大学生死党上演现实版“中国合伙人”
爱思英语编者按:在最近大热的影片《中国合伙人》中,作为“铁三角”之一的王阳曾表示千万不要和死党一起创业。而今天要介绍的这对80后大学生用事实证明了死党创业也可以越走越好。 Best friends’ idea finally takes off Have pillow fights with your friends, camp on the roof of a villa, dress up like a pirate and hunt treasures, or put on clown face paint to fight against Batman. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? In a blunt challenge to the warning in American Dreams in China, which says “never start a business with your best friends”, Ouyang Sidi, a graduate from Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, and Wang Jingsheng, a graduate from South China Normal University, who are best friends, are offering these fun activities through their company. According to them, they’re “on the right track”. The pair met while working for a local department store in Guangzhou after graduating in 2008. They were bored with the daily routine of their work. “There aren’t many interactive activities in China for adults,” says Ouyang. “So we thought, why not set up a company ourselves to offer more interactive events? It could be a good idea for a startup.” So they set up a company that offers young professionals a platform to socialize and have fun. They make money by organizing the activities and getting sponsored. They figured that young professionals are an attractive target for advertising companies. But ideas are always a step away from reality. After founding the company in 2009, Ouyang had many ideas that he thought were interesting, but no clients picked up on them. For his pillow fight idea, Ouyang’s calculation was as follows: Inviting 300 people and charging them 200 yuan each equals 60,000 yuan in income. That’s a lot of money, but it didn’t turn out as expected. “Only 30 people signed up, so we reduced the price several times,” says Ouyang. “Finally it was a free event.” They discussed the problem of not having enough publicity for their company and the activities they offered. So they set up event pages on Douban.com to attract young people, handed out flyers on university campuses, and recruited student volunteers to help organize and promote the events. Ouyang and Wang found that the passionate and energetic student volunteers were full of inspiration and made a good team. So they invested more money in training them and communicating with students. But creativity doesn’t guarantee commercial success. In the first two years, the company didn’t win any sponsors and lost money on nearly every event. “The sky was gray for us. We couldn’t find a way out. It was very frustrating,” says Ouyang. But after constantly trying, an idea for throwing a Halloween party finally paid off. They got a call from Coca-Cola Co, who agreed to sponsor the event, and for the first time they made money. “I almost cried. From then on, everything became better,” says Ouyang. More and more companies started asking them to organize activities, including Pearl River Beer, Ricoh and Star Cruises. Last week the two best friends bought a BMW sedan and they think it’s now time to expand the business. “Others have begun copying our business model and we’re about to launch some new projects,” says Ouyang. Fingers crossed. |