She threw herself into the seafood industry, and the working girl made a spectacular transformation
"As soon as the cage crabs come ashore, a fresh, penetrating aroma hits you in the face. October belongs to cage crabs." On the morning of September 21, Xiao Liu posted a new message on WeChat Moments.
For many people who added her on WeChat, the first post they scroll past every day starts with her. There is no other reason - simply because she wakes up the earliest.
Now, when Xiao Liu picks up a crab, she can quickly, accurately and decisively judge how fat it is, whether it is an open-sea crab or an inshore crab, and whether it is a female crab, a male crab, or a young female crab. This accurate judgment makes even locals who do not know how to choose crabs come to her to buy crabs.
Xiao Liu is from Anhui. She only started her business selling seafood at the beginning of this year, yet in a relatively short time she mastered the "tricks" of choosing crabs that many people in Zhoushan do not know, and in the wave of "mass entrepreneurship" she has been doing remarkably well. She also finally achieved the goal she set at the beginning of the year: to support herself through the internet!
1 Can earn 1000 yuan a day
"Fishermen put cages in the sea and add bait, and those greedy crabs rush in without a second thought. Cage crabs are generally similar in size, with fatness at level 6 to 8. As for driftnet crabs, which are packed with roe, you cannot pick out three from a whole basket." When posting on WeChat, Xiao Liu did not forget to share some knowledge: "The meat of cage crabs is sweet, fresh and smooth, full of freshness. If you are someone who knows how to eat, you definitely cannot resist its freshness. The dock bosses even gave it a nickname - foodie crab!"
From the beginning of this year until now, this 28-year-old girl has truly fallen in love with life at the dock. "Life here is very free and fulfilling. I meet many people every day, and chatting with the bosses about seafood is the most enjoyable time of my day." Xiao Liu even moved her home to an apartment near the Zhoushan International Aquatic Products City.
Looking out from the window of Xiao Liu's room, there is an unbeatable sea view. She said that every day at three or four in the morning, she is awakened by the sirens of fishing boats docking at the pier. "It feels like being awakened by my own dream."
Whenever this happens, Xiao Liu habitually puts on her yellow trench coat and goes to the dock to wait for fresh fish and seafood. Although by this time she is already an expert at choosing crabs and fish, the dock bosses still pity this young girl and will save the best crabs for her.
Now, Xiao Liu has developed 30 agents, but she still arrives at the dock early, uses her phone to photograph the day's crabs and seafood, and posts them to WeChat Moments. "I do this so customers know that with me here, the quality of the seafood is guaranteed!" she said.
Choosing crabs, packing, express delivery... once she is busy, it takes all morning. Sometimes when there are many orders, she is busy until two or three in the afternoon and forgets to eat.
Even so, as soon as she finishes being busy, the abacus in Xiao Liu's mind starts clicking: today she packed 30 gift boxes plus some loose sales, and after deducting costs, she made a net profit of 1000 yuan. "I run a small business. I need to know immediately how much I earned each day, so I can know how much working capital I still have to keep investing," Xiao Liu said.
2 Starting to sell seafood amid incomprehension
10 years ago, because her family circumstances were poor and the preference for boys over girls was especially prominent in Anhui, Xiao Liu started working before she even finished junior high school.
At the age of 18, Xiao Liu came from her hometown in Anhui to Zhoushan to work, and she worked in Zhoushan's foot bath industry for 10 years. From an initial foot-washing girl to a director of a foot bath shop, along the way, with her conscientiousness and diligence, Xiao Liu earned the reputation of "mentor in the foot bath world."
Last year, Xiao Liu had already become the director of a foot bath shop, with an annual salary of 100,000 yuan. Quite a few foot bath shops tried to recruit her, throwing out tempting offers one after another - high benefits, high wages, and some bosses even offered Xiao Liu shares.
Just when the people around her thought Xiao Liu would make the foot bath industry her lifelong career, Xiao Liu made a 180-degree turn and said: "I want to start a business selling seafood!"
Some said she was foolish, giving up comfortable days to live a hard life of rising early and staying up late; some said she was naive, actually wanting a share of the seafood market already monopolized by locals; and some, with the attitude of watching a show, said this young girl was just experiencing a three-minute passion and would surely return to her old trade within three months.
Amid these voices of incomprehension, Xiao Liu began selling seafood, and she gave herself a new name - Seafood Young Fellow. "Many people ask, why do you call yourself 'young fellow'? In my view, 'young fellow' sounds friendly and makes things easier to handle," Xiao Liu said. She did not expect that now everyone calls her "young fellow," and has actually forgotten her real name.
3 Lost money for three months at the start of the business
When she first started her business, Xiao Liu could not even use the internet skillfully, and she was not smooth with WeChat either. Fortunately, Xiao Liu was diligent and quickly mastered the relevant skills. After comparing various internet marketing models, Xiao Liu set her sights on WeChat Moments.
Having solved the problem of marketing channels, Xiao Liu encountered a new problem: where would the goods come from? Xiao Liu did not have much startup capital. She spent 3500 yuan on a three-wheeled electric vehicle and another 1000 yuan on promotion. Because she did not have much money left and had no customer base yet, when Xiao Liu went to Zhoushan International Aquatic Products City to buy crabs, she ran into difficulties. "Some bosses, as soon as they heard I was only buying 5 jin or 10 jin of crabs, shook their heads and refused," Xiao Liu said. Even if someone agreed to sell to her, because she did not know how to choose crabs, most of the crabs she bought back were of rather poor quality. "Selling these crabs to others, I would be too ashamed to offer them!" Xiao Liu said.
At the beginning of the business, good reviews from customers were as precious as gold, and Xiao Liu cherished them very much. She promised on WeChat: Dear, if you receive crabs that do not match the price, take a photo immediately upon receipt and send feedback to Young Fellow, and Young Fellow will be responsible for replacing them or making up the price difference; if any crabs have gone bad and cannot be eaten, take a photo and upload it the same day, and Young Fellow can issue a refund or reship according to the weight; after receiving the goods, Young Fellow will repost delicious recipes for swimming crabs...
Such promises made Xiao Liu, who did not know how to choose seafood, lose quite a bit of money. She said that in the first three months of starting the business, she sold seafood for three months and lost money for three months. However, such promises also laid the foundation for Xiao Liu's accumulation and eventual success.
4 "Brother Wangwang" taught 31 years of experience for free
At first, the people who said Xiao Liu had only three minutes of passion fell silent. Gradually, many old experts like "Brother Wangwang" became guides on Xiao Liu's entrepreneurial path.
"Brother Wangwang," as Xiao Liu calls him, has 31 years of experience in choosing crabs. "At the beginning of the business, some people sold me bad crabs. 'Brother Wangwang' could not stand it anymore, so he decided to teach me how to choose crabs," Xiao Liu said. At the dock, "Brother Wangwang" taught her how to choose crabs hand by hand every day, helping her gradually become an expert at choosing crabs.
Although Xiao Liu sells many kinds of seafood, including seafood snacks, fresh live seafood, frozen seafood and other products, she still has a special fondness for crabs. "To sell crabs, you first have to love crabs. A crab's body temperature is around 10°C, while the human body temperature is around 36°C, so when we choose crabs, we wear gloves to minimize harm to the crabs," Xiao Liu explained. "Male crabs have pointed aprons and are large; female crabs have round aprons, and their biggest feature is that they are round and plump. When the belly is very round, then it is full of bright red roe; young female crabs, also called triangle crabs, are the little girls among crabs. This kind of crab with a triangular belly is in adolescence and still developing. Open it up and there is both roe and fat, tender and lovable." Xiao Liu likes to squat among piles of crabs, talking about the experience she learned from "Brother Wangwang," and tirelessly passing it on to anyone interested.
Later, Xiao Liu also met many people who helped her, including Yu Weihai, chairman of "Hailiang Aquatic Products," and Yang Guang'an, a Zhoushan entrepreneurship mentor... Now, Xiao Liu has also become the internet manager of "Hailiang Aquatic Products."
At China Aquatic Products City, looking around, they are all older men and women. Whenever Xiao Liu walks among them in her yellow trench coat, Xiao Liu herself sighs: "Here, I am a unique scenery line."