Internet industry giants dominate the market, so where is the future for grassroots entrepreneurs?

Introduction: Who is the real hero? Today's business world is surging! This is an era of heroes rising up. The Internet has given birth to super giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, and the rising star Xiaomi is also coming on strong. In such a business environment, should grassroots entrepreneurs start their own businesses cautiously? Or should they be ready to create another miracle?

Internet entrepreneurship is the hottest topic nowadays, especially the policy that allows college students to take a leave of absence to start a business and strongly supports "Internet +", which makes many people eager to try. But you may have overlooked a problem: the success rate of entrepreneurship in our country has always been very low (about 4%), and the average life span of private enterprises is not long (about 3 years). Therefore, in addition to passion and dreams, entrepreneurship also requires strategy...

So the most critical question is - what are the paths to grow from a grassroots entrepreneur to an industry leader?

1. Cross-border disruption is possible.

Nowadays, cross-border is a hot topic, especially the rapid development of mobile Internet, which makes cross-border competition and cross-border subversion possible. For example, WeChat competes with China Mobile, and China Mobile's profit growth rate has declined; Tmall, JD.com and other platforms compete with physical stores, and tens of thousands of Li Ning stores have closed one after another...

The scary thing about cross-border competition is that it is often unexpected. If you are caught in the crossfire, you either have to change or accept your fate. The lethality of cross-border competition is so great, what is the core of its success?

There are many factors that contribute to cross-border success, but the most important one is this: where others make money, you provide services for free, at a discount or with subsidies, thereby attracting a large number of users to participate, while your own profit points are hidden or placed at the back end.

In fact, regardless of whether it is cross-border or not, the power of free, profit-sharing and subsidies is huge. Of course, this is based on your ability to effectively reduce costs or have a huge backend.

2. Accumulate strength and overtake on the curve.

Smartphones killed Nokia, and digital cameras killed Kodak. Both happened after technology developed to a certain level, when emerging high-tech companies took the lead in making plans, innovating their products, and quickly seized the market. By the time the giants reacted, it was too late...

Recently, many people have been talking about "the windward side", which is actually the curve after the development of science and technology. A typhoon may only come after waiting, but a curve can only be encountered after walking the road under your feet. Therefore, I think "curve" is more appropriate than "windward side", and being down-to-earth and hardworking is an essential quality for entrepreneurs.

3. Category innovation is extremely risky.

Category innovation includes complete innovation, such as taxi-hailing apps, and also includes deep cultivation of a certain industry (vertical development), such as Vipshop and Jumei. For ordinary entrepreneurs, choosing category innovation, especially complete innovation, is extremely risky.

Because if you don’t have enough funds, it will be very difficult to promote your product, and it will be copied very quickly. Rich people are often willful, and they like to spend money to raise the threshold for entering the industry and the threshold for competition, which can destroy you in a minute.

Just like the market battle between Didi and Kuaidi before, hundreds of millions of yuan of funds were invested. If you have a good idea or product, find a way to raise endless money first.

4. Go with the flow and accumulate strength.

At present, BAT dominates the Internet and mobile Internet, and there are entrepreneurial opportunities in every field. For many grassroots people, they want to start a business but don’t know how to do it. They lack money, people and experience. What should they do? They can choose micro-business (*** own brand) and self-media (blogs, WeChat, Toutiao and other platforms at the same time). The entry threshold is low and the development potential is huge.

According to a survey by a US statistics agency, blogs are considered the third most influential digital source (31%) when consumers make purchasing decisions, only behind retail websites (56%) and brand websites (34%).

In particular, the evolution of "decentralization" has led to the rapid development of self-media (small centers) developed from personal blogs or third-party platforms. Studies have found that many users rely on self-media people when making purchasing decisions. We call this model "influencer marketing."

If you can become a center and continue to attract fans, whether it is selling your own products or advertising for others, you will have very considerable income. According to my past experience, if you achieve a certain level of self-media, as long as you sell, there will be people who will buy, and even someone will actively ask you to buy.

Starting a self-media business is simple, does not require much cost, and has little risk, but taking the first step is often the most critical and the most difficult. The reason why many people fail is that they think too much and do too little, or even set limits for themselves from the beginning, thinking that it is impossible, so they don't even think about it.

The choice of whether to start a business or not, and how to start a business, is not the final choice in life, but a process of life. My purpose of writing is very simple, as long as I can let you see at least one more possibility, I will be satisfied.