This issue of "Restaurant Face" is a new era of Huizhou merchants. /kloc-at the age of 0/7, he was young and frivolous and began to "break into the world". 200 1, officially entered the catering circle, after more than ten years, went through hardships to find a way to operate; 20 13 "yang jixing stinky mandarin fish" was an instant hit; Now sit firmly in the top spot of Anhui cuisine in China.
He is Yang Jinxiang, the founder of Yang Jixing's stinky mandarin fish.
"Wanshan is not allowed to run the stream, and the sound of the stream is noisy day and night; At the foot of the mountain, the stream flowed out of the former village. " This poem by Yang Wanli, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, praised the beautiful scenery of Shangzhuang in Huizhou. This is a poem often quoted by Mr. Hu Shi.
Such a humble villa makes Mr. Hu Shi, who lived in Taiwan Province Province in his later years, have a lingering fear; Such a magical land gave birth to a unique and humane Huizhou merchant.
Huizhou merchants, the most outstanding business gang in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, began in the Southern Song Dynasty and flourished in the middle and early Qing Dynasty. At the end of Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, merchants from Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to rise, while merchants from Huizhou gradually declined. Nowadays, with the deepening of reform and opening up, Huizhou merchants who have been dormant for a long time have gradually begun to revive.
When we talk about Huizhou merchants today, we should add the word "new" before them. On the one hand, "new Huizhou merchants" refers to the development of Anhui province in geographical scope; On the one hand, the field involved extends to all aspects.
Shi Yuzhu, the founder of Giant Group, is the most controversial and legendary figure in China business circles.
At present, Zhang Liaoyuan, the founder of Three Squirrels, the largest food e-commerce enterprise in China, is called "Zhang Sanfeng" by the electric business community and comes from Jixi, Anhui. ?
Today's catering face, Yang Jinxiang, has the same name-new Huizhou merchants, who inherit the excellent quality of China's 5,000-year-old traditional culture with their own hands.
Back in the early 1990s, the spring in Chuzhou came quietly. A row of tea trees in the alley has spit out scattered buds. Just behind this row of tea trees, a boy of 16 years old waved a little bully game machine borrowed from relatives in his left hand, and held three game tapes of Nintendo's Contra, Super Mario and tank battle in his right hand at that time, and began to shout to his neighbors: "Eat mushrooms and you will grow up! Eating flowers can fire bullets! The latest version of' Top Mushroom' (Super Mario) that is not available in the game hall! Two dollars for one hand and five dollars for three! " The neighborhood children who lived nearby came to watch the excitement and surrounded him in an instant.
The boy skillfully connected the red and white game machine to his 14 inch black and white TV set, called up the game screen and kept chanting "line up! Play games and jump prices in a limited time! There is no such shop in this village! " In less than a period of time, the coat pocket has been "full".
At that time, there were obviously no advanced words such as "resource integration", "focus on segmentation" and "hunger marketing", but boys were almost born with a talent for doing business, and they showed extraordinary business acumen when they were students.
"When I was a child, my family conditions were not good, and my desire to make money was particularly strong." In order to reduce the family burden, a boy from an ordinary family entered the society at the age of sixteen or seventeen. He never wanted to work for others. He has always believed that "he can do things by himself".
/kloc-in the three years after 0/990, he started 360 small businesses, opened clothing stores, sold vegetables, provided information services for getting rich, and made small food processing factories. He tried almost every time, but he never made any money. Not only did I not make any money, but I also lost one or two thousand yuan borrowed by my parents.
The money was not a small sum for ordinary families at that time, and neighbors talked about it one after another. "Yang's childe really failed to live up to expectations. He didn't learn well at a young age, and sooner or later he will lose his family. " The boy's spine ached with thorns.
Fortunately, parents are tolerant and say "carry on the family line". They don't think the child is a "black sheep". On the contrary, from his point of view, they think it is good for children to get out of the engine. Since this is the beginning, they should support it.
1994, Yang Jinxiang ushered in a small watershed in his life. He is going to go out of his hometown and see the outside world. So I followed my friends to Shanghai to start a building materials business. "When I first arrived in Shanghai, I worked in a building materials factory for a year as a transitional period," the boy asked himself on countless sleepless nights this year. "Do I have to work like this all my life?"
The answer is no, stubborn, he doesn't believe in birth.
Through constant exploration and consultation, he finally found a business opportunity. A year later, he took his girlfriend and raised another 5,000 yuan to start a small business of "selling building materials". 800 yuan buys tricycles, 50 yuan buys all the furniture, and starts to sell all the needed materials, such as cement, yellow sand, tiles, wood thread, glue and so on, from the samples in the building materials wholesale market. Put the stall in front of the new residential area, there are many customers in need, take goods from suppliers, provide door-to-door service, and make a difference by changing hands.
In the first half of the resumption, it seems that Yang Jinxiang was born with excellent marketing ability of focusing and positioning. He quickly focused on the marble business with "the highest profit and simple operation" from many building materials categories. Business is booming gradually. Not long after, the booth at the entrance of the original community moved to the rental facade room and finally became a stone processing factory.
The first bucket of gold in life followed.
1998, CCTV's opening drama "Water Margin" made people empty, and Liu Huan's theme song "Good Han Song" became a generation's memory.
In the same year, Yang Jinxiang resold the stone processing factory and decided to return to his hometown in Chuzhou. Although he didn't go back to his hometown, he not only accomplished two major events in his life-getting married and having children; At the age of 25, when he was doing a small business in Chuzhou, he paid off the loans of his relatives and friends and finally got rid of it.
Speaking of Yang Jinxiang's innovation about stinky mandarin fish, in fact, before he officially went north, the layman in this restaurant circle tried it at home. He opened a restaurant, fried crayfish and sold fish heads. In just one year, he lost 70,000 to 80,000.
This year's test of water, without any results, can "not believe" that stubborn force deeply imprinted in his heart.
After the Spring Festival in 2002, after more than 20 hours of green leather train, with a suitcase and 1000 yuan borrowed from relatives, the husband and wife came to Beijing to seek a new development path. If you need a chance to do things, then entering the catering industry is definitely nine Niu Yi hairs. At that time, he went back to his hometown and accidentally watched a talk show by a catering boss. "At that moment, I felt that I was ignited." So I had a year's experience of testing water in my hometown in Chuzhou.
As we all know, coming to Beijing is the real beginning of the nightmare.
Some people say that the word "I don't know" is extremely subtle. It carries the mission of ending the topic quickly, emphasizes the sense of distance between people, and clearly reveals the despair and helplessness of the speaker.
Yang Jinxiang experienced four moments of "not knowing" in his life, which often made him collapse several times and wanted to give up.
In 2002, the "white mouse" continued to test water. In line with the concept of "do what you can", a small fishing village in the south of the Yangtze River was opened, and the specialty was small fish paste cakes. "The store is near Longgang Road in Qinghe, with 4 people and 6 tables, covering an area of more than 20 square meters, plus one * * * three people in my store." When he mentioned the scene of opening a shop in those days, Yang Jinxiang talked in Kan Kan, Kan Kan, as if everything was yesterday. The good times didn't last long. In less than half a year, the small fishing village in Jiangnan changed hands because of poor management.
How to cook food and drink? My cooking is delicious. Why can't I make money? I don't know
At the end of 2002, after many twists and turns, we found a new facade and prepared for a big fight. In the spring of 2003, the unprecedented SARS epidemic suddenly broke out. In desperation, they were forced to go out of business, and after several months of waiting, the husband and wife could hardly open the pot.
Do you want to stick to it? What can I do without food? I don't know
But there is nothing wrong with insisting. After several years of slow blood transfusion, Yang Jinxiang's restaurant business has finally come back to life and improved little by little. Being carried away by the staged achievements, he and his friend * * * invested 2 million yuan to open a large store with a area of nearly 1,000 square meters near Xisanqi, named "Xianghui Cuisine", which focuses on Huizhou cuisine and dreams of doing a big job and building a well-known catering brand. However, whether it is the site selection, the restaurant's process system and standard positioning, or the team's management ability, there is no rules and regulations, which leads to the "Xianghui Folk Song" being deserted.
What followed was Lao Yang's self-questioning: "What do I want to do?" I don't know
Due to the fierce competition of popular restaurants, the operation of "Xianghui Cuisine" has become difficult-I have everything I want to eat, and the taste is average, but the business is getting colder and colder. Operating for more than a year, the debt is two or three million. He thought of giving up, so he listed the transfer, but he couldn't contact the buyer.
What kind of restaurant can be remembered by everyone? Still don't know
Dozens of employees are waiting to be paid, and their brothers and their hard-earned money are penniless. The eyes that the family expected ... Yang Jinxiang's life fell to the bottom and lost his heart and direction.
When he nearly collapsed, his friend said, "When you come to Shenyang, you must go to XX store to eat grilled shrimp!" " "This sentence made him suddenly enlightened:" The reason why every store doesn't last long is because it doesn't have its own characteristics at all. "
After Yang Jinxiang returned to Beijing, he carried out drastic reforms and created Yang Jixing's stinky mandarin fish, which occupies half of China's Huizhou cuisine today.
This reform is a well-known "menu revolution" in the industry, which has reduced more than 200 Anhui dishes to 38 dishes, with the focus on "smelly mandarin fish".
Because the menu is scientifically classified and organized, even the first-time guests can know what the specialty of the store is in one minute, and even the blind spots can combine a delicious banquet, which not only saves time, but also reduces the decision-making cost of customers. After this optimization, the sales of snakehead only sold seven or eight copies a day, and then soared to more than 100, accounting for 50% of the total sales in the store.
Yang Jixing's smelly mandarin fish seems to have been injected with fresh blood. Not only is it very popular in Beijing, but the mandarin fish is the main course of Anhui restaurants all over the country, and even other restaurants have added this dish to the menu. This has led to the vigorous development of the national mandarin fish culture and the raw material industry chain of stinky mandarin fish.
After Yang Jixing's stinkfish became a hit, 20 14 years later, Lao Yang knew that the lack of catering professional knowledge seriously restricted the development of enterprises, and began to move toward the road of learning, turning his energy to the inside of enterprises, practicing his internal skills and becoming an enterprise, which was a complete detail control.
He took the company's core management, constantly participated in various training and learning, and visited industry predecessors. From focusing on positioning to store location, from team building to enterprise management, from business philosophy to corporate culture, a reform from the inside out began. In the first half of 20 15, Yang Jixing Stinkfish Catering Management Co., Ltd. was formally established, which means that the company will pay more attention to a series of management systems such as system specification, service process and performance appraisal.
Careful people will find that Yang Jixing's slogan * * * has gone through six iterations after focusing on stinky mandarin fish.
Lao Yang is not only a good cook, but also a good brand marketer.
Over the past year or so, Yang Jixing has iterated again, refining the "signature dishes of Huizhou cuisine" from the previous focus on products to the level of brand strategy.
"After several years of development, stinkfish has gained a certain recognition and popularity in the market. The emphasis on "signature dishes of Anhui cuisine" not only emphasizes the importance of fish, but also highlights its position in Anhui cuisine, spreading from both dishes and cuisines. "
Seeing that Yang Jixing is becoming more and more stable, corporate values seem to naturally follow-honesty, tolerance, innovation and persistence. At first glance, there is nothing new, but it coincides with the stubbornness and tenacity of Huizhou merchants.
Lao Yang summed up his own values, being a man and doing things is persistence.
"Every time the store changes hands to restart a new brand, relatives and friends are willing to support me in the most difficult time. This is a trust in me and a reward for my honest life." Tolerance and innovation are two essential qualities on the road of enterprise development, and persistence is the premise and foundation of all results.
Yang Jixing currently has 20 stores in China. Speaking of future development planning, Lao Yang intends to go deep into Beijing first, and strive to win the goal of four first-tier city chains 100 stores in five years, and reach the volume of 300 stores in ten years. When the opportunity is ripe, he will go abroad and try to let consumers all over the world taste stinky fish.
Back to life, Lao Yang is a very casual and romantic person.
I like driving with my wife, and I like the feeling on the road. Away from the reinforced concrete in big cities, the husband and wife walked through the Duku Highway in Xinjiang to see the changes of the four seasons, walked through the Alashan Desert in Inner Mongolia to see the sunrise and sunset, walked through the 3 18 Sichuan-Tibet line to see the towering Mount Everest, and walked through the Sino-Vietnamese border in Wan Li to see the beautiful scenery along the way.
After more than 20 years of marriage, we had differences and quarrels, but we never left.
During the most bitter "SARS" period, the store didn't open for a few months, and finally there was only 1 1,000 yuan in cash flow. The only reason for the young couple to persist is to cheer with each other every day. It was mutual help that brought today's suffering to an end.
Speaking of family, what makes Lao Yang happy is that he has a sensible and obedient daughter.
"Her name is john young, which means to set sail." When he mentioned his daughter, his face was full of subtle relief and smile. "Follow me, I am quiet and introverted." Then I pointed to my clothes. "It's from my daughter." He is more tolerant of his daughter's education and implements the "stocking policy".
My daughter is sensible and independent, just more free and easy. When she was fourteen or fifteen, she went out to travel alone. /kloc-When she was 0/8 years old, she went to Australia to study alone. She is a quiet girl who is independent.
"Daughters should have their own lives."
Compared with "female inheriting father's business", Yang Jinxiang hopes that he can see the world more, know more intelligent people and friends, and experience the scenery and miracles that others can't meet.
Some people say that "juvenile" is a state, even if the years accumulate and even if the suffering is deep, even if this or that, some people become muddled along and some people want to compromise; But some people are always excited and still have a pure heart.
Speaking of the more admired entrepreneurs, Ma Yun's words are similar to those of Lao Yang. Ma Yun once said, "Do what you like at the age of 30, do what you are good at at at the age of 40, and do something for young people at the age of 50."
"I am a young man now. I should be middle-aged at the age of 60. I can still contribute when I am 80 years old. " Lao Yang thinks he can reach the age of 80, and his retirement has to be postponed.
In order to keep himself and his team in a sunny state of mind and healthy body, Lao Yang started from me and insisted on exercising. The little thing of exercising is easy at first, but difficult to stick to. As a result, the # Yang Jixing Cool Running Team # was born, and a "Yang Jixing Sports Culture" was launched throughout the company. According to the agreement, everyone clocks in every day and displays all kinds of sports data. If a training program fails to meet the standard, they will pay cash-filled red envelopes voluntarily. Driven by various sports methods, Yang Jixing has more and more sports-loving friends.
Haruki Murakami said in the book "What I Talk about Running", "If there is any opponent that must be defeated in long-distance running, it is the past self." After running for four months, Lao Yang felt that the idea of running and doing business with him was like a retreat. There are many reasons for not running: it's foggy today, there's a dinner today, I'm late for home today, and there's a work meeting today ... There's almost only one reason for running-"If you persist for one more second, it's different."
He is now in his forties, compared with "setting up a game stall" at the age of sixteen or seventeen. From officially crossing the Beijing restaurant circle in 2002 to the successful transformation of Yang Jixing's stinky mandarin fish in 20 13, from scratch to becoming a well-known brand of Anhui cuisine in China today, I have thought about giving up countless times because of various blows, stepped on countless pits and taught countless tuition fees. The hardships along the way can only be felt by those who have experienced it.
He is a Huizhou merchant in the new era. The industrious and unyielding spirit of Huizhou merchants from generation to generation is the guiding light to support themselves to explore their own methods step by step.
Imagine giving up at any time. Is today's China Hui cuisine catering market another situation?
"A hundred feet, one step further, the boundary of ten parties, the whole body is also." Probably Yang Jinxiang's current state of mind.
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