29-year-old disabled woman in Cangzhou earns 500,000 yuan a year through entrepreneurship, sitting all day and losing 20 jin

Many of the tasks on the chicken farm are done by Zhang Jiaojiao herself.

Riding an electric tricycle to sell eggs

Zhang Jiaojiao's optimism and strength come from the love her parents gave her since childhood. "When I was little, I couldn't go to school. To let me learn knowledge, my father was busy making a living during the day, and at night he taught me to read and write and taught me life skills." Later, as she grew older, Zhang Jiaojiao found that there was a gap between her and her peers. She watched as some of her peers got into university and some started working, while she could only stay at home every day.

At that time, Zhang Jiaojiao's father raised 2,000 laying hens. When she had free time, Zhang Jiaojiao helped her father collect eggs. One day, Zhang Jiaojiao thought, why not go out and help her father sell eggs. At Zhang Jiaojiao's strong insistence, her father bought her an electric tricycle. In order to learn to drive, Zhang Jiaojiao secretly drove it to the playground to practice every day while others were asleep and there were few people on the road. After learning to drive, Zhang Jiaojiao's entrepreneurial journey began.

However, a very realistic problem stood in front of Zhang Jiaojiao: she would sit on the tricycle all day, and there was no way for her to get off and go to the toilet in the middle of it. To overcome the difficulty, she often went all day hungry without eating or drinking, sometimes so hungry she felt dizzy, and her weight quickly dropped from 96 jin to 76 jin. The hardest part was winter, when her legs became so cold that blood circulation was poor, and the frostbite on her legs and feet ulcerated. Seeing this, her parents firmly refused to let Zhang Jiaojiao go out again.

Difficulties did not stop Zhang Jiaojiao's pace forward. She drove her tricycle around to every village supermarket in the surrounding area and decided to establish supply relationships with the supermarkets. The eggs were fresh, the price was reasonable, and she delivered to their doors herself. With her advantages, Zhang Jiaojiao quickly established long-term cooperative relationships with the supermarkets. Through word of mouth, supermarkets, restaurants, and cake shops in the surrounding villages all became Zhang Jiaojiao's customers.

Starting her own chicken farm with 30,000 birds in stock

After opening up sales channels for selling eggs, Zhang Jiaojiao had the idea of raising laying hens herself. The first batch of chicks and feed cost nearly 150,000 yuan, all borrowed from relatives and friends. Zhang Jiaojiao said: "One year, avian influenza was especially severe, and the epidemic spread very quickly. Many laying hens did not escape this disaster. Because my chicken farm had strict management, only the laying hens I raised were intact. After the epidemic passed, the number of laying hens dropped sharply, egg prices rose, and this brought me business opportunities and considerable profits." At that time, Zhang Jiaojiao was already married, and her husband was hardworking and capable. After half a year of hard work, the young couple paid off all their debts, and that year's net profit reached 170,000 yuan. "At the time, in order to save expenses, we did all the work ourselves. I was 8 months pregnant at the time, and due to overwork I gave birth prematurely." Looking back, Zhang Jiaojiao has no regrets: "Because only by striving can you win!"

With initial success in her business, Zhang Jiaojiao's confidence soared and her business expanded rapidly. From 4,000 chickens in stock to 8,000, and then to 30,000, annual income exceeded 500,000 yuan. However, entrepreneurship was not always smooth. "Once, the electrical wiring in the chicken house suddenly caught fire, more than 2,000 laying hens were lost in an instant, the chicken house was burned too, and the remaining chickens then fell ill one after another. Seeing this, I felt like I wanted to die. Later, everyone helped rebuild the chicken house and repair the wiring. The whole family worked from dawn to dusk, and in just 7 days it was completely restored. There were also many regular customers who paid in advance on the pretext of ordering eggs." Speaking of this, Zhang Jiaojiao's eyes filled with tears. "What I have now is inseparable from everyone's support. I am willing to use my lifelong efforts to give back to society."

Zhang Jiaojiao said she has three wishes: "Continue to expand the scale of breeding to meet market supply, and register a trademark to build my own brand, so that ordinary people can eat reassuring eggs. Through my own hard work, win social recognition, do my modest part to make a contribution to society, and let more disabled people come to work with me and learn a skill."

The 29-year-old Zhang Jiaojiao was born in 1987 in a farmer's family in Dongdahan Village, Xingbieying Township, Hejian City, Cangzhou. When meeting Zhang Jiaojiao for the first time, she was not as delicate and weak as one might imagine; on the contrary, there was a sense of tenacity in her bones. She is good at expressing herself and has a loud voice. She wore a pair of fashionable high heels. If she were not sitting in a wheelchair, it would be hard to imagine that she has congenital spina bifida and cannot walk. However, it is exactly such a disabled woman who, with a strong, optimistic, and persistent spirit, has relied on raising laying hens to now have an annual income that has exceeded 500,000 yuan.