Can opening a physical store still fuel young people's "entrepreneurial dreams"?
(Image source: Internet)
Recently, a report and survey in Hangzhou showed that currently, among some small shops in the market, the proportion of shop owners born in the 1995 - 2000s is increasing. Coincidentally, a survey by the China Youth Daily showed that 58.7% of the surveyed young people think that running a small shop is more flexible and free, and 49.7% of them believe it is a good entrepreneurial choice.
Looking around the streets and alleys, young faces have clearly carved out an entrepreneurial landscape: milk tea shops, clothing stores, beauty salons, noodle restaurants, barbecue stands... An obvious change is that compared with the previous two years when young people complained about being unable to shed their "intellectual pretensions", a large number of young people have changed their minds.
In particular, opening a small shop with relatively low cost has become the employment goal of contemporary young people. Official data shows that as of now, there are 124 million registered self - employed households nationwide, providing employment support for nearly 300 million people. An unassuming small shop may even be the starting point for this generation of young people's entrepreneurial dreams.
The survey shows that 46.0% of the surveyed young people view running a small shop as a way to make a living. Meanwhile, 44.5% of them think it allows them to enjoy life and be self - sufficient, and 43.8% say they are more motivated when "working for themselves", even though the risks and pressures they may face are no less than those in traditional workplaces.
I Thought I Could "Earn While Lying Down" with Zero Cost
Chen Xi | Born in 1998, Owner of a Nail Salon Add. Suburb of a Third - Tier City
After the Spring Festival, Chen Xi's nail salon officially opened. Before that, she had been an apprentice in a beauty institution in the city center for a year. Nail art, eyelash extensions, and beauty treatments are known as the "big three" for contemporary women starting a business. The reason why Chen Xi chose to open a nail salon is simple: low investment and high popularity.
The survey shows that 35.8% of consumers get their nails done 4 - 6 times a year, and 22.7% get them done 7 - 9 times. Among Chinese nail consumers, more than 60% of them spend between 60 - 120 yuan per nail - art service. Meanwhile, compared with industries with high cost structures such as catering and clothing, the cost pressure in the beauty industry mainly comes from rent and staff salaries.
Interestingly, both of these factors can be ignored for Chen Xi.
Regarding rent: Instead of following the conventional process of looking for a store, negotiating rent, and researching the location, Chen Xi simply converted an empty room in her home into a nail - art studio. Her unit building happens to be at the entrance of the community, which is prominent and convenient, and easy to find. The community - style residential building has an above - ground parking lot, which also solves the parking problem.
Chen Xi is not the only one running a beauty business from home.
Currently, the "home - based beauty salon" has become the mainstream model for young people starting a business. According to "Jiamengxing", compared with traditional beauty salons, the biggest feature of home - based beauty salons is the low investment. In the fixed costs of traditional beauty salons, the rent usually accounts for more than 35%, while for home - based salons, through the transformation of community residences, the rent cost can be reduced by 60%.
In terms of staff, traditional stores need to hire 5 - 8 employees, with a monthly labor cost of about 30,000 yuan. Home - based salons adopt the "1+X" model (1 main operator + flexible employment), and the labor cost can be controlled within 12,000 yuan or even lower. Data shows that the annual growth rate of the home - based beauty service market currently exceeds 25%.
Chen Xi's small shop is representative of most home - based beauty salons.
She is the main labor force, and she also found a part - time worker born in the 2000s in the same community, who is mainly responsible for off - site makeup services. In addition to nail art, Chen Xi also offers on - site makeup services, charging 200 yuan each time. She is in charge of contacting customers, and the part - time worker brings her own makeup kit to the customer's location. They split the income equally.
She calculated that just from the makeup service, she can earn a net profit of 100 yuan per service with zero cost.
Zero - cost was Chen Xi's main pursuit when starting the business, even surpassing the goal of making a profit. When tallying up the total cost of opening the shop: the nail table, UV/LED curing lamp, grinder... a series of equipment were second - hand items she bought from a friend; the shop name and logo were designed with an acquaintance; and basic consumables are the easiest to obtain in China's huge supply - chain system.
And zero - cost corresponds to high profit in Chen Xi's mind.
It is reported that the profit margin of nail art, which was once more expensive than the housing prices in first - tier cities, is quite considerable, about 90%.
The home - based shop model has allowed Chen Xi to form her own business logic: first, surrounded by communities, the customer - acquisition efficiency is doubled; second, the service scenario can be extended, and fragmented time such as lunch breaks for beauty treatments and nighttime for skin care can be utilized, which meets the time - management needs of contemporary young people; third, the acquaintance - based economy reduces the trust cost.
Chen Xi is an art teacher. In her imagination, she could work in the morning and receive customers in the afternoon. In this way, she could earn some extra income from her side business while still having her main job. However, reality hit her faster than she expected. Soon after opening the shop, Chen Xi found that nail salons were everywhere.
Qichacha shows that as of now, there are more than 1.49 million nail - related enterprises in China, and more than 60% of them were established in the past three years. Meanwhile, press - on nails and 10 - minute nail services are squeezing the survival space of traditional nail salons. Among them, press - on nails have a "dimensionality - reduction strike" on nail salons in terms of efficiency and price.
(Image source: Internet)
On e - commerce platforms, the sales volume of press - on nails sold at 10 yuan for 3 boxes has reached over 1 million. Physical stores specializing in press - on nails have also opened in offline shopping malls. Compared with sitting still for an hour or two at a nail salon, customers can leave in just five minutes after getting press - on nails. After June, Chen Xi received fewer and fewer customers. So far, the biggest order she got was for three children's makeup looks on Children's Day.
She tried online promotion, using both Meituan and Douyin. Currently, young shop owners are paying more and more attention to the construction and utilization of online marketing channels. About 60% of small shops have tried online marketing. However, if she does so, her dream of opening a zero - cost shop will be completely shattered.
After much thought, Chen Xi decided to sell press - on nails on Pinduoduo. If one shop doesn't work, she'll open another one.
Mobile Phone Shops in Small Towns: Death Is the Only Destination
Wang Hai | Born in 1996, Owner of a Mobile Phone Shop Add. A Northern County Town
During the college entrance examination, Wang Hai distributed promotional flyers near several local test centers for four days. He hoped to make a fortune after the exam. However, until mid - July, the wave of college - entrance - exam students he was expecting never came to his mobile phone shop. Although Wang Hai is young, he started working as a mobile phone repairman in 2015.
Around 2015 was the golden age of offline mobile phone shops.
"It was so easy to make money back then. You could earn 400 yuan from selling a Gionee phone, 300 yuan from selling a vivo or OPPO phone. Selling a few phones a day was enough to cover the costs, and you could also sell SIM cards part - time, earning 150 yuan from each telecom SIM card." When Wang Hai recalled the past, his tone was more nostalgic than disappointed.
It is reported that after 2010, mobile phone manufacturers competed fiercely in the offline market. Some even paid the rent and covered the decoration costs for shop owners. Wang Hai, who missed out on this "era dividend", sometimes hates that he was born too late. Currently, the difficulties faced by offline mobile phone shops are almost blocking all possible ways out.
Wang Hai's mobile phone shop has low sales, poor promotion, and a highly regional location. It's in a street full of mobile phone shops. In the past two years, many of his peers have either closed their shops or transferred them. He's not even thirty yet, but he's almost become the "senior" on the street. In April, Wang Hai calculated the net profit of his shop for that month: 1,816.42 yuan.
It's okay, at least it's not negative, because he's seen negative profits several times.
Wang Hai's shop is of medium size, about 80 square meters, and he shares the warehouse with others. When he opened the shop, he was very ambitious and chose a location in the "CBD" of the county. However, the monthly rent of nearly 10,000 yuan soon became an unbearable burden for him. To improve the business, Wang Hai has tried everything.
He thought about starting a social - media account for promotion and often posted some tech - review videos on his personal Douyin account; he thought about adding more services, and there was always a roll - up banner in front of the shop, advertising free phone - film pasting, bill payment assistance, free software installation, free gifts, and data transfer services; he also engaged in price wars, competing with other physical shops on the street to offer lower prices.
However, these methods not only failed to bring significant growth to the shop but also increased his internal stress.
Since 2025, Wang Hai has clearly felt that offline mobile phone shops are at a critical moment. With the national subsidy driving online consumption of electronic products, offline shops can hardly compete with online ones. In fact, offline shops can also take advantage of the national subsidy. However, as the after - sales service system of e - commerce platforms improves, consumers are already used to placing orders online.
More often than not, offline shops have become product - experience centers.
Wang Hai also noticed this and wanted to try the "experience - first, sales - second" model. He saw a set of data online that 78.2% of newly opened mobile - phone brand stores in 2024 adopted this operation model. However, this model requires a larger shop area, as the direct - operated stores of mainstream brands like Xiaomi and Huawei are so large that they can even be a place for parents to take their children for a stroll.
And the direct - operated brand - store model is the straw that broke the camel's back for Wang Hai.
In recent years, there have been more and more direct - operated mobile - phone brand stores, while the number of retailers has decreased significantly. The "Analysis Report on the Operation of the Domestic Mobile Phone Market from January to March 2025" shows that in the first quarter of this year, the number of mobile - phone retail stores in the domestic market decreased by 14.7% year - on - year, the largest decline in the past five years. From 2023 to 2024, the number of mobile - phone agents nationwide decreased by 36.8%.
Meanwhile, with the transformation of the mobile - phone sales channel, after being exploited by the traditional supply chain at every level, the profit margin of physical shops has also been squeezed. Wang Hai said that in the past, there was a price difference of 15% - 20% between the purchase price given by agents to mobile - phone shops and the official retail price. Now, it's less than 8%.
After deducting the cost, there is hardly any profit left.
Now, in addition to selling mobile phones, Wang Hai's shop also sells a large number of high - profit small commodities: tool - box sets, electric kettles, razors, skipping ropes, table lamps, keyboards, automatic soap dispensers, aroma diffusers, routers, hair dryers, rice cookers, humidifiers, air fryers, weighing scales... After the heyday, mobile phone shops have become an "entrepreneurial pitfall".
(Image source: The interviewee)
According to a survey by Startups, the number of entrepreneurial projects in the mobile - phone retail industry decreased by 63% year - on - year in 2024.
Looking at the once - prosperous mobile - phone street, with one shop after another closing down, Wang Hai has to consider his future. He plans to return to his old profession and offer some derivative services such as mobile - phone repair, second - hand mobile - phone trading, and accessory sales. In 2024, the market size of the national mobile - phone repair market was about 83 billion yuan, with a year - on - year growth of 12.3%, making it the most dynamic part of the post - mobile - phone market.
In this way, he won't need an 80 - square - meter shop, and he might even save on rent.
My Small Pub Relies Entirely on Customers' Love
Lin Yang | Born in 1998, Owner of a Small Pub Add. A Third - Tier City
Early this summer, the banksia roses outside Lin Yang's small pub blossomed.
He rented this shop in 2019, and each year it has been different. In the first year, the roof was just thatched; in the second year, he planted a patch of loofah; in the third year, mushrooms grew on the rotten wood on the roof; in the fourth year, the mushrooms were replaced by ivy; in the fifth year, Lin Yang planted some banksia roses and installed neon lights.
By the sixth year, the neon lights were broken, but the banksia roses were still in good bloom.
Opening a small pub has always been Lin Yang's dream, and also the dream of many literary young people. According to the report data released by iiMedia Research, the market size of China's small - pub industry reached 148.78 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected to exceed 180 billion yuan by 2027.
Lin Yang is a typical literary young man, proficient in playing the piano, painting, brewing wine, and cooking. The pub was originally a civilian house with a yard. When he first rented it, the yard was full of weeds, and the roof was leaky. However, the rent was cheap. He did the waterproofing, repaired the doors and windows, and paved the floor by himself. It took him more than a year to finally open the pub.
The operation mode after opening has always been very "unconventional": there is no menu, the wine is self - brewed. The pub opens on sunny days and closes on rainy days. Generally, customers need to make a reservation in advance. Lin Yang will show his big tattooed arm while chopping vegetables and cooking. He cooks whatever ingredients are available in the kitchen and serves whatever he cooks.
Sometimes, customers even need to bring their own ingredients.
