Students with business ideas go 'Home'for help

IT is undeniable that for university graduates who have little money or experience the thought of starting their own business is something challenging.

Questions such as where to rent an office, where to get enough funds and where to find a guide to the industry are the first things they have to think about.

Yanji Enterprise Home for University Graduates is on Shuifeng Road in Yangpu District. Providing free office, business tutorials, financial support, policy support and guidance to university graduates, the venue feels like a paradise for future entrepreneurs.

Wang Yan, 27, is currently registering her new company, Doll's Eyes Creative, dealing with doll craft design and company image design. She is glad to find a free office at the "home."

"Starting a new business is not an easy thing at all, which means you must be responsible for everything you do and make different decisions by your own each day," she says. "It looks like a long-term battle which is full of challenges and opportunities with pressure and the sense of achievement.''

After studying at Tongji University for two years, she went to La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, to study management. Graduating in 2007, she came home with a bachelor's degree.

Having worked at foreign ventures, private companies and governmental organizations, she finally decided to start a company of her own with her close friend.

The idea came from her biggest hobby - collecting ball joint dolls. However, it is one thing enjoying a hobby and it is another thing to make it a business.

"Difficulties exist everywhere at the beginning. The registration process was very complicated for me, since university education tells little about how to start a business," she says. "Only with the help of tutors at Yanji Enterprise Home for University Graduates could I learn how to organize and manage everything."

In Wang's plan, the company will provide high-quality handmade doll crafts. The product lines include doll design and making, luxury clothes, wigs, shoes, jewelry, mini furniture, tools and other items.

In addition, she plans to help small and medium enterprises with corporate image design projects.

"Only when you do something you are really keen on, will your life be very happy and grateful," Wang says. "A hobby is always a great guide when choosing one's career. When I felt lost and exhausted doing my routine job, I begin to rethink my long-term career path. Starting my own business became the road I had to take.

"Sharing resources would achieve a win-win status, so when we are helping the others, in the meantime, they are helping us as well. It's a very exciting experience to be concerned about the growth of your friends' companies.

"And about the doll crafts, we plan to finish a book to introduce our art doll collection hobby, so that it could be a professional handbook to guide those new toy collectors and to inspire them to find their hobby and enjoy happiness though collection."

Yanji Enterprise Home for University Graduates has close ties with the USST National Science Park which is in the same area. More than 280,000 university students have received training in how to start business at the park. A total of 1,274 student projects have been granted a fund.

Start own business

Li Bihao, executive director of Shanghai Liutong Information and Technology Co Ltd, has expanded the company's business to cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province, Suzhou and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province.

The 31-year-old used to be a consultant at Tongji University helping students start their own business.

"It is a strong wish and sense of mission that I can lead a group of people to success through enterprise. Students who want to start from scratch never admit defeat," Li says. "Easy jobs make life easy but it is like dead water. Only those who seek the opportunity of development can get their own potential in full play. Yangpu is a land where people like me get support at the very beginning.''

Ren Fangzhen, a 27-year-old graduate from University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, won a fund of 400,000 yuan (US$58,542) from the Ministry of Science and Technology with the support of Yangpu District's science parks. "From campus to society, we change from students to entrepreneurs," Ren says. "It is really great that the local government and the science parks help turn our knowledge and courage into real business."

Currently, Ren's company has eight employees. Turnover last year reached 450,000 yuan.

Ren is planning to build the company into a well-known provider of a waste lubricant regeneration service.