Honestly, this whole thing happened kind of by accident.
I have a client who’s an independent publisher. We’ve known each other for about three years now — I printed his first book, then his second, and now his third. Over time, our conversations naturally went beyond just printing. We’d talk about what he’s working on, events he’s doing, random things like that.
He runs small book events pretty often, so he works with a local wide-format print shop for things like posters and event materials. One day, he happened to be in that shop while we were chatting on WhatsApp, and he just casually introduced me to the owner.
That’s how we got connected.
Later on, the shop owner and I started talking more. He told me that about 50% of their business comes from vehicle wraps. Which, honestly, makes total sense — there are so many cars in the U.S., and people love putting custom designs or business branding on them.
Then he asked me something pretty straightforward.
He said, “Since you’re in China, and you guys work with similar materials — could you help us take a look at sourcing? If the quality is comparable, and the pricing makes sense, we’d be interested.”
To be honest, when he asked that, I wasn’t 100% confident.
Not because we can’t do it — but because I hadn’t really studied that specific material in depth. We’ve been in this industry a long time, and our supply chain is pretty stable. Most of the time, we trust our suppliers. If they say something works well and is cost-effective, we use it. And to be fair, we’ve never had customers complain about the quality.
But since he was serious, I figured I should take it seriously too.
So I went back and revisited two of our manufacturers in Shanghai. Asked more detailed questions, compared a few options, and even checked in with some friends in the industry to see what their real-world experience was.
After that, I sent over some samples for them to test.
A while later, he got back to me and said the materials were really good — and the pricing made sense.
And just like that, we started doing business together.
Now, some people might ask — if you’re in the middle, why wouldn’t he just go directly to a factory in China?
That’s a fair question.
The reality is, I didn’t add any markup. Whatever price I got from the factory, that’s the price I gave him.
So no, I’m not doing this for free — but I’m also not making money from that part directly.
Because at the same time, we were also talking about something else.
SEG lightbox displays.
That’s something they didn’t offer before.
So now it turns into this:
They can tell their clients they offer display systems, not just prints.
- We supply the products.
- They expand their service.
- They get access to better-priced materials.
And they don’t have to deal with sourcing or holding inventory.
It just makes sense for both sides.
When I think about it, there wasn’t any complicated strategy behind this. It was just a normal conversation that turned into something useful.
Everyone brings something to the table, and it just happened to fit.
If I can build more relationships like this — in different cities, different countries — I think the business will naturally grow.
But more importantly, connecting with people you genuinely get along with — people who have ideas and a similar mindset — that’s really the key.
And the only way to get there is by constantly talking to people, reaching out, and starting conversations.
Back in China, there’s a saying — I’m not even sure how to translate it perfectly, but it goes something like:
“Business comes from talking. If you don’t talk, there’s no business.”