During dinner at the weekend my wife related a conversation she had had with her friend earlier that day. Her friend owns a small furniture and giftware shop and whilst talking about business in general and how tough it was at the moment her friend said she was looking into ‘doing the China thing’. My wife asked what she meant and she replied ‘you know, going to China and buying cheap stuff to sell on’.
My wife related this story to me because she knows of my extensive business interests in China. She was, as I was, amused at the throwaway comment of ‘doing the China thing’. However in my day to day business dealings, I constantly come across similar misplaced comments and thoughts. People who know of my interests in China will ask ‘can you get me some cheap stuff, to ‘can you really get T-shirts for 50p……and could you get me some’ and ‘how much can you get quad bikes for over there’.
If only it was that easy to find suppliers. If only it was that easy to make money. If only it was that easy to be successful. People must think there are queues of genuine, honest, quality suppliers just waiting for people to turn up looking for their products. Sadly, the people who are waiting for you as you get off the plane are exactly the opposite of what you are hoping to find. Like any country China’s cities are rife with people looking to exploit the ignorant, naive and arrogant foreign visitor.
I have been trading in China for four years now and I thought I would share my adventures with the wider on an ongoing basis.
My background: I am the founding, Managing Director of a manufacturer of Fires, Fireplaces and Heating and Cooling products with a diversification into home and leisure products. I have a UK manufacturing site which has operated successfully for ten years, at its peak employing 200 people. I still have the factory now, but it only employs around 50 people with a further 50 involved in distribution activities. However, I now own a 75,000sq ft factory in Southern China employing 200 people whilst under construction is a new 250,000sq ft factory due to open January 2009 which will employ 500 people to cope with the international demand for our products. We export our products to five different countries with plans to increase this dramatically in the next two years. I don’t say this to brag, merely to give you an idea of who I am and what I do and the opportunities available to those people willing to invest in and immerse themselves in China.
This is my story.