Interview with Youhe｜Graduated from Hong Kong University sighed to be Big4 "All of them" and start a business with her boyfriend: have a strong belief

Special interviews

Written by: Wei Yingzhi

2021-06-19 09:10

Last update date: 2021-06-19 09:10

Youhe YOHO recently received a shareholding from the parent company of Japan City, with a valuation exceeding 800 million yuan, becoming a new star of the "local ginger" e-commerce.

The company's two founders, Kathy, and CEO, Franz, were born in the three major economic and finance departments and business schools in Hong Kong. However, the couple did not fight in the financial industry in the end. Instead, they joined the e-commerce industry together.

In the early years of Shizheng, local retailers imported fewer foreign goods, allowing Youhe to rise rapidly.

However, before the "harvest", two years had actually gone through more than a year of "no income" days, underperformed the students who were at the same starting line, "suffering from death" and finally getting the company on track.

When Xu Jiaying graduated from the University of Hong Kong, it was during the financial tsunami. The economic environment was very bad, which made it difficult for her to find job opportunities.

Although I finally entered Big 4 (Big 4 accounting firm) for auditing, I was not optimistic about the prospects. "I used to work until 3 or 4 in the morning, but I went to work on time at 9 o'clock the next day. So don’t do it all.”

But why did you decide to start a business?

Xu Jiaying laughed and said that it might be due to the family's "entrepreneurial gene" - Xu Jiaying's mother was engaged in the import and export of sulphuric products and started her own business back then.

Although she is not interested in "family business", she has planted the seeds of entrepreneurship.

When I resigned, I happened to meet Franz who was trading in electronic products. The two sides hit it off. Not only did they become partners, they also became comrades in the mall. Youhe became the battlefield for them to fight together.

Xu Jiaying said with a smile that her mother was an entrepreneurial background, which gave her the idea that "you can start your own business" since she was a child.

(Photo by Li Zetong)

As for Franz, he entered the University of Science and Technology to study business after getting 6A. He also graduated during the financial tsunami, and the "financial talent" in the script did not appear.

Because of the tight job positions in the financial industry at the time, and Franz himself was a grassroots family, he lacked the family background and relationships in related fields, and it was difficult to enter investment banking work, so he couldn't find the job he wanted when he graduated.

But just by chance, it was discovered that the electronic product market has great potential. "The early Amazon Kindle eBooker Reader was a disruptive new product at the time. It was very popular in the United States, Japan and other places, but Hong Kong's traditional retail channels simply couldn't buy it." Xu Jiaying explained.

Youhe has been discovering different hot products from abroad, introducing them to Hong Kong, and successfully bounced back.

(Provided by interviewee)

Solve the shipping problem and try overseas online shopping opportunities

In 2013, they jumped out to develop e-commerce entrepreneurship. The two basically read books on their own and refer to successful and failed e-commerce companies around the world, "crossing the river by feeling the stones", and then fine-tuned to the needs of the localized market in Hong Kong.

One million yuan of entrepreneurial capital is half of one person, and Xu Jiaying's part comes from the savings from work.

"The online shopping environment in Hong Kong was at the BB stage. No one did it at all, so many things had to be opened up by themselves.

When Youhe was established in 2013, Kwun Tong Yuanzu Store also started an online store at the same time as it was established. It has always operated in an O2O (Online To Offline) mode. She understands that consumers will worry about whether the other party is trustworthy when shopping online, so she opened Offline physical stores allow customers to inquire and experience, and increase shopping confidence.

At that time, it was difficult for Hong Kong people to directly ship items to Hong Kong for online shopping overseas. They usually required local friends to help or use a forwarding company. The process was very complicated and error-prone. Shipped to home, and this group of overseas online shopping users became the first group of customers for Youhe.

Although there were a large number of Facebook and Instagram online stores at the time, they were less credible and involved in more fraud. In contrast, Youhe had a relatively complete online store model and stocks at the time, which was very detrimental to consumers. The statement is more credible.

Xu Jiaying lasted for a full year before giving her food, frankly saying that she survived "by faith."

(Photo by Li Zetong)

Classmates devote themselves to the financial industry to outperform a few streets manually

In the early days of entrepreneurship, in order to have sufficient funds for the company to operate, the company chose to cut down on food and clothing throughout the year.

For example, when the 2,000-square-foot Yuanzu shop in Kwun Tong was established, the decoration cost only cost about 30,000 yuan to complete. She said with a smile, "It's so low that you don't believe it."

At that time, she and Franz asked a friend to help with laying the floor, using the old wooden counter in the original site, and then buying wallpaper at the stationery store to save decoration costs.

Looking back now, an anecdote is anecdotal, but compared to the fact that the prospects of an auditor's promotion are clear, and the monthly payout is punctual, there is a lot of pressure.

"Sometimes I think that friends who graduated at the same time already have 30,000 yuan or more of labor, but they have been working for a few years, and the first time they pay only 12,000 yuan, so starting a business requires a strong belief!" Has been on the runway, but Xu Jiaying bluntly said that her monthly salary is still at a low level. "Some colleagues have more labor than themselves, but as a boss, the company's development is always the most concerned."

As an e-commerce platform, Youhe does not have its own brand. The main force is to lobby international brands to make Youhe the general agent of Hong Kong and Macau.

(Provided by Youhe)

Gritting the teeth, introducing new brands is the biggest difficulty in the gatekeeper industry

As an e-commerce platform, Youhe does not have its own brand. The main purpose is to lobby international brands to make Youhe the general agent in Hong Kong and Macau, or directly introduce brands to sell on the platform of Youhe.

The two Hong Kong people who were born and raised in Hong Kong do not have any "personal connections", so when they introduce a lot of brands, they always send emails, which is no different from "Cold call".

She bluntly said, "They are all lobbying step by step, usually using friends and own data to introduce the promising market in Hong Kong, and at the same time expressing eager attention to the new brand and increasing the trust of the other party."

Take the purchase of a dust mite vacuum cleaner a few years ago as an example. Because I am a patient with severe nasal allergies, when I noticed the dust mite vacuum cleaner produced by the famous Japanese brand Iris Ohyama, I realized that dust mites have a chance to cause this. Or aggravate nasal sensitivity.

In fact, many Hong Kong people have serious nasal allergies and high potential market demand. They persuaded the other party to choose Youhe platform, which was finally successfully introduced and sold. Now it has become Youhe's flagship product, and has sold nearly 90,000 units.

The famous domestic brand Iris Ohyama (Iris Ohyama).

(Provided by Youhe)

But it’s not always so smoothly. "When negotiating a new brand, we have encountered many difficulties. For example, some require high minimum order quantity (MOQ) and expect Youhe to drop 2 to 3 containers, but The new product has never tested the market response in Hong Kong, and the risk is higher."

In addition, some brands will look down on the Hong Kong retail market. For example, Korean and Japanese brands will think that they will directly supply goods to agents in the Mainland. If Hong Kong wants to pick up the goods, they will negotiate with the Mainland.

Therefore, Youhe’s work requires lobbying. The Hong Kong market and customer requirements are different from the mainland market. For example, although Hong Kong has a small area, its per capita consumption power is high, and it is also open to the world. It has certain publicity for neighboring countries. Influence.

The work of the two adopts the strategy of "male dominates outside, female dominates inside"

It is often said that when couples work together, they are prone to disputes and disagreements. In this regard, Xu Jiaying said that disagreements at work are normal and even thought it would be a good thing.

Because the two parties have the same attitude towards everything, they will not be able to think about the blind spots of the matter, and will not be able to make breakthroughs.

She continued that when there is a disagreement with Franz or other departments, it may reflect a gap in the understanding of the two parties' information, and they usually negotiate together to reach a consensus.

As far as the division of labor between the two is concerned, it can be regarded as "male leading the outside and female leading the inside." Franz will mainly go out to negotiate work, manage the administrative and technical parts, and Xu Jiaying will manage the sales, marketing, and customer service parts.

Since opening, the two have gradually become familiar with the needs of consumers and the potential of the Hong Kong online shopping market. "Maintaining a double-digit growth rate to 100% every year proves that this model is feasible."

Regarding the current economic downturn in Hong Kong, the two believe that as long as young entrepreneurs are well equipped and dedicated themselves to doing well, the downturn will surely pass.

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