Author: Sheng Tang rushong source wechat official account: the chief shopkeeper’s knife has been reprinted with authorization
I became a family when I was 23 years old. After I became a family, I was very poor. I was so poor that I even borrowed the dishes for dinner. Although poor, but the idea is very determined. That is to open a small car lubricant sales store with the least amount of money. At that time, there were many trucks in the hometown Town, and the main economic pillar of the whole town was freight transportation. But at that time, the pattern of people had not been opened, and the surrounding management of the main industry was even stranger. Even if I didn’t have the money to buy a truck, I went back to the second place to dump the lubricant.
There is a feeling that everyone in the town at that time, as long as they have the capital, even if they borrow usury, will definitely buy trucks and join the main economic force. Instead of looking for opportunities in peripheral products and services. Of course, people’s horizons are much broader now, and generally as long as there is a main economy, the surrounding products and services will also be controlled by the main capital. However, we need to review that when something seems to be booming, most people are more willing to pursue this booming industry and want to become the master of this industry. This is a manifestation of human follow-up psychology and greedy psychology. Although it is not surprising, it is what we who work hard to learn the truth of life need to pay attention to and overcome. Chasing high needs to be timely, and cutting meat needs to be decisive, otherwise the colorful industry you are chasing will eventually make yourself a stepping stone to the success of others, even worse. The worse result is being trampled into the sludge and difficult to turn over.
Or my own business. Overturning lubricating oil is just a start. Doing business is a start, and then as long as it can stand, there will naturally be horizontal or vertical development. There is no need to learn or be taught. Because in the process of operation, the needs of customers will naturally be fed back. As long as you are not lazy, you will certainly try to meet the needs of customers, especially those with concentrated customer response.
The difference between horizontal and vertical is that vertical is to deepen your main products. Optimize and expand the quality, brand and variety. For example, lubricants are divided into imported and domestic ones, including Great Wall brand and Mobil brand. If you save a little money, you will naturally bring more brands and varieties, from engine lubricating oil to gearbox gear oil, to brake oil, lithium base lubricating oil, and so on…. This is a vertical development.
Then there is horizontal development. Horizontal development will be much more difficult. Because the horizontal development direction is still automotive products, but it has little to do with lubricants. For example, car accessories, such as car related services, etc., you need to be able to even become a driving school agent…. The main difference between vertical and horizontal is to make it clear that in the process of entrepreneurship, we should clarify our ideas, find a good position, and then review our own capabilities, what kind of development is suitable for, and then decide whether to develop vertically or horizontally, or both. In this way, you will not waste your energy, or even go in the wrong direction, resulting in regrettable results.
When doing business in a small town, you can’t go vertically. The market is so large. No matter how complete your variety is and how good your quality is, it’s of little use. Therefore, in a limited market, horizontal is the king. Of course, now I’m talking about theory. At that time, I was just fooling around. Because the reality does not allow to do vertical, so restless oneself will certainly break through in the horizontal.
The first horizontal is to lubricate all joints of the car, which is very dirty, tired and profitable. This is both vertical and horizontal. Then gradually began to sell auto parts. Although selling auto parts will make your business look better, there is a worry that our small town is not big. Although there are many trucks, the repair shop is in a big town seven or eight kilometers away from us. Therefore, it is also difficult to sell accessories. At first, they only sold some ordinary parts that the driver could do by himself. After some operation, I found that the profit of accessories was actually quite good, which was better than that of lubricating oil. Just because of the limited sales scale, they can’t make more money.
By chance, Because there are four houses facing the street in my home [before I started business, these houses were facing the street, but they were not used for business. Because the town was too small to be used for business. After I made my first pot of gold from lubricating oil, I expanded it. Although the facade is still four, the depth has doubled. Therefore, these houses are actually useless for me in a business. In that sentence, the town is too small.] A car mechanic came to rent a house here, which is a win-win cooperation. Therefore, I have become a model of parts and repair shop here. This is a classic horizontal model in the industry.
However, repair is not my business. Moreover, the repairman himself will bring some commonly used accessories, but not many, because there is not enough space, capital and energy. For these, in fact, I was a little sick at first. But after a period of cooperation, I found that I actually made a lot of money. Because of the existence of the repair shop, many large parts of cars can be repaired here, and the price and profit of these large parts are incomparable to those spare parts. These large items are not regular consumables. Only those who sell accessories will reserve them. Small repair shops, especially individual repairmen, will not reserve them.
This win-win cooperation model has been carried out for a total of four to five years, and both sides have benefited a lot from it. The reason why they parted ways in the end was not because of the conflict of interests between the two sides, but because the truck industry in the small town began to fall, and most truck drivers moved to large towns or provincial cities with more concentrated businesses. As a result, the truck industry, which was once popular in the small town, and my small surroundings naturally became desolate.
We are talking about international current politics, which is actually quite different. But today, when I saw a topic ready to write, I felt that my experience could just explain it.
The Vietnamese Bureau of statistics released data on June 29 that Vietnam’s trade surplus reached 710million US dollars in the first half of this year. The total industrial economy of Vietnam also exceeds that of Shenzhen.
First of all, we need to know that Vietnam can’t wait to release this news. Because the first half of the year was not over when it was released. Generally, this kind of data is released in early or mid July. However, Vietnam unexpectedly released the data of the first half of the year before the end of June, which is obviously difficult to suppress the excitement in my heart. In the context of the global industrial depression, it is naturally exciting for Vietnam to make such achievements.
Of course, Vietnam’s high-profile release of data also aims to prove to the world that Vietnam’s economy is in a good state, and everyone can rest assured to invest and set up factories, especially those who are ready to move their industries away from China. Joy is sincere, and showing off wealth is purposeful. This is just like Ms. wechat who basks in Maserati. The purpose is to attract more investors. As for whether Maserati is her own, it doesn’t matter.
Let’s not look at Vietnam’s development potential. It’s a very complex problem. At present, Vietnam has a major hidden danger, which is difficult for China to control, and even now it is still ready to move. It’s obvious whether Vietnam will be difficult to control the crisis when it develops to a certain extent, but it’s none of our business. We are not talking about Vietnam’s industrial system. Many authors have written that Vietnam is only a part of China’s industrial system, and its development depends on China’s industrial system, etc. These are not what I want to say today. What I want to say is to look at the development of Vietnam from a higher level.
In fact, Vietnam is equivalent to the repairman I rented the house to. Because I have concentrated cars here [because I am the first in this industry, and the services are relatively perfect]. So the repair shop was opened to me, and then both sides were mutually beneficial. I didn’t suffer losses because he brought some accessories, on the contrary, I gained more profits. This kind of thing depends on everyone’s mentality. If you are the kind of person who is reluctant to let go of a penny and wants to earn it by yourself, I have nothing to say. But in fact, your business is not big. It’s also hard to make unexpected money that you can’t imagine.
Whether China and Vietnam and even the whole East Asia, Southeast Asia and the South Asian subcontinent can develop depends on the state of the whole market. Just like the repairman and I, the market in the town is gone. Even if you have the ability to fly, you can only sigh.
Therefore, what really works is the prosperity of the market in East Asia. Putting the engine of world economic development in East Asia is the essence of a good life for all Asian countries. Instead of seeing your neighbor do the same business as you, or his business has some conflicts with you, you will change your face. In that case, the engine has not been built, and the internal fight has been very happy.
Some people are angry when they see Vietnam getting better, while others secretly rejoice when they see Vietnam getting better. In fact, these are unnecessary. In fact, isn’t Southeast Asia achieving the goal I once hoped for?
Hello everyone, it’s really good. As for Vietnam, in fact, we will be overwhelmed by its bad things in the future, but I still hope that the stability and prosperity of the whole region will last. China is the engine of the engine in this region. It not only has a complete industrial system, but also has a broad consumer market. The prosperity around us will only make us better, so there is no need for those who worry, and those who secretly rejoice are just empty joy.
The way of Kings lies in inaction and the world has to return.