Farmer raises chickens, seizes the opportunity and pecks open the door to prosperity
Batch after batch of free-range chicken sellers pour into the chicken farm from various places, and truck after truck loaded with free-range chickens drives out of the breeding base... This is a scene that appears at Tang Ying's farm every so often.
Tang Ying, from Group 3 of Baijia Community, Baijia Town, Dianjiang County, Chongqing, is a plain and ordinary rural woman, and at the same time an extraordinary entrepreneur. Through more than ten years of hard work, she has transformed from a "chicken peddler" who sold meat chickens from street to street into the owner of a chicken farm now raising over a thousand free-range chickens, becoming a veritable "chicken-raising queen" in the town. Through exploration and struggle, Tang Ying has forged her own path to prosperity.
Spotting a business opportunity and becoming a "chicken peddler" going from street to street
"Cluck, cluck... cluck, cluck..." Recently, as soon as the reporter approached Tang Ying's free-range chicken breeding base, they saw free-range chickens with sturdy builds and brilliant feathers all over the slope, adding a distinctive sight to the quiet hillside.
"If you want to talk about my path in raising chickens, it all started more than ten years ago when I was in the chicken-selling business." At the free-range chicken farm, speaking of her breeding journey, Tang Ying let out this sigh to the reporter.
In 1998, the shrewd Tang Ying saw the business opportunity that rural free-range chickens sold well in the city while villagers worried about selling them, so she became a "chicken peddler" going from street to street. "I bought up the free-range chickens from the countryside, then transported them to downtown Chongqing, and resold them to various restaurants, earning about 2 yuan per jin." Tang Ying said that because the free-range chickens she sold were genuine and fairly priced, city merchants were also willing to do business with her, so every year she could earn more than 20,000 yuan just from selling free-range chickens.
After two years in the chicken-selling business, Tang Ying not only made money, but also, through her experience of going door to door selling chickens, learned many things, such as what kind of chicken is a free-range chicken that has not been fed feed, and how free-range chickens should be raised to taste good.
Starting a free-range chicken farm and suffering heavy losses
"Since rural free-range chickens sell so well, why don't I raise free-range chickens myself and sell them?" As her experience continued to accumulate, Tang Ying was no longer content to be just a "chicken peddler."
So, in 2000, Tang Ying decided to give up the lucrative chicken-selling business and return to her hometown, Group 3 of Baijia Community, Baijia Town, using the 50,000 yuan she had earned from selling chickens and more than 20,000 yuan borrowed from relatives and friends to set up a free-range chicken farm. After many setbacks, Tang Ying exchanged her own contracted land for a plot belonging to a neighbor right by the roadside, built chicken sheds, and bought nearly a thousand chicks to raise.
Ideal is plump, reality is bony. Because in the early days of starting the business, apart from the selling experience and broad connections Tang Ying had accumulated while peddling chickens, she had not mastered much knowledge of free-range chicken-raising techniques or how to handle emergency situations, so before the first batch of chickens could even leave the coop, they were wiped out by a chicken plague with no warning signs.
"When these chickens died of disease, they already weighed three or four jin. What a pity." Tang Ying told the reporter that in her first attempt at raising chickens, the direct economic loss was more than 50,000 yuan, and adding the money spent on disposing of the diseased chickens, this chicken plague caused heavy losses to the newly built chicken farm.
Tasting every hardship, then starting the farm again and achieving success
"Giving up a sure-profit business and insisting on coming home to raise chickens!" Tang Ying said such feelings had once troubled her, but since she had made the choice, she had to persevere to the end and make something of it. In 2001, after the pain of her first entrepreneurial failure, Tang Ying chose to grit her teeth and endure, going to Chongqing again to work. During those 7 years, she worked successively as a construction laborer, hotel waitress, and shopping mall sales clerk...
"The hardest days were the years I struggled on the construction site." Recalling the hardship after her entrepreneurial failure, Tang Ying was full of emotion. "At that time I went to the construction site to do odd jobs for masons, and every day I had to carry mortar for 4 masons at the same time, working at least 10 hours." Tang Ying told the reporter that faced with such high-intensity work every day, she had thought of giving up, but would always silently tell herself, "Don't be afraid, get through today and your startup fund will have another 25 yuan."
In 2004, in Tang Ying's third year of doing odd jobs, her frail body began to show signs of discomfort due to long-term overload. Later, through a friend's introduction, Tang Ying moved around and worked as a waitress at a hotel; a year later, Tang Ying went to work as a sales clerk in a shopping mall...
A willing heart is not failed by heaven. After several years of hard work, Tang Ying had saved up some money again. So, in 2008, Tang Ying again chose to return home to start a business. Only this time, she did not immediately rebuild the chicken farm, but instead chose the then-booming real estate industry.
It was precisely because of this foray into the real estate industry that in 2012 Tang Ying's financial predicament was completely turned around, and she became a locally somewhat famous boss. However, just when everyone thought Tang Ying would continue to show her talents in this field, Tang Ying unexpectedly left the real estate industry, turned around to rebuild the chicken farm, and went everywhere to learn breeding knowledge.
Now, Tang Ying's chicken farm has begun to take shape, with over a thousand free-range chickens raised on the farm, as well as several hundred ducks and geese each, and the returns are very considerable.