創業故事 "青年菜君"菜店的魔法
Outside of Huilongguan subway station, Beijing, is a small shop called Mr Food that sells vegetables and meat. Many people who live in this most populous residential community stop by Mr Food to pickup groceries ordered online.
在北京，一出回龍觀地鐵站，就可以看到一家不大的蔬菜生鮮店，名爲青年菜君。這個人口衆多的社區裏，有很多居民都會在此停留，提走他們在網上訂好的菜。
Surprisingly, the shop’s founders are three 28-year-old sociology graduates from Renmin University of China. Instead of founding a business related to their major, they founded one that addresses a market need.
令人驚訝的是，這家店的創始人是三個28歲的年青人，他們都畢業於中國人民大學社會學專業。他們並沒有選擇與自己專業相關的領域創業，而是依照市場需求起家。Career shift
職業生涯的轉變
Ren Mu, one of Mr Food’s founders, has work.d as a public relations specialist at a Beijing-based company before setting up the new business. As a PR consultant, he often rode the subway to and from work. After pulling himself from the crowd at Huilongguan station, he often felt lonely and exhausted, missing the feeling of home-cooked meals prepared by his mother.
青年菜君的創始人之一，任牧，在創業前曾在一家北京公司擔任公共關係顧問。那時，他常常坐地鐵上下班，每每當他擠出回龍觀地鐵站時，他總是感到孤單而又筋疲力盡，懷念媽媽在家做飯時的感覺。“After moving from Shandong to Beijing, the only inconvenience I ever felt was when I was deciding what to have for dinner,” he said. He’d often eat at a small restaurant nearby, but the food often didn’t taste good and was unsanitary. So, he decided to start selling his own ingredients.
他說，“從山東來到北京之後，唯一的不方便就是我會常常發愁吃什麼。”他常常在附近的小飯館解決晚飯，但是那裏的飯菜既不可口又不衛生。於是，任牧決定自己賣菜。Researching success
好調查是成功的一半He came up with the idea for this new startup after a lot of trial and error. “I made several startup attempts, but none of them worked because of a lack of market research,” he said. So when he discussed this business idea with his partners. They made market research their first step.
在形成最終創意之前，任牧也有過很多失敗的嘗試。他說，“我曾幾次嘗試創業，但都因爲缺乏市場調研而失敗了。”所以當他與幾位合夥人討論這次的想法時，他們首先進行了市場調查。For an entire week, Ren went to Xinfadi, Beijing’s biggest wholesale market for meat and vegetables, on a daily basis. “I wrote down the price of dozens of vegetables, while my two partners took note of prices at supermarkets and vegetable vendors,” he said. They compared their findings in order to make sure they put their groceries at the right price point.
整整一個星期，任牧每天都去北京最大蔬菜生鮮批發市場——新發地，他說，“我負責記錄（新發地）各種蔬菜的價格，而另外兩個合夥人則負責記錄超市和蔬菜小販那裏的價格。”他們比較各自的價格，最終確定他們商店的蔬菜價格。“The profit margin when selling vegetables is about 100 percent. Make it simple, if a vegetable is sold at 1 yuan per 500 g at Xinfadi, then it can be sold at 2 yuan per 500 g in the supermarket, and 3 to 4 yuan at vegetable vendors in residential areas,” he said.
任牧說，“買菜的利潤率差不多100%，簡單而言，就是如果某樣蔬菜在新發地賣1塊錢一斤，那麼它在超市就可以買到2塊錢，在社區蔬菜小販那裏就要賣3到4塊錢。”Targeted service
針對性服務However, Ren and his partners faced another challenge — how they could compete with other vegetable vendors. They took aim at office workers, who want to eat healthy food yet have little time to actually cook.
但是，任牧與他的合夥人還要面對另一個挑戰：如何勝過其他蔬菜商？他們將目標鎖定在白領身上，這些人希望吃得健康卻沒有時間下廚。“We do all the preparation for them, cutting vegetables and meat to ready-to-cook form,” Ren said. “If they don’t know how to cook and what to put in the dish, we even have packed vegetables and meat for certain dishes.”
任牧說，“於是，我們就爲他們做好所有的準備，包括切菜切肉，讓食材能立刻下鍋。如果他們不會做飯，不知道某道菜要放些什麼，我們甚至會根據特定的菜餚爲他打包蔬菜和肉。”Now with a concrete business idea and solid market research under their belt, Ren and his partners opened their first store in March and second chain store in April. In total, they have attracted thousands of frequent customers and over 10 million yuan from angel investors.
在紮實的市場調研並形成具體的創業方案之後，今年3月，他們的第一家店開業，4月，他們的第二家連鎖店也開業了。他們不僅吸引了成千上萬的老顧客，而且還獲得了天使投資1000萬的投資。
