How To Make Big Cake By Luo Hong Li Li

Opening a cake shop is like opening a bean curd house. Anyone can open it. Anyone can sell it.

However, one opened 700, one sold to nearly 1 billion, and only one Luo Hong in China.

In addition to McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Starbucks's three foreign brands, the red lion's Holly group is quietly growing into the fourth largest and largest baking chain food company in China.

Reporter: Luo, I noticed that your title has a member of the China Photographers Association. Your photography works in Western China and Africa are very much concerned at home and abroad. Let's start with your photography experience, OK?

Luo Hong: Well, I used to work as a apprentice in a photo studio. I often work all night, and often go home from my master's photo studio at 5 o'clock.

Later, my master advised me to open my own photo studio with my own door.

That year, I was 17 years old.

With my family's support, a small photo studio of my own has been opened.

When I run a photo studio, I always explain some photographic knowledge to my customers, though it is probably a simple question of composition and how to use light. Maybe it is because I will learn photography knowledge free of charge. Customers will be willing to come again.

Shop business is still booming.

Reporter: how long has the photo studio been open?

Then what chance did you make in the cake business?

Luo Hong: the photo studio is open for 5 years.

In 1989, my mother's birthday, I ran all over Chengdu, but could not find a beautiful birthday cake.

On the way home, I thought at least ten thousand people in Chengdu had their birthday today. Why didn't they sell the cake business?

What if I change to make a beautiful art cake?

I feel that making cakes is more effective than taking pictures.

It is difficult to accumulate less than 30 thousand yuan in the photo studio because of its relatively small capital. It is far from enough to have a solid foundation in Chengdu, where the catering culture is very rich.

I decided to go back to my hometown first and open a cake shop in Ya'an, Sichuan.

There are less than 100 thousand of the population. There is no competition in the market. There is no tiger in the mountain.

When I returned to Ya'an, I saw a gold port at a crossroads, and I rented it immediately. I carefully decorated the shop style and the hygiene was fastidious. Customers buying cakes here often became a good mood.

Reporter: sometimes, "wine is also afraid of deep alley". Did you give yourself publicity when you first opened?

Luo Hong: it has been done.

I put up a hot air balloon advertisement in Ya'an.

At that time, hot air balloons were also very fresh in big cities across the country. Of course, the people of Ya'an had never heard of them.

I went to Chengdu to invite people to heat balloons, but they were too distant to say that they would not do anything about this business.

I squatted in Chengdu to finish my craft, and then came back to personally practice the balloon.

Then, on the day when my hot air balloon, which opened the cake shop to celebrate my birthday, almost all the people in Ya'an looked up with their necks.

Within a day, everyone knows that there is a Xili Lai cake shop in the county town where they live.

My cake shop has adopted the mode of the front shop and the factory, and the customers can see the whole process of the cake making by the master through the glass window.

I always mopping the floor again and again. I can't see a little bit dirty. I can fly with flies in my shop.

I think the cake shop should pay attention to hygiene and quality, which is very important for cakes and other foods.

Even when I opened dozens of shops later, I took the initiative to do cleaning.

Now when you ask my staff and ask "what is the most important thing to open a cake shop", everyone will say "hygiene".

Reporter: what is the business of Xili coming under the influence of your publicity and clean and tidy shop?

Luo Hong: business is surprisingly good. The turnover can reach two thousand or three thousand yuan a day. In 3 months, I recovered the cost and began to make money.

In addition to the teachers from Chengdu, I also recruited two primary school students. Every day I studied the cake design, and the cake style of Xili came to be very attractive.

Reporter: in this form, you can't just confine your business to a county town. When did you start your trip to the cake store?

Luo Hong: I decided to open a shop in Lanzhou.

Because of my brother's words, he said, "old four, I have read millions of people in Lanzhou, and people there have the habit of giving gifts and sending cakes."

As soon as I heard it, I knew there was a big market there.

I sold the motorcycle, the stereo was sold, the house was sold, and it cost nearly 200 thousand yuan.

In the autumn of 92, I arrived in Lanzhou, and I was lucky enough to find a pleasant face.

The front door faces the main road of Lanzhou, which is in line with the requirements of visual communication; that is, the rent is frightening, and it is as high as 70 thousand yuan a year, but the old landlord is very good.

He worried for me. He said, "this 200 square meter place depends on selling cakes. Is that ok?"

I said to him, of course, you will know in a month!

However, at the beginning, there was an accident. The mixer used for cake unexpectedly collapsed the load-bearing wall, and the whole house was on the verge of collapse.

I am very anxious, all the family 200 thousand yuan has been put in, a gust of wind may have nothing.

Fortunately, my landlord was kind to me. He not only didn't blame Luo Hong, but also invited all the engineering teams that had repaired the house more than ten years ago, because they knew the structure of the house most and was most convenient to renovate it.

The landlord himself stood at the scene to command.

I am very touched. I am always following him.

Thanks to my gratitude, I also accepted a proposal from the old landlord to rename the "Xili Lai" cake shop as the "good Li" cake shop.

Lanzhou business is as good as you expected.

Luo Hong: in Lanzhou, I created the largest scale of cake shops in China, and dozens of samples have been set up.

At that time, the cake was generally made with white cream made from egg white and had fishy smell. I made the first use of yellow cream through technical reform, and the color was good and the taste was very good. It was very popular and the price rose to twenty or thirty yuan.

On the first day of opening, there were many customers.

The cake is in short supply. The [FS:PAGE] thick wooden bar should be used before the counter. There are too many people.

On the first day, we sold nearly ten thousand yuan.

In short supply, we had to work overtime for ten days in a row and only slept two or three hours a day.

How good is business?

Later, even Lanzhou TV station came to me and offered to let me advertise first and pay later.

To this day, people in Lanzhou still remember that when the weather forecast came, a nice cake cake would appear on the TV screen.

The business was so good that I opened 5 stores in Lanzhou, and I didn't have enough manpower. I called my friends and three brothers to help us.

Reporter: so the market in Lanzhou can not satisfy the development of holly.

Lanzhou market will soon be saturated and must be developed externally. I want to copy this model to other cities.

The first leg of expansion after Lanzhou. Jilin.

When decorating storefront, it is 30 degrees Celsius below zero.

The concrete was frozen quickly, and the shop decoration was very difficult.

I personally led the decoration team to rush to work, then I ran into the house for a while to warm up, then came out and continued to shop in advance.

It's very tired, but it's also very cool.

I then went to Shenyang and Anshan to open a shop. Even I couldn't believe it. Holly's cake was like a fabulous gift, where the fire went.

Reporter: if you keep expanding the front line, you will definitely need more talents, and those who have a strong sense of hygiene and service in the catering industry. Where do these talents come from?

Luo Hong: in 1997, I moved the headquarter of holly company to Shenyang. We set up a talent training school in Shenyang and planned to send talents to all branches.

New employees must train for 6 months, standardize their living habits and health awareness, and cultivate their service concepts and skills.

In a school, a student who eats and brings pocket money will spend 6000 yuan in 6 months, and I decide to accept it from Holly company.

I also announced that anyone who came to attend training did not sign "sell contract", and learned to love this enterprise and stay away.

We must pay attention to keeping people. The food industry needs truly loyal and responsible talents.

Later, it turned out that those who left behind were not only loyal and responsible, but also doing things with their heart. Those who truly identify with the good ones and love their culture and values are very stable.

Reporter: from this point of view, good health has set up a good image of health and service.

Luo Hong: Well, some employees write letters home. They even say that they are better than their families, eat well, live well, learn skills and earn 20% more than the same industry.

In this way, good word-of-mouth has formed a virtuous circle. Many parents began to encourage children to work in the good Li, so that our staff quality and talent level were further improved.

There is one more point: always be a direct shop and never join a franchisee.

Direct stores ensure standardization. Holly is equal to the reputation of good quality. Holly is the brand of good taste, so it has never been hit in history.

I would like to give you an example of our service. It often snows in winter in Northeast China. It is easy to slip in the snow and cake is easily broken. Customers often come back for repairs.

On one occasion, I heard the quarrel between the front desk staff and the backstage workers, the reason was to patch up a cake.

How much should I pay for the cake?

The front desk staff are afraid of overcharging, and the backstage staff are afraid to take less.

After that, I called the management to hold a meeting to discuss how much money should be paid for repairing the cake.

Some say more, others say less.

I finally stood up and said, "I think we should not collect money."

We are all stunned. How do we calculate this account?

I say, if you are your birthday, will you throw the cake easily?

The customer has broken the cake, and he has been very sad. If he pays extra money, he will be even more sad.

We fix it for him free of charge. Is it patching?

We repair is a heart, to bring them is a love!

How much is this worth?

Since then, it has been an unprofitable rule to repair cakes for customers free of charge.

The company is cooperating with the cream of the world's top 500 enterprises. Later, Holly came to cooperate with one of the world's top 500 companies.

Luo Hong: Yes.

In 1998, Holly opened only 30 stores in Shenyang, and nearly 40 in the country.

I suddenly felt a little scared. I realized that I was just an entrepreneur, and I could do one or two stores, but I didn't get the best of it when I reached this scale.

Although problems are constantly solved, the speed of solving problems can never keep up with the frequency of problems.

At that time, I was almost crazed. "No time" became my pet phrase.

Two mobile phones, two landlines, a continuous phone call...

But in fact, there is no superman. I am also a flesh and blood. I need three meals a day to sleep eight hours a day.

Pressure is like snowballs getting bigger and bigger, tight strings are always broken.

When an American Cream enterprise found me to talk about supply cooperation, I tried to impatiently pass this away.

You know, they are the world's top 500, the cream cream king of the United States.

The cream enterprise, the founder of Ford, was inspired by the Chinese bean flower and invented the plant cream. It is not easy to deteriorate. Its patent is protected by the US government for 40 years and is the largest cream supplier in the world.

When they heard that a company called Holly came to China to open a cake shop in China, the old man, Wei Yi, quickly sent for me.

To tell you the truth, I was not very interested in their butter at that time, and their cost was much more expensive than butter. I was afraid that customers would not accept it.

Another reason is that the efficiency of the enterprise has made him comfortable, and it is difficult for people to change in a comfortable environment.

Reporter: after you really refuse him, you will regret it now.

Luo Hong: Yes.

At that time I said carelessly to the bearer, "I am the president of holly Lai, you have to talk, and invite your president to come!"

In fact, this is just a ridiculous excuse for him to reject [FS:PAGE]. He must know that he is the world's top 500 company, and he has only opened 40 cakes shop in China.

But I didn't think that soon, the old man actually came to his special plane.

He scared me out of the blue. It costs 100 thousand yuan a day to stop the plane.

The old man looked at my cake and shop, and I thought it was beautiful, too.

"How many shops do you dream of, young man?"

Wei Yi asked me.

"At least 1000!"

I blurted out without thinking.

"Good!

I will support you!