Jiang Naijun is selling corn cobs in her store. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan)

Jiang Naijun whips a corn cob from the pot, hands it to the customer with a grin and gestures to a QR code for payment. This 98-year-old shopkeeper might look like an ordinary grandmother, but she has been a beggar, a factory worker, and the founder of a multi-million dollar company. Now this nonagenarian is the benefactor of an orphanage.

Jiang donates the profits from her small grocery store to an orphanage. When she began the social enterprise last year her initial capital was entirely crowd-funded.

"My kids were unanimously against my decision at first, for a reason obvious to them," she said, smoothing her silver hair.

The store yields a net profit of 5,000 yuan (786 U.S. dollars) every month. Jiang takes 40 percent for reproduction and dividends, and donates the rest.

Jiang is visiting an orphanage. (Courtesy of Jiang Naijun)

"When I was reduced to begging on the street, I was saved by the kindness of strangers," Jiang said, it is time for her to be that stranger.

This new endeavour,however, is not first time that she has started a business from scratch; "That was when I was 66 years old," Jiang said.

Despite her years toiling in the cotton factory, when she retired her family were still poor. So she turned her hands to engraving copper tablets. "I carved those characters with these two hands," she said.

Over the 30 years that followed, her small workshop grew into an enterprise worth over 100 million yuan (15.71 million U.S. dollars). She has since handed the company over to her son, but -- once again -- Jiang knew retirement was not for her.

Jiang is busy organizing commodities in the store. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan)

As early as 2003, she had been supporting some 100 children in an orphanage with her pension from the cotton factory. "I started my last business to keep my kids from starving, and this one for a better life for the orphaned," she said.

She is going to visit the orphanage on Children's Day with the recent income from the store. Children there are in dire need of basics like formula milk.

"Just like business, charity needs to gain momentum bit by bit," she said.

Jiang is entertaining a custormer. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan)

Her 4-year-old great-grandson is already following in her footsteps. He chipped in with his pocket money, and received dividends as the youngest share-holder of the store.

"Youngsters nowadays tend to live on their parents' allowance," Jiang said, "but the sweetest pie is always self-made."