Bamboo rat e-commerce sales: Zhang Wenming's annual output value reaches 8 million yuan

Under the call of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," over the past year Nanning has seen a wave of innovative and entrepreneurial "makers" emerge. Some break out of old farming and breeding models to innovate and start businesses, while others use the "Internet Plus" approach to help more people find employment. Zhang Wenming of Nanning is one of these makers. Raising funds, selling through e-commerce, and providing remote online training, Zhang Wenming started a bamboo rat breeding farm with 60,000 yuan, and today he has four bases in Nanning, Laibin and Guilin, with annual sales of 8 million yuan.

At the start of his business: armed with skills, he raised funds everywhere

At the bamboo rat and porcupine breeding training base in the Shili Flower Corridor of Santang Town, Nanning, this is Zhang Wenming's entrepreneurial base.

Zhang Wenming graduated with a bachelor's degree in animal science from Southwest University and a master's degree in animal nutrition from the College of Animal Science and Technology at Guangxi University. Zhang Wenming said he loved animals from childhood. He had thought he would work at a zoo after graduation, but he never expected that an accidental opportunity during his graduate studies would turn him into a bamboo rat breeding expert.

During his graduate studies, the learning style was relatively flexible. Zhang Wenming often went with his supervisor into enterprises and came into contact with entrepreneurs in the breeding industry, which sparked his idea of starting his own business and becoming a boss. In April 2009, while still not yet graduated, Zhang Wenming saw bamboo rats during a business trip and learned that these animals were not only cute but also had tender meat, high nutritional value, good market prospects, and low feeding costs: the feed needed only the bamboo, forage grass and corn commonly found in Guangxi. After investigation, in June of the same year he rented a piece of land in Zhongliang Village, Shibu Town, Xixiangtang District, established a bamboo rat breeding farm, and began his own business.

"I have the skills, but I lacked funds." Zhang Wenming, who relied on loans to complete both his university and graduate studies, raised 60,000 yuan from relatives and friends, began renting land and bought 80 pairs of breeding rats.

Innovation and entrepreneurship: expanding sales through e-commerce

"Nothing is ever smooth sailing; I also took detours," Zhang Wenming said. Although college students starting businesses enjoy preferential policies, his farm was only just over 100 sq m, and he had no money to hire employees, so he could only ask his parents to help. Due to lack of experience, at the beginning of the business several dozen bamboo rats died overnight, which made Zhang Wenming feel the hardships of entrepreneurship. But Zhang Wenming did not give up. Using good interpersonal resources, he actively sought technical support from his alma mater and continuously improved his bamboo rat breeding techniques. After more than a year of exploration, the farm gradually got on track. In 2010, with the support of the Xingning District Youth League Committee, Zhang Wenming rented 12 mu of land in Santang Town and invested 500,000 yuan to register a company, developing from only 80 pairs of breeding bamboo rats at the start into a demonstration base with 600 pairs of breeding bamboo rats.

Many people in the breeding industry today adopt direct operation and the "company plus farmers" model, and Zhang Wenming is no exception. However, his sales model has some variations, mainly through e-commerce sales, using online promotion and a combination of offline and online sales. The company has successively registered and opened e-commerce platforms such as an official website, a WeChat mall and a public service account.

Now, more than 50% of the company's customers come from e-commerce channels such as Taobao, WeChat and QQ, greatly increasing product sales, and this proportion is still rising. In addition to increasing sales volume, e-commerce also reduces promotion costs and sales costs. Because e-commerce directly faces end customers, it eliminates intermediate links, and profits have also gone up. The e-commerce business model has created good economic benefits for Zhang Wenming and opened up a new path to wealth for the sale of traditional breeding products.

Continuous experimentation: spreading skills widely through remote training

Today, Zhang Wenming has breeding bases in Santang and the Junshan Branch of Gaofeng Forest Farm in Nanning, as well as in Laibin and Guilin. Zhang Wenming said proudly that the company now has a total of 5,000 pairs of breeding rats and 800 pairs of breeding porcupines, with annual sales reaching 8 million yuan.

For bamboo rats, the most deadly thing is the cold weather every winter. In the bamboo rat breeding shed, there is an elevated warm-floor insulated bamboo rat pool more than one chi above the ground. This was researched and invented by Zhang Wenming after he began raising bamboo rats, and it has already obtained a national utility model patent certificate.

"My greatest advantage is that I have skills, because what I do is what I know best." Zhang Wenming is not satisfied with only his own success. Since starting his business, he has held 78 training sessions, with several thousand trainees from all over the country. For netizens who have no time to come to Guangxi to study, Zhang Wenming boldly tried remote correspondence training, solving their technical problems.