Time and River: The Story of the Founder of a Clothing Brand

Foreword: Creating a brand is never easy. Many people work on a whim, so when the passion fades, it is difficult to persist. Most newly established brands fail, which is also in line with the Pareto effect.

As a clothing brand, TIME&RIVER is definitely a very story-telling brand. It has room for art, geeks and retro clothing with a sense of story - such as distressed sweaters and jeans. I have also been looking for a partner who can provide sales channels and brand operations.

I would like to first tell the story of the founder.

A period of schooling: I "went out of the Xiaxia" after "working" to get into college.

I was born in a small mountainous county in southwest Hubei, which is an autonomous prefecture for ethnic minorities. Yes, I am a member of the Tujia people, one of the more than three million Tujia people who are good at singing and dancing.

Our ethnic minority songs and dances "Dragon Boat Tune" and hand-waving dance are both world cultural heritage and required courses since childhood. In the 1980s, break dancing emerged in China. In addition to doing routine performances in large-scale entertainment activities, I could also perform break dancing individually in the whole school. This was one of the few things that excited me when I was in school.

From the time I can remember, I have known that my father has been sick all year round. He can only take a kind of medicine with strong side effects. This kind of medicine will make his hands and feet tremble and his mouth will water. Take it when the disease attacks, stop when it feels better, and take medicine until the next attack occurs again, and so on.

My grandma is very old, so she basically relies on my mother alone inside and outside the family. We are a family of six, including my grandma, parents, eldest sister, second brother and me who took the last train before family planning. The mother supports both the inside and outside by herself, so one can imagine the family's plight.

Relying on the old street "store" left by her grandfather, my mother started a small business to support the six people. She mainly dealt in groceries, non-staple food, clothes, etc. Anyway, as long as she could make money, she would buy it.

I have been a good helper for my parents in business since elementary school. I help sell goods and collect money. I can remember the prices of many products, from bulk liquor to melon seed slippers. Speaking of which, I should be the youngest in the group. "Salesperson" right? Who would have thought that in the future, I would actually start an international trade business, but the target of my sales would change from neighbors to "international friends".

I have been a child who has been particularly troubled by reading since I was a child. My parents hardly cared about my studies and homework, but my grades were always among the best. It wasn't until I entered the top class of the best high school in the county that I became "mediocre." But my elementary school and junior high school gave me a lot of confidence - I was admitted to the top class of the county's key high school with the first score in my school's high school entrance examination. In junior high school, I won numerous prizes in various Chinese, mathematics and English competitions.

This confidence is also proved from another aspect. During my first nine years of compulsory education, many girls wrote me a lot of letters full of ignorant emotions, but I didn’t reply to many.

Fortunately, studying was the most important thing at that time, and I received strong support from my family, especially my mother. My mother graduated from elementary school and had no education, but she knew that she would send us brothers and sisters to college even if she was selling things.

I lived up to my mother's expectations. After studying hard for 12 years, I was successfully admitted to a "second-tier" university in the provincial capital Wuhan. I'm "out of the gorge".

The word "out of the gorges" is what our locals say. There are three gorges in Yichang. If you study in Yichang in college, for a small and backward county, this is tantamount to "a carp jumping over the dragon's gate" and leaving. After arriving in Wuhan, you can leave Xiaxia confidently, not to mention that I am the only college student in our family.

No one guided me as to what major I should apply for. Many people’s majors are decided by their parents. But I wasn’t. I chose the direction of tourism economy based on my intuition. Today I wish someone had told me that you should study for your own interests, so that you can get twice the result with half the effort.

I couldn’t be “remarkable” in college. I inherited the small stature of mountain people, and I also earned a work-study income. It was difficult to start “that romantic story”. Most of the time in college Only the lotus flowers by Wuchang South Lake and the lights of the library accompany me.

Fortunately, although I studied tourism management, I was already interested in English. Because I came into contact with Li Yang's 'Crazy English', I started practicing English crazily. I almost Achieved a fluent American pronunciation close to Li Yang's. This kind of learning will become my trump card when I look for a job in the future.

In addition, I have been doing business since I was a child, and I also did business in the dormitory when I was in college. I will sell cigarettes according to the number of cigarettes, so that students can buy 3-4 cigarettes for one dollar to satisfy their addiction.

I also sell instant noodles and provide boiled water. I still remember the hunger at night, and instant noodles are the delicacy of the world.

The income from these small businesses can guarantee my living expenses for a month, which is a very interesting life experience in college. These experiences helped me successfully graduate.

2. Job: I didn’t study international trade in college, but I joined an international trading company across industries.

My job search experience was not smooth. Moreover, as a newly graduated college student, I was very confused about my future development direction. Almost no one around me told me what I should do, including my parents. The only requirement was that you should have a decent job with a good income.

But I have two things that are clear in my heart: I don’t want to stay in Wuhan; I will not choose tourism as a career direction. I want to find a job that can use my English skills.

With a few thousand yuan borrowed from my aunt, I went to Guangzhou and Shenzhen, searched twice in the job market, and went to Shanghai again with regrets that Bole rarely has.

The money was almost spent. After thanking my classmates from Guangzhou-Shenzhen High School for hosting me, I found a job in Weitang Town, Jiashan County, half an hour away from Shanghai by train. I comforted myself, wouldn’t it be pretty if the countryside surrounds the city?

I work as a sales assistant in this small trading company. This is a company that requires several people to use each computer. Its products are cleaning supplies. Its main markets are Italy and Japan. I worked for less than three months with a monthly salary of 500 yuan (actually 400 yuan, 100 deposit). During my work, I wrote an article, read two books on international trade, and met a few new friends. , almost nothing was found.

Fortunately, my second job is not bad. It is a relatively well-known foreign trade company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. My English skills helped a lot and I successfully passed the five-person interview panel. After working, I studied hard, worked hard, and quickly stood out. After my boss discovered my English ability, he asked me to head the business development department. This is a job that requires speaking and communication skills, and I am qualified and happy.

Three years later, I got the report card that ranked first in the company’s performance.

3 Resignation: A Passive Entrepreneurship

There are many passive factors in my entrepreneurship.

When my work was booming, I encountered a problem that was full of conspiracy theories and I couldn't let go of it. Because my performance and team size ranked first in the company, the company began to divide my business, and a business backbone who had been with me since the establishment of the department left my team. Later I learned that this was what the company meant, because my department was indeed a bit too big. Although I am unwilling to accept it, I can still accept it. They took away my big business and shook my faith.

But this is just the beginning. When the company wanted to break up my business for the second time, I decided to fight.

I felt hurt, and I didn’t want to communicate this matter with my superiors. I felt that the matter was over, and we should just get together and disperse. This was my simple and naive idea at the time.

My brothers have long advised me to resign and go it alone. This is nothing new in the foreign trade circle and is simple, as long as you have customers to follow you.

Looking back, maybe deep down in my heart, I just wanted to start my own business, but I just made an excuse? I'm not sure.

Starting a business can be considered a success. It has been 10 years since 2011. I recruited employees to form a team and develop business. The company grew from a few people at the beginning to more than 30 people, and successfully passed the "seven-year itch" of entrepreneurship - a period that most Chinese startups cannot survive.

When I encountered a bottleneck in my career development in the first two years, I started studying in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University CEO Class and the French IPAG Business School EMBA. When writing my thesis, the topic I chose was "Brand".

Because in the past few years, I first launched a cross-border e-commerce clothing brand, Time & RIVER, with the English name TIME&RIVER. Last year, I started to open a store on Taobao to sell cashmere sweaters of my own design. I like this brand name very much, so the WeChat official account has the same name.

Time flows and the years are silent.

Time flies by like a fleeting year.

While writing my graduation thesis on personal brand building at Jiaotong University Business School, I found a book, which is Hong Dan's "Refined Writing".

It just so happens that I also like to write something to record every detail of my life. Teacher Hongdan’s book came at the right time.

Just like this year, I will not be confused, and life will be like going against the road and not making progress. This is basically a portrayal of the first half of my life.