Expats in Asia > Working In Asia

Has anyone ever started a business in China

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Lain:
I am curious, has any of the members here every started a business in China ??

I am considering starting a small business in China, not sure if it would be retail or wholesale as I am currently in China if after the first 6-months I can "adjust" to life there. My current company offers wholesale supplies and equipment for the US textile decorating industry....T-shirts, Hats...etc All the things that go into decorating them  and I am moving into some crossover industries like graphic printing equipment and signs. There is a HUGE export industry that I can tap into there, and during my time there I will be investing much of my efforts towards that end.

So if anyone here has a Chinese small business, I would be curious to know your thoughts. For export the vast majority of my clients will be the ones I already serve, and in English so I am thinking that many issues will be easier from the standpoint of customers....but dealing with mfgr's in China I imagine is whole other problem.....I have had to do this in a prior job and found the experience painful to put it nice. But I never had to deal with the companies in person, or even go to China so it might be different when your on the ground??

Any thoughts, would be appreciated.

Paul Todd:
Lain it's not easy my friend. I have run an exporting and sourcing business here for the last 6 months. The language barrier is the first and most obvious problem but so is the whole Chinese way of working. To be honest the only things I will supply now are from factories I have personally visited and checked the goods themselves. Next I will go and physically inspect every order before it is sent out and have a copy of the waybill and a complete paper trail for export. If your thinking of shipping by sea in containers or part containers this is a whole new ball game. First rule here is never expect things to go smoothly, over time you build up contacts which helps move every thing along but expect to pay for your education or get a reliable agent to do it all for you! Best of luck there is a lot of money to be made here and don't forget that there is a huge demand for imported goods here too!

Arnold:
Qing and I , Qing's brother who's in the Trading Business himself in Shanghai and knows many Customs people that can do almost everything for him
but sell what he receives from the Czech Rep . now . I will include my Brother in-law ( first wife ) which has the knowledge of the product we are sending by Container through me to Shanghai . This item ( I wont say what it is ) ,  he will have no problem selling .. as it is long needed there and soon other Cities hopefully . all major Cities in China . Ones I work out the details with my brother in-law here , it can be full speed ahead and make a dollar or two . I will let the Cat out of the Bag if in full swing .. if it ever comes to that . As always , looks great on paper .. so we'll see .

Paul Todd:
Good luck with that Arnold. I know a few Chinese businesses that have warehousing in the Czech Rep seems to be a favorite, think it's something to do with "Flexible" import laws. People often think that China is only good for export but the demand for imported goods is huge. Having connections in the Shanghai customs dept is a massive plus point and must help a lot with your importing plans. Like I said I hope it works out and  we soon see you being driven around Shanghai in the latest BMW in an Italian silk suit.

maxx:
I don't know if it still holds true.But a couple of years ago.I remember a friend of mine telling me.That her daughters and thiere friends all wanted Levi's 501 with the  button fly.I guess you can by the cheap fakes in China.But the real Levi's are hard to come buy.And very expensive.so that mite be worth looking into.


I talked to a taxi driver.Back in 2007 in JiuJiang.We were trying to work out a deal.where we would each put up half of the money.On 2 new taxi cabs.We kicked the idea around for a couple of weeks.I even made a few phone calls and had part of the money lined up.And the guy had a couple of drivers.But we could never come to a agreement on splitting the profits.After the taxi's were paid for.So I backed out of the deal.

It wasn't going to be a huge amount of profit.But my end was going to end up being close to 600 a month.After all the expenses were paid.I kind of wished I had stuck with it now.Just to see where it ended up at.

My wife has two cousins in Beijing they opened a restaurant in 2008.I thought about getting together with them on the restaurant.But like always when it comes to spending money.I back off. And I end up losing out on the real money.According to my wife it is up and running.And they have good business.So they are making lots of money.

So I guess the moral of the story for me is.If the opportunity is thiere.I just need to take it and stop being such a wimp.

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