Turn Waste into Treasure: The Way to Make Money from "King Bao Bao"

In most people's eyes, corn husks, pine husks, bamboo sticks, rattan sticks, and green grasses, which are widely found in rural areas, are valuable wastes. Gong Haihua, an ordinary wage earner from Jiangsu, discovered the business opportunities. The people have processed these wastes into various kinds of small, exquisite and uniquely shaped turfgrasses, straw baskets, size bowls, and other natural household items. They turn these wastes into treasures and become known as the “grass king”.

All over the country is gold The 27-year-old Gong Haihua was a native of Nantong, Jiangsu. He had originally done renovations in Beijing, but he resigned after fierce competition.

Once, Gong Haihua accompanied his wife back to his hometown Weifang, Shandong, and found that local villagers were weaving some household items such as rice dumplings and small baskets. They used a variety of crops, such as grass, corn bran and rattan, which were not very useful in crop fields. Practical and beautiful. Gong Haihua took these straw products and looked at him with a good look. When he saw her husband was so curious, his wife said with pride: “The old and the young will be weaving here! When it comes to the slack season, almost every household is compiling, although it can’t be sold. The price, but you can earn some oil and salt money."

Listening to his wife, Gong Haihua said that the people in the city are not advocating nature and environmental protection. If I transport these straw products to big cities, isn't it a ready-made way to make money? Besides, these straw products are made of grass, corn bran and rattan, which are abandoned in the fields of rural areas. The cost is extremely low, and they can turn waste into treasure. This can be described as inexhaustible. It is gold everywhere!

From "grass package" to "straw products"

After the Spring Festival in 2003, Gong Haihua let his wife stay in his hometown in Shandong to wait for his news, and he returned to Beijing. After investigation, Gong Haihua rented a booth on the fourth floor of the Yaxiu clothing market in Sanlitun, Chaoyang District, at a rent of RMB 1400 per month, and named his shop “return to nature”.

In early March, the “return to nature” straw shop officially opened. In order to open the market, he initially distributed only a lady-specific turfgrass, and did not dare to set the price too high. Most of them were priced at five or six yuan, and the most expensive was just over ten yuan. To his surprise, on the first day of the business, his business was so good that he couldn't believe it. He sold 32 straw bales! A fashionable young girl chose four straw bales at one breath.

Soon, Gong Haihua’s business was getting better every day thanks to the first batch of customer promotions. What surprised him even more was that some people even saw other people carrying turfgrass on the street. They found it very novel, so they turned to a lot of cars and made special trips. In just one month, Gong Haihua sold nearly 2,000 straw bales and earned more than 4,000 yuan.

Gong Haihua began to figure out his next plan: straw bales opened up the market, and straw weaving stores had a certain reputation. But after all, the varieties were too single to meet the needs of more people. Can they sell some other straw products?

One day, a young couple strolled around the grass store of Gong Haihua and said, “Why don’t you enter some straw home furnishings?” Gong Haihua gave a hearty reply and immediately asked, “Straw and woven home products. Will someone like it?” The other person said: “How nobody likes it? At home, it can be used as a decoration for crafts, and can also put books, small toys, remote controls, and other small things.” Under this, Gong Haihua’s heart finally There is a bottom.

In August 2003, he asked his wife to try to send a white, square straw basket. Who knows the second day of putting on the shelves, a Japanese guest came in the afternoon, when he saw the straw basket, immediately revealed a very pleasant look, asked how much money Gong Haihua sells. At that time, Gong Haihua was very nervous, and even dared not bid, and later saw the guest put it down on the straw basket, and then clenched the “25 yuan” high price, did not think the guests did not want to think, immediately buy the basket to buy the money away.

After the Japanese guest left, Gong Haihua immediately told the good news to his wife in Shandong, and asked her to dispatch a batch of straw, baskets, rice dumplings and other household items. Sure enough, these straw-stitched household items soon caught the attention of residents in the vicinity, especially those who moved to new houses, and had a special liking for these rustic straw products.

A couple of middle-aged couples who had just moved to a new house made a special trip to Gong Haihua’s straw shop and picked up six straw baskets. The owner said happily: “After seeing these straw products, I feel warm and sincere By the time of the educated youth of that year, I did not expect that ordinary straw products in rural areas could be brought back to the city, but it also reminded people of the memories of their youthful years. The keen Gong Haihua immediately realized that this was a rare selling point, so he timely on the counter hit the "buying grass products, remembering the young age" signs. When the sign came out, Gong Haihua’s shop was even more profitable. By the end of 2003, Gong Haihua’s assets had reached more than 80,000 yuan.

The franchise has blossomed all over the place. At the beginning of 2004, Gong Haihua’s shop came with an elegant lady who stared at the straw products on the shelves for a long time. From her eyes, she seemed very interested. But in the end, he left without buying anything. When Gong Haihua looked at it, he felt that there was a problem, so he quickly chased him and asked if she did not like these straw products. The woman smiled and said: "To be honest, I like it! But your product is too monotonous. Why is it all square? If you can make a round, oval shape, How good!"

After listening to the other person's words, Gong Haihua nodded and immediately called his wife. More than 10 days later, thousands of round and oval straw products were put on the shelves. In less than two weeks, the straw products were sold out. This time, Gong Haihua earned more than 3,000 yuan.

After tasting the sweetness, Gong Haihua wants to open: Can weave straws into more shapes besides square, round and oval shapes? After a night of conceiving, Gong Haihua described all his ideas on the drawings. The next day, he returned the drawings to his wife. Two weeks later, this series of irregular shaped straw products with different shapes, such as rhombuses, polygons, funnels, etc., were unveiled, attracting past customers. Gong Haihua did not stop. He felt that only by constantly improving and perfecting the products can we satisfy different levels of consumer demand to the greatest extent.

One day in May 2004, a student who looked like a student stepped into his shop and said: "Boss, don't you think some of your straw products are wrong?" Gong Haihua immediately came to an interest and opened the store for so long. No one has spoken to him in this way, so he quickly asked the other person to sit down. See Gong Haihua's sincere attitude. The customer pointed to the shelf and said, “Look, how can these products be all the same? Why isn't it dyed? Isn't it more beautiful?” Gong Haihua looked back and looked like this As the customer said, all the straw products in the store are one color—white! In the following conversation, Gong Haihua learned that the customer was a junior student at the Academy of Fine Arts, so he had a professional sensitivity to color.

After this customer was sent away, Gong Haihua quickly checked the data, knowing that to make straw products colorful, green, and non-fading, we must start from the source to solve the problem of raw materials. To this end, he used off hours, went to a nearby university, consulted with relevant experts, and finally mastered a simple recipe for unpolluted dip dyeing materials.

Gong Haihua gave his wife's color recipes for processing to dip the raw materials and then weaving them. Soon, colorful straw products appeared. Because this kind of colored straw products are more suitable for matching with furniture, they are sold hot when they are available. Soon afterwards, based on the customer's suggestions, Gong Haihua originally invented primitive and fresh flowers, birds, landscapes, figures and patterns for straw products.

In April 2005, Gong Haihua's straw book shop attracted the attention of a television station's director. He felt that the straw shop was very creative and very distinctive, so he recorded a special program for Gong Haihua. After the broadcast of the program, Gong Haihua’s straw book shop spread all night across the country. People across the country called to work with him every day. The business-minded Gong Haihua realized that this was a rare opportunity for development, and if a product wanted to In the country, it even rang out and went overseas. It is definitely not without its own brand.

In October 2005, he registered a trademark for his straw products – “Indus Green Park”. Soon, his free franchise shops spread quickly to the country, Jinzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Chengdu, Urumqi ... ... Today, "Indus Green Park" franchise has developed to more than 100. At the same time, Gong Haihua established his own branch in the embassy district of Sanlitun, Beijing, targeting the target customer group as a foreign friend. In Shandong, he set up his own straw processing plant and employed more than 80 ingenious weaving masters. Today, Gong Haihua’s ambition is growing. His goal is to be the nation’s largest “grass king”.