Veterans winning fight to start online businesses

Opportunity knocks

Opportunity arrived unexpectedly for Chen Honggang, a veteran from Wuchang, Heilongjiang province, Northeast China, who left the People's Liberation Army Navy in 2004 after serving for five years.

In 2010, he established an online rice retailing business, having spent four years working in several cities selling components for electronic devices, and two years caring for his sick parents.

One day when he was surfing the net he discovered that people were selling rice online.

"I thought, 'Why don't I sell rice?' After all, Wuchang rice is famous nationwide," he said. He quit his job and returned to Wuchang to set up his online store.

"Opportunities often appear unexpectedly, and you need to be alert to them. I think all our veterans should have high levels of awareness," he said.

Chen Kunyuan's lack of experience resulted in occasional confusion.

"I could only talk about vegetables when other entrepreneurs were discussing business models and management," he said, adding that he quickly realized he needed to learn many things after founding his company.

Because his education ended at high school, he still attends business and technical lectures at a college to improve his knowledge of management and marketing. Most of his classmates have bachelor's or master's degrees.

He won many honors in the People's Armed Police, which he believed would ensure he got a good job when he left the force. Instead, the gap between civilian and forces life hit him hard, leaving him puzzled and disturbed when he worked as a security guard and driver.

"I wondered what I could do to change my life, and I wanted to change the stereotypical jobs for veterans, such as security guards and drivers," he said.

He firmly believes in the power of education: "To continue learning and never take shortcuts is the quickest route to success. I hope other veterans can change their way of thinking as soon as possible and learn as much as they can."

Despite his background as a maintenance technician in the PLA Navy, Chen Honggang struggled to find work because different companies required different skills. He worked for companies that made electronic components and home appliances for four years, but realized that he would have to acquire new skills in his free time.

When he left the armed forces, he knew little about the internet because service personnel are not allowed to use the web. Moreover, as a member of the PLA Navy, he was often away at sea for months at a time, sometimes even a year, he said.

He was curious the first time he saw people selling and buying goods on an online store, so he bought some items.

"It was all quite new for me, so I wondered if maybe I could also become an online retailer," he said. Though he tried everything he could think of to learn how to start an online store, it was tough because many of the concepts were too abstract for him to understand.

He now rents about 0.13 square kilometers of land in Wuchang, where an employee grows the rice he sells. Chen Honggang's next goal is to learn more about agricultural science to improve the quality of his crops.