Billion Odd Furniture Ladies

Sometimes doing business is like gambling, buying big and earning a lot.

In 1993, Cao Wan made millions of dollars from the video and TV stand in the first 3 years, and then she managed to keep it in office furniture. Later, she saw that the funds were not enough to turn around, and then raised millions of dollars to the bank, which resulted in her success.

In 2004, Ultra (Occidental group) became the main office furniture supplier of more than 60 large international enterprises. Its branches and distribution outlets also spread throughout Asia, making it one of the largest office furniture suppliers in Asia.

"If I were, I might not put all the money I earned in a business.

I will plan well, and I will produce 50% at most.

Maybe it's older. "

Cao Waner, the 35 year old group Chairwoman, smiled.

Cao Wan, who has won the entrepreneurial battle, is now adopting a steady strategy.

2/3 of the more than 60 customers, 2/3 of which are internationally known, are 3M, Yahoo, microsofe, Gucci, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Cathay Pacific.

In the 25 floor office of Oceanic Building in Yanan East Road near the Bund, Cao Waner, chairman of the European and American group, interviewed an interview with reporters, describing the large customers of these companies.

At the beginning of this year, Euramerican Group Holdings Limited was listed on the Hongkong stock exchange, with a stock code of 8203 and a market capitalization of about 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

Cao Wan and his brother, the chairman of the group, own 36.86% of the shares.

The young woman chairman is rented in Shanghai's residence, and the car is also an ordinary Buick hired.

Compared with the likes of driving and having more than a dozen famous cars, Cao Wan now spent more time on the development of the company.

13 years ago, when she graduated from York University, she asked her parents for $50 thousand.

Later, with the belief of "fighting for a fight", it developed to tens of millions of assets.

After 2 years in the middle school, Cao Waner came to the United States to study. After graduation, he went to York University.

During that time, many part-time jobs were done, and the longest was in the work of the United States Federation.

At that time, every day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Cao Wan worked in the United States Union and returned to school in the evening.

This kind of life has lasted for 2 years until graduation from university.

In fact, after graduating from University, I had the opportunity to get the qualification certificate for securities trading and stay at the work of the United States Federation.

Cao Waner said, "but after all, I was born and brought up in Hongkong, and I am very emotional. I choose to return to Hongkong."

When he came back, his brother was ready to start his own business.

My father said to Cao Waner, are you interested in working with your brother?

Cao Wan, who was just 22 years old, did not think very carefully at the time.

At the beginning of the business, brother and sister did not have a clear concept of business. They only bought 50 thousand pieces of goods borrowed from their father, and bought a batch of goods to sell through the shop.

Or rent a 10 square meter booth for sale in a shopping mall.

Business for several months was not as good as expected, until Cao met with Mr. Zhang, the purchasing department of the Tai Lin Electric Appliance Company.

At that time, I sold him to my audiovisual stand. He asked me where I had goods. I said, give me half an hour. I would like to show him one in the cargo hold immediately.

It may be a sincere move, and then promised me to buy it in his 13 shops.

However, 2 months later, Cao Waner's audio and video shelves were not found in a single sheet of taein. When talking with shop salesmen, it was found that their profits were too low for them.

"I got a 20~30 Commission on the first set of shelves, so I asked Mr. Zhang to help reduce the price of my rack and give them more commission."

Since then, a single volume has been taken several times since the beginning of the day, so that it can be done more than 20 times a day.

After 3~4 months later, after a gradual increase in funds, only a 16 square meter shop was opened in Sha Tin, ending the past guerrilla career.

At that time, Cao Wan was in charge of the market, and his brother was in charge of supplying or contacting the source of goods.

Next, Cao Wan took the lead from the audiovisual store and persuaded several famous audiovisual shops in Hongkong to let their products go to their stores to match videos and sell them.

Relying on the sales network of these audio-visual chain stores, Cao Waner's audio and video business is getting bigger and bigger.

In less than 3 years, millions of Hong Kong dollars have been accumulated by buying and selling audio-visual frames and TV frames.

Although the business of audio and video shops is good, but Cao Wan Er did not satisfy him.

"At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars in turnover every month, and I was very happy.

But the cost is also very high. At the most, it will do more than $100 million a year. It can no longer be expand.

At that time, I thought, if tens of millions of dollars of business can be done, what business can be made so much?

Look around and find that office furniture can make more money.

The goal is definitely that Cao Wan gave up the newly established audio-video TV business and went to an office furniture company for 2 months for trainee.

When other colleagues leave work at 6, she will do 8 or 9 points to study how people do business, which are her customers, the quality of service required by customers, so as to understand the whole industry thoroughly.

Through 2 months of "undercover", it is more confident of Cao Wan's office furniture.

The probation period has not arrived, and he resigned.

After he finished learning, he found himself in a simple way.

"The original office furniture cost is very high, do a single business, almost control all logistics, also need someone to follow the orders, and also have sale team to the guests, and we also have 5 years of after-sales maintenance, someone needs to do maintenance services.

Everything is costly. "

At that time, our screens were required by the Taiwan factory.

I remember once in the first half of the year that the Taiwan side told us that the goods had already been on board, but the Hongkong wharf had not been able to receive them, and the customers had already been decorated, waiting for the opening of these office furniture, and asking where your screen was.

At that time, there was no way to start.

You thought it would be ideal before you did it, "Cao Waner said.

After that, Cao Waner realized that he could not rely on products provided by others to build his own production line.

But it takes a lot of money to set up its own production plant.

So Cao Wan put all the millions of dollars he had earned from his 50 thousand home.

"If I were now, I might not do so, and put all the money you earned in a business.

I will plan well, and I will produce 50% at most.

Maybe it's older. "

Cao Waner, the 35 year old ultra Chairwoman, smiled.

This is the way to do business.

No one will tell you that you need to invest 3 million yuan at the beginning, but you will continue to invest in order to survive, develop or even expand.

Later, you will find that you have invested so much. "

Cao Wan had lived for 3 years on such a day.

In the meantime, the company did not have no customers. In the first half of the year, they had successfully acquired the business of the new building of Hongkong gas company's electrical road.

But a large list is not much for people who do office furniture business.

So in the 1995 and 1996, the company's business started to go on track, and a small group of customers was established, and its business tended to be stable. But in the long run, European and American groups must enter large enterprises with branches in Asia.

In the words of Cao Wan, he said, "the customers of big enterprises are not only a point, but usually a branch that extends to Asia as a whole.

These are done by word of mouth and the accumulation of company credibility.

The furniture of most of the mainland branch of Standard Chartered Bank is provided by Euramerican group.

In the past, the European and American group provided furniture to Microsoft, one of the companies in the Asian region, and the cooperation between the two sides was very enjoyable. Then Microsoft made them in the remaining 7 branches in the Asian region.

By relying on every opportunity, Cao Wan established the good reputation and reputation of the European and American group. More and more large enterprises began to let European and American groups take charge of the supply of their office furniture.

In order to provide better services and support to customers, the European and American groups set up branches in major cities in the mainland, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and then set up distribution centers in several cities, such as Chongqing and Chengdu.

After twenty years of fighting in the mall, the gambling mentality has ceased to exist.

"We plan well for the establishment of every branch."

In the course of the development of European and American groups, there were three major slipped events. One was the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis, one 9.11 terrorist incident, and the other one was SARS in 2003.

These three times have made the performance of European and American groups decline.

In the 9.11 incident, Cao Wan turned his eyes on the mainland.

With the development of economy, the demand for China's office furniture market is increasing.

Taking Shanghai as an example, the annual sales and sales of existing office and residential buildings are about 1 million 500 thousand square meters. If we need to lay 0.4 pieces of office furniture per square meter, the annual demand will be about 1 million 200 thousand pieces, or about 1 billion 200 million yuan. Plus the existing 117 star rated hotels and more than 1500 hotel accommodation facilities will be replaced periodically, as well as a large number of office and living appliances of enterprises, institutions and government organs. The annual demand for this part is about 800 million yuan, and the total annual office furniture demand is about 2 billion yuan.

The capacity of the entire furniture market in the same period is estimated at about about 80000000000 yuan, and office furniture accounts for about 30%.

In the face of the development of the furniture market in the mainland, Cao Wan began to concentrate on the mainland.

According to statistics, the sale of furniture in the mainland accounts for about half of the company's sales, while Shanghai accounts for about 50% of the mainland's sales.

Now, on average, nearly 2 weeks a month will stay in Shanghai.

Only in Shanghai can we truly understand the whole market of Shanghai.

So as to make the right decisions.

From the development of a small company to the group that is now on the market, the change of functions has made Cao Wan think more about the development direction and strategic distribution of the company.

The company set up branches in various regions. Cao Wan wants to diversify investment risks, and the company's business will not fluctuate greatly because of the change of policies or forms in a certain region.

The most important thing to do is to talk about furniture and reputation. Cao Wan says that quality of service is very important to do their business.

In this year, everything is professional, but behind the scene still depends on the relationship.

If you do well this time, he will introduce you to others.

Or someone who has used your service before, and feels good, will come second times.

The same chair has almost no difference in appearance.

Some prices are very cheap, but it is very likely that the quality is bad and will soon be deformed.

Such products can not survive in the market for a long time.

Such a company will not survive.

Today, Cao Wan's company is familiar with many large international enterprises. Now more and more companies are looking for European and American groups, which relies on the good reputation of the European and American groups.

The European and American group has also become one of the largest suppliers of office furniture in Asia.