"The help is great, and if you work hard, you will have a head start" (make the market entities more prosperous⑤)
A few days ago, at the Xingguang Night Market in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, individual merchants sold Dai-style delicacies, ethnic costumes, and special handicrafts to tourists, adding a lot to the "night economy" of Dai Township.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Xinbo
General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to supporting the development of individual industrial and commercial households, and emphasizes the need to actively help individual industrial and commercial households solve problems in rent, taxes, social security, financing, etc., and provide more direct and effective policy assistance.
By the end of 2021, the number of registered individual industrial and commercial households nationwide has reached 103 million, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%, 2.5 times that of 2012, accounting for about 2/3 of the total market players.
At a time when epidemic prevention and control is normalized, the number of individual industrial and commercial households is still growing steadily, which is particularly difficult.
How did the majority of self-employed individuals climb the slopes and work hard?
What problems have the assistance policies of the state and relevant departments solved for them?
What do they expect from the future?
This reporter interviewed 3 self-employed.
"Hope to get through this difficult time with everyone"
"If you want to eat fried liver, turn around the Drum Tower", this popular jingle in Beijing has given way to the fame of Yaoji Fried Liver Restaurant at the foot of the Drum Tower in the capital.
Yaoji Fried Liver Restaurant was founded in 1989. After two expansions, it has been in business for 33 years and has been adhering to the principle of "making people's food, everyone loves it, and everyone can afford it".
Yao Yan, the second-generation operator of Yaoji Fried Liver Shop, told reporters that this is the original intention of his own shop.
"We have been developing relatively smoothly before, but the new crown pneumonia epidemic caught us by surprise." Yao Yan was deeply impressed by the Spring Festival in 2020.
"According to past experience, the Spring Festival is a peak business season, and customers from all over the country will come here. But the epidemic has brought a lot of impact to us, and we have prepared a lot of goods, but they are all broken."
Yao Yan resolutely adjusted the business direction of the store: changed the dine-in to window sales, increased the staple food kitchen, and sold more than a dozen varieties such as sliced noodles, flower rolls, sugar triangles, bean paste buns, semi-finished snacks, and old fat noodles and steamed buns to meet the needs of surrounding residents.
"After adjusting the business strategy, all kinds of food are selling well, and there are customers who drive dozens of kilometers from Nancheng to buy, which shows that customers recognize us very much." Yao Yan said.
"Yao Ji Fried Liver" has also been launched, starting the takeaway mode.
"Before the epidemic, our store business was too busy, so we didn't think about doing take-out. Now we have caught the 'last train', and we are taking advantage of the trend to innovate." Yao Yan said, "dine-in adjustment + online take-out" has enabled the store to achieve profit and loss balance.
In the past two years, the government has frequently stepped in to help individual industrial and commercial households and small and micro enterprises.
In 2020, six departments including the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Guiding Opinions on Responding to the Impact of the Epidemic and Increasing Support for Individual Industrial and Commercial Households" to help individual industrial and commercial households cope with the impact of the epidemic; For the part of the annual taxable income of individual industrial and commercial households that is less than 1 million yuan, the income tax will be halved on the basis of the current preferential policies; , you can voluntarily suspend the payment of the basic endowment insurance premium for the year... "These policies issued by the state have paved the way for the store to pass the hurdle smoothly." Yao Yan said.
What makes Yao Yan happy is that the store not only survived the difficulties, but also achieved no price increases or layoffs.
During the epidemic prevention period, the State Administration for Market Regulation proposed the three guarantees (guaranteing supply, quality, and price), and Yaoji Fried Liver Restaurant actively participated in the three-guarantee action in the catering industry.
"'Delicious and not expensive' is the positioning of our small store. Although it has not been easy to operate in the past two years, we have maintained the original price and lowered the price of some categories." Yao Yan said.
Yao Yan also attaches great importance to the treatment of employees.
"You can't lose your employees if you lose yourself." Yao Yan introduced that she has not laid off anyone in the past two years, and the employees have all received their wages as scheduled.
"There are classes and wages. This is my promise to my employees."
Yao Yan told reporters: "A while ago, the government proposed to reduce or exempt one month's rent for us, but we gave up this benefit. Under the special circumstances, all walks of life are affected. Although we are in difficulty, we can persist. Let's get through this together."
"Actively seek change, seize the opportunity to break out"
Recently, Ling Haibo opened a coffee shop in Shenzhen.
"Design, decoration, trial operation, these two or three months have been very busy!" Ling Haibo told reporters that this is the first time he has independently established a coffee brand since he has been in the coffee industry for 12 years.
"In the catering business, we must take the initiative to change according to market demand and seize the opportunity to break out." Ling Haibo said.
At the beginning of the epidemic, Ling Haibo co-operated with a coffee shop in Shenzhen, and the shop was once in the predicament of zero sales.
"At that time, it was the Spring Festival, and the flow of people in the shopping mall dropped sharply. Our store opened in the shopping mall, with no customer flow and no income. We were losing money every day, and we felt unprecedented pressure to survive." Ling Haibo said, "I still have more than a dozen people under my command. As an employee, he had to take out tens of thousands of yuan from his own savings to pay his basic salary. Fortunately, everyone understood and survived with me.”
Ling Haibo began to look for a new way out.
On the one hand, he and his partners adjusted their business strategies in a timely manner, and adjusted the proportion of online takeaway business from 20% to more than 50% before the epidemic.
On the other hand, he was determined to develop new products and open his own coffee shop.
Ling Haibo told reporters that the reason why he decided to start a business when the business was difficult was inspired by his peers and friends.
"Every time a friend develops a new flavor of coffee, he will invite a professional team to shoot a short video to promote and introduce his coffee brand. His store only does takeaway business, and the daily turnover can reach tens of thousands of yuan." After research, Ling Haibo It is found that although there are fewer customers coming to the store to drink coffee, the entire coffee market is in a period of rapid growth, and business opportunities are not small. "I am determined to make my own brand, strove to create innovative products, and strive to be ingenious and unique in taste. "
Looking back on this period, Ling Haibo is particularly grateful for two support policies.
One is rent-free.
The mall waived 2 months of rent for the coffee shop in partnership.
"A total of 20,000 yuan for rent-free. At that time, our funds were tight, and there was almost no revenue. This 20,000 yuan was very important, and it added confidence to the transformation of the small store."
The second is the tax-free policy.
From April 1, 2021, the value-added tax threshold for small-scale taxpayers such as small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households has been raised from 100,000 yuan per month to 150,000 yuan.
"It's really a 'timely rain'!" Ling Haibo said. "After the tax exemption, our burden is lighter and our income has increased."
The turnover of the coffee shop jointly operated by Ling Haibo has gradually increased from zero to more than 3,000 yuan per day, and the business situation has improved.
The new store is also the same every day.
"With the help of short videos and other multi-channel online promotions, my store has achieved unexpected results in the trial operation stage, and the turnover has increased a lot every month. In the future, I will devote myself to innovation and do a good job in branding Retain guests with excellent products and warm service." Ling Haibo said, "The help is great, if you work hard, you will have a head start!"
'These help give us confidence'
At 7:30 in the morning, there was a long queue at the Canglong Noodle House on Banshan Street, Gongshu District, Hangzhou. This stemmed from a public welfare activity that the owner of the noodle house, Wu Yuxing, has been insisting on for more than 10 years - distributing loving breakfasts to nearby sanitation workers.
Wu Yuxing told reporters that even during the epidemic, this activity was not interrupted.
Since opening a teahouse in the 1980s and becoming a rare "ten thousand yuan household" at that time, he has opened department stores, flower shops, property management companies, and sold audio and video products. In 2011, he started operating the current Canglong Noodle Restaurant.
"When the noodle restaurant's business is at its best, the daily turnover can be more than 10,000 yuan." Wu Yuxing said, "The impact of the epidemic on the business is not small, but fortunately, I can keep the capital, and I persevere."
Although the business situation is not ideal, Wu Yuxing is still taking out his family at the most difficult time, paying full wages to employees, and at the same time setting up a caring work club at his own expense, buying vegetables, meat, eggs, milk and other daily necessities to help those in need around him.
Wu Yuxing said: "If I earn 1,000 yuan, I will spend 100 yuan for public welfare. Thanks to the care of customers and the support of national policies on weekdays, I can survive the crisis safely, and I should share weal and woe with everyone!"
Wu Yuxing specifically mentioned the driving effect of consumer coupons on small stores.
Since 2020, Hangzhou City has issued consumer coupons of different amounts during the "November", Spring Festival and other periods to encourage consumption.
"This method is good. More people come to eat noodles, and business is booming. Our shop and consumers are happy." Wu Yuxing said.
Wu Yuxing introduced that the surrounding self-employed are actively looking for ways to work hard. "Clothing stores are transformed into online live broadcasts, catering stores develop takeaway business, retail, hardware, supermarkets, etc. each want to recruit. Our noodle restaurants also make timely adjustments, Develop takeaways and semi-finished products, and strive to keep the business of old customers.”
"When the control is the strictest, the community streets distribute daily necessities to each household, full of meat and vegetables, which warms people's hearts." Wu Yuxing said, "Many of my self-employed friends have also received rent reductions and exemptions. 20% off water and electricity bills and other preferential benefits. Two days ago, a friend who opened a pedicure shop told me that he received a subsidy of 5,000 yuan!" Wu Xinghua said that he felt that his small business was firmly in the hands of the state. "It doesn't matter how much the subsidy is, what matters is that the help gives us confidence."
Kong Dechen