Around 2010, I was still just a factory owner.
I could not speak English.
I did not understand international trade.
Even sending an email required asking an employee to help write it.
But I still made one decision:
To build my own export company.
Many people would probably think:
"Isn't that reckless?"
But more than ten years later, our factory now has stable export orders every year, a growing international customer base, and a team that expanded from only a few people into dozens of employees.
I did not win because I started ahead of others.
I won because every mistake eventually became a rule inside the company.
01 | Every Crisis Also Creates an Opportunity
In 2009, during the global financial crisis, I attended an exhibition in Shanghai.
I did not expect much.
But after the exhibition, I realized something important:
Very few factories in mainland China were manufacturing automotive repair tools specifically for export markets.
Taiwan suppliers existed. Mainland suppliers were rare.
At that time, we became one of the earliest Chinese factories producing automotive specialty tools according to export standards.
Foreign trade companies began approaching us for supply cooperation. Some customers even helped guide us on how to improve products according to overseas market requirements.
I could not speak English.
But our products were still scarce in the market.
And sometimes, being early is already a competitive advantage.
Entering a market is never about being fully prepared first.
You prepare by entering.
02 | Our First Export Salesperson Went 18 Months Without a Single Order
As production capacity expanded, our original sales channels were no longer enough.
So I made what felt like a natural decision:
Hire a foreign trade salesperson.
If I could not speak English, someone else needed to.
I hired our first export salesperson and gave full support and trust.
The result?
For the first year and a half, there was not a single order.
Of course I considered replacing the person.
But in the end, I chose patience.
Because I understood one thing:
In B2B export business, a customer may take one year or even longer from first inquiry to first order.
If I replaced employees every time there were no quick results, we would stay trapped forever at the starting line - always rebuilding, always restarting.
Then in the second half of the second year, the first independently developed customer finally placed an order.
At the 2010 exhibition, we collected stacks of business cards.
The team reached operational balance and began generating profit.
The first real barrier in foreign trade is not ability.
It is patience.
03 | Losing Over 20,000 RMB on 1688 Taught Me a Lifetime Rule
This was one of my earliest lessons.
At that time, I personally operated product listings on 1688 and tried developing customers directly.
One buyer from Malaysia contacted us.
He spoke Chinese.
The purchase intention seemed strong.
Negotiations went back and forth many times.
I wanted the order badly.
The customer sent a bank transfer slip claiming payment had already been made.
I could not read English documents clearly, so I asked someone to help verify it. They told me everything looked fine.
So we shipped the goods.
One week later, the customer disappeared.
More than 20,000 RMB worth of products were gone.
That experience created one permanent company rule:
No deposit, no shipment.
That rule cost us over 20,000 RMB to learn.
Later, we gradually developed the payment structure we still use today:
30% advance deposit
70% balance before shipment or before cargo arrival
This system protects both sides with real financial commitment.
And because the rules are clear, cooperation actually becomes smoother.
Since then, no exception has ever broken this principle.
No matter how convincing the customer sounds.
No matter how real the payment proof appears.
Without advance payment, there is no shipment.
04 | Is Not Speaking English Really a Weakness?
I seriously thought about this question later.
The disadvantages were real:
The boss could not communicate directly with overseas customers
Key customer relationships could become dependent on employees
Staff turnover could create customer risks
But I eventually discovered something unexpected:
Because I was not personally handling frontline sales every day, our salespeople actually had more space to develop independently.
And I also did not need to wake up at midnight replying to emails.
So instead of trying to turn my weakness into a strength, I built systems around it.
My responsibilities became:
Factory management
Product development
Resource coordination
The sales team handled customer communication.
And the company operated through rules and processes - not personal trust alone.
You do not need to become good at everything.
You only need to place the right abilities in the right positions.
05 | After More Than Ten Years, I Summarized Everything Into Four Principles
1. Keep Learning
When starting from zero, you must actively learn.
Markets change.
Customer demands change.
If your understanding stops updating, you are already falling behind.
2. Always Think About the Customer
I may not communicate with customers directly every day.
But customers can still feel whether your products are made with sincerity.
Real care cannot be faked.
And it cannot be hidden either.
3. Build Strong Control Systems
Clear rules and processes should exist before problems happen.
Fixing problems afterward is always more expensive.
Prevention costs less than repair.
4. Build Differentiated Core Products
If your products offer something competitors do not have, customers and distributors will continue needing you.
Products are always the foundation of business.
Without strong products, marketing alone means very little.
Final Thoughts
A factory owner who could not speak English and knew nothing about export business still spent more than ten years building a stable international business.
Not through luck.
Not through language advantages.
But through systems, patience, learning, and continuous improvement.
The biggest mistakes have already been made.
The hardest roads have already been walked.
What remains today is not complaint.
It is a set of operating principles that still guide the company every day:
Keep learning.
Think about customers.
Build systems.
Focus relentlessly on products.
For anyone considering starting export business - or already struggling through it - these four ideas may matter more than any shortcut.
