Businessman Ou Bochang has gone through a typical -- also lucky -- career path in the toy industry. He dropped out of high school in the early 1980s, left his hometown in Hunan province, and moved down to Guangdong province to work in factories. Ou gradually worked his way up to become a manager in a large toy company, and finally started his own shop -- Hong Fa Plastics Products Factory in Dongguan, Guangdong, a second-tier toy supplier.

His business was good until last year. "Since the second half of 2007, payment cycles started to stretch: from 15-30 days to 60 days or even longer," Ou said. He sensed the looming storm and adjusted his strategies. He declined orders from large factories -- Ou believe large factories carry the highest risk, took no more than three orders at a time, and limited the value of each order to no more than 80,000 yuan [$11,619].

His conservative approach has saved him from being dragged down in the current wave of toy factory closures. But still, Ou had to tighten his belt. He cancelled the night shifts, cut his workforce from more than 200 in 2007 to about 80, and is running only four of the seven injection presses in his shop.

Ou doesn't regret leaving his management position in large toy firm Jian Da Toys and starting his small business. Jian Da used to employ 15,000 but now only 2,000 workers are left, worrying about the future. Ou's future, albeit unclear, is at least in his own hands now.

(This blog post is based on information from a report in the Chinese-language business newspaper CBNWeekly.)