Ding Ye, a college graduate, quit his 200,000 yuan ($32,700) a year job and started a glass curtain wall company in Xi’an, Shaanxi province in 2011.

The non-structural walls provide an outer glass covering and are often seen in office blocks. With total sales of 39.6 million yuan, the company has firmly established itself but starting off was a different business altogether.

After his company finished an early project in Shenyang, Dalian province, it soon suffered a financial shortfall.

“Most of the workers in this project came from Jiangsu province. They couldn’t bear the temperatures of -20 C. So we doubled the wages,” he said, which of course added to the costs. “All sorts of pressures made it almost impossible for us to go on.”

His partners who had been working with him since the start left and money was so tight that for six months workers didn’t get their wages or salaries.

Then he applied for a 500,000 yuan loan from the Xi’an government. The government offers loans to people who started their own businesses after graduating from college.

“Though it was not a big sum of money, the 500,000 yuan turned the situation around and ended the chaos,” he said.

Now he is aiming to expand his business by exploring eco farming and cell phone games.