Startup star of a bamboo rat and porcupine breeding base started with 60,000 yuan

Zhang Wenming shows a bamboo rat that has reached the standard for market

Last year the state issued a call to vigorously promote "mass entrepreneurship and innovation." Over the past year or so, Nanning has seen a group of innovative and entrepreneurial "makers" emerge. They either break out of old planting and breeding models to innovate and start businesses, or use "Internet Plus" to help more people find employment. Along with economic upgrading, the striving image of "makers" has become an important symbol of innovation and wisdom.

Starting today, this newspaper launches a series of reports focusing on new ways of starting businesses, telling the stories of "makers" who use innovation and entrepreneurship to achieve their life goals, and encouraging and driving more idealistic "makers" who love action to release boundless vitality.

From raising funds, e-commerce sales, and online remote training, Zhang Wenming started with 60,000 yuan to open a bamboo rat breeding farm, and now has four bases in Nanning, Laibin, and Guilin, with annual sales of 8 million yuan. Zhang Wenming, who wanted to work in a zoo since childhood, uses his own experience to tell everyone that college students who start businesses and innovate independently can blaze an unusual path to wealth.

At the beginning of entrepreneurship: with technology in hand, raising funds everywhere

The reporter walked into the bamboo rat and porcupine breeding training base at the Shili Flower Corridor in Santang Town. This is Zhang Wenming's entrepreneurial base. There are three cement-brick houses here, one used for bamboo rat breeding and two used for breeding a new variety of porcupine.

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 since childhood, and when filling out his college application, he chose animal science for all his preferences. Thinking he would work in a zoo after graduation, he never expected that an accidental opportunity during graduate school would turn him into a bamboo rat breeding expert.

The study format during graduate school was relatively flexible. Zhang Wenming often went deep into enterprises with his advisor and came into contact with entrepreneurs in the breeding industry, which planted the idea of starting his own business and becoming a boss. In April 2009, while still not yet graduated from graduate school, 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, and good market prospects. The feeding cost was also low, as the feed only needed 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 to start his own business.

"I have technology, but I lack funds." Zhang Wenming, who completed college and graduate school with loans, raised 60,000 yuan from relatives and friends and began renting land and buying 80 pairs of breeding rats.

Innovation and entrepreneurship: expanding sales through e-commerce

"Nothing can be smooth sailing, and I also took detours," Zhang Wenming said. Although college students starting businesses independently have preferential policies, with a breeding farm of only more than 100 sq m, he had no money to hire employees and could only ask his parents to help. Due to lack of experience, at the beginning of the business, dozens of 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 bamboo rat breeding technology. After more than a year of exploration, the breeding 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 now adopt direct operation and the "company + farmers" model, and Zhang Wenming is no exception. However, his sales model has some changes, mainly through e-commerce sales, adopting 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, WeChat mall, and 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, e-commerce also reduces promotion costs and sales costs. Because e-commerce directly faces end customers, it eliminates intermediate links and profits go up. The e-commerce business model has created good economic benefits for Zhang Wenming and also opened a new path to wealth for the sales of traditional breeding products.

Continuous experimentation: remote training spreads technology widely

Today, Zhang Wenming has breeding bases in Santang in Nanning, the Junshan branch of Gaofeng Forest Farm, and 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 fatal thing is the cold weather every winter. In the bamboo rat breeding shed, the reporter saw elevated bamboo rat pools with floor heating and insulation more than one chi above the ground. This was researched and invented by Zhang Wenming after he began breeding bamboo rats, and it has obtained a national utility model patent certificate.

"My greatest advantage is that I have technology, 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 thousands of trainees from all over the country. For netizens who do not have time to come to Guangxi to study, Zhang Wenming boldly tried remote correspondence training, guiding breeder friends through CDs, books, telephone, and online guidance to learn bamboo rat breeding technology, solving their technical problems.

From single bamboo rat breeding to a diversified enterprise involving breeding, services, and leisure sightseeing, the innovative and entrepreneurial Zhang Wenming has become a model for driving rural development and helping young people start businesses. He has successively won many honorary titles, including the 2009 Startup Star of Xixiangtang District, the 2012 Outstanding Migrant Worker Youth of Xingning District, and the 2012 "Startup Star" of Guangxi University. In 2014, Zhang Wenming received support from the "National Spark Program Key Project" and obtained 600,000 yuan in support. Today, his breeding varieties have also expanded from ordinary Chinese bamboo rats to red-cheeked bamboo rats and porcupines.

During the interview, Lu Fengfeng from Wuming drove over to investigate. After hearing about Zhang Wenming's bamboo rat breeding, he, who has an idle chicken coop, made a special trip to learn about it. He wants to bring this project back to Shuangqiao Town and combine it with his own vineyard to run a farmhouse, which is also an innovative way of starting a business.