my own lack of ability, cognitive problems, and the mistakes I made in the past, I have to bear all (franchisees) with me." ”
On the other hand, there are also franchisees who privately message Xie Yao, comforting her that she will definitely be able to cross this hurdle and start again. Today, Xie Yao has started a community restaurant, created a new brand, and is on the road to a new start.
03■
Reflection: Tea Entrepreneurship Failed
What exactly is the root cause?
Whenever we see a brand or a company fall, we naturally want to explore the "why"?
Taking advantage of the situation, he has formed his own brand, won wide market recognition, and has the consciousness of independent innovation, and at the same time has all these rare conditions, how can Yuan Zhenzhen make himself to death?
Xie Yao's answer is: "In order to upgrade the brand, I made up a word - 'chewy', and lost the original brand concept of 'hand-made pearls'." Not opening up to join outside Sichuan also deprived us of the best opportunity to expand our scale. ”
In fact, these are only superficial factors, and the core problem is that Xie Yao herself does not have enough literacy as a corporate manager, which has emerged since she rejected equity reform and rejected venture capital.
Yuan Zhenzhen can not accept venture capital, but the starting point should be that she made it clear that this is more conducive to the business development of the enterprise, rather than just for the sake of the feelings when starting a business, which is not a decision based on the long-term development of the enterprise.
The introduction of the concept of "chewy tea" has diluted the existing perception of the brand concept of "hand-made pearls", which is a problem with the perception and judgment of the market.
On the issue of franchisees, Xie Yao realized the difficulty of management, so he stopped the franchise business in other provinces. In fact, what she should do at this time is to reform the existing management methods, form a more effective management mechanism suitable for the franchise model, and improve management efficiency, rather than simply and rudely reducing the management objects.
Xie Yao believes that stopping the franchise business in other provinces is an important reason for the dismal end of Yuanzhenzhen, but judging from the fact that many franchise stores did not meet the hygiene standards and did not follow the standards of meals at that time, if the franchise business was not stopped, they might have died faster.
In fact, in the final analysis, it was the founder's lack of cognition and behavioral ability in all aspects such as capital, market, and management, that is, Xie Yao's own main body was not strong enough to support the management of a large-scale enterprise, which led to the collapse of the Yuanzhenzhen Building.
brief summary
Robert Kiyosaki succeeded every time he started his business in the early days, but eventually went bankrupt, and later through the development of a cash flow game, he discovered his own problems in a lot of interaction with different people: lack of marketing, law, accounting, investment, etc.
So he made up for these deficiencies by himself or by building a team through game training, and then he had a financial education career that has continued to the present.
Xie Yao is quite similar to Qingqi's early experience, with enthusiasm and action, and now he has started a community restaurant and created a new brand.
I hope that in the time she is setting up a stall, she can realize and improve some of her own deficiencies in doing business like Kiyosaki, otherwise she may repeat the mistakes of the past.
-END-
来源 | 红星新闻、知产集习社
Produced by | Catering O2O
Catering O2O
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The domestic catering market is fiercely "involuted", and many catering companies are trying to explore overseas markets and seek a new growth curve.
-In March 2023, Heytea announced that it would open applications for overseas business partners, including those in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, accelerating the speed of going overseas.
-As of November 2023, the number of overseas stores has approached 4,000;
-In 2023, Yang Guofu Group has opened in more than 10 overseas countries and regions, and plans to quadruple the expansion of overseas stores by the end of the year.
-In March 2023, Luckin opened two stores in Singapore at the same time, and opened 30 stores by the end of the year.
In addition to Malatang, hot pot, tea, coffee and other categories with a high degree of standardization, more players in the track have also joined the "overseas army".
-In November 2023, Hunan cuisine brand Nongji opened 2 stores in Singapore;
-In January 2024, the high-end restaurant group with the most Michelin stars in China, Xin Rong Kee, will go abroad for the first time, and its Tokyo store will be opened for trial opening soon.
-In January 2024, Ziyan Food replied to investors on the interactive platform that the company will continue to enter the Australian and American markets, and the store in Melbourne, Australia is being renovated.
......
In 2024, China's catering "overseas fever" will continue. As an outpost of going overseas to Southeast Asia, catering O2O will host the 2024 China Wandian Chain Conference and Catering Overseas Summit Forum in Shenzhen on April 24. Catering companies that have gone overseas share their success and experience in entering the pit, and specially invite overseas service organizations to connect with resources, including catering heavyweights from Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Australia and other catering venues!
Now to the intention to go to sea and go out and walk in the domestic and foreign catering enterprises and service agencies to send a sincere invitation, April 24 we will see you in Shenzhen!
Further reading:
- 10,000 store chains: how to better control and empower franchisees?
- China's catering has entered the era of 10,000 stores!Don't miss the 2024 China 10,000 Store Chain Conference!
- Catering enters the supply chain "fighting game"! Come to the China Food Ingredients E-commerce Festival to find the answer!
- Who is competing with the 10,000-store chain: which is more critical, profit model, expansion model, and management model?
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