To survive in the cracks, cross-border companies choose to move into "old, dilapidated and small" houses

Anyone who has been a boss knows that it is really difficult to start a company. The various monthly expenses can be overwhelming, with rent and labor costs being the two biggest expenses.

In order to save as much money as possible in the early stages of starting a business, "smart" Chinese bosses can always come up with various ways to save money, and how to save on high office rent is one of the important issues.

“The company I was interviewing for is in the building next door.”

Since the company announced its dissolution in early October, Li Hao has been actively looking for interview opportunities. As a Facebook advertising optimizer with many years of experience, Li Hao did not expect this year's employment winter to come so early.

After submitting a lot of resumes through job search software, although I received many interview invitations, most of them did not meet my expectations. Either the salary was too low or the job position did not match me.

After a period of time, Li Hao still didn't get an offer he wanted. As a last resort, Li Hao relaxed his job search standards and applied to many small companies at once.

Within two days, Li Hao received an interview invitation. To his surprise, the company was actually hidden in the old residential area where he rented a house.

Thinking that he was free, Li Hao made an appointment with the company's HR for an interview. On the day of the interview, Li Hao went downstairs of the company according to the information on the recruitment software.

"It's closer than I thought." said Li Hao.

When he arrived at the company gate, he rang the doorbell, and looked around after entering. Li Hao found that the layout of this "company" was similar to his own rental house. There were a few people sitting scattered around the room, concentrating on their work.

Li Hao walked into a room that was used as a reception room and sat down to wait for the next interview. Different from the interview process he had experienced before, this company skipped the HR interview and the boss came directly to talk to Li Hao, as if to show that he "valued" talents.

During the interview, the boss talked to Li Hao about the issue of product selection for independent sites, and said that Li Hao’s previous product selection was a bit limited, and he could broaden his horizons in the future.

Finally, the boss asked Li Hao if he had any questions about the company. Li Hao was thinking, why is the company located in such an old and dilapidated residential building? Is there any unspeakable secret? But what he asked was, "Does the company's performance curve this year meet your expectations?"

The boss smiled awkwardly after hearing this, and it seemed unnecessary to give a clear answer. In the end, both parties ended this slightly awkward interview with polite words.

After returning home, Li Hao breathed a sigh of relief and lay down on the bed. Suddenly, he discovered that he could see the company meeting room where he had just been for an interview through the bedroom window. He was so scared that he quickly closed the curtains.

"I wonder if the people in their company will secretly glance at me through the window when they have nothing to do." Li Hao thought to himself.

There was still no progress in finding a job, but Li Hao seemed less anxious. Seeing the boss who would rather open a business in a residential building than go through the hard work of starting a business, Li Hao suddenly felt that his current predicament was nothing at all.

In order to survive, more and more companies move into "old, dilapidated and small" houses

A random search on the job search software will show that many companies are located in residential areas, and their offices are just two small rooms that have been simply decorated in the residential building. The living room is separated into an office area by a few tables and partitions, and the two bedrooms have become meeting rooms and tea rooms.

According to Beibei, an overseas social media operator, he was hired by a wig brand company through an internal referral in 2022. The company was located in a residential building in the south of Zhengzhou. At that time, there were only 4 or 5 people in the company, including himself, and he basically had to take on multiple roles every day.

Although the work is very tiring, the relationships between people in the company are very good. There is none of the intrigue that occurs in big companies. Over time, I got used to this working model.

According to Beibei, the company was originally located in a high-end office building in the city center. However, as the overall environment has deteriorated in the past two years, the boss could not stand the pressure and decided to move the company to the current residential area.

In addition to the need to relocate, the original team of 20 people has been reduced to only 4 or 5 people. After such a drastic reform, the company has a chance to breathe.

Since Beibei joined the company, the company seems to be getting back on track. In the past year, the sales of Amazon and the independent website have rebounded significantly. When talking about future plans, the boss of this company said that if there is a chance, he would consider moving back to the office building, but it may take some time for the company to grow.

It's not that the office is unaffordable, it's that residential buildings are more cost-effective

Many young people who start their own businesses now start with a studio, and their office is in their own rented house. A desk and a computer are the basic configuration.

In pursuit of the ultimate cost-effectiveness, few people now rent an office at the beginning of their business, and even compromise options such as shared office spaces are directly passed over.

It is understood that Mr. and Mrs. Wang, who just started working on Amazon this year, began their entrepreneurial journey in their own home after completing all the procedures required to open a store.

At the beginning, Xiao Wang and his wife each operated a store. The daily workload was not very large. With their previous work experience, both stores became profitable after a few months.

But soon, Xiao Wang's store reached a bottleneck period, and sales have not been able to achieve a breakthrough. Xiao Wang thought that maybe he could copy the existing model to open more stores, but this means that he would need to hire more people.

The couple now works from home. Considering that it might not be convenient to work from home if they want to recruit people, and their cash flow is not very abundant, after comprehensive consideration, Xiao Wang and his wife decided to rent a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment in the same community as the company's office.

After finding a good place, the new office was quickly decorated in the simplest style. At the same time, Xiao Wang and his wife were also actively looking for suitable employees, or business partners.

By November this year, Xiao Wang's company had grown to 6 people. Xiao Wang said that the company was not considering expansion for the time being, after all, the office was not big and there would not be enough space if more people were added.

Although I earn more money now, I also have to shoulder the burden of management, which is more stressful than when I was a husband-and-wife shop. "If the market is not good in the future, I may consider closing the company and returning to the model of running a shop with two people," Xiao Wang said.

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