Small Investment To Join The Big Brand &Nbsp; Stationery Store Business Makes You Earn Money.

　 Office supplies industry The world's largest franchise brand, international sourcing advantage, its own OEM brand, efficient and meticulous management process, unique service advantages...... These keywords describe the success of Mark Barker, the chairman and founder of Office1, the largest office supplies chain operator in the world.

First, in the global franchise mode to seize office supplies business opportunities.

When graduated from University of California MBA, young Mark never thought he would join the office supplies industry. Not until the 80s of last century did he notice the office supplies industry when he decided to start his own business. With the development of office automation and modernization, the meaning of office supplies has changed greatly. Photocopiers, fax machines, typewriters, binding machines, shredders, paper cutting machines, plastic presses, folding machines, whiteboards, safety boxes and other products have gradually become indispensable items in offices. The scope of office supplies is becoming wider and wider, and the impact on office efficiency is also growing. Office stationery products have been honored as the second largest family products. The diversification of office supplies and the trend of high quality are becoming more and more obvious.

The big tempting cake is shining, but unfortunately Mark is late. At that time, the office supplies industry was not a new industry in the United States, and there were many stores that specialize in the sale of office supplies. It is hard for him to stick to the ground and stick to the US's career. Facing the forerunners of strength, he has many obstacles. But Mark, who is optimistic about this industry, firmly believes that he can still stand out from this industry and even make a lot of money.

Where to cut it? " Virgin land "Go!

In 1989, with advanced business philosophy, he chose the place of entrepreneurship in Spain. "Compared with the United States, Spain has less competition in the office supplies market." This is Mark's first intention of opening his first office supplies store in Spain. Considering that at that time, there were not a few enterprises in the US and Europe in the office supplies industry, but they were all scattered. Mark chose a business mode different from the competitors in the big store -- the chain store mode. Grafting the business model of franchising to the office supplies industry at that time was ingenious. So Mark started his own business.

Since its inception, Office1 has been committed to providing a one-stop shop for professional office supplies. Products purchased on a global scale range from rubber to pencil to office furniture and office equipment. All products are displayed in modern, clean, clean and self service stores, and shops are usually located near blocks of office buildings with large pedestrian flow. From the product, time and space to the maximum extent, close to the needs of customers. At the same time, in the way of sales, Office1 adopts a multi-channel and convenient sales method. Enterprises or scattered customers can shop in Office1 stores, and can also be ordered by telephone or network. The delivery department will deliver door-to-door. Customers in the region will receive regular product and promotional manuals. The well trained telemarketing staff will follow up the call and provide timely services to customers who need to order.

In order to create a globally unified image of Office1, Mark laid the foundation from the very beginning -- the overall layout of blue, yellow and white as the keynote. "Details decide success or failure" has always been Mark's pet phrase. From the start of Office1, he has precisely calculated and constantly explored how high each store and every shelf is; what materials are used to do it; and how to set up office supplies such as computers, printers, etc., all have strict requirements and standards. A Office1 franchisee said, "how can you get better than your neighbor shop? The display is better than him, and the inventory is easier than him. Retail is to pay attention to details. Although Mark does all small things, it is a good idea to combine all the simple things together. If you open an office supply shop, you will be reluctant to toss it up.

In Spain, Mark expanded his Office1 business from more than 40 to more than 200 in two years with strong advertising and marketing, international sourcing advantages, detailed management processes, efficient logistics distribution system and constantly adapting innovation capability. Office1's market share in Eastern Europe has reached 40%.

At present, Office1 is headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida, USA. It has established more than 500 professional office supplies stores in the world through franchising and joint venture. It is distributed in more than 30 countries such as China, Australia, India, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech, Greece, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Hungary. It is currently one of the largest franchisees and fastest growing brands in the international office supplies industry. This seemingly trivial industry has brought Mark $2 billion a year in sales.

Two, in China, from simple procurement to franchising development.

In twentieth Century, Mark's eyes on China. Rapidly rising manufacturing industry Making China the world's largest stationery manufacturer and exporter, more than 8000 stationery manufacturers in China account for 40% of the world's total. But China's stationery industry inevitably embarked on a vicious circle of competition. The size of the enterprise is small, the product structure is single, the OEM is short of brand and the vicious competition is low. Some small businesses sell their notebooks and books at a price not as good as waste paper. The most typical example is that the "ant soldiers" staged by Yiwu businessmen can pile up two thousand gold in one minute, which makes the low price "made in China" resound throughout the world. The resulting low procurement cost attracted Mark's attention. As a result, China has become one of the important purchasing places of Office1, making full use of China's advantage as the largest stationery manufacturing base and the largest exporter in the world, and has further expanded its profits.

With the frequent visits to China, Mark discovered a new fortune: the office supplies market in China started late, and has long been replaced by traditional stationery shops and wholesale markets. Modern and specialized office supplies stores have not yet been on the rise. However, the development of society is gradually promoted by modern office means, and the market share of personal purchase office supplies becomes smaller, and large-scale collective purchasing has become a trend. Moreover, fast-growing companies need the overall solution of office supplies. Obviously, in China, the traditional stationery shop can no longer adapt to the development of the office supplies market. The market calls for a new professional office supplies supermarket to provide comprehensive services.

The office supplies industry has been praised as "the 50 most worthy investment" industry by foreign investment circles. Data show that by 2008, the annual consumption of China's office supplies industry will reach US $25 billion. According to industry experts, China will become the largest consumer of stationery products in the next five years. Such market opportunities have led Mark to make an important decision to open up the office supplies market in China.

In 2002, because WTO, domestic and small stationery enterprises were exclaiming "wolf coming", Office1 really came. Its bridgehead was chosen to be the first in East China. Shanghai opened the first 2000 square meter shop in Shimen, Shanghai. "The time to enter China is pretty good, because the competition in the Chinese market is not very intense." However, Mark, who has always been cautious and clever, chose the wrong partner in China.

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Mark handed over the franchise in China to Poole Smart, a national supermarket chain. It started the nationwide franchise work on behalf of Office1. In 2002, Nuo Heng invested in Shanghai, "Nuo Heng Erwin" opened the first 2000 square meter shop in Shanghai, and in a short span of a year, it established a Office1 franchise in 6 cities such as Suzhou. However, it didn't last long. In 2003, due to the rapid expansion of the capital chain and the failure of the chain store, the management of Office1 in China was in a stalemate. Mark's "debut in China" ended in failure. This failure led Mark to appreciate the complexity of the Chinese market. A year later, Mark decided to make a comeback in the Chinese market. This time, he took the sole purpose of establishing a sole proprietorship in Shanghai, opening up direct stores, and developing his own franchisee. Each franchisee has to receive Office1 training for two weeks, and marketing, procurement and other important links are unified by the headquarters.

The rich lessons learned from the world, together with the "Waterloo" 3 years ago, Mark's strategic concept of China is different from that of foreign countries. In August 2005, he founded a subsidiary company in Shanghai, China, which was specially responsible for franchising in China. "Now I follow the" globalization thinking, localization problem ", Mark concluded. One of the most intuitive representations is that the size of Office1 shops is significantly different in China's first tier and two or three tier cities. Generally speaking, the first storefront of the district developer will be opened in the center of the city. The area is generally 150-500 square meters, or the size of the storefront will be decided according to the characteristics of different cities. First tier cities are generally 50-100 square meters of small shops, because the rent is too high; and in the suburbs or two or three tier cities, the size of the shop is more than 200 square meters. Regional franchisees get more than 1000 kinds of Office1 universal private brand products from Office1 warehouse, and Office1's purchasing center will also assist regional developers in purchasing products locally. As office supplies are not particularly demanding for customers, companies are also expanding the proportion of direct sales. Employees are coming directly to the potential and existing customers to promote new office supplies. At present, Office1 has set up 12 branches in Jiangsu, Changshu, Suzhou, Jiangyin, Shanghai (Qingpu), Zhang Jiang, Jingan, Shanxi, Zhejiang and so on.

Three, the real reason for chain stores across the world

"Stationery industry is a low cost, low tech light industry. Only by attaching high value-added brand operation can enterprises maximize the market and profits."

Qiu Zhiming, President of Ningbo Stationery Association

What is the real secret of making fortune by a man who fiddle with paper and pen?

Take its market in China as an example. From the price point of view, Office1 faces unprecedented challenges. Not to mention the dense small stationery shops on both sides of the street, the most fatal thing is that Office1 is directly facing the positive price competition in the wholesale market. With the intensification of the original competition in China, the regional wholesale market has been forced into the price war of the retail industry. Even a pen and a bottle of ink will be sold at wholesale prices. The entire wholesale and retail channel is in serious disorder. The only way to make Office1 survive is to rely on the few chain business models, unique brands and strong OEM products in the industry, which is the biggest selling point of Office1. It is manifested in several aspects.

Advantages of chain operation: traditional office supplies, repetitive and low-end scattered competition, until now is also flooded with the market, and the differentiation mode like Office1 is divorced from this "mutual killing" competition. Under the same Office1 brand, stores around the world can form a unified scale of marketing, purchasing and logistics, and can sell across regional customers, thus saving the cost in this low profit margins industry.

The advantages of joint procurement: Office1's existing global network, good goodwill and the group purchase price brought by the comprehensive cooperation with global and domestic well-known brand suppliers, so that franchisees can enjoy preferential prices immediately. In addition, Office1 suppliers will also provide new products and promotional support.

OEM (OEM) product advantage: OEM products are globally purchased. These private brands are selected products with better price performance than those of other competitors.

The advantages of product structure: Office1's output to franchisees is not only a competitive single product, but more importantly, according to the experience of the industry, it provides an optimized product structure to transform franchisees from a single product price competition to a comprehensive product competition, so as to better meet the needs of terminal customers.

At the same time, in the trend of gradually entering the brand era in the stationery industry, Office1 pays more attention to the multi-faceted branding competition, such as service, management and shopping environment. The idea of Office1 is to apply one-stop service to the office supplies industry, and to provide a stable, comprehensive and convenient business mode for customers. With the rapid expansion of chain stores in the world, this concept has also brought impact, baptism and development opportunities to the local office supplies industry.

Related links (for reference only, exact data according to the latest changes of enterprises):

First, franchise costs:

1. Alliance Gold: according to the level of franchisee (city agent, single store), regional (Eastern, central, Western) and local conditions (economy, population, market potential) and other comprehensive factors, the contract period is 5 years, and 5 years later, the contract can be renewed.

2. margin: City agent 50 thousand, single store 20 thousand, no refund of interest after the concession agreement is lifted.

3. rights and interests: a monthly fixed amount of equity (1600-2500 yuan) according to different regions.

Two, investment pattern:

1. urban developers can invest between 50-200 yuan in cash assets;

2. developers in the city's independent economic development zones can invest between 50-100 yuan in cash assets.

3. two level developers (commercial concentrated neighbourhood shops) can invest between 25-50 yuan in cash assets;

4. Franchised Distributors (no shop mode).