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Secrete of success? It's in the sauce
By Tan Weiyun |
July 15, 2013, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CREATIVE, easy-going and free-spirited. These are the young entrepreneurs of today and possibly the successful corporate bosses of tomorrow.
Meet 28-year-olds Li Gongfu and Lai Zhangping, They started a small business selling barbecued pigs' feet in the west end of Songjiang University Town.
"Business is not bad," Li said, pulling out a huge storage box filled with pigs' feet they have been marinating for a day. "People start coming every day as soon as we set up the grill."
"Within one hour, we'll be sold out," Lai added cheerfully. "Regular customers know that and come early to queue up."
The pair open their stall at 4pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends.
"We roast and sell more than 200 pigs' feet every day," said Li as he lightly brushed the grill with oil. "On Saturdays and Sundays, it would be well over 300."
The aroma of the roasting meat, basted with what the pair call a "secret sauce," wafts across the sidewalk.
"The pigs' feet were all sold out when I got here yesterday," said a round-faced girl who bought 10. "So I came early today."
Booming business
As the queue grows longer, the sweating young men barely have time to package the snacks for customers and give change.
"Our customers are really nice people, very patient," said Li.
He hails from the Jinggangshan area of Jiangxi Province, famous as one of the Red Army's strongholds before 1949.
He finished his graduate study of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China this year. He was offered a research position in a science institute but turned it down.
"The offer would have determined my entire life," Li said. "Fixed and dead, with no excitement or passion. I decided I wanted to be my own boss. Even in a small business, I am my own master."
Li actually started a small business while in his second year of study at university. He needed the money to help defray medical costs for his older brother, who suffers from severe schizophrenia.
"I am now selling pigs' feet because I still want to help support my family," Li said.
"They supported me while I was finishing my studies. I also want to help other kids from poor rural villages who don't have the opportunities I have had to pursue their dreams."
Low threshold
He and Lai decided on a small snack-food business because of low startup costs, he said.
Lai, who hails from the same Jiangxi area as Li, graduated from Huaqaio University and got a job as an engineer in a chemical company in Zhejiang Province in 2008. He was earning 5,000 yuan (US$813) a month.
"I saw no future in it," he said of the job. "The career path there didn't meet my expectations."
A year ago, while visiting Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, Li and Lai chanced across a shop selling pigs' feet and doing well for itself.
"A small shop like that can generate about 3 million yuan in profit a year, we were told," Li said "We were shocked to hear that. It got us to thinking about setting up a similar business in Shanghai."
Good taste is always the key to success in selling food, the pair agreed. So Lai stayed in Chengdu for two months, working as an apprentice in the snack shop to learn how to make pigs' feet.
"We tried almost 100 different recipes with numerous ingredients until we perfected one," Li said. "Our recipe is a top secret."
It must be valuable because the pair have had people disguised as customers trying to steal the recipe. One "spy" even grabbed a sauce bottle and drank it on the spot to try to memorize the taste.
In May, the young men set up a small booth near the university to sell roasted the roasted pork on a test basis. To their surprise, they were making 100 yuan profit an hour within two weeks.
The pair charge 7 yuan for a pigs' feet. They recently did a survey of their student customers. More than 45 percent of students thought the current price is acceptable, 37 percent said they wished it were lower and the remainder said they could charge even more.
Bigger plan
When they first opened for business in Songjiang University Town, they rented a small shop on the main street. But the rent proved to be too much of a burden, so they gave up the shop and set up a grill in a roadside stall next to a steamed bun shop.
The bun shop's owner proved to be a sympathetic woman who squeezed out a small corner for the young men and allowed them to do business there rent-free. "Sometimes, we help her sell buns," Lai said.
The pigs' feet they sell are imported from the US and Canada because they are cheap.
"Americans don't eat things like that," Li said.
Things are looking up for the young entrepreneurs.
A friend of theirs named Li Honglin, who graduated from the East China University of Science and Technology, decided to join their small business and helped it win a 100,000-yuan investment from a student entrepreneurship foundation.
Lai said they are now looking for another shop to rent so they can expand the business.
"We are also working to standardize our product quality and improve the efficiency of our business management," Li said. "Our bigger dream is to open a chain of pigs' feet shops in downtown Shanghai."
Meet 28-year-olds Li Gongfu and Lai Zhangping, They started a small business selling barbecued pigs' feet in the west end of Songjiang University Town.
"Business is not bad," Li said, pulling out a huge storage box filled with pigs' feet they have been marinating for a day. "People start coming every day as soon as we set up the grill."
"Within one hour, we'll be sold out," Lai added cheerfully. "Regular customers know that and come early to queue up."
The pair open their stall at 4pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends.
"We roast and sell more than 200 pigs' feet every day," said Li as he lightly brushed the grill with oil. "On Saturdays and Sundays, it would be well over 300."
The aroma of the roasting meat, basted with what the pair call a "secret sauce," wafts across the sidewalk.
"The pigs' feet were all sold out when I got here yesterday," said a round-faced girl who bought 10. "So I came early today."
Booming business
As the queue grows longer, the sweating young men barely have time to package the snacks for customers and give change.
"Our customers are really nice people, very patient," said Li.
He hails from the Jinggangshan area of Jiangxi Province, famous as one of the Red Army's strongholds before 1949.
He finished his graduate study of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China this year. He was offered a research position in a science institute but turned it down.
"The offer would have determined my entire life," Li said. "Fixed and dead, with no excitement or passion. I decided I wanted to be my own boss. Even in a small business, I am my own master."
Li actually started a small business while in his second year of study at university. He needed the money to help defray medical costs for his older brother, who suffers from severe schizophrenia.
"I am now selling pigs' feet because I still want to help support my family," Li said.
"They supported me while I was finishing my studies. I also want to help other kids from poor rural villages who don't have the opportunities I have had to pursue their dreams."
Low threshold
He and Lai decided on a small snack-food business because of low startup costs, he said.
Lai, who hails from the same Jiangxi area as Li, graduated from Huaqaio University and got a job as an engineer in a chemical company in Zhejiang Province in 2008. He was earning 5,000 yuan (US$813) a month.
"I saw no future in it," he said of the job. "The career path there didn't meet my expectations."
A year ago, while visiting Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, Li and Lai chanced across a shop selling pigs' feet and doing well for itself.
"A small shop like that can generate about 3 million yuan in profit a year, we were told," Li said "We were shocked to hear that. It got us to thinking about setting up a similar business in Shanghai."
Good taste is always the key to success in selling food, the pair agreed. So Lai stayed in Chengdu for two months, working as an apprentice in the snack shop to learn how to make pigs' feet.
"We tried almost 100 different recipes with numerous ingredients until we perfected one," Li said. "Our recipe is a top secret."
It must be valuable because the pair have had people disguised as customers trying to steal the recipe. One "spy" even grabbed a sauce bottle and drank it on the spot to try to memorize the taste.
In May, the young men set up a small booth near the university to sell roasted the roasted pork on a test basis. To their surprise, they were making 100 yuan profit an hour within two weeks.
The pair charge 7 yuan for a pigs' feet. They recently did a survey of their student customers. More than 45 percent of students thought the current price is acceptable, 37 percent said they wished it were lower and the remainder said they could charge even more.
Bigger plan
When they first opened for business in Songjiang University Town, they rented a small shop on the main street. But the rent proved to be too much of a burden, so they gave up the shop and set up a grill in a roadside stall next to a steamed bun shop.
The bun shop's owner proved to be a sympathetic woman who squeezed out a small corner for the young men and allowed them to do business there rent-free. "Sometimes, we help her sell buns," Lai said.
The pigs' feet they sell are imported from the US and Canada because they are cheap.
"Americans don't eat things like that," Li said.
Things are looking up for the young entrepreneurs.
A friend of theirs named Li Honglin, who graduated from the East China University of Science and Technology, decided to join their small business and helped it win a 100,000-yuan investment from a student entrepreneurship foundation.
Lai said they are now looking for another shop to rent so they can expand the business.
"We are also working to standardize our product quality and improve the efficiency of our business management," Li said. "Our bigger dream is to open a chain of pigs' feet shops in downtown Shanghai."
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