HK entrepreneur finds mainland success

Shawn Kwok, started iReborn Medical Beauty Outpatient Department in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in September 2019. It has developed it into a leader in the city's medical cosmetology industry. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hong Kong native Shawn Kwok, 27, built a successful business on the Chinese mainland and wants others in his hometown to know about the opporunities available.

Kwok started iReborn Medical Beauty Outpatient Department in September 2019 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and has turned it into a leader in the medical cosmetology industry in the city.

Since studying at Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Kwok has worked on several different business projects in education and catering. He tried a homestay hotel.

In 2012, after graduation from senior high school in Hong Kong, Kwok declined the offers of National Taiwan University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and chose to continue to study business administration and advertising at Jinan University.

"At first I failed to get support from my family members and friends as they were concerned about the differences between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, such as language and local customs, as well as my future development," he said. "I told them that I wanted to get more language, knowledge and relationships on the Chinese mainland where entrepreneurs can find huge markets and a good entrepreneurial environment."

A customer receives a treatment at iReborn Medical Beauty Outpatient Department in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

His point of view helped change the mind of his family members and friends, and he started his life in Guangdong.

"Before that, I had two short visits to the Chinese mainland," he said. "The memory about the visit during my childhood was already not clear and the other time was a visit to World Expo 2010 Shanghai, which brought me a deep impression of my powerful motherland."

Kwok said it was at that early point that he first got the idea of seeking development opportunities on the mainland in the future.

Kwok met his first difficulty on campus: All the teachers gave lessons in Mandarin, which made it hard to follow the lectures in the first year.

To ensure good communication with his teachers and classmates, Kwok spent lots of time practicing Mandarin.

"I participated in the university's emcee association and saw progress gradually after continuous practice," he said.

In his first year at the university, Kwok got a job at Internationale Nederlanden Group, one of the world's top 500 enterprises.

During a year's working in the group, his good performance brought him a salary of about 100,000 yuan ($15,660) each month, which allowed him to begin accumulating capital.

After getting some success in the business of a homestay hotel, an educational institute and milk tea chains, he began to look for some new business opportunities.

"In recent years, I have seen the rapid development of the medical cosmetology industry in China due to customers' growing demand for beauty," he said. "However, markets in first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have almost reached their saturation point, so it would be quite difficult to profit."

So Kwok chose Nanning as his new business location, as he found more opportunities and preferential policies.

"Nanjing is developing fast and has a high consumption level," he said. "I also found female consumers had more demand for beauty and were open to medical cosmetology."

"Located in Beibu Gulf Economic Zone and the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Nanning is also the permanent venue of the China-ASEAN Expo," he said. "Therefore, I have great confidence of success here in the future."

In September 2019, Kwok and his partners opened the iReborn Medical Beauty Outpatient Department with an investment of 12 million yuan.

Despite the influence of the COVID-19 over the past two years, they have seen gradual growth an reached annual revenue of 30 million yuan.

"I believe that there will be more development space for the industry and I will continue my efforts to find more opportunities in other cities in the future," he said. "I also want to tell my stories to more Hong Kong youths, making them aware of opportunities on the Chinese mainland and encouraging them to look for development opportunities here."