Answer to a reader's question- Part 4

This time we will elaborate on sourcing in China.

Everything that I talked about last time was based on one important assumption - your vendor understands what you are saying. While I am confident to say many businesses in China have staff members who can speak English at an eloquent level, many don't. So what are you going to do?

Joint Venture.

Joint venture with a local chinese (who speaks English) can solve many of your problems. Law and regulation changes are notorious in China and what is true this morning might not be anymore the following afternoon. Having a local chinese taking care of this, it can save your worst nightmare.

With the huge profiteering opportunity, I would not worry about adding a middleman. What I do is I outsource to my sourcing effort to several middleman so they do the work for me (although I speak Chinese. Why outsource then? To save some work). I have worked with them over a period of time now and have met with them in person, thus I trust them entirely. However, when you are starting out doing joint venture, do not be afraid to walk away a partner to another if you feel you do not work well with him. Don't worry, there are 1.3 billion Chinese, so you are bound to find a good one, it might just takes some time.

This concludes the answer to my reader's question, and next time we are going to get back to more China business opportunities.

Answer to a reader's question- Part 3

This time we are going to talk about things you should be careful of when sourcing in China.

Lets face it, sourcing in a foreign country poses many more potential problems than doing it domestically. However, the more difficulties you can overcome, the better it pays off.

When you communicate with a potential supplier, here is what you want to find out.
- Price
- MOQ (minimum order quantity - since most non-US companies have never heard of dropshipping, thus most probably would not provide that option)
- Payment terms
- Shipping time (typically 15-60 days, depends on the product)

Because we are talking about dealing with businesses in another country here, we got to be extra cautious. While most companies that you will find on those platforms I provided you last time are legitimate, some might not be. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you get 2 trade references (of a business in your country) from them before committing to the partnership.

Payment terms is another thing to be careful of. Most Chinese exporters would ask you to pay in advance. Use your judgement here, there are no absolute answers. Look ar the trade references and contact them to see it is trust worthy, if you are still unsure or looking at a large quantity, you might want to 1)set up an escrow 2)go visit the business in China.

Yes, visiting China seems a little much at the beginning, but that is how people usually do it. If you decide to do that, schedule several visits at once so you can check out more than one place.

I will elaborate this part a little more next time as sourcing in China is s quite difficult yet rewarding process.

China's foreign reserves surge to record US$818.9b

China's foreign currency reserves rose 34 per cent last year to a record high US$818.9 billion amid surging exports, state media reported on Monday.

This report indicates a rising trend of foreign businesses importing Chinese produced products and services. The rise in foreign currency reserves will further exacerbate the pressure of RMB appreciation.

Answer to a reader's question- Part 2

Hi, this time we are going to talk about sourcing.

Sourcing in China can be difficult for several reasons. First, not all companies in China have a website, for those who do, they are either very poorly made and extremely difficult to find and navigate. Most of them have little to none knowledge of Search Engine Optimization and thus it is impossible for you to search for them online. Most frustrating of all for foreigners is that most websites by Chinese companies are written in Chinese, thus you will not be able to understand.

For that reason, in my dad's office situated in China, he hires a team of 4 employees for the sole purpose of sourcing.

Ok, so what can you do? The easier way I suggest you to do is to look with online platforms such as www.globalsources.com and www.alibaba.com. Many Chinese companies are aware of these platforms and are members of it. Other than that, you can purchase trade magazines which are pertinent to the products that you are interested in, many Chinese companies also places Ads on them. If you insist on finding their company's website on search engine, do not look at google or yahoo, instead, look in Chinese search engine such as www.bidu.com and www.sohu.com. However this is not recommended if you do not read Chinese.

You can joint venture will a Chinese to do your sourcing, this method is probably the best one but also hard to implement. Attending tradeshows in China is another great way of sourcing but it may be expensive to start off with.

In the next part, I will talk about what do you have to be careful of when sourcing in China.

Chinese Currency Forecast

Jan 12 2006 - Peregrine Investment Ltd. in Paris had forcasted a 3% appreciation of RMB in year 2006. As China has experienced a trade surplus for the past 7 years and has gained importance in the world's economy, there is a stronger pressure for RMB (Chinese currency) to appreciate.

Assuming that the forecast is correct, the importing of Chinese products are going to be more and more expensive. Therefore NOW is the best time to take advantage of the business opportunities in China. Act soon before it is too late.

Answer to a reader's question- Part 1

A reader recently msged me this question:

I am thinking about importing easy low prize products from the asian market to Germany and selling them on ebay. I read your post and your blog where you said you are exactly doing this right now. I would like to get in contact with you to discuss about this. I would be interested in what kind of products do you sell on ebay. Are you willing to share sources and your experience?

Instead of giving him a fish, it is better to teach him how to fish.

First of all, I sell multiple products on eBay and while some of them I obtain it from distributors in the US, I import most of them from China. The main products my business sells includes synthetic gemstone beads, shotglasses, poker equipments and others. While I cannot disclose my source for other products, I can tell you about my Dad's company, which exports synthetic gemstone beads from China. Their website is www.beautyday.com.hk, and some of their products sell really well on eBay.

Since there are SO MANY products that sell well on eBay, it is NOT a good approach to find what has high demand and source for it. It is a much better approach to recognize a list of things you are interested in selling, and then research whether there is a market for those products and finally source for it.

There are many ways of researching whether a product sells well on eBay. The easiest of all is subscribing to the eBay newsletter, which provides tips on what their hottest products are. Other than that, type in keywords of products you think might sell and click on "completed listings", if completed listings (green) are more than incompleted ones (red), chances are it is selling pretty well. eBay also recently launched a "marketplace research" function, but I don't know if it is available on its international sites, you have to check for yourself.


In part 2 of my answer, I will go in depth to talk about finding your source in China, how to approach them, and what to be careful of.

China Business Model 1 - Part B

Importing the right product

What not to expect?

Many people have the misconception that electronics products and brand names can be found in China for a huge discounted price. WRONG! While it is true that most electronics and brand named products are produced in China, the factories have an agreement with the businesses (i.e. Sony, Microsoft) so they are not allowed to produce more than what the company ordered and can not resell those products. Thus, if you are looking to profit from buying Xbox360 or ipod and resell it here at a huge profit. Sorry, you got no luck.

What can you sell?

Products that do not require much technology or designs are the best products you can obtain from China. For example, one of my dad's business export artificial gem stones from China to all over the world, selling over 100K per month. My dad's partner is in the business of exporting light bulbs, netting 5 million per year. These products are easy to make, not technologically demanding, and the cheap labors in China are good at producing them. The cost of production of these commodities in China is around 80% lower than that in the US, and yet it maintain a good level of quality. (no wonder US lose its jobs abroad) Sure it is not as sexy as an ipod, but hey, they make you good money.


Next time, I am going to talk about researching which products to sell.

Renminbi(RMB) reached new height!

Renminbi (currency of China) reached new height yesterday, reaching 8.0641. RMB futures also exhibited strong growth, with 1 year NDF reaching 7.7 at one point yesterday.

Since the Central Government of China hopes to fine-tune their exchange rate policies in a gradual manner, a rapid leap is not expected in the near future.

The Chairman of IMF pointed out that China should take measures to increase flexibility of their exchange rate system. Narrowing the gap between RMB exchage rate and its perceived market value will be beneficial to the stable growth of the country and stimulating foreign business investments.

China Business Model 1 Part A

This is first of the many different business models you can use to profit from the "China Factor". The reason why I cover this first is because this is the model how my dad makes over 2M per year!

Model 1 - Distributing Products from China - Part A (intro)
In this business model, you need to determine a product at which you know there is an existing demand in your country, then, contact factories directly from China. You will buy them in bulk, and then wholesale them to retailers.

In the following parts , we are going to talk about what kind of products should you import, how do you find a reliable supplier, what you should be careful of, what to be avoided and the pros and cons of this model.

Stay tuned for more secrets of China Business Opportunities revealed!

Business and Industry

Computers

Hotell Stockholm - om Hotell och hotellrum i Stockholm

Finance

Full Disclosure Report - Raise Capital For Any Purpose While Eliminating Debt Guaranteed!
Who Else Wants To Become A Legal Paper Millionaire In Just 4 Weeks & Discover The Most Comprehensive, Step By Step Guide To Raising All The Capital You Need For Any Purpose 100% GUARANTEED!

Information

Venture Capital - Offers information about venture capital and business loans.

Information Technology

VoIP and Internet Phone Center - Bringing you the latest information and reviews on VoIP and Internet Phone technologies.

Internet Marketing

Affiliate Program - Become a super affiliate with 100% free training from the most successful affiliate marketers in the world only at TheSecondTier.com

Services

Transfer Money Overseas - Offers information about remittance to different countries around the world.

Work from Home

Paid Market Surveys Reveled - Bring you the lowdown on the best way to make money by taking market surveys online.

Arts and Humanities

Crafts

Wooden Handicrafts - We exports all type of Indian Handicrafts Items, Indian Handicrafts, Handicraft of india, wholsale, supplier, manufacture, jaipur, rajasthan handicrafts, handicrafts exporter india, handicrafts from india, handicrafts gift items exporters.

Entertainment

Michael Savage Talk Radio Show - A look at the michael savage talk radio show and the man behind the microphone. Some love him, others battle his ideas and values, but he always makes an impact.

Writer's Resource

Copyrighting - Offers tools and resources for copywriting