There is no doubt that starting a business is not easy.

Without guidance from predecessors, without industry experience, relying only on passion, wanting to achieve something in today's ever-changing auto parts industry is undoubtedly putting your life on hard mode.

So what if you happen to be a woman? The author tried searching online and got basically this kind of answer…

However, Wang Xia, a partner at Baturu who also carries the label of "female entrepreneur," doesn't think so.

This petite southern girl with a shy demeanor, through her own efforts, achieved the top performance in the entire Central China region in just five months after entering the industry. What kind of entrepreneurial wisdom does this post-85s girl have? Let's hear what she has to say.

"Entrepreneurship: If the direction is wrong, effort is wasted"

Before becoming a city partner for Baturu in the Jiujiang region, Wang Xia had a brief entrepreneurial experience.

Two years ago, Wang Xia partnered with relatives and friends who had done auto parts business to open an auto parts store, specializing in consumable parts agency. The business scale was quite large, but in the traditional auto parts industry, there were too many unpaid debts and credit sales, and the business collapsed in less than a year.

"At that time, I couldn't collect payment for the goods, and I worried day and night, thinking how could I be so foolish as to enter this industry," she recalled her first entrepreneurial experience, "Now that I think about it, entrepreneurship requires more than just hard work. If the direction is wrong, effort is wasted. Finding the right direction and hitting the right timing is more important than anything else."

Targeting the full-range parts market, joining Baturu as a city partner

After the consumable parts agency business failed, the unwilling-to-give-up Wang Xia set her sights on the full-range parts market.

"At that time I knew nothing about auto parts, I didn't even recognize the most basic part codes," Wang Xia said. Consumable parts and full-range parts are two different businesses, and in this most complex aftermarket industry, she was a complete "newbie."

In April this year, a business friend of Wang Xia's came across Baturu and the city partner project on an industry forum, and came back to tell her, "You don't need to memorize codes, just install a mobile app to check parts, inquire prices, and place orders. The operation is very simple, and the platform data is also very comprehensive." This way, wouldn't the entry barrier be solved?

Wang Xia began to seriously research Baturu's city partner project. Not wanting to experience failure again, she used her work experience in data analysis from a few years after graduation, and thoroughly analyzed the partner project from its business model to its reputation in the industry.

Ultimately, Wang Xia was convinced by the "no inventory, no physical store, small investment, light asset model," and saw its broad prospects for the future. In May 2018, Wang Xia officially became a city partner for Baturu in the Jiujiang region.

Customer-driven customer acquisition, performance increased 10-fold in 3 months

Jiujiang is located at the intersection of the Yangtze River, Poyang Lake, and the Beijing-Jiujiang Railway three major economic development zones, and is an important prefecture-level city in Jiangxi Province. The city's motor vehicle ownership reached 710,000 vehicles as early as 2014, with more than 400 auto repair shops of various sizes throughout the city, with enormous market potential.

However, unlike coastal areas such as Guangdong where auto parts e-commerce has already become widespread, in Jiujiang located in the heart of the Central Plains, auto repair shop owners are accustomed to purchasing parts offline.

At first, customers were unfamiliar with the Baturu platform and unwilling to purchase parts from it. Wang Xia brought together relatives and friends from her hometown to help with promotion. In the first month alone, she visited all the auto repair shops in the city and taught customers how to check parts and inquire about prices.

After running around more, she became familiar with the repair shop owners, and gradually they became willing to try inquiring about prices on the platform when they needed to purchase some non-urgent small parts. Over time, the repair shop owners gradually realized that the prices of parts on the platform were indeed more advantageous compared to their offline purchases. Moreover, Baturu delivers everything to the door, saving the cost of having to pick up parts themselves from offline suppliers.

However, relying solely on running around herself, the efficiency of acquiring new customers was still not high. At this point, Wang Xia received advice from the channel manager: focus on key customers, then use customers to drive other customers, and let Baturu's name spread through word-of-mouth among Jiujiang repair shop owners' social circles.

"Because we just entered this market, customers still have quite a few concerns, and the first one or two orders are particularly difficult," Wang Xia recalled. Once she finally got an order, she would quickly get everyone and the customer to post the order on their social media. With slightly larger customers, she never missed the opportunity. Over time, when customers had concerns, seeing that others had real orders in hand, they would feel more at ease. Combined with Baturu's inherent price advantages and excellent after-sales service reputation, gradually Baturu built up its reputation in Jiujiang.

By the third month, Wang Xia's performance had increased 10-fold, and by the fifth month, she achieved the top performance in the entire Central China region.

Entrepreneurial insights: Loyal customers are "friends in adversity"

When talking about her entrepreneurial insights, Wang Xia said that while she didn't have much sales experience, she worked harder than others in two areas: first, running business diligently, being thick-skinned, not fearing rejection, and deeply exploring customer needs. Second, providing good service and finding ways to solve problems for customers.

"Actually, many of my most loyal customers now were built through quite a bit of friction," Wang Xia said with some emotion when talking about the occasional "darkest moments" she experienced over these few months. "Once, due to logistics reasons, a large auto repair shop in Xunyang District encountered serious delivery problems with their procurement order. At that time, the company attached great importance to it, arranging the local channel manager and me to actively contact logistics, help them coordinate the solution, and provide reasonable compensation. The customer was very satisfied. Now this repair shop has become my largest customer, purchasing over 70% of their parts from the Baturu platform each month, and they introduce me several new customers every month."

Moving forward with Baturu, targeting to become Jiujiang's largest platform

In fact, although Wang Xia quickly carved out a small territory in the auto parts industry, she was not originally a "strong woman." "I actually came from a data background and never thought I could do sales." But she always had an unwilling-to-lose spirit, and as her business has been thriving, she has become increasingly confident.

"Everyone says this market is very deep, which basically means information asymmetry. Baturu makes vehicle parts procurement simpler and more transparent. I think Baturu is currently the best full-range parts procurement platform on the market, without a doubt, and this was the main reason why I chose it in the first place."

Wang Xia said that through these months of market research, she is quite confident about the development trend of Jiujiang's full-range parts market. "Currently, the average online procurement rate in Jiujiang market is about 30%, with enough room for growth." Now, Wang Xia has made being a city partner for Baturu her life's career. In the future, she aims to become the largest aftermarket service provider in Jiujiang!