Zhang Xiaolin: Car Dream Of Zhejiang Businessmen After 80

Biography

Born in December 1980 in Jinhua, Zhejiang, graduated from the Department of Business Administration of Peking University, Jinhua.

Incumbent duties

Zhejiang Che You Car Rental Co., Ltd., chairman of Zhejiang Jinhua City Youth Federation, Zhejiang Jinhua Municipal Federation of industry and Commerce executive committee, Zhejiang Jinhua Jinhua CPPCC member, world outstanding Chinese Business Association

But in 7 years, Zhang Xiaolin was in a highly competitive car rental.

POLO shirts, jeans, IPHONE, Apple computers, like most young people born in the 80s, are not uncommon in fashion and popular elements in Zhang Xiaolin.

For the first time to see Zhang Xiaolin, it is difficult to link this young, slightly shy but steady young fashion man with the head of such a large chain car rental company.

Perhaps many people will be the "post-80" Zhejiang businessmen attributed to the two generation.

However, Zhang Xiaolin, who is also tagged with the "post-80s" label, is different. The young Zhejiang businessman does not have a prominent family background. He just goes all the way to today by his own efforts.

He said that after 80 is a label for him, but he is different from most of the 80's.

"Entrepreneurship should be the dream every young person has."

Zhang Xiaolin said he is no exception.

For more than 20 years, the family has been engaged in fingered citron (a unique Jinhua plant variety with great ornamental and medicinal value).

After graduating from school in 2003, Zhang Xiaolin could not wait to start his own way.

He first ran to Guangzhou with passion and began to run the project of exporting the fingered citron.

Later, he contracted more than 100 acres of land to grow bergamot.

But there is always a huge gap between ideal and reality.

Just when Zhang Xiaolin's confidence was full, a heavy snow destroyed his more than 100 acres of land contracted, and the initial entrepreneurial dream was crushed.

With only assets, a horse and 6 cars, Zhang Xiaolin returned to Jinhua desolate.

But Zhang Xiaolin would not have thought that the horse 6 car would change his life in the future.

The strong character made him not take a penny of his family, and insisted on supporting himself.

So he rented 6 of his horse in a friend's car rental shop and could receive more than 10 thousand yuan a month.

This made Zhang Xiaolin suddenly come to light.

"Just like Alibaba [17.20 -1.71%] pushed the door open, the investment prospect of this industry suddenly fills me with confidence."

So he borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from the local credit union, bought a car rental company and started his new business.

This year, in 2003, he just stepped out of the school gate. He just experienced the first setback on the road to start business, but also became the starting year of car rental in the future.

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blue ocean strategy

However, the car rental market is not as good as Zhang Xiaolin imagined before.

Business seems to be getting worse.

Although he has gained a foothold in the market, Zhang Xiaolin and his company seem to have drowned in many car rents in Jinhua.

Young Zhang Xiaolin often thinks about how to find his own "blue ocean" in this "Red Sea".

An accidental opportunity changed Zhang Xiaolin and car friend leasing.

Two years later, at the end of 2005, China Mobile Jinhua branch made public tenders to the public.

Many car rental companies in Jinhua have taken part in the bidding.

Young Zhang Xiaolin thought about it for a long time and eventually signed up for the tender.

"After all, the cost of 56 cars, tens of millions of dollars, is not a small number for companies that are just starting up."

However, the newborn calf was not afraid of the tiger. With the help of family members, relatives and friends, he gathered all the funds and got the list with strength.

The winning bid once again led Zhang Xiaolin to ponder over whether to change the retail rental mode of the low and middle end market, so as to face the high-end clients of large enterprises, large groups and enterprises and institutions.

It is precisely after 80 generations of young people dare to think, dare to try, let car rental find their own piece of "blue ocean".

In the next few years, Zhang Xiaolin continued to invest in the rental car, including Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, Buick and so on, which were divided into four categories: high-end business, mid end business, high-end personal and mid end personal market.

Last year, the car rental business was cooperated with Shanghai General Motors, Guangzhou Honda, Bank of China, Sinopec, China Mobile, China Telecom and other 500 world top companies.

New mode of improvement

Zhang Xiaolin said he was actually a very conservative person, but he did not lack enthusiasm.

Reporters in contact with Zhang Xiaolin found that compared with the older generation of Zhejiang businessmen, he was conservative but not losing radical.

Compared with the old generation of Zhejiang merchants who copied the business models frequently, he was more willing to join his ideas and improve in 80s.

In addition to taking the middle and high-end line, Zhang Xiaolin's overseas inspection revealed that the global car rental giant has more than 1 million cars in the US hertz.

"Although the numbers are amazing, the most fundamental thing is the chain network."

Zhang Xiaolin said that Americans can make a phone call at home, and the leasing company can send the car to the door.

In 2006, the bicycle rental company opened second stores.

Subsequently, Zhang Xiaolin began to deploy in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.

Now, there are nearly 200 car shops in airports, docks, stations, business centers and tourist attractions in more than 50 cities across the country.

In the next two years, the purpose of the car rental is to extend the direct network to 50 second tier cities, including those in the Midwest, and to upgrade their own vehicles to 100 thousand.

The same business model, but in Zhang Xiaolin's hands, is more suitable for China's national conditions.

He boldly launched the two card one card (ID card, driver's license, credit card) free guarantee, free deposit new car rental mode.

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Just a credit card and an ID card, plus a driver's license, can drive a car in a car rental.

Is Zhang Xiaolin not afraid of the risks?

"Risk? Of course."

Zhang Xiaolin said, the key is how to control the risk level and find the best optimal allocation between risk and business.

"We launched the credit card rental business, in fact, equipped with identity card true and false identification system, bank POS system, global positioning GPS system."

Zhang Xiaolin said that by means of credit cards, banks have already provided the first level screening for car rental, and with the global positioning GPS system, the degree of controllability of risks has been greatly enhanced.

Taxi riders also carry out credit rating management for car rental customers. Customers with high credit rating can enjoy more value-added services, while those who are not trustworthy will be blacklisted.

Auto finance dream

Although 80's Zhejiang businessmen have a high degree of acceptance of new things and new business models, there is also the use of financial leverage.

Zhang Xiaolin said that in Europe and America, not only car rental has become the mainstream, but also the mode of rent purchase has become common.

"More than 40% of the sales of cars in the United States are based on rent, while in Europe the proportion is 55%."

To purchase a new car on a customer's designated basis, and sign an agreement with the customer, and pfer the property rights of the vehicle to the customer's rental form after the customer has rented a certain period of time under the agreement.

Rent purchase is a rental mode based on car rental and pfer of vehicle property rights.

It is understood that in developed countries in Europe and America, the mode of car rental is not only an important part of automobile financial business, but also a very popular means of vehicle marketing.

Can such a model work in China? Zhang Xiaolin thought twice. In May 2010, he worked with the largest bank of Europe, France, Paris bank, to develop Chinese cars for rent purchase business.

"After 80, there are many learning opportunities and strong learning ability, but the key is to be brave enough to practice."

Zhang Xiaolin believed that enterprises should be the first to learn from many of the world's first.

If enterprises want to expand, they must rely on IT and financial strength.

Zhang Xiaolin has also recently agreed with strategic investors from Europe to absorb each other's venture capital.

A strong venture capital company in China has also finalized the hiring of bicycle riders.

This year, Zhang Xiaolin also set up a new wholly foreign-owned company, Haina international car rental, which aims to become the first company to visit the capital market in the same industry in China.

At the age of 30, Zhang Xiaolin's dream of auto finance was within reach. The dream of post-80s generation was also best interpreted by him.