A TAILOR from a small county in Jiangsu Province 17 years ago, Zhu Xiaoming is known as “King of Automobile Dealers” in China.

　　Zhu left his hometown for Shanghai at 20, which turned out to be a mistake. However, he shifted his battlefield to the northeast of China, and successfully stepped into a totally different industry: automobile accessories production and distribution.

　　In August 1999, beating competitors from all over the country, Zhu became the national sole agent of Audi 200 1.8Ts after paying 600 million yuan. In just five months, he sold 2,400 of them and made about 20 million yuan.

　　In 1985, Zhu Xiaoming was 20. He was told that tailors in Shanghai could make a lot of money. He packed up his sewing machine and left his home in Jiangsu Province for the city of his dreams.

　　However, Zhu’s desire to make a living as a tailor in Shanghai proved to be a pipe dream, for he found that he wasn’t even making enough money to feed himself.

　　He decided to apprentice himself to a veteran dressmaker for six months.

　　What he had learned from the master tailor did not suffice to help Zhu realize his dreams in the metropolitan city, which hosted many tailors from other parts of the country.

　　While he was pondering whether or not he should go back home, Zhu met Mr. Liang, who was on a business errand in Shanghai. Liang was from Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in Northeast China.

　　Liang directed Zhu to Changchun. He told Zhu that people in northeastern China were hospitable and generous and that it would be easier to make money there as a dressmaker. Liang promised his personal help if Zhu needed it.

　　With only 36 yuan in his pocket, Zhu embarked on a train trip to Changchun in the early spring of 1986. On the train half of his money was seized by the train authorities for excess baggage fees.

　　With only 18 yuan to his name, Zhu felt a little panic. He was not sure if Liang would really help him.

　　Liang met him at the Changchun Railway Station, and with a rented tricycle, escorted him to a small room in an out-of-the-way area of the city.

　　The second day saw Zhu open his tailor shop in the room where he lived with 100 yuan that Liang had lent him. But the location was not great for Zhu’s business and nobody in the neighborhood knew about his shop.

　　The first week went by without a single order.

　　When Zhu saw female doctors and nurses from a nearby hospital, he decided to make clothes for them free of charge. The women became walking advertisments for his work, and the fashionable and beautiful garments that he gifted the women with soon drew a lot of interest.

　　Sometimes he had so many customers that he had to put them on a waiting list while he worked around the clock.

　　In about three years, Zhu amassed 20,000 yuan and sent all of it home. With the money he sent them his family built a brick house on the site of their original straw hut.

　　One day in late 1989, Zhu was approached by a man who asked Zhu to help him sell things like electric razors and calculators that could be installed in cars.

　　One of Zhu’s clients was a car dealer who, recognizing that the articles were very cheap, bought all of what Zhu had on hand. For the first time it occurred to Zhu that he could make more money as a businessman than as a tailor.

　　Zhu started marketing car accessories. Hearing that the wife of a department chief at China FAW Group Corporation, China’s most important automobile maker based in Changchun, had a special fondness for beautiful clothes, Zhu offered to make her several sets of fashionable clothes without charging her a cent. Thus, he made a good friend with her husband, through whom Zhu established relations with more people from FAW.

　　With over 10,000 yuan, Zhu opened a shop and decided to start out making seat pads for the vehicles produced by FAW. To learn about the pads, Zhu offered to become a security guard on night shifts at a vehicle warehouse at FAW. He removed all types of pads from their seats and studied them.

　　Three months later, he quit his night job and bought a large amount of sponge and cloth, the material for the seat pads, from a city in eastern China. He made several samples and offered them to the officials of FAW who recognized that Zhu’s pads were both better in quality and cheaper than the pads they had imported from elsewhere.

　　They signed a contract with Zhu, who thereafter hired several people and began mass production.

　　With his first shipment of pads, Zhu made a profit of 30,000 yuan. He reinvested the money for more material and also for some other kinds of articles such as anti-theft locks and car air fresheners. They all sold out quickly.

　　Zhu then turned to genuine leather pads.

　　He believed the expensive pads would enable him to make a lot of money because he had been told that FAW had a big demand for them. Decisively he borrowed 200,000 yuan with an interest rate of 25 percent and invested a total of 350,000 yuan. But to his great shock, his first shipment was returned to him because his pads were larger than necessary.

　　It took a lot of money and effort to remake the pads. So Zhu made almost no money on the shipment.

　　After that, everything seemed to be going fine for Zhu and his clientele had expanded to include automobile makers from other parts of the country.

　　A trip to Beijing enabled Zhu to see the deluxe hi-fi stereos inside cars made in South Korea. At the same time, he found that China-made cars did not include hi-fis. “Why not put them inside the cars made in China?” Zhu asked himself. This line of business was simpler than making car seat covers, for he just needed to buy the systems and have them installed.

　　Zhu put his thoughts to work.

　　He soon went to Guangzhou to buy the hi-fis. With each set costing 2,000-3,000 yuan, Zhu made 700 to 1,000 yuan after installing it in a car. Before long he was making a lot of money.

　　It was while he was busy with his hi-fis that Zhu came to know an agent for franchised brand car accessories. Zhu found that people were more interested in buying brand name articles than his own no-name products.

　　Luck was with him. A representative for a famous foreign brand of hi-fi which was based in Beijing came to Changchun seeking a local agent. In June of 1995, after convincing the representative of his sincerity and reputation in the industry, Zhu was appointed as the brand’s agent for all of northeastern China. Soon after he also became an agent for Kenwood hi-fi products and Goodyear tires.

　　When Zhu’s fortune reached several million yuan in 1996, he was tipped that FAW was looking for someone to help sell a shipment of low-price trucks. Whoever sold them would receive a 10,000 yuan agent fee for each truck.

　　Zhu went to the department chief and his other connections at FAW and was granted the right to sell the trucks. Zhu targeted potential buyers from southern China who narrow-mindedly thought that people in northeastern China were boorish and aggressive and thus were reluctant to travel to that part of the country.

　　To relieve his clients’ concerns, Zhu promised them that as long as they arrived in Changchun, they would be provided with free board and lodging as well as complete security, regardless of whether they bought a truck.

　　Zhu always met his clients at the airport and accompanied them to see and test the vehicles. If they bought a truck, he would escort them to the highway and see them off.

　　Once a southern customer arrived in Changchun on a very cold winter day wearing light-weight clothes. Zhu covered him with his own heavy coat immediately after he got out of the plane. As a result Zhu developed a serious fever. However, the guest not only bought a truck for himself but he also introduced Zhu to some other clients.

　　Following a series of lucky breaks and excellent choices, Zhu gained the right to sell automobiles like the Audi 100 and the Red Flag series. Zhu and his men have continuously topped the other dealers.

　　So far Zhu Xiaoming is one of the few Chinese car dealers to acheive national recognition.

　　A TAILOR from a small county in Jiangsu Province 17 years ago, Zhu Xiaoming is known as “King of Automobile Dealers” in China.

　　Zhu left his hometown for Shanghai at 20, which turned out to be a mistake. However, he shifted his battlefield to the northeast of China, and successfully stepped into a totally different industry: automobile accessories production and distribution.

　　In August 1999, beating competitors from all over the country, Zhu became the national sole agent of Audi 200 1.8Ts after paying 600 million yuan. In just five months, he sold 2,400 of them and made about 20 million yuan.

　　In 1985, Zhu Xiaoming was 20. He was told that tailors in Shanghai could make a lot of money. He packed up his sewing machine and left his home in Jiangsu Province for the city of his dreams.

　　However, Zhu’s desire to make a living as a tailor in Shanghai proved to be a pipe dream, for he found that he wasn’t even making enough money to feed himself.

　　He decided to apprentice himself to a veteran dressmaker for six months.

　　What he had learned from the master tailor did not suffice to help Zhu realize his dreams in the metropolitan city, which hosted many tailors from other parts of the country.

　　While he was pondering whether or not he should go back home, Zhu met Mr. Liang, who was on a business errand in Shanghai. Liang was from Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in Northeast China.

　　Liang directed Zhu to Changchun. He told Zhu that people in northeastern China were hospitable and generous and that it would be easier to make money there as a dressmaker. Liang promised his personal help if Zhu needed it.

　　With only 36 yuan in his pocket, Zhu embarked on a train trip to Changchun in the early spring of 1986. On the train half of his money was seized by the train authorities for excess baggage fees.

　　With only 18 yuan to his name, Zhu felt a little panic. He was not sure if Liang would really help him.

　　Liang met him at the Changchun Railway Station, and with a rented tricycle, escorted him to a small room in an out-of-the-way area of the city.

　　The second day saw Zhu open his tailor shop in the room where he lived with 100 yuan that Liang had lent him. But the location was not great for Zhu’s business and nobody in the neighborhood knew about his shop.

　　The first week went by without a single order.

　　When Zhu saw female doctors and nurses from a nearby hospital, he decided to make clothes for them free of charge. The women became walking advertisments for his work, and the fashionable and beautiful garments that he gifted the women with soon drew a lot of interest.

　　Sometimes he had so many customers that he had to put them on a waiting list while he worked around the clock.

　　In about three years, Zhu amassed 20,000 yuan and sent all of it home. With the money he sent them his family built a brick house on the site of their original straw hut.

　　One day in late 1989, Zhu was approached by a man who asked Zhu to help him sell things like electric razors and calculators that could be installed in cars.

　　One of Zhu’s clients was a car dealer who, recognizing that the articles were very cheap, bought all of what Zhu had on hand. For the first time it occurred to Zhu that he could make more money as a businessman than as a tailor.

　　Zhu started marketing car accessories. Hearing that the wife of a department chief at China FAW Group Corporation, China’s most important automobile maker based in Changchun, had a special fondness for beautiful clothes, Zhu offered to make her several sets of fashionable clothes without charging her a cent. Thus, he made a good friend with her husband, through whom Zhu established relations with more people from FAW.

　　With over 10,000 yuan, Zhu opened a shop and decided to start out making seat pads for the vehicles produced by FAW. To learn about the pads, Zhu offered to become a security guard on night shifts at a vehicle warehouse at FAW. He removed all types of pads from their seats and studied them.

　　Three months later, he quit his night job and bought a large amount of sponge and cloth, the material for the seat pads, from a city in eastern China. He made several samples and offered them to the officials of FAW who recognized that Zhu’s pads were both better in quality and cheaper than the pads they had imported from elsewhere.

　　They signed a contract with Zhu, who thereafter hired several people and began mass production.

　　With his first shipment of pads, Zhu made a profit of 30,000 yuan. He reinvested the money for more material and also for some other kinds of articles such as anti-theft locks and car air fresheners. They all sold out quickly.

　　Zhu then turned to genuine leather pads.

　　He believed the expensive pads would enable him to make a lot of money because he had been told that FAW had a big demand for them. Decisively he borrowed 200,000 yuan with an interest rate of 25 percent and invested a total of 350,000 yuan. But to his great shock, his first shipment was returned to him because his pads were larger than necessary.

　　It took a lot of money and effort to remake the pads. So Zhu made almost no money on the shipment.

　　After that, everything seemed to be going fine for Zhu and his clientele had expanded to include automobile makers from other parts of the country.

　　A trip to Beijing enabled Zhu to see the deluxe hi-fi stereos inside cars made in South Korea. At the same time, he found that China-made cars did not include hi-fis. “Why not put them inside the cars made in China?” Zhu asked himself. This line of business was simpler than making car seat covers, for he just needed to buy the systems and have them installed.

　　Zhu put his thoughts to work.

　　He soon went to Guangzhou to buy the hi-fis. With each set costing 2,000-3,000 yuan, Zhu made 700 to 1,000 yuan after installing it in a car. Before long he was making a lot of money.

　　It was while he was busy with his hi-fis that Zhu came to know an agent for franchised brand car accessories. Zhu found that people were more interested in buying brand name articles than his own no-name products.

　　Luck was with him. A representative for a famous foreign brand of hi-fi which was based in Beijing came to Changchun seeking a local agent. In June of 1995, after convincing the representative of his sincerity and reputation in the industry, Zhu was appointed as the brand’s agent for all of northeastern China. Soon after he also became an agent for Kenwood hi-fi products and Goodyear tires.

　　When Zhu’s fortune reached several million yuan in 1996, he was tipped that FAW was looking for someone to help sell a shipment of low-price trucks. Whoever sold them would receive a 10,000 yuan agent fee for each truck.

　　Zhu went to the department chief and his other connections at FAW and was granted the right to sell the trucks. Zhu targeted potential buyers from southern China who narrow-mindedly thought that people in northeastern China were boorish and aggressive and thus were reluctant to travel to that part of the country.

　　To relieve his clients’ concerns, Zhu promised them that as long as they arrived in Changchun, they would be provided with free board and lodging as well as complete security, regardless of whether they bought a truck.

　　Zhu always met his clients at the airport and accompanied them to see and test the vehicles. If they bought a truck, he would escort them to the highway and see them off.

　　Once a southern customer arrived in Changchun on a very cold winter day wearing light-weight clothes. Zhu covered him with his own heavy coat immediately after he got out of the plane. As a result Zhu developed a serious fever. However, the guest not only bought a truck for himself but he also introduced Zhu to some other clients.

　　Following a series of lucky breaks and excellent choices, Zhu gained the right to sell automobiles like the Audi 100 and the Red Flag series. Zhu and his men have continuously topped the other dealers.

　　So far Zhu Xiaoming is one of the few Chinese car dealers to acheive national recognition.

　　A TAILOR from a small county in Jiangsu Province 17 years ago, Zhu Xiaoming is known as “King of Automobile Dealers” in China.

　　Zhu left his hometown for Shanghai at 20, which turned out to be a mistake. However, he shifted his battlefield to the northeast of China, and successfully stepped into a totally different industry: automobile accessories production and distribution.

　　In August 1999, beating competitors from all over the country, Zhu became the national sole agent of Audi 200 1.8Ts after paying 600 million yuan. In just five months, he sold 2,400 of them and made about 20 million yuan.

　　In 1985, Zhu Xiaoming was 20. He was told that tailors in Shanghai could make a lot of money. He packed up his sewing machine and left his home in Jiangsu Province for the city of his dreams.

　　However, Zhu’s desire to make a living as a tailor in Shanghai proved to be a pipe dream, for he found that he wasn’t even making enough money to feed himself.

　　He decided to apprentice himself to a veteran dressmaker for six months.

　　What he had learned from the master tailor did not suffice to help Zhu realize his dreams in the metropolitan city, which hosted many tailors from other parts of the country.

　　While he was pondering whether or not he should go back home, Zhu met Mr. Liang, who was on a business errand in Shanghai. Liang was from Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in Northeast China.

　　Liang directed Zhu to Changchun. He told Zhu that people in northeastern China were hospitable and generous and that it would be easier to make money there as a dressmaker. Liang promised his personal help if Zhu needed it.

　　With only 36 yuan in his pocket, Zhu embarked on a train trip to Changchun in the early spring of 1986. On the train half of his money was seized by the train authorities for excess baggage fees.

　　With only 18 yuan to his name, Zhu felt a little panic. He was not sure if Liang would really help him.

　　Liang met him at the Changchun Railway Station, and with a rented tricycle, escorted him to a small room in an out-of-the-way area of the city.

　　The second day saw Zhu open his tailor shop in the room where he lived with 100 yuan that Liang had lent him. But the location was not great for Zhu’s business and nobody in the neighborhood knew about his shop.

　　The first week went by without a single order.

　　When Zhu saw female doctors and nurses from a nearby hospital, he decided to make clothes for them free of charge. The women became walking advertisments for his work, and the fashionable and beautiful garments that he gifted the women with soon drew a lot of interest.

　　Sometimes he had so many customers that he had to put them on a waiting list while he worked around the clock.

　　In about three years, Zhu amassed 20,000 yuan and sent all of it home. With the money he sent them his family built a brick house on the site of their original straw hut.

　　One day in late 1989, Zhu was approached by a man who asked Zhu to help him sell things like electric razors and calculators that could be installed in cars.

　　One of Zhu’s clients was a car dealer who, recognizing that the articles were very cheap, bought all of what Zhu had on hand. For the first time it occurred to Zhu that he could make more money as a businessman than as a tailor.

　　Zhu started marketing car accessories. Hearing that the wife of a department chief at China FAW Group Corporation, China’s most important automobile maker based in Changchun, had a special fondness for beautiful clothes, Zhu offered to make her several sets of fashionable clothes without charging her a cent. Thus, he made a good friend with her husband, through whom Zhu established relations with more people from FAW.

　　With over 10,000 yuan, Zhu opened a shop and decided to start out making seat pads for the vehicles produced by FAW. To learn about the pads, Zhu offered to become a security guard on night shifts at a vehicle warehouse at FAW. He removed all types of pads from their seats and studied them.

　　Three months later, he quit his night job and bought a large amount of sponge and cloth, the material for the seat pads, from a city in eastern China. He made several samples and offered them to the officials of FAW who recognized that Zhu’s pads were both better in quality and cheaper than the pads they had imported from elsewhere.

　　They signed a contract with Zhu, who thereafter hired several people and began mass production.

　　With his first shipment of pads, Zhu made a profit of 30,000 yuan. He reinvested the money for more material and also for some other kinds of articles such as anti-theft locks and car air fresheners. They all sold out quickly.

　　Zhu then turned to genuine leather pads.

　　He believed the expensive pads would enable him to make a lot of money because he had been told that FAW had a big demand for them. Decisively he borrowed 200,000 yuan with an interest rate of 25 percent and invested a total of 350,000 yuan. But to his great shock, his first shipment was returned to him because his pads were larger than necessary.

　　It took a lot of money and effort to remake the pads. So Zhu made almost no money on the shipment.

　　After that, everything seemed to be going fine for Zhu and his clientele had expanded to include automobile makers from other parts of the country.

　　A trip to Beijing enabled Zhu to see the deluxe hi-fi stereos inside cars made in South Korea. At the same time, he found that China-made cars did not include hi-fis. “Why not put them inside the cars made in China?” Zhu asked himself. This line of business was simpler than making car seat covers, for he just needed to buy the systems and have them installed.

　　Zhu put his thoughts to work.

　　He soon went to Guangzhou to buy the hi-fis. With each set costing 2,000-3,000 yuan, Zhu made 700 to 1,000 yuan after installing it in a car. Before long he was making a lot of money.

　　It was while he was busy with his hi-fis that Zhu came to know an agent for franchised brand car accessories. Zhu found that people were more interested in buying brand name articles than his own no-name products.

　　Luck was with him. A representative for a famous foreign brand of hi-fi which was based in Beijing came to Changchun seeking a local agent. In June of 1995, after convincing the representative of his sincerity and reputation in the industry, Zhu was appointed as the brand’s agent for all of northeastern China. Soon after he also became an agent for Kenwood hi-fi products and Goodyear tires.

　　When Zhu’s fortune reached several million yuan in 1996, he was tipped that FAW was looking for someone to help sell a shipment of low-price trucks. Whoever sold them would receive a 10,000 yuan agent fee for each truck.

　　Zhu went to the department chief and his other connections at FAW and was granted the right to sell the trucks. Zhu targeted potential buyers from southern China who narrow-mindedly thought that people in northeastern China were boorish and aggressive and thus were reluctant to travel to that part of the country.

　　To relieve his clients’ concerns, Zhu promised them that as long as they arrived in Changchun, they would be provided with free board and lodging as well as complete security, regardless of whether they bought a truck.

　　Zhu always met his clients at the airport and accompanied them to see and test the vehicles. If they bought a truck, he would escort them to the highway and see them off.

　　Once a southern customer arrived in Changchun on a very cold winter day wearing light-weight clothes. Zhu covered him with his own heavy coat immediately after he got out of the plane. As a result Zhu developed a serious fever. However, the guest not only bought a truck for himself but he also introduced Zhu to some other clients.

　　Following a series of lucky breaks and excellent choices, Zhu gained the right to sell automobiles like the Audi 100 and the Red Flag series. Zhu and his men have continuously topped the other dealers.

　　So far Zhu Xiaoming is one of the few Chinese car dealers to acheive national recognition.