The crisis and opportunity of college student entrepreneurs in the era of epidemic after campus closure

　　The closed campus makes the “protection door” a

　　After more than 4 months of resumption of work, Liu Zhizhe, a doctoral student in the School of Art and Design of Wuhan University of Technology, can still feel the "shockwave" brought by the epidemic to his entrepreneurial projects.

　　He has been in the campus entrepreneurial base for 4 years, aiming at the cultural ceramic industry.

According to the campus epidemic prevention and control management, the company's door was closed for more than half a year, and employees had to work online.

The client was unable to check the samples on site, and many cooperations were forced to suspend; the weekend ceramic research project for elementary and middle school students in Hongshan District, which the team signed a year ago, was also stranded because the elementary and middle school has not yet resumed.

　　In the past few months, this company that is still incubating on campus has faced a "life and death crisis", its operating income has dropped by more than 500,000 yuan, and five members of the team have left one after another.

Liu Zhizhe hurryed to find new business while praying: "If you get to the full resumption of classes, the company's business will be able to recover quickly."

　　In Wuhan, a large science and education city with a million college students, the rising number of college students' entrepreneurial talents once stirred up the spring waters of Jiangcheng Double Innovation.

Following the epidemic storm, the epidemic prevention and control in colleges and universities has shifted to normal management, teachers and students return to school, and teaching work resumes normal order. However, in the campus entrepreneurship incubation base, a large number of student startup companies that have just "broken out" are still facing The "crisis and opportunity" left by the epidemic.

Campus entrepreneurship "protection door" becomes "isolation door"

　　The founder of Mu Zilan Studio in the Pioneer Park of Central China Normal University, Huang Zihao, heard the "dangerous" signal at the end of February.

　　This campus is an incubating enterprise, engaged in high-quality animation and game production, has more than 40 full-time employees, and has an annual revenue of more than 4 million yuan.

Soon after the epidemic broke out, the instructor of the base reminded him and other entrepreneurs in the base: “The prevention and control of the epidemic on campus is special. It may not be possible to resume office in the short term, so make another plan as soon as possible.”

　　At the end of February, Huang Zihao, who lives in the Chinese Normal University, asked about suitable off-campus office spaces.

After resuming work offline in early April, he led the team to a friend's idle shop for transition, but most of the office equipment was kept in the school, so he had to spend tens of thousands of yuan to repurchase the emergency.

　　After spending a month of anxiety, seeing the hopeless opening of the business park, the post-90s entrepreneur determined to rent a 350-square-meter office building, and moved the company out of the school with a battery car like an "ant moving".

　　“Previously, it was a support project for college students’ entrepreneurship on campus. You can apply for a rent-reward and subsidy policy. There is an extra layer of protection. But now, including rent, utilities, and property management fees, the company has to pay 200,000 more per year compared to on-campus. The cost of renting a house in yuan."

　　Since the outbreak, the peculiarities of the prevention and control management of the epidemic situation in colleges and universities have made most entrepreneurial bases built on campuses basically closed, and the office space cannot be restored in the short term, which increases the number of entrepreneurs in the early protective incubation stage in the ivory tower The rent pressure has also increased the loss of team members.

　　Qian Jun, an entrepreneur at Huazhong Agricultural University, also encountered a similar problem.

　　This 24-year-old graduate student majoring in horticulture has planned to establish a company focusing on organic fertilizer R&D and production two years ago, applied for 20 invention and utility model patents, has 8 full-time employees, and established a factory in Hong'an County. .

"During the epidemic, it was the peak season for spring plowing and fertilizer use. Traffic barriers prevented the 4,000-ton order from being sent, and the company lost 2 million yuan."

　　The school’s entrepreneurial park is closed, and teams cannot move in.

In May, the renting contract in the Pioneer Park expired. He applied to move out and rented a new office near Nanhu. “In the past, employees can live and eat on campus, and the rent is relatively cheap. Now it costs more than 20,000 yuan per month. ".

　　Unlike Huang Zihao and Qian Jun’s decisiveness in desperation, there are also some entrepreneurial teams incubating in the campus base that have been waiting for the moment when the "isolation gate" is unblocked.

　　The 2019 marketing professional entrepreneur of Hubei University of Business and Commerce Xiong is fighting for power. During the epidemic, the team had to adopt "cloud office".

However, the working hours of members are unstable, the communication efficiency between team members and between the company and customers is reduced, and customers cannot get timely responses.

Wuhan Muyun Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., which he founded, has reduced the number of inquiry customers by 50%-60% compared with the past, and the company has lost more than 30 customers.

　　According to Huang Zihao’s observation, in the entrepreneurial base of Central China Normal University, besides him, there are 29 student entrepreneurial enterprises. Because the company is small, the foundation is weak, and there is no excess funds to rent a new office, they have been waiting hard, "affected by the epidemic. , The number of orders has been greatly reduced, and 13 student entrepreneurial teams have lost more than 200,000 yuan."

　　According to an analysis by a college teacher who has been engaged in entrepreneurship counseling for college students for a long time: “There are 82 colleges and universities in Wuhan. If there are only 10 startup companies in each college, there are nearly 1,000 startup companies in the province. But as of August In the middle of the day, the campus entrepreneurship base allowed entrepreneurs to resume work in the absence of epidemic prevention and control.

　　The reporter also learned in the interview that although the entrepreneurial base is closed due to the prevention and control of campus epidemics, most instructors will not "turn out the entrepreneurs' demands."

　　In the entrepreneurial college of a provincial university, the entrepreneurial base handled more than 20 newly settled enterprises in the first half of this year.

　　The person in charge of the base said that most teachers with a certificate of entry and exit will use the method of "ant moving" to help entrepreneurs transport important information and equipment such as business licenses, labor contracts, office computers, etc., out of the campus, so that entrepreneurs can stay outside the school. Take it away, or mail it for them.

Seeking a breakthrough in "adversity"

　　"The crisis is also a turning point. This epidemic has taught us a good risk education lesson." Huang Zihao said that after moving into the office building, although the operating costs have increased, the company's benefits have also increased compared to before. This is shown to customers A better image is conducive to the long-term development of the company.

　　The problem with school incubation is that the school’s entrepreneurial base belongs to the school and is managed as a teaching building.

After entering the school for 3 years, employees have to synchronize their daily commuting with the school’s get off work and rest system, and many managements have to comply with campus regulations. “Many customers come to the company to see and mix with students, and the recognition of the company’s strength will be greatly reduced.”

　　"Being a business is a market behavior in the final analysis. It is not the same as going to school. It pays attention to efficiency and keeps up with the market. On-campus entrepreneurship bases are suitable for short-term incubation, but relying too much on campus protection is detrimental to the company's long-term development." Although the company suffered various losses during the epidemic. Up to 640,000 yuan, but Huang Zihao firmly believes that the sooner the market is honed, the faster the team can grow.

　　The team’s approach to cooperation is also changing in a crisis.

Wu Jie, a post-95 entrepreneur who entered the Entrepreneurship College of Wuhan Software Engineering Vocational College and engaged in short video shooting of high-end cosmetics, was unable to pay employees during the epidemic, and finally formed a team of eight people on the verge of dissolution.

After the entrepreneurial mentor Gao Zejin learned about it, he instructed him to allocate equity to the team in the way of "employees become partners", and use share dividends instead of wages to form an incentive mechanism to help the company regroup. "This saved me 100,000 yuan. The key is that the team is retained."

　　Looking for business opportunities in the crisis of the epidemic, taking advantage of the trend has also become a problem-solving idea for entrepreneurs.

　　Liu Zhizhe’s team has designed a set of ceramic medallions for more than three months. The prototype is named "Retrograde Volunteers wearing blue and white protective clothing, wearing goggles, raising their right hand and clenching their fists to focus on the current position." "He took out a scholarship and part of the entrepreneurial subsidy to collect 39,000 yuan to make a finished product.

On July 27th, he made a special trip to Guangzhou to personally deliver 50 sets of ceramic commemorative medals to the team of Academician Zhong Nanshan to express his gratitude.

　　After Liu Zhizhe's act of love was known by a company, the company donated 60,000 yuan in a lump sum, invited them to make 160 sets of products, and presented them to civilian anti-epidemic volunteers in Wuhan.

At present, several units have also contacted the team after seeing their design plans and invited them to be responsible for the display design of the commemorative fight against the epidemic.

The incubation of undergraduate entrepreneurship projects calls for upgrading

　　In the post-epidemic era, how to do a good job in the normalization of campus epidemic prevention and control, and promptly guide and support the development of entrepreneurial teams, will further test the wisdom of relevant departments of universities.

　　Gao Zejin, deputy dean of the Entrepreneurship College of Wuhan Software Engineering Vocational College, introduced that at the end of April, the school developed a set of automatic temperature measurement equipment to comprehensively study and judge the epidemic prevention and control and meticulous deployment. On the basis of doing a good job in eliminating it, it was the first to open it among Wuhan universities The entrepreneurial base has allowed more than 90 entrepreneurs from more than 20 companies in the school to resume normal offline work.

　　Wuhan Mengsoft Technology Co., Ltd., which focuses on the development of big data precision marketing software, was incubated in the Entrepreneurship College of the school and has grown into a national high-tech enterprise.

The founder Xiong Quanlang introduced that thanks to the timely resumption of work at his alma mater’s entrepreneurial base, the team was united. They developed a mobile app by integrating popular marketing tools such as coupons, red envelopes, and spikes. New business has been opened up in the corporate customer base.

According to his statistics, since the resumption of work in the first half of the year, the company has received 10 new projects totaling 1.5 million yuan.

　　Ding Yubin, the dean of the School of Entrepreneurship of Chinese Science and Technology, Central China Normal University, has guided college students to start businesses for many years. He said that college student entrepreneurs have gradually become the main force in the "double entrepreneurship" because of their strong learning ability, broad knowledge, and creative vitality.

In the post-epidemic era, how to support college student entrepreneurial teams in the early incubation stage, stabilize their survival and promote development, has put forward new propositions for college student entrepreneurs, college entrepreneurial bases, and entrepreneurial incubators.

　　Ding Yubin analyzed that, to a certain extent, the current domestic higher education stays in the production line model of the industrialized era, and cultivates standardized talents required for industrialized production. However, the training methods for students' innovative and entrepreneurial thinking, attitudes, skills, and knowledge are solidified. Single method and other issues.

　　He believes that as human society enters the era of big data, respecting the individual development of students and cultivating creative talents are ready to emerge. "Innovation and entrepreneurship education, as an experiential, practical and practical training method, conforms to the development of the times. College teachers and students The understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship education needs to be improved and needs to be recognized and supported".

The innovation and entrepreneurship of college students should be based on the integration of production, teaching, research, learning, and digging into majors and industries to find pain points, not limited to campus market projects.

He also said that the growth of entrepreneurial companies is a process in which the market selects the survival of the fittest and must actively integrate into and accept market challenges.

　　Gao Zejin suggested that we can explore the establishment of a multi-level linkage mechanism between college entrepreneurship bases and social incubators, and implement hierarchical incubation. "For example, after a certain stage of incubation on campus, targeted push into social incubators to promote and guide acceptance of market competition."

He said that although limited by the prevention and control of campus epidemics, many college student entrepreneurs were in a dilemma, but there were not many cases of "sorrows". "This crisis will also force the'real entrepreneurs' to launch some new business formats. Be bigger and stronger, let the'fake entrepreneurs' get out."

　　Hu Lin, China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Lei Yu Source: China Youth Daily