Zou Tong, founder of the flower art brand Try More, or Hua Yang Sheng Zhang, literally meaning "growing like flowers," took part in an international women's entrepreneurship and innovation summit held in Beijing at the end of 2019.

In addition to participating in the entrepreneurship event, Zou saw her brand become a partner of the summit for flower design.

Zou has more than 10 years of entrepreneurial experience. Majoring in e-commerce, she opened an online flower shop on Taobao, a major online shopping website, when she was in her freshman year. She called her customers "flower fans."

After graduating from the university, with the money earned from her online business, Zou decided to continue her flower business.

In 2010, she opened her first offline flower shop in Shijiazhuang, capital city of North China's Hebei Province. 

In 2016, she founded her mid-to-high-end flower art brand Try More, or Hua Yang Sheng Zhang, in Beijing, and the entrepreneurship project was selected into the Tsinghua x-lab incubator, a Tsinghua university-based education platform designed to develop students' creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Talking about the brand name, Zou explained, "I hope to make more friends through flowers and help women develop for better. The brand name highlights growth which conveys a dynamic, powerful and positive aspiration."

Over the past years, Zou was dedicated to sharing her entrepreneurial experience in support of her flower fans who want to start their own flower business. She held hundreds of floriculture salons and gave a number of online and offline lectures on flower art and flower shop operation and management in 2017-2018. 

On behalf of Tsinghua x-lab, Zou took part in the YaleWomen China event in 2017 and shared her stories of starting her businesses. In 2018, she won the award "Best Social Benefit Project" in a women's entrepreneurship and innovation projects' display event held by the Beijing Women's Federation.

She believes broadening horizon is important for women's development. She encourages her customers, or "flower fans," to share their special personal experiences with others, which helps expand vision for women, especially female college students.

At present, Zou has helped her "flower fans" open a number of flower shops in cities of Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Langfang, Beijing and Shanghai. "As long as they need me, I will try my best to give a helping hand," she said.

"Their trust on me is the driving force that pushes me to work hard. Watching their progress gives me a sense of accomplishment," Zou added.

Zou said everything she had achieved in the past 10-plus years comes from flowers, and in the next 10 years she would do something for flowers. "I will do my best to spread the culture of flower art, an ancient branch of Chinese culture, to the world," Zou concluded.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)