On May 9th, it was a rare sunny day in Shenzhen, and according to the navigation prompts, the reporter saw Su Xia in the exhibition hall of Nanshan Xili. Shoulder-length short hair, wearing a black new Chinese-style cardigan, the cuffs are folded up, revealing a bright yellow edge, and the overall is quite capable. Su Xia, who was born in 1990, said that she is "not young at all", but in the field of interior design and soft furnishings, she is always learning, and on this track, "I am still a newcomer".
Hungxia
The exhibition hall for the interview is eye-catching from the exterior to the interior, the external environment is the appearance of the old factory, and when you walk into the exhibition hall, the whole is Italian minimalist style, with clean lines and light music, as well as inadvertent aromatherapy smell, full of details, giving people a comfortable and relaxed feeling. It took only a short time from the design, construction to the completion of the exhibition hall, which is efficient, diligent and pragmatic, and Suxia's entrepreneurial story adheres to these characteristics.
Picky customers trigger her entrepreneurial nerves
Su Xia's first job after graduation was to work as a hard decoration designer in a well-known design company in the industry, the interior design industry twelve years ago was still relatively traditional, most people's home decoration is to lay a floor tile, brush the wall, make a ceiling, "at most do a TV background wall or sofa background wall, at that time we have not yet realized what kind of feeling and atmosphere the home should provide to the residents." So her job is relatively simple, Suxia said, coming up with a design rendering, and then taking the client to the home store to buy materials and so on. At that stage, the overall presentation effect of home design was still relatively average.
Until one day, Su Xia received a call from an owner who lived in Meilinguan Xinghe Shengshi, and the other party scolded her on the phone, saying how high the company's commitment to the process standard and how good it was when negotiating the order, but the actual effect was different. The owner found that the ceiling was slanted by 3 cm, and the bottom of the background wall was not even, so he was very dissatisfied and asked for all rework. While comforting the other party, Su Xia thought that many people may decorate a house in their lifetime, and they must hope that every detail is perfect. However, the specific construction process is not under your control, so how can you empathize with the owner? Even, can you do more to make the owner feel that the house is not only clean and bright, but also more convenient and convenient when in use, and at the same time can provide a warm and beautiful atmosphere? The concept of soft decoration appeared in Su Xia's mind. She decided to come out and start a business, from a hard decoration designer to a soft decoration and interior furnishings.
The team members were all originally women
At the end of 2014, with more than 200,000 yuan earned from two years of work, Su Xia was ready to start a business. During this period, in order to better grasp the professional skills to serve customers, she went to the Qingda Soft Furnishings Research Institute to study, and flew to Beijing once a month to participate in a 3 to 5-day course. In this way, it took two years to successfully complete the course.
During the interview, Suxia also revealed an interesting detail. When the company was founded, the team was all women. "Did you do it on purpose?" The journalist is curious. "It's not all, the beginning of the business is actually across the two fields of hard decoration and soft decoration to do, hard decoration design will also take orders, one of them has a friend hard decoration is very good, but there is no soft decoration resources, so I recommend the customer to me. In the process of cooperation, the other party recognized our attitude towards doing things and the concept of service, so our team was formed little by little, and new graduates joined in one after another, and the team expanded little by little, and finally 9 women formed a team. ”
Pursuit of perfection Su Xia is strict about every detail of the design.
In Su Xia's view, women have certain innate advantages in making soft decorations: patience, picking out details, and easy to empathize with customers. Because the industry segmentation of soft decoration is different from that of hard decoration, in order to maintain acuity, the team also went to study floral art classes, color classes, soft decoration display art classes, etc. "But female designers are actually not much different from men, we will also go to the construction site, wear hard hats, and sometimes step on high heels to climb the stairs in the dust, speaking of which are a group of female men, very fierce!" Su Xia said and smiled heartily.
Good design is good design that serves people
Speaking of choosing to start a business in Shenzhen, Su Xia admitted that it was originally because her cousin was there, and she naturally came to "take refuge". Another important reason is that Shenzhen is very inclusive, fair to all, and has a lot of opportunities. "As long as you are willing to work hard and then do things in a down-to-earth manner, there will always be your piece of the world." Due to work reasons, Su Xia also often goes on business trips to Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, but after changing the environment, she always feels uncomfortable, "When I return to Shenzhen, I feel like I am home." ”
Pursuit of perfection Su Xia is strict about every detail of the design.
In recent years, Shenzhen has accelerated the transformation of old urban villages, and has also retained and repaired some representative ancient cities, such as Nantou Ancient Town. Su Xia thinks that this urban design idea is particularly good, "I don't get rid of all the old things, because a city needs its heritage and history, and the ancient village and ancient city are the best proof of this." Su Xia and her team have also helped some owners to renovate old and dilapidated houses, "A family of five or six people, including the elderly and children, how to rationally arrange and solve the different needs of each person is a particularly interesting challenge." When we do design, we will not blindly follow the current popular decoration trends, because we are not only the product experience officer, but also the space feeler, and only the right one is the best. The transformation of the space is always changing, that is, to serve people, to make people look forward to home, want to go home, and be able to be healed by the atmosphere provided by the family, such a design is successful. ”
Ten years of entrepreneurship has always been growing
After ten years of entrepreneurship, Su Xia said that she has not experienced too many twists and turns, and the overall situation is stable and orderly, but she has continued to grow and understand in entrepreneurship, and this experience is real and valuable. "There have been painful moments, designers, you know, from the first draft to the N draft, and finally Party A wants you to return to the first draft, which is really helpless." But Su Xia turned these into a process of continuous accumulation, to explore the hobbies of customers, what do they care about, and what are the different needs of different customers?
Pursuit of perfection Su Xia is strict about every detail of the design.
"At the same time, we are also constantly learning, controlling emotions, and communicating well in the process of dealing with people, because we have a lot of communication links, in addition to the owner, the company, the producer, the construction party and even the installer, we must look at the problem comprehensively and think from different angles." Su Xia doesn't like ineffective socializing, and as a designer, she prefers to spend her time constantly improving her business capabilities. "Even though I've been in business for 10 years, I feel like I'm just starting out, and I feel like I'm always on the road because of my passion, curiosity, and exploration. Because the world is changing and progressing at different times and times, I also have to follow the progress, which is the new growth. ”
For countless entrepreneurs in Shenzhen, Su Xia wants to say that entrepreneurship must first insist, and secondly, it is necessary to maintain passion and deepen cultivation, "One step at a time is very important!" ”
Hungxia
"Post-90s", internationally registered senior designer of soft furnishings, registered senior interior designer of the International Association of Architectural Decoration and Interior Design. At the beginning of 2015, Shenzhen Tilt Country Design Co., Ltd. was founded.
Reporter: Li Min
Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee
Editor: Chen Jianguo