FTB Hydraulic Zhao Hao: From scratch, from a relief valve to a dominant player in the Chinese aftermarket

Over the past period, I've shared snippets on Douyin about the setbacks and confusion I've endured in life, along with the lessons I've learned after climbing out of rock-bottom lows.

I graduated and started my internship back in 2007, before moving to Ningbo to launch my business. In 2014, I founded FTB. These past 15 years have been filled with countless Now, with the pandemic dragging on for three years, it's impossible for us to predict what the future holds-we even have to prepare for long-term coexistence with its impacts. Countless industries have taken severe hits; profit margins have plummeted, and cutthroat competition is everywhere.

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In times like these, holding back from reckless ventures is itself a form of profit. Slow down candidly, cultivate self-discipline, and hone your core capabilities; there is nothing wrong with this mindset.

Stay sober yet hopeful. On one hand, clearly recognize the tough market conditions we face. On the other hand, no matter what line of work you're in, stay full of optimism and faith. Amid this climate, staying proactive in the "Going Global, Bringing In" mindset is the only way to influence others, discern market trends, and achieve success.

What follows are words I've wanted to share for over a decade-the story of my life. I'll walk you through how I faced failed product launches, factory collapse, complete business breakdown, and crippling debt, and how I pulled myself out of adversity. I hope my story resonates with you.

Part 1

How I Got Started in This Industry

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Today I'm opening up about my entrepreneurial journey. I am no celebrity, nor an industry luminary-just an ordinary business owner selling Excavator Spare Parts. I believe anyone who takes the time to hear me out will walk away with valuable insights.

1.1 Born to a Rural Family

My bond with this trade stretches back fifteen years.

I was born in Shishou City, Hubei Province, into an ordinary rural household. From my earliest memories, my parents were away working. For generations, no one in my extended family had achieved notable success, and I secretly resolved to break this cycle and change our family's fate. I once hoped education would be my ticket out.

Reality told a different story. With my parents working far away year-round, there was no one to guide or supervise me, and my grades sat consistently at the bottom of the class. I grew restless, craving the outside world, and clung to the naive fantasy of striking rich overnight. I dropped out of school before finishing junior high.

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I took a job as a hotel server, carrying plates and handling menial chores. I quickly sank into confusion, thinking: I'm wasting my youth on work anyone could do. I then decided to pursue vocational training instead. I figured mastering a specialized trade would guarantee better pay and earn me respect.

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China's reform and opening-up era fueled explosive nationwide growth, with new businesses sprouting across all sectors. The mantra "To get rich, build roads" spurred massive infrastructure projects, triggering wave after wave of recruitment booms in the Construction Machinery industry.

Seeing this promising outlook, I chose mechanical design as my major and threw myself into my studies. Academic schooling may not be the only path forward, but for me, it was the perfect shortcut.

1.2 Disheartening Internships and Lost Direction

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Three years later, I graduated, filled with youthful passion as I set off for internships.

Like a young bird newly sprouting its wings, I dreamed of flying higher and farther.

Reality delivered a harsh wake-up call. Between 2006 and 2008, I interned first in Shanghai doing CNC work, then at a machinery factory in Kunshan. In both roles, I was merely an unskilled general laborer-just an extra pair of hands to the factory. None of the theoretical knowledge I'd learned translated into hands-on practice, and no senior staff was willing to train me. The blow to my confidence was crushing.

I wallowed in self-doubt for months, crushed by the stark mismatch between my ideals and reality.

1.3 Working as a Barback to Escape My Troubles

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At my lowest point, I took a job as a server at a bar in Wenzhou. I completely abandoned my ambitions and drifted along for months, drowning my worries in loud music and alcohol.

Countless nights, I sat alone in the dormitory, staring out the window, watching streetlights flicker off one by one before dawn broke. Only that younger version of myself understood the confusion weighing on my heart-a feeling you can only grasp after living through it. Even so, I've always believed we hold our own fate in our hands; every step and every choice is ours to make.

I told my mother I still wanted to master mechanical skills. After relentless effort and endless inquiries among relatives and acquaintances, I finally landed an opportunity to learn my craft at a small processing factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

On January 16, 2009, I packed my bags once more and traveled alone to Ningbo to chase my dreams.

Part 2

Learning the Ropes at the Factory

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2.1 Only Four Hours of Mentorship a Day

Ningbo, Zhejiang, is China's manufacturing hub for hydraulic components, lined with hydraulic factories and small workshops. I was thrilled-I'd come to exactly the right place. I quickly threw myself into hands-on learning.

This was a brand-new small factory manufacturing Hydraulic Valves, equipped with four or five processing machines plus a jumble of other equipment I had no idea how to operate.

I'd assumed someone would train me, yet the factory only employed me, alongside a large guard dog. I tried to teach myself everything, but all my attempts ended in failure.

Later, the factory owner hired a part-time technical consultant who came each afternoon at 5 PM and left at 9 PM. That four-hour window each day was my only chance to learn from a seasoned expert, and I seized every minute to absorb as much technical knowledge as I could.

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This left me with ample free time during the day. Once I grasped the fundamentals, I bought more than a dozen books on CNC machining, mechanical engineering fundamentals, and grinding machine operations from Xinhua Bookstore. I repeatedly merged textbook theory with on-site practice, studying day and night without rest.

2.2 My Failed First Independent Machining Job

By chance, a peer brought in a batch of parts requiring grinding work and entrusted the order to me.

Fuelled by overconfidence in what I'd learned, I accepted the job without hesitation, eager to prove myself.

I soon realized my technical foundation was far weaker than I'd thought. I ruined the client's first batch of products and had to pay compensation for the loss.

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This humbling experience hammered home a vital life lesson: never rush into work you haven't fully mastered.

But with no one available to teach me grinding techniques, I came up with a plan: hire skilled grinders to learn from them. I couldn't afford full wages as I wasn't the factory owner, so I pretended to be the plant supervisor recruiting workers-new hires did unpaid trial shifts for the first three days. I cycled through seven or eight master technicians in this way, absorbing their years of hands-on expertise, then sent them off to other factories under the excuse that we no longer needed extra staff.

I picked up nearly all my core machining skills using this method.

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Some might call this approach unethical, yet entrepreneurs must find practical means to grow-we simply call it a strategic method. I remain grateful to those technicians who unwittingly paved my entrepreneurial path. We all can serve as stepping stones for one another; the difference lies in who travels farther.

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After months of self-guided learning, a friend brought me another valve processing order. By then my technical skills were solid, and the finished parts turned out flawlessly. Word spread quickly, earning me widespread recognition across the industry.

Part 3

Launching My Business at 22

3.1 Quitting Factory Work to Start My Own Venture

Once I'd fully mastered the trade, I pondered my future. I was only 22 years old.

The factory had been operating at a consistent loss, and I pitched a third-party external processing service to the owner over the phone. He rejected my proposal outright.

I understood his reasoning: youth is sometimes a disadvantage, with lack of experience used to dismiss your ideas. Life can be unfair-when the playing field is uneven, your voice carries no weight.

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Trapped on a fixed monthly salary of just 1,500 RMB while dreaming of entrepreneurship, my ambitions felt utterly unattainable. By 2011, I could no longer endure the stagnation, with no one around me willing to back my business plans.

Tensions between myself and the factory owner continued to escalate, and I handed in my resignation. He countered with a 500 RMB pay raise to convince me to stay, but I turned it down without hesitation.

To me, this was an insult to a skilled technician-he never truly valued what I brought to the table. On May 21, 2011, I officially left the factory and partnered with my closest collaborator, now Deputy General Manager Zhang of Futebang, a CNC specialist. We resolved to launch our own business together.

We lacked sufficient capital to build a full factory, so we started solely with component processing. We bought several beat-up second-hand CNC machines and a used van-both turned out to be faulty after we paid for them, a costly scam.

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Processing work proved far tougher than expected. One of us handled production, the other client outreach, yet we lost money for three straight months. We specialized in finished products, not loose component machining, so we re-evaluated our direction and pivoted back to manufacturing complete Hydraulic Valves-a shift that demanded far more capital and equipment investment.

3.2 Dishonest Partner and Severe Capital Shortages

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The single biggest hurdle to opening our factory was a crippling lack of funding. Manufacturing burns through cash at an astonishing rate.

National infrastructure construction was booming back then, yet nearly all production machinery had to be imported at exorbitant prices. Without influential connections, securing investment proved nearly impossible. I pitched my business plan to more than twenty contacts, none of whom trusted me enough to provide funding.

Just as I thought this road was dead, a local Ningbo industry peer reached out to propose a partnership. He promised to cover all capital investment, while I oversaw technical development and client operations.

We began production under this agreement, operating for several months. In August 2011, I brought two prototype product lines to Zhucun in Guangzhou to expand our market footprint. We returned with dozens of sample orders for development, and the sheer scale of the southern market filled us with immense optimism.

No one anticipated our partner would break his funding commitments, leaving us to shoulder all financial burdens alone. Without capital, production ground to a halt. Faced with a company on the brink of collapse, I turned to bank credit cards as a last resort.

3.3 Unreliable Clients and Running Operations on Credit Card Debt

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I clung to the hope that finished inventory would reverse our fortunes. I applied for over a dozen credit cards to cover payroll and raw material costs, yet these sums were a drop in the bucket for factory operations and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Then another disaster struck: clients refused to collect finished goods, meaning they withheld all payment. I traveled to Guangzhou five or six times a year chasing outstanding invoices, begging for payment like someone seeking handouts.

Soon the weight of credit card debt crashed down on me, with hundreds of collection calls flooding my phone daily. My partner refused to step in, my clients ignored my pleas, and I had no way to rescue the business. I scraped by for three agonizing months.

I still clearly recall September 2013, when the compound pressure from banks, family strain, and the failing factory pushed me to breaking point. I had no choice but to liquidate all assets.

We held finished products worth a total of 400,000 RMB, yet my partner seized everything for a mere 50,000 RMB-barely enough to cover our bank interest. Penniless, I headed back to Guangzhou once more to chase unpaid client invoices.

It was a chapter seared permanently into my memory.

3.4 Public Humiliation and Hard-Won Reflection

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By October 2013, word of our factory's bankruptcy had spread throughout the entire industry, leaving my reputation in tatters. Every so-called "loyal brother" vanished without a trace.

I'd anticipated abandonment, yet I never expected everyone to cut all contact completely.

WeChat Moments

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Many acquaintances urged me to take a stable office job, offering a base salary of 15,000 RMB for a trial position, which I declined outright.

First, my outstanding debt loomed too large; I could never pay it off working a regular salary job. Second, the emotional whiplash of falling from business owner to wage laborer was too crushing to bear.

During those torturous months, I repeatedly asked myself where I'd gone wrong, convinced I'd just suffered terrible luck.

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The factory collapsed due to insufficient capital, yet I hadn't missed the industry's golden window. The broader Construction Machinery Market trajectory was sound, full of untapped potential-especially the Guangzhou market, where I glimpsed a massive opportunity waiting.

Entrepreneurship does rely on a stroke of luck, there's no denying it.

That October, Deputy GM Zhang and I traveled to Guangzhou again to recover unpaid invoices. The client treated us coldly, housing us in staff dormitories while continuously delaying payment.

We survived on one bowl of rice noodles shared between us each day for months. While waiting at the client's shop, I spoke with other machinery dealers purchasing our products-and was stunned to discover our manufactured valves generated enormous profit margins in the Guangzhou market.

Part 4

The Next Opening: An Era of Sky-High Margins

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After thorough market research and analysis of profit potential, I grew fully convinced: this was the golden era of massive profit margins for Construction Machinery Parts, and this trend would persist for years to come. The Guangzhou market was an enormous untapped opportunity, and I resolved to claim my share-an outsized one at that.

With this clarity, I made an immediate decision: launch my business in Guangzhou without delay.

4.1 Two Core Moves I Made

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First: Position myself to capture a slice of this lucrative market.

I never recovered the unpaid client invoices, yet a new spark of hope ignited within me. I returned to Ningbo to negotiate product distribution partnerships with suppliers, though nearly all turned me away.

Fortune favored my persistence. A senior industry colleague trusted me with tens of thousands of RMB worth of inventory. Combined with returned client goods and a 10,000 RMB loan from my mother, I relocated to Guangzhou with my wife and child.

I rented a tiny 9-square-meter room in an urban village to serve as both office and warehouse, printed catalogs and business cards, and finished all preparations with only 3,000 RMB left in my pocket. I gave myself a three-month deadline-if the business failed to take off, I would not be able to support my family.

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Burdened by crushing pressure, I slept only three to four hours each night, crisscrossing the market in a rented van. I drove all across tier-one to tier-four cities in my hometown Hubei, walking tens of thousands of steps daily and wearing through multiple pairs of shoes, desperately raising operating capital.

My relentless efforts bore fruit: within a single year, I cleared all outstanding debt.

Second: Return to manufacturing to solve core product pain points.

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While working as a distributor, I witnessed countless flaws in third-party manufactured goods. As a reseller, I held no authority to fix design defects, leading to endless after-sales headaches.

I began longing to operate my own factory again-with in-house production and technical expertise, resolving these product issues would be effortless. Once I secured sufficient capital, I returned to Ningbo to rebuild a manufacturing plant.

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With stable factory production established, I launched the FTB brand in Guangzhou. Over the next year, we set up multiple regional branches nationwide, building an integrated system of trade and after-sales services that put the business firmly on track.

Part 5

Chinese Manufacturing Takes Center Stage

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This era of inflated profit margins was fundamentally unsustainable. Identical valves could be relabeled and resold for hundreds of extra yuan, an unreasonable industry practice adopted by nearly every new Guangzhou distributor in the early days.

5.1 How I Leveraged My Strengths to Forge a Unique Path

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My background as a technical engineer became my competitive edge. I positioned FTB as an independent brand focused on reasonable profit margins, leaning into our in-house technical expertise to expand market reach. I firmly believed Chinese manufacturing was destined to rise-and time has proven my foresight correct. Today, nearly all hydraulic components on the market are domestically manufactured, and the age of absurdly high resale profits is long gone.

5.2 The Gifts of Adversity

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This account only scratches the surface of my story of hitting rock bottom.

I grew confused, wavered, and even contemplated giving up amid all those failures and setbacks. Yet without enduring those hardships, I would not be the person I am today.

No one welcomes setbacks or failures; most people fear them deeply. Yet they are an unavoidable part of any journey to success. Since suffering is inevitable, face it head-on, keep moving forward through hardship, and let those trials refine you into a stronger version of yourself-that is the gift adversity offers.

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Every hardship and defeat you endure becomes your most invaluable life asset.

Now, as I embark on a new chapter, I've chosen to abandon flashy marketing schemes and refocus purely on product quality. I've experimented with costly advertising campaigns, entertainment-based client networking, elaborate brand planning, and large-scale team development in the past-all delivering minimal returns despite heavy investment. In an era of production overcapacity, where excess inventory struggles to sell even at a loss, we cut out all superficial, disconnected strategies entirely.

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Today, we've fully shifted focus from empty vanity to tangible manufacturing-a genuine long-term growth trajectory with massive untapped potential.

Life is long, and our industry stretches far into the future. Above all, let us hold fast to our original aspirations and unwavering faith, always believing good things lie ahead. I'm Zhao Hao, and this is my story. Thank you for reading this full account.

Media Contact
Company Name: Guangzhou FuTeBang Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd.
Email:Send Email [https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=ftb-hydraulic-zhao-hao-from-scratch-from-a-relief-valve-to-a-dominant-player-in-the-chinese-aftermarket]
Country: China
Website: https://www.chinaftb.com/

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