Dalian's "Mantis Shrimp Meat King" Shares His Entrepreneurial Experience

90% of the mantis shrimp meat in the Dalian market and 50% of that in the national market comes from the "Mantis Shrimp Meat King's" company.

"Mantis shrimp meat" processing is merely an extremely niche category within the marine fishery industry, used mainly in Japanese cuisine. However, when Bi Zhongsheng focused on this specialty for 20 years, he unexpectedly became the "Mantis Shrimp Meat King" of Dalian and even the whole country. 90% of the mantis shrimp meat in the Dalian market and 50% of that in the national market comes from our Dalian company. Apart from ** and Tibet, we have customers in every province, and we export to Japan, the United States and other countries and regions.

In the ups and downs of the business world, mantis shrimp are not unique to the waters off Dalian, so why has Bi Zhongsheng, the owner of this company, been able to hold the "top spot" in the industry for so many years? In this era of "entrepreneurship for all," Bi Zhongsheng, a fisherman's son from Jiaoliu Island in Wafangdian, may have his own unique insights on starting a business.

Use your brain, observe well, be willing to endure hardship

In 1989, after the shrimp farm run by his township work unit went bankrupt, Bi Zhongsheng returned home and became a fisherman with his father. Due to poor access to information, seafood from Jiaoliu Island could not fetch a good price at the time, and Bi Zhongsheng saw an "opportunity." In 1991, he sold the family fishing boat and specialized in selling seafood to Wafangdian and Dalian.

In 1996, he learned that a Japanese buyer was processing mantis shrimp meat at a factory in Zhuanghe, which reminded him of a fishing port on his home island of Jiaoliu called "Tongshuigou," which was rich in mantis shrimp. At the time, during the annual mantis shrimp harvest season, Tongshuigou fishing port had so many mantis shrimp that sometimes no one would take them at any price. Although mantis shrimp meat had little presence in the Dalian market at the time, Bi Zhongsheng still learned to process a small amount of mantis shrimp meat, printed his pager number on the outer packaging bags, and put the mantis shrimp meat on the shelves of the Dalian market. A few days later, a staff member from the Dalian office of an American buyer paged him to order 1 ton of mantis shrimp meat for export to the United States. This was Bi Zhongsheng's first export order.

Speaking of the early days of his business, Bi Zhongsheng was full of emotion. At the time, he rented a place in the Kunming Street area of Zhongshan District and rode his bicycle to deliver goods to various sales points, covering all four urban districts from south to north. When he saw street vendors, he would also observe why their businesses were thriving. He bought a desk calendar and filled his days to the brim. Once, when he saw residents playing cards downstairs, he thought to himself: how much could I get done in the time they spend playing cards? He remembers clearly that over the course of a year, he ate in a restaurant only once, spending 34 yuan. The hard days taught Bi Zhongsheng to cherish his blessings later on; even now, with annual sales of six to seven million yuan, he would never be wasteful.

In the office of Bi Zhongsheng's factory, the reporter saw publications such as Contemporary Workers magazine. Bi Zhongsheng said these were subscribed for the factory employees to read. In fact, from the start of his business to the present, he has always insisted on reading newspapers, and he is a longtime subscriber to Dalian Daily and China Fisheries News. Whenever he has time to pick up a newspaper, he reads even the gaps between columns and the advertisements. "I like to learn about information and the current political and economic situation, and to discover people's consumption habits through newspapers. Besides, if I don't finish reading a newspaper I paid for myself, wouldn't that be a loss?" Bi Zhongsheng said.

Honest enough, keeps to his place, has a sense of reverence

Bi Zhongsheng and some of his customers have not met in person for at least 10 years, and they interact only by phone to place orders, send payments and ship goods. Some customers even asked: "Are you a state-owned enterprise? How come you never try to build a little relationship with customers?" Being able to do business this way for 20 years, Bi Zhongsheng's secret is "genuine goods at fair prices" and thinking of customers first.

For a long time, in addition to guaranteeing export-grade quality, under the circumstances of increasingly depleted marine resources, he has only moderately adjusted prices every 5 years. No matter how many boxes of mantis shrimp meat are bought, the price is the same nationwide, and he does not raise prices at will in order to ensure price stability. To ensure year-round supply for old customers, even if new customers want to buy in large quantities at high prices, Bi Zhongsheng politely declines. Every year before the fishing season opens, mantis shrimp meat is in shortest supply for one month, and he even pays shipping out of his own pocket to allocate mantis shrimp meat among customers so that none of them runs out of stock. On rare occasions when a customer is dissatisfied with the goods shipped, he also puts the customer's interests first and actively cooperates with exchanges. Bi Zhongsheng said: "I respect every customer. I believe others are smarter than I am, so I dare not deceive anyone." "Treat others with sincerity, and they will treat you with sincerity." After more than 20 years in the business world, no customer has ever owed him a single cent.

For many years, Bi Zhongsheng has not taken out loans, instead following the principle of "do business as big as the money you have." The American buyer from his first export order once wanted to sign an order with him in person for 1,000 tons per year, and he was "startled," hurriedly saying "I can't do it," and declined. He said: "Getting rich overnight makes me uneasy. I pursue a business that flows steadily like a long stream. Profit doesn't have to be high; the key is to hold market position and stabilize the market. So I treat mantis shrimp meat as a career, do it well, and make every customer satisfied. I hope customers can recognize me, and that we will always work together."

Values family, does not show off, can be tolerant

The Bi Zhongsheng in front of the reporter is plainly dressed and easygoing. He says he "doesn't lose his temper and doesn't fight," and his management method is to make the best use of each employee according to their strengths and weaknesses. Although at the "urging" of friends he bought a luxury car a few years ago, he still often drives his 15-year-old "Santana." When he first arrived in Hong Kong, China, 20 years ago, he once envied Hong Kong businessmen's big houses and Bentleys, but when he saw them flying around all year and giving up family for business socializing, Bi Zhongsheng felt that kind of life was very tiring. Therefore, to this day he still has dinner with customers and friends only once or twice a week, insists on going home for meals on ordinary days, "likes his wife's cooking the most," and the family of four must go out to eat together once a week.

"Family is my motivation," Bi Zhongsheng said. More than 20 years ago, he once envied Dalian people for their broad horizons - two people on a bus could chat about so many things, while rural people had blank stares, so he secretly vowed that he must buy a house in Dalian so that his wife and children could also live the life of Dalian people. Now his dream has finally come true.

Bi Zhongsheng has a "talent" - he can tell at a glance where the mantis shrimp meat sold on the market comes from, and even which factory processed it. He said that mantis shrimp from different sea areas differ in color, and different companies process them differently; this is experience accumulated over many years. Judging by company scale, Bi Zhongsheng, with annual sales of several million yuan, is not a major entrepreneur, but he considers himself successful. A Shandong customer in his sixties who had known him for many years once chatted with him: "What is success? It is persisting in doing one simple thing. Over 20 years, only you have been able to keep at this tiny mantis shrimp meat business all along."