2020-02-01

Shenzhen SMEs: Even If We Can Operate, The Industry May Not

iFeng: 深圳中小企业主:我们如果能撑得住,产业链未必能撑得住
With the continuous spread of new coronavirus pneumonia, epidemic prevention and control work across the country is also in full swing; for countless small and medium-sized enterprises, the epidemic may have a huge negative impact. The operation of SMEs in the fields of tourism, retail, and manufacturing will be more difficult.

What is happening to SME owners in the epidemic? What expectations do they have for the future through the hills of suffering? How will the nearly closed business restart? They are engaged in different professions and have different life experiences, but they have spent together probably the most memorable New Year in their lives. In the face of a severe epidemic, hope is always precious. In order to record these true stories, Phoenix Finance Channel launched a series of "Businessmen in the Epidemic" series of reports, focusing on the small and medium-sized enterprises under the pneumonia epidemic, trying to restore the various business dilemmas and lives in the epidemic through the oral dictation .

This article is the first story in the series. The protagonist is a SME owner from a first-tier city engaged in the network communication industry.

01 "Stoppage is like closing the city, this is my worst plan"

"When Wuhan closed, I started to realize the seriousness of the matter."

This is the second public health incident that Chen Xi experienced during her lifetime. Although far away from the city 1,000 kilometers away from Wuhan, the spread of the epidemic is still surrounded by a series of unexpected events.

As the owner of a network communication company in Shenzhen, Chen Xi has two factories with nearly 600 employees. In her own words, the scale of 600 people is not large in the industry, but since the announcement of the closure of Wuhan on the 23rd, seeing With the rising number of confirmed cases, her heart was still hanging in the air.

"(The company's) entire supply chain is spread all over the country, including our customer base and end users. This is a one-off event." Chen Xi told Fenghuang.com, "From the epidemic itself and past experience, ' Closing the city is no longer as simple as closing a Wuhan city, and its impact will spread, affect and even endanger all first-tier cities. "

The factory shutdown was Chen Xi's worst plan. "The shutdown is like closing the city. All work and all factories will be shut down." When talking about the shutdown, her tone was indescribably helpless. "Once the time for the resumption of work is postponed, our plan for the whole year will go backwards. It ’s like a car accident on a highway. A 15-minute traffic jam does n’t just mean 15 minutes. (Its impact) is multiplied by 4 times. Similarly, the impact of a stoppage is not just a 10-day stoppage. The damage is so simple, it could be more than 4 times the loss. "

However, the epidemic is still around, and Chen Xi has no time to take into account the huge losses that may result from the shutdown. As a boss, she needs to strictly control and ensure that the 600 employees in her factory are not infected with the new coronavirus.

"Shenzhen is a place where a large number of foreigners come together. Most of the employees in all factories come from neighboring provinces. In addition to Hubei, there will be many intersections between employees in other provinces, so the infection will be much greater than expected." Chen Xi said. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, her nervous nerves did not dare to relax for a moment, and she let the production department manager to count the employees' nights. Hubei or Hubei has not been used for factory construction temporarily. All employees entering the dormitory must go through temperature checks and other checks To release.

But she also acknowledged that this is not a "one-size-fits-all policy". "There is no other way than the necessary personal protections, such as wearing a mask, disinfection, and daily temperature measurement." Chen Xi told Fenghuangwang Finance, "If Someone is in the middle of the virus incubation period and will still be affected. "

Chen Xi himself calculated and calculated that production would have to wait until June to fully recover to the level before the outbreak, and it would not be profitable for the entire year. "If there is no healthy running water, SMEs will not last for three months," she said.

02 "As long as people and businesses live, there is always hope"

Regardless of life or work, Chen Xi is a ritualistic person. She has been in the Spring Festival in Shenzhen for more than ten years since she started business; every year on New Year's Eve, she will post couplets at the factory, and when she starts, she will definitely set off a few firecrackers. "When the fireworks are started every year, the moment of hope is ignited."

This year's Spring Festival is obviously a bit more complicated for her.

"Forget it, after the factory issued the year-end award, the money on the account was only enough for two months of basic expenditures." Chen Xi told reporters, "In the past, I lost money in the first quarter, and the possibility of a tie was earned in the second quarter. No. Only hope that the country will be able to completely control the epidemic in February. "

The indefinite shutdown is not a long-term solution, and Chen Xi knows that once the epidemic cannot be controlled, the first thing the factory does is to open source and reduce expenditure. "(The factory) will definitely lay off staff, and the proportion of unemployed will rise accordingly. Small and medium-sized enterprises are different from state-owned enterprises. We all have our own funds and no one endorses us. This is like parents. Your parents cannot borrow When it comes to money, you have to cut back on food and clothing. It used to be that you had three meals a day and two meals a day. "

"It is false to say no anxiety." Chen Xi said gravely. "Now as long as a business owner will be anxious, including workers, he will also be anxious if he does not go to work for a few months without income. This is something everyone will worry about."

Regarding how long the factory could survive the epidemic, Chen Xi did not give an accurate answer at the end of the interview. "If we can support it, our industrial chain may not be able to support it; each product has a subdivided industrial chain, and a family that cannot support it will have an impact." She then made an analogy, "Any one People are all gears moving forward. I am a large gear. He is a small gear or a medium gear. Any gear that disappears will have an impact. "

The dilemma facing Chen Xi is not alone. But in the face of a severe epidemic, hope is always precious-in order to overcome the difficulties, many industry associations and grass-roots governments have also stepped forward and issued initiatives to reduce rents for SMEs to the majority of real estate owners.

On January 30, Shenzhen Longgang District Industry and Information Technology Bureau issued an initiative to the owners and operators of the parks in the jurisdiction to appropriately reduce or exempt rents to reduce the burden on enterprises in the area. On January 31, Shenzhen Nanshan Industry and Information Technology Bureau launched an initiative to the owners and landlords of Nanshan District, advocating industrial parks, office building owners, property managers and operators in Nanshan District, especially state-owned enterprises and communities in Nanshan District. The joint stock company takes the lead to properly reduce or exempt rents, property management and other expenses for enterprises and tenants who have delayed resumption of work, and alleviate the burden of enterprises who have delayed resumption of work...


At this time of year, in Chen Xi's circle of friends, there are all kinds of texts and photos to celebrate the start of the factory. Recording these moments has become her habit of thundering for years. "As long as people and businesses are alive, there is always hope." Chen Xi would mention this sentence from time to time on Weibo. She was reminding others and she was reminding herself.

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