A young man selling tiramisu in an once quiet street in Guizhou

BEIJING, November 1 (TMTPOST) --Young people are joining middle-aged and the elderly in operating street food cart businesses, lemon tea stands, cupcake trunk businesses and decoration booths in either teeming metropolises like Beijing or remote towns in China

A girl making lemon tea was an office lady three months ago. Another girl selling barbecued beef was an architect. A guy selling deserts from the car trunk resigned from a permanent position of a state-owned company. Another guy selling lamb skewers on the curbside was a programmer in a big internet company. They left office cubicals for different reasons and now are selling different stuff on the roadside but they have one thing in common: they started a job that seemingly had nothing to do with their university education.

Being a roadside business operator is no longer regarded as a low-end or odd job. Some young people see it as mini entrepreneurship. Others see it as an experimental between-jobs experience. A few get rich overnight.   

The young and educated, who operate roadside businesses, are willing to share their story on social media. If they get lucky, they attract many followers and subsequently sales. The following are a few stories on social media that serve as a source of inspiration to many others.   

Revenues Come on Heels of Becoming Online Celebrity

At 7 pm, Zhang Lan, who prefers a pseudonym, drove his car to a quiet alley near the shopping mall in the heart of Kaili city, Guizhou. He opened the trunk, put lights on his car, spread checkered cloth, put slices of deserts on the cloth and put a cotton banner on the car.  

He made only one type of desert—tiramisu. He can make tiramisu with over 20 flavors. But it depends on his mood when it comes to what flavors would be for sale. Quickly young consumers in this small city in southwestern China noticed this fashionable young guy.  

He used the name “Mr. W” on his social media account. He collected hundreds or even thousands of “likes”after he posted videos showing his business.  Young locals came to this new “tourist attraction”. They took selfies and bought a slice of tiramisu.

In less than two weeks, Zhang became famous in his city. A long line appeared in front of his car. He sold all his deserts in about one hour.

There was only Zhang’s trunk business in that dark alley at night. Now it is a busy alley as many young people have joined him. When Zhang started his night business, he was working a salesman in a bakery, with a monthly salary of RMB3,000 (about$xxx). As a trunk business operator, he could make that amount of money on a few nights. He was exhausted after working in the day and at night for a month. He decided to be “all-in” for the curbside business.     

However, he is still busy. In the day, he makes deserts and develop new flavors. He has a few apprentices and teach them how to bake. At night, he sells tiramisu. He also makes videos and post them on Douyin and Xiaohongshu. He also manages the community of his fans.

Livestreaming Lemon Tea Making

From day 1 of her roadside business, NaNa has been live broadcasting her daily work on Doyyin in her hometown -- Puning, Jieyang, Guangdong province, after resigning from a company in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province.

At around 9 pm, she and her younger sister rode an ivory tricycle to a busy street. They made and sold lemon then.

Lemon tea was the most popular drink in the summer of southern China. She had spent one month learning how to make lemon tea with various flavors.

“If you sell it only offline, not many people would notice you,” said NaNa. They would host livestreams, from her stand, chatting to her followers when she was not making or selling tea. They would tell them whether they are tired, how to make lemon tea and how the turnover is like.

It is not an easy job to sell lemon tea. They need to move materials and equipment to the tricycle and ride to the busy street. They need to squash the lemon and look after consumers. NaNa felt that she did all the manual labor that she had not done in the past 20 years. Online followers may give them gifts after seeing their hard work. But they have not received many. Two days ago, NaNa started to sell tea bags on her livestreaming site.  

Expanding Family Business 

Xiao Deng, a 24-year-old woman in Guangdong, has recently quit her job to help her mom with the beef soup stand. Her story has attracted over 40,000 fans on social media.

Her family has owned a food store for over 10 years. However, the revenue was not good due to poor decorations of the store and cheap food targeting construction workers.  Her mom said not much was left after the monthly rent and workers’ wages were paid.

Her parents used to chefs in high-end restaurants. Deng wanted to market her parents’delicious cuisine and lure more consumers to their food store.  

At 6 pm, Deng, her elder sister and her mom would push the food cart to a nearby bus stop, selling the beef soup. The business was so good on weekdays that a line was formed immediately. They would put a slip that reads the address of their store in the takeout bag. So on a rainy day or the days they could not go to the bus stop, customers can go to their food store.

Deng helped her mom design some dishes. Many customers reached her through her social media account. Although the profits are still low, their business is getting better.  

Looking back, Deng told herself: “I made a right decision by quitting from the office position.”

Some Make a Fortune

It is a common thing for young people to operate their roadside business while staying on social media.

Xiao Shao began to sell roasted sweet potatoes. He was in his 20s. His girlfriend told him that social media marketing is the key to a prosperous business. He signed up for Xiaohongshu, shared his daily business operations with online followers. He has recently planned to post his business activities on short-video platforms.

A roadside sweet potato stand

Online marketing works better for products like deserts, snacks and teas because they are often associated with high profit margins. If online marketing brings many offline customers, the business would take off immediately.

Zhang said the balance in his bank account surged from zero to 100,000 yuan in three months. In the busiest month, he made 60,000 yuan. After he became a celebrity, the majority of his income came from his paid lessons on how to make tiramisu.

NaNa and her younger sister have made a few thousands of dollars after recovering upfront investments in equipment, food materials and packaging materials. “My income was good in September but it declined in October,” she said. She attributed the decline to the seasonal difference.

Deng said the net profit margin of selling a beef soup is about 30% to 40%. They could rake in RMB500 to RMB800 a day on average. They made a lot of money in the two months.  

But not all food stands make money. Some lose money. They could not resell their expensive food-making equipment. Non-food roadside stands often generate much less money.