After Closure, 700 Million Won Sales with Duck Jumulreok... "Cheer Up, COVID-19 Small Business Owners"

Source=Ministry of SMEs and Startups website

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] Kang Hosoon, who ran a galbitjip (Korean short rib restaurant) with her husband for 15 years, closed the business due to management difficulties caused by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis. Despite the challenging circumstances, she maintained her determination to restart a business and traveled nationwide benchmarking popular restaurants. In 1999, she founded the duck specialty restaurant 'Donggang Ori' and established it as a popular dining spot with annual sales of 700 million KRW through fresh ingredients, menu standardization, and management based on consumer analysis.

Yoon Eunhyun started an advertising promotional materials production business in 2002. Having low business understanding at the time of startup, she faced financial difficulties and closed the business in 2004. She even became a credit delinquent due to financial hardship. However, holding hope for the future, she applied for credit recovery through the Credit Recovery Committee and diligently followed the credit recovery process for six years. After restoring her credit in 2010, she was employed at a steel structure manufacturing company and learned various skills. In 2016, she founded 'Yonghyeon Industry' and converted it into a corporation in 2019. The company manufactures steel structures and supplies them to construction companies, with annual sales reaching 2.7 billion KRW.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 24th that it will produce videos showcasing small business owners who have successfully restarted their businesses and share them through channels such as YouTube. To boost the crisis-overcoming spirit of small business owners struggling due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a total of 10 videos will be released from the 24th of this month to October 28.

This is the first time the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has produced and released videos featuring small business owners who have successfully restarted their businesses. Previously, only success stories of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were disclosed.

For the production of these small business success story videos, 80 cases of small business owners’ successful restarts were collected from 12 regional SME offices, the Small Enterprise and Market Service, regional credit guarantee foundations, the Integrated Support Center for Low-income Finance, and related local government agencies. From the first round of collected cases, 10 final stories were selected for the videos based on factors such as post-failure situations, efforts to restart, and degree of empathy.

The produced videos will be released on the YouTube channels of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small Business Broadcasting Information Center, as well as by YouTuber Taeyong, who has 200,000 subscribers. In particular, YouTuber Taeyong personally visits the sites and conducts interviews with the protagonists about the causes of failure, crisis overcoming and reestablishment processes, and success factors, producing approximately 5-minute videos.

Park Eunju, head of the Small Business Management Support Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Although the difficulties of small business owners have increased due to COVID-19, we will strive to produce quality videos that can brighten the hope of small business owners for restarting their businesses." She added, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will become a reliable support for small business owners by providing a one-stop system that supports closure, employment, and reestablishment, allowing small business owners in crisis to seek help with confidence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.