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For entrepreneurs, 2024 will definitely not be an easy year.

The uncertainty of the overall environment has put many industries in a difficult struggle.

Even Lei Jun, the entrepreneurial idol of countless people, spoke frankly about his "backout" in his just-concluded annual speech: If I lose, will my life end in disgrace?

But the phrase "Even if there are thousands of people, I will go ahead" also expresses the collective determination of entrepreneurs:

According to statistics, my country currently has more than 52 million small, medium and micro enterprises, more than 12 million more than four years ago.

Although starting a business is full of difficulties and obstacles, it still cannot stop countless people with dreams from continuing to take action.

But courage and faith alone are clearly not enough to support entrepreneurs to go further.

According to statistics, the average survival age of Chinese startups is 2.5 years, and only about 7% of the startups founded in the same year can survive for more than 3 years.

Starting a business is a risky path that "does not allow retreat". If you want to take the lead on this road, there are three key steps that entrepreneurs should pay attention to.

Overcoming the stumbling block of inefficiency

In the early stages of entrepreneurship, efficiency is life.

But many bosses have had this doubt: the business is obviously becoming more and more stable, but why does the cost remain high and the efficiency is slowly decreasing?

In fact, the cause of the company's overall low efficiency lies in many details of daily work.

Image source: Bamboo Unknown

For example, for Zhengshen Technology, which mainly deals with intellectual property work, printing documents, organizing materials and binding them are daily routines just like eating and drinking.

However, as the company's business expanded, the printing work became more and more complicated, with an average daily printing of more than 5,000 sheets. The company suddenly found that the cost of paper, consumables and printers began to rise sharply.

A few years ago, Zhengshen Technology applied to HP for the new Chuang series printers, which not only solved the cost of printer wear and tear caused by large daily printing volumes, but also reduced the printing cost of each page to 5 cents.

For the agricultural assistance industry whose main battlefield is in remote rural areas, high-intensity printing work is also a rigid demand.

For example, Huangshan Puman Farm, which was established in 2020, not only manages an ecological farm of more than 500 acres, but also negotiates with local farmers and signs documents and contracts at any time as part of its daily work.

Over the past three years, Puman Farm has signed hundreds of documents and lease contracts, with each document containing more than 70,000 words. For local farmers, the contract must also be clear and durable enough.

Without a reliable printer to back you up, your work efficiency will be greatly reduced.

In order to better reach these small and medium-sized enterprises scattered across the country, HP has established a huge distribution network across the country.

In most cases, HP can deliver office equipment to the entrepreneur's door within 2 hours with just one phone call.

Users can also choose to purchase or lease services according to their own circumstances, and HP will also provide technical support and maintenance services for a period of time.

This is really a thoughtful offer for many cash-strapped startups.

In 2020, the entire entrepreneurial market was silent. Although HP itself was not doing well, it was still willing to pay out of its own pocket and launched a printer donation campaign. In two years, it donated more than 2,000 printers, providing timely assistance to many people.

The reason why HP can take the initiative to help small and medium-sized enterprises solve so many detailed problems in the printer field is that, from a rational point of view, HP wants to consolidate its own "basic plate".

In an interview, HP Greater China President Zhuang Zhengsong pointed out that 78% of HP's global commercial business comes from small and medium-sized enterprises.

Image source: Xiao Fang is not too round

Of course, HP has always been committed to helping small and medium-sized enterprises, not only for business reasons, but also for its own sentiments.

As a "veteran entrepreneur", HP has been around since its founding in Silicon Valley. It has experienced many changes of the times and also gone through many entrepreneurial pitfalls.

HP’s sentiment is very pure: just because it has been caught in the rain, it wants to hold an umbrella for those who come after it.

The "secret weapon" of entrepreneurs

How was it made?

By solving the inefficiency problem, the company has resolved the survival issue, but this is by no means the end of entrepreneurship.

Only by improving product quality and differentiating oneself from similar companies can a company truly stand out from the competition.

As the saying goes, if you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. For an enterprise, the "secret weapon" that demonstrates its strength is also part of its strength.

For some companies, printing is not just a daily routine, but a crucial step to success.

For example, Zuodai Culture, which is engaged in the animation industry, has extremely high demands on printing.

From animation scripts to scene effects, an animation project is always accompanied by countless printing tasks. Whenever the printer breaks down, the rhythm of the entire project will be disrupted.

Animators’ printers must not only be of reliable quality and long-lasting battery life, but also have high enough printing accuracy. If they cannot accurately present the details and light and shadow of the picture, no matter how good the creativity is, it will be wasted.

The construction industry also has very high requirements for printing work. The printer must not only be durable, but also ensure the accuracy and speed of output.

In response to the various pain points in the construction industry, HP launched the HP T830, which not only has high drawing accuracy, but also can ensure that it can work for a long time without breaking down, and the drawing speed is also very fast.

The most important thing is that HP has also installed practical functions such as one-click blueprint and one-click blueprint removal based on the usage habits of the construction industry, which is very worry-free.

In addition, similar HP printers can also print photos, posters, and even scan and copy documents, making it a multi-purpose machine, saving a lot of investment.

Product differentiation does not lie in performance but in whether it can meet real user needs.

As far as printers are concerned, user demand has always been HP's research and development direction.

Since 2006, HP has begun to develop products specifically based on the needs of Chinese customers.

However, for most entrepreneurs, giving someone fish is only the first step; teaching them how to fish is the key.

Gaining trust can lead to further progress

In 2024, what will be the bond between merchants and customers?

Some people say it is the differentiation of products and services, some people say it is the ultimate cost-effectiveness, buttrustIt is a word that can never be avoided.

Since last year, Pang Donglai has been making great strides in the retail industry, and its ultimate weapon is its customers' "trust".

HP has been developing in China for more than 40 years, witnessing the development of China's IT industry from scratch, and also witnessing countless small and medium-sized enterprises grow from small workshops into industry giants. To reach its current scale, the "trust" from the industry is indispensable.

Reliable quality is the cornerstone of HP's trust.

There are two "magic machines" of HP circulating on the Internet: HP 1020 and M126, which are called "one machine passed down for three generations" by netizens. Although they have been discontinued, they are still hot-selling in the second-hand market.

In order to make printer users more convenient to use, HP has also set up a full service network in the first to sixth tier cities across the country, and launched a 7×24-hour service hotline, which is almost always available to solve problems at any time.

Of course, HP's attitude towards small and medium-sized enterprises is the source of trust.

In fact, as a giant in the commercial printer and PC fields that has grown into a large company, HP's business scope has long covered the broader fields of large enterprises, government agencies, and education, and it can be said that it has secured a "iron rice bowl".

But even if the iron rice bowl is secure, HP will still spend a lot of energy on entrepreneurs every year. In this way, the challenges HP faces are no different from starting a business again.

After all, the entrepreneurial market is constantly changing. For HP, a slight delay in updating its products and services will affect the achievements that the entire brand has already achieved.

Betting on a startup is more like a "big gamble" and it is easy to end up with nothing.

Even though the risks are not small, HP always chooses to stand with entrepreneurs.

On the road to entrepreneurship, thorns and flowers coexist. For entrepreneurs, every hurdle they overcome not only means they are one step closer to success, but also means that all the hardships, sweat and hard work over this period of time have been rewarded.

All the moments on this road contain inspiring power and are worth recording.

Recently, HP launched an entrepreneur story collection activity. Click here to read the original text to participate in the activity and write down the most impressive and touching story in your entrepreneurial journey.

Your story may become a beacon for countless people who come after you.

Zhou Xinhong, vice president of HP China and general manager of the Greater China Personal Information Products Division, said, "So we took a relatively risky and bold path."

On the road to helping more companies succeed, HP has always understood one thing:

You have to get involved first before you can take every step forward.

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