#西班牙留学##海外留学与回国创业##人物故事#
This is the 4,191st real story we have told
Hangzhou, a city full of challenges.
I sat in my office, busily looking at various documents, sometimes answering the phone, sometimes replying to inquiries from netizens. After a while, my partner told me that a lady had signed a contract with us, and we were one step closer to our goal of "helping 100 girls study in Spain"!
The number of successful customers is increasing, and I am happy to sit in the "Study in Spain Studio".
Back last year, I was still being questioned. Many people wonder how my partner, two young people, could possibly do business?
Looking at the number of people who have signed up now, I feel that I have taken the right step······
(I started my business)
My name is Zhao Xiaochen, my online name is Zhao Tutu, 27 years old, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, and I am the only daughter in the family.
My parents worked in the system and were very fond of me. From childhood to adulthood, whatever I thought and wanted to do, they would try to satisfy them as much as possible.
Mom and Dad were very open-minded and never turned down my friends to come to the house to play. Some parents are afraid that their children will come to the house to cause trouble, but my parents are never afraid and will treat them warmly.
In terms of study, I am a liberal arts girl who is good at Chinese and English, and my parents encourage me to pursue a liberal arts-related career in the future.
After the college entrance examination in 2015, when the Spanish major was relatively popular in China, after discussion with the whole family, I felt that I would have a better harvest by studying abroad, so I came to Spain to study after some preparation.
(Graduated in August 2021)
The approach to education at Spanish universities is very different from that in China, where students are managed in a "free-range" manner.
There is no fixed class, and different classes are learning with different students. There is no tutor or counselor to supervise the students, and the grades are not good, so they can only retake it by themselves and learn it again. Therefore, in Spanish universities, it is all arranged by the students themselves, and it is largely self-conscious.
I was more self-conscious in my studies since I was a child, and I quickly adapted to this open way of learning.
Undergraduate studies in Spain are more difficult. In order to successfully graduate, I basically spent four years studying, didn't go out to play much, and almost focused all my energy on studying.
The hard work has not been in vain, and I have gained a lot in the past four years. After studying the relevant courses of business management, I have a general concept of the entire business operation and the idea of doing business.
(Graduated in August 2022)
When you go to university in Spain, the school will provide dormitories, but the dormitories are not very cost-effective, and there are not many choices, so it is not very convenient to live. Most international students choose to rent a house near the school, and I also rent a quiet house to live in.
In my first year in Spain, I was fascinated by the freshness of the local cuisine and tasted many specialties with great interest. After some comparison, I think that the Chinese diet is superior, and the Chinese food is more suitable for my appetite. I started cooking Chinese food at home and honed my life skills.
Studying at Carlos III University of Madrid as an undergraduate, majoring in business management, the tuition fee is about 50,000 yuan a year, and the living expenses are about 100,000 yuan a year, which adds up to 150,000 a year, and it costs about 600,000 yuan for four years.
When I was a graduate student at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, the tuition fee for studying international trade was a little more expensive, about 100,000 yuan a year, but the cost of living remained unchanged, still 100,000 yuan a year. Thankfully, graduate students in Spain only study for one year.
I studied in a foreign country for a total of 5 years and spent a total of 800,000 yuan. I feel that it is still very cost-effective, not only to learn well, but also to pay much more than many countries.
(Translated for Cuban officials in Shanghai, August 2019)
While studying carefully, I experienced the different foreign cultures here and saw the customs that are completely different from China.
I grew up living in China, and the people around me had a very traditional lifestyle. Studying abroad was my first time abroad, and I was amazed at the "open" culture in this country.
In Spain, there are no mandatory requirements, and if a man and a woman are not married, children can also be allowed to live in the household.
What struck me the most was that society encourages all kinds of people to love each other and recognize homosexuality. Spain itself has legal protection for homosexuality, and homosexuals can register their marriage.
At that time, I had a male classmate who was very close to me. He majored in Audiovisual Media Arts, and once he wanted to invite me and my friend to be actors and help him shoot a short film.
He told me that he needed a few boys and a few girls, and I agreed and found a few of my boys and girls to help him shoot.
(St. George's Day, Barcelona, Spain, August 2022)
The short film was shot well. After the shooting, he naturally told me that he had a good impression of one of the Chinese boys I brought and wanted to make friends with him to see if he could develop into a boyfriend.
This art student is Spanish, and his usual behavior is a bit feminine, but I didn't expect him to have such a habit before. I was a little surprised, but in Spain people think it's normal.
When I was in China, I had very few gay friends around me, and after going abroad, I witnessed this phenomenon, and I was greatly affected by the culture shock, lamenting that foreigners' thinking is indeed different from that of Chinese.
After spending a long time in Spain, I gradually adapted to this phenomenon and focused more on learning, hoping to learn advanced concepts and gain more.
When I came up with the idea of starting a business during my studies, I began to look out for opportunities.
I have tried a variety of things: I have done daigou, recommended distinctive Spanish products to friends, taught Spanish Chinese, and worked as a live-in teacher to teach children Chinese in rich Spanish families. I have become more fluent in Spanish with the locals, and I have also worked as an interpreter for officials at important events.
These attempts have greatly improved my whole person's ability.
Many friends saw my progress and asked me to share my study abroad experience, and I started to publish my story on the platform.
From scratch in early 2022, I have gained nearly 6,000 followers so far, and each note has many favorites and likes.
(I'm in Shanghai)
After graduating from graduate school, I returned to China and worked for a pharmaceutical company in my hometown of Shijiazhuang, where I was responsible for translating and writing documents.
After working for a while, I found this job boring and I couldn't learn anything. Half a year later, my family and I decided to quit the job.
Young people, there should be more attempts.
I thought at the time, I know Spanish and English, I have 5 years of study abroad experience, thousands of fans on the self-media platform, and I often receive some inquiries about studying in Spain in the background, so I can use this resource and interact well with fans.
Everyone has this need, so I simply opened a study abroad agency and set up a study abroad studio.
With the idea in mind, I immediately found a Chinese classmate I knew when I was studying abroad, and he also wanted to start a business. After planning with him, we came to beautiful Hangzhou and opened this studio.
I post advertisements on self-media platforms to promote our study abroad studio.
In June 2023, I made a campaign to help 100 girls study in Spain. After the post was published, it received a lot of attention.
Soon more than 100 people sent me private messages asking about studying in Spain. They became my first customers.
(Post "I want to help 100 girls study in Spain")
Among them is a 39-year-old woman who works in a bank, her job is stable and her income is high, but she doesn't want to live a 9-to-51 life anymore, she wants to experience a different foreign culture, and she wants to study abroad.
After receiving her, I started to help her apply to study abroad, and fortunately, her student visa was successfully approved, and she is now studying languages in Spain.
There is also a 27-year-old female white-collar worker working in Shanghai, who is very good, graduated from 985 bachelor's degree in China and master's degree in the UK. Shanghai's fast-paced lifestyle made her feel a lot of pressure and wanted to immigrate to Europe for a different way of life.
She wants to settle down in the area by studying for a master's degree. After carefully understanding her situation, I helped her apply for a master's degree in a well-known business school in Spain, got an offer, and will go abroad in September this year.
Our studio has helped these girls with good intentions and helped them successfully study abroad, and I feel a sense of accomplishment in my work and full of confidence in the future of the studio.
(December 2023 to help female students get admission to Spanish universities)
While satisfying customers, I have implemented the concept of strict cost control in the operation of the studio, which minimizes marketing risks.
The start-up capital of the studio is not much, and it is almost a start-up without capital, and the biggest cost is the cost of our time.
We mainly do online teaching, which is an online studio, and after communicating with customers, we will lead customers from online to private domain for transactions.
There is no monetary cost involved in this period, and more of our time is paid, and I think we have done a good job in this area.
But after all, it is the first time for us to do this kind of large-scale entrepreneurial project, and many problems are not very clear, and my family works in the system and cannot provide business experience.
My partner and I came up with various plans to explore how the studio should publish marketing content online and how to cooperate with the school, and spent a lot of effort on how to do a good job in this project.
In order to get better publicity results, I decided to continue my studies and enrolled in some self-media marketing courses, looking forward to better career development.
(I'm in Hangzhou)
At the same time, in order to expand business and gain more customers, we continue to promote on multiple platforms. More and more friends have come to know us and want to know more about studying in Spain, hoping that we can help them achieve their wishes.
For those who are interested in studying in Spain, we generally recommend learning Spanish before going. If the standard of Spanish is not met, we will recommend him to apply for a program taught in English in Spain.
For each client, we provide detailed solutions to fulfill their dream of studying abroad.
Through this year's entrepreneurship, our professional services have been well received by customers, and now we have successfully signed more than 20 customers and started to make money.
This is the result of our beginnings, and I'm quite satisfied.
(I'm in Hangzhou)
My original intention in doing this was to help more girls study abroad and find another ideal way of life. I think it's a rewarding career.
When I started my career, the slogan was "I want to help 100 girls study in Spain". It's an honor that there are so many girls who are willing to believe in us and sign with us.
The number of 100 girls is slowly being achieved, and I hope to achieve the goal of 100 girls as soon as possible in the future, and continue to develop new business segments.
I felt very brave that I left my hometown to realize my dream of starting my own business, dragged my suitcase to Hangzhou, where I didn't know anyone, opened a study abroad studio, found partners, and finalized plans and products, and now I have done it all.
It's like when I was in school and wanted to see the world, I walked through Cannes, Geneva, Montreux, Zurich...... Walking through the streets and alleys of various places, I feel free and alive.
I never know where my next stop will be, but I will always have my next stop!
[Dictation: Zhao Xiaochen]
[Written by: Teresa Teng]
[Editor: Xiaoqi]
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(*This article is based on the oral statements of the parties, and the authenticity is the responsibility of the oral narrator.) Friendly reminder from this account: Please identify the relevant risks by yourself, and do not blindly follow the trend to make impulsive decisions. ）