Gold finger

Zhou Shengjun prefers the title of teacher to that of boss. Whether professor or employer, passion for his work is evident - perhaps the reason he looks much younger than his 60 years.

His enthusiasm is not only for business, but also bringing a sense of beauty to what he does, and he tasks his 20,000 employees to do the same.

The founder and CEO of Chongqing Goldenlady Co Ltd is now the trendsetter in wedding photography in China, with the greatest number of outlets using the most advanced equipment.

Goldenlady was named one of China's well-known brands in 2006, the first and only in the industry. Zhou himself was honored as the most influential person in China's wedding photography business segment.

His chain of 300 stores in 75 cities nationwide generated more than 800 million yuan in turnover last year.

But Zhou is not entirely satisfied."I strongly believe that there is more potential," he says.

In addition to his ambition for continued expansion in the number of stores and brands, he plans to invest 500 million yuan to build a wedding park in downtown Chongqing this year.

The site will include jewelry and cosmetics stores, a wedding bazaar, romantic cafes for lovers and restaurants for nuptial banquets, a church for weddings, a premium office building and even a five-star hotel for honeymoons. It will be the first one-stop complex to accommodate the almost 100,000 couples who are married in the municipality every year.

The compound's five-floor, 13,000 sq m buildings, complete with a local marriage registry office, are expected to grow Goldenlady's annual revenue to 1.2 billion yuan, Zhou says.

According to the Chongqing Wedding Trade Association, the average cost of a wedding has reached 80,000 to 100,000 yuan in the city.

"Weddings will be a bigger and bigger market in China. An integrated chain will be the ideal business model for Goldenlady," says Zhou.

"For me and Goldenlady, it's not sufficient just to develop our current business. We still have to do a lot for new businesses and to perfect our line-up," Zhou says with confidence.

"Being ahead of the mass is my weapon to win. So I have to grab this opportunity right now," he adds.

Zhou was born to a poor family in Chongqing and from the age of 14 had to earn his living as a cook.

When he was 30 he had the opportunity to work in a State-owned photo studio - and shortly became the assistant manager.

Yet he soon felt a secure job for life is "meaningless, unchallenging and unattractive". The idea of carving out his own business began to take form.

 

Zhou Shengjun answers How do you evaluate a new idea? It's a learning endeavor. We need and we develop through continuous innovation. What's most significant in your enterprise? Talent. I always pay attention to finding talent, training talent and providing opportunities for talent. What do you like to read? Always wedding magazines. I subscribe to nearly all wedding magazines in different languages. I always go abroad to visit wedding veil fashion shows. Goldenlady should never drop behind the current fashion. What are your hobbies? Swimming, karaoke, golf and everything related to weddings. I still swim every day, which keeps me fit and young.

After visiting Hong Kong twice in 1982, he realized wedding photography might be a big business on the mainland in the near future, although in early 1980s, Chinese wedding photos were not elaborate, only showing the couple from the waist up.

But he didn't start with married couples - rather with their offspring.

In 1985 he brought 18 trunks full of toys and equipment from Hong Kong to prepare for his new career. The next year, his photography studio for children, the first of the kind, debuted in Chongqing.

The business flourished and gave him the confidence to start a larger company,

In 1989, he persuaded two Taiwanese businessmen, two from Hong Kong and one from Chengdu to invest in his idea for a professional wedding photography company.

"Every one of us put in at least $10,000 to make up the start-up capital of $65,000 to open a 380-sq-m studio with 19 staff members," recalls Zhou.

"The name of Goldenlady means our customers will have a happy and substantial life after their marriage," says Zhou. The name also reflects the founders' best wishes for their own brand.

His company was the first example of local government support to private business in Chongqing and also the first professional photography studio for weddings in China.

But Goldenlady suffered a loss in the first year, as most local newlyweds were unwilling to pay triple their monthly salaries for a set of wedding photos.

"I suddenly realized survival was much more important" than a high profit margin, says Zhou. "In an inland city, we could not have a price of 398 yuan per set like people in Guangzhou can pay. We had to get a stable foothold in Chongqing first," says Zhou.

After lowering the price to 98 yuan per couple, Zhou and his partners saw business increase by 60 percent the second year.

He still remembers the prosperity of the studio in 1992 after it relocated and doubled in size.

"At that time, newlyweds queued outside from seven o'clock in the morning. Some customers even spent two or three days on boats from remote districts of Wanzhou, Fuling and Three Gorges to Chongqing for only a wedding photo," says Zhou proudly.

Goldenlady opened its second branch in Chongqing in 1993, then went on to other cities. By the late 1990s, it had more than 50 chain stores around the nation, with annual revenue of over 20 million yuan.

Yet a crisis followed. Shareholders who worked together for seven years split because of differing visions for the future.

"When my partners quit, they got a return of 50 times of their original investment," Zhou says.

Now with dominant control of Goldenlady, Zhou decided to focus on the wedding photography segment and "make it bigger and stronger brand".

He invested 80 million yuan in 2004 to purchase six floors of New York Plaza, a landmark building in central Chongqing, with a total store floor space of 6,000 sq m Goldenlady's two-floor flagship became an eye-catching shop front along the pedestrians street.

"Then, for a long-term development, I made a very correct decision - standardization. Only under standard management and services, can the brand live a long life," he says.

The standards guarantee the quality of Goldenlady's services, he says. "We still have our photo judging and evaluation meeting every morning."

We established the approach of inviting customers to assess our staff and give feedback on every procedure in our service," says Zhou. "Their opinions help Goldenlady achieve its targets to meet customer's expectations."

More than 60 percent of his clients are introduced to Goldenlady by their friends, he adds.

His standardized management also attracted attention from international players in the industry.

"Japan's Studio Alice Co Ltd, the only listed photography company in the world, visited our headquarters for three times last year. They were surprised by our (highly advanced) equipment and management," says Zhou.

Accolades from his peers give Zhou more confidence to formulate his ideal model - a diverse and integrated business line-up for the wedding industry.

The business leader has now begun a custom-tailored wedding veil company and those for other products, a photography training school, an advertising photography studio, a digital center, an album factory, a frame factory, film developing studio and a management company.

"For further expansion, I encourage my staff to open their own businesses under Goldenlady, not only chain stores, but also new brands in photography, " says Zhou.

He also reveals that "four venture capital companies have contacted me about investing".

"They required me to develop 5,000 more stores in a very short time. But I don't think it's time to expand so fast. As I did during my past years, I will continue to realize a business chain step by step."

Those steps have now taken him overseas. Zhou has opened his first store abroad in Toronto and is "preparing a second in New York".

(China Daily 01/05/2008 page12)