Student Question
What do you currently do? I work at a foreign company handling automotive parts trade and procurement.
What field are you in, and what problems are you facing? I’ve been in the automotive aftermarket space and have offline supplier resources and decent supply channels. The problem is I have no stable sales channel to monetize — sales are sporadic. I occasionally collaborate with friends where I handle the supply side and they handle the client side, but demand is inconsistent. I’m thinking about opening an Alibaba International store to do automotive parts export. The first year requires roughly 70,000 yuan in investment, which I don’t currently have. I’m on the fence about whether to move forward.
Who are the parties involved? Foreign trade clients, automotive parts distributors, automotive parts suppliers, Alibaba International, wealth consulting firms, banks, and freight forwarders.
What capabilities are needed? Foreign trade client acquisition, product management, supply chain management, risk identification and control.
What is the goal? To successfully launch a business through Alibaba International and initially hit monthly export revenue of around 120,000 yuan, with a net profit margin of 10%–30% — to earn more money and improve my family’s quality of life, including upgrading our home and car in Shanghai. I’d welcome Master Chi’s advice.
Master Chi’s Response
Entrepreneurial success is shaped by scarce factors — and you need to account for all of them.
(1) Time Cost
If you plan to do this on the side while working your current job, you may simply not have enough hours. If you go full-time, you no longer have a steady monthly paycheck like you do at a company. That lost income is itself a cost you must factor in.
(2) Capital
Entrepreneurship isn’t just about opportunity, capability, and execution — it demands capital. Opening an Alibaba International store is essentially the same as opening a physical storefront. Its primary function is to help you acquire customers and close deals. The more traffic you want, the more money you spend.
Capital requirements will keep growing, and the sales cycle — from first contact with a potential client all the way to closing the deal — takes time. That window can stretch long or short.
Many entrepreneurs have good ideas, solid skills, and strong drive, yet still come up short. The reason is almost always a broken cash flow chain. Ask yourself honestly: if it takes a full year just to break even, can you hold on through that?
(3) Personnel
Can you find the right people at a reasonable cost to handle product management, supply chain management, and risk control? Sustaining consistent, steady revenue depends heavily on having a stable team.
(4) Understand Why Competitors Failed
Study the existing players in your space. What caused them to fail?
(5) Score Your Real Odds
Before starting any venture, rate yourself honestly across every critical area and benchmark against existing competitors. What are your actual odds of winning?
Only when you have a genuine competitive edge should you start mobilizing resources and capital — channeling everything into the key pressure points. And calculate precisely how much you’ll need to invest.
If your score comes out lower than the competition, don’t start yet. Wait — but not passively. Use that time to actively build your capabilities. When the conditions are right, then move.
Waiting is, in many situations, the best strategy. Yet people tend to see waiting as inaction, as something unacceptable. That’s a mistake.
Even when the odds favor you, you still need to honestly weigh cost against return. Is it worth it?
With entrepreneurship, the rewards and the risks are rarely balanced. Win, and the gains may not be as large as you imagined. Lose, and you’ve burned enormous time and money.
(6) Can You Accept Failure?
If things don’t go as planned, can you make peace with that outcome? This question matters more than most people ever want to admit.