It’s always at the end of the year, when customers, suppliers, and coworkers are winding down for the holidays, and when my girlfriend heads back to her parents’, that I get the chance to enjoy some solitude. I find myself sitting in a cozy café, reflecting on the events, mistakes, gains, losses, and changes that shaped 2024.
In 2024, we embraced short videos as a new marketing tool, which helped us connect with several new international customers. We successfully produced some challenging magnet assemblies and gained a clearer understanding of the industries and types of customers we are best suited to work with.
Anxiety—that’s how our 2024 started
My 2024 began with my return from Florida on January 22nd. It was our first trip to the U.S., where most of our existing customers are located. We visited ten states over seven weeks. When I got back, I felt uneasy because I realized that doing business with customers outside of China is much different than I initially thought. It’s not just about offering low prices and quick lead times.
The first six months after returning to Hangzhou were tough. Inquiries from our website were minimal, which made me, as a business owner, pretty anxious. In April, I traveled to Guangzhou and Shenzhen for three weeks to attend seminars on short video marketing and meet other business owners and general managers who focus on serving overseas customers. I learned a lot from the experience. But shortly after I returned to Hangzhou, my anxiety resurfaced due to the continued lack of business inquiries.
Short Videos
With business inquiries low and not wanting to send out a bunch of pointless, annoying cold emails, I finally took the first step toward creating short videos, hoping we could attract (instead of chase) the right customers. Initially, it felt awkward and unnatural to see myself on camera. I watched videos on TikTok to learn how to build confidence and become more comfortable in front of the camera.
Reflecting on it now, I realize I made a significant number of videos in 2024 and posted them on TikTok. Although the background and lighting weren’t ideal, it was a good starting point. To improve, I’ve prepared better lighting and a chroma key screen in the office to create higher-quality videos in 2025.
Back to the point, the main reason I am so determined to make videos is to attract more technical and business inquiries from engineers and purchasing managers at tech companies worldwide who are looking for magnets, magnetic system manufacturing, or magnetic solutions.
New Customers
Strangely and luckily, inquiries began to surge in July. I believe the added videos on our homepage played a role, convincing engineers to reach out via email. And so, interesting stories began to unfold as we built relationships with new customers, many of whom are now valued partners.
Here are some of the prestigious organizations that chose us in 2024 for their magnet or magnetic system projects:
- Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
- UCLA (USA)
- ASM International (Netherlands)
- Schneider Electric (France)
- Honeywell
- Bosch (India)
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such esteemed companies. Some of these projects involved much more than just a typical RFQ, quote, order, and delivery process. We engaged in numerous online meetings and exchanged many emails to discuss technical details and propose customized solutions.
P.S. I had planned to visit the researchers and engineers we’ve been collaborating with at UCLA on January 11, 2025. Unfortunately, the meeting was canceled due to the Southern California wildfires, which led to the evacuation of all personnel the day before my visit.
Politecnico di Torino - Aerospace Project
Politecnico di Torino, one of Europe’s most prestigious engineering schools, founded in 1859, has kindly agreed to let us share some details of their project. I’m excited to use this project as a clear example to showcase the type of work we do and the capabilities we bring to the table.
Industries and Applications
We’ve worked with a wide range of industries and applications, and I think it’ll be helpful to share some of the more interesting projects we’ve been involved in recently. Magnets are used in a variety of places—some you might expect, others less obvious. Here are some examples from 2024 that might give you an idea of what we’re capable of:
We provided rotor prototypes made of sintered neodymium magnets and stator laminations for subsea motors used in civilian boats, for a customer in the Netherlands.
- We developed a small circular Halbach array (under 10 mm in diameter) that forms a four-pole on one end. This will be used in medical equipment for contactless transmission.
- We coated magnets with parylene for a medical device that uses a plastic impeller to assess the quality of donated organs.
- We created Halbach rotor assemblies with over 50 poles on the outer diameter to generate high torque for robotic hip joints.
- With the help of FEA simulations, we designed a cylindrical Halbach magnet system to generate a uniform magnetic field in a specific cylindrical space for a Korean research institution.
- We made cone-shaped tripozeod magnets using N56 NdFeB material for a researcher in South Korea, who achieved a magnetic field strength of over 4 Tesla—he emailed us to thank us for our work!
- We supplied radially magnetized ring magnets for an audio company’s new device development project.
- We produced tiny micro magnets (0.3 x 0.3 x 0.25 mm) for an Israeli medical company working on micro-robots intended to enter the human body.
- We manufactured Alnico and FeCrCo rods for a medical equipment company in Germany, helping them downsize and miniaturize their new product.
- We also supplied radially magnetized ring magnets for magnetic levitation systems.
These are just a few examples off the top of my head, and we’re always working on new and innovative applications. Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, we plan to focus more on industries like semiconductor equipment, medical devices, high-performance electric motors, aerospace, and marine.
Mistakes and Reflections
However, things weren’t all positive in 2024, as is the case every year. I believe it’s important to be honest about the challenges, as there’s always something to learn from mistakes and setbacks. In 2024, we ran into an issue with a customer who bought rubber magnets from us. The fault was on me, as I didn’t properly oversee one of our team members responsible for sourcing a new supplier of rubber magnetic sheets. Unfortunately, the supplier wasn’t a good fit for our specific requirements, and we only realized this too late when quality issues arose. As a result, we had to reimburse the customer and take a financial hit we could have avoided.
The key lesson here is that, as a business leader, it’s crucial to oversee every decision that could impact the product and service we deliver. Ultimately, I am responsible for everything that happens, good or bad.
Why I Wrote This Post
I’m not a regular blogger because most of my time goes into replying to emails, having meetings about magnets, or taking road trips with my girlfriend and our Labrador (if we’re getting personal). I’ve written this content with SEO in mind, hoping potential customers like you will find us and reach out for your projects. But I do hope it reflects some real insights along the way. To wrap up, here’s something I posted on social media that I’d like to share with you:
Doing business is like embarking on a fun journey through life. There isn’t much excitement in my personal life, but what makes my life meaningful and fulfilling are the loyal customers, reliable and competent suppliers, and coworkers I’ve met along the way.
