This past March stretched even a seasoned traveler like me me out of my comfort zone, as I undertook my most arduous journey yet. First, I visited the most important scientific meeting of the year on hypoxia (not getting enough oxygen supply to the tissue of a body part, or your whole body) in Whistler, BC from March 3-8. From there, I continued to travel west across the Pacific, visiting Seoul, Korea and Taipei, Taiwan from March 10-17.

The logistics of traveling around China in 10 jam-packed days

While that alone would have been considered a lengthy and busy trip by most standards, I was still building up to the busiest section of my travel schedule. On March 18, I continued by flying into Beijing, China to start an epic “10 City tour” (10 lectures in 10 cities in 10 days), to promote Ruskinn’s Life Sciences products to select universities in China. If you can believe it, this lecture series was originally supposed to be 3 weeks long, and we had to “shorten” it down to this length!

The lectures were set up by our Chinese partner, Beijing Longfujia.

The travel schedule from March 20-31 had to be intense to save money, but this meant traveling to a new city each day for 10 days, as follows:

Over 21,000 miles by plane, train and automobile

In total, from when I left Ottawa March 3 to go to Whistler to when I arrived back there from China in the beginning of April, I travelled a total of 21,270 miles. While it wasn’t quite enough to equal the 24,901 miles it would take to circumnavigate the entire planet, I came awfully close!

In China alone, I travelled 3,913 miles, took 5 plane journeys and 3 high-speed train journeys, gave 10 lectures, and visited 261 total customers. What a trip!

Travelling in China was often stressful, as reaching an airport or train station by car required anywhere from 1- 2 hours each night. The journey itself by air or train would come next, with varying transit times. Finally, traveling from the destination airport or station to the next hotel required yet another 1-2 hours of driving. Traffic is so dense in most Chinese cities that a commute that would normally be a 30 minute car journey in Canada or the U.S. can take 2-4 times as long in the cities mentioned above.

It’s key to find your “zen” and get some massages when enduring this type of travel

I was fortunate to not have a single major snafu during the entire trip, just a handful of travel delays. When I ran into those, I found the best way to deal with it was to internalize, and not let myself get outwardly annoyed. Once or twice we also didn’t have the proper AV equipment for our lectures, but our distributor was miraculous at sourcing whatever items we needed from “down the street” in those instances.

I also had many positives to focus on. One of the things that stood out the most throughout this whirlwind tour was the level of interest shown by the students at the universities. My Sunday seminar had more people than a regular seminar in Canada or the U.S., and it was exciting to see their willingness to learn.

To combat the exhaustion of so much travel for business, we also tried to go for massages whenever there were facilities near our hotel. It was very relaxing and allowed me to share some friendly banter with my traveling companions.

Final assessment – should you embark on such a trip?

If you’re considering a similarly ambitious trip, I should note that, because the experience was so exhausting, I would not take on a trip in China like this again – I’ll plan to stick with seven days next time.

In assessing whether the trip was successful, we certainly got “the nod” from several professors and other researchers indicating they are going to start the buying process with us in mind. While we have a buying cycle of several months, once these clients agreed I knew it was a matter of when, not if they would purchase.

The first orders from that lecture series should start to come out of tender in the next few weeks, and we are confident in gaining somewhere between $100-150,000 in sales from this lecture series alone. All in all, it was a very successful trip.

If you’re interested in seeing more of my time in China, please take a look at the slideshow video that I’ve put together, which you can view by clicking this link.

Please also take a look at the following infographic on some of the most interesting numbers from my trip:

The post Here’s what it’s like to travel for business to 10 different Chinese cities in 10 days appeared first on Trade Ready.

China has made their move into the next stage of economic development official. The country has charted out a $300 billion plan to become nearly self-sufficient by 2025 in a range of 10 important industries – from planes to computer chips to electric cars. This has left other countries wondering how it will impact not only companies who are invested in China today, but also China’s overall position in the global marketplace.

This “Made in China 2025” program would provide:

• Large, low-interest loans from state-owned investment funds and development banks
• Assistance in buying foreign competitors; and
• Extensive research subsidies

The goal of the program is making China largely self-sufficient in the targeted industries. In fact,

The Chinese government’s plan states that targeted Chinese industries should own as much as 80% of their home market in just eight years.

Western companies are concerned that this would force out competitors from abroad and lead to government-subsidized global players that would compete unfairly. Companies that are currently selling to China are asking for tougher enforcement by the WTO (World Trade Organization). But quite frankly, China has already been doing this for years – this is just the status quo amplified and formalized publicly.

The Chinese have been learning from the West and developing their own innovation capabilities by acquiring companies, technologies, talent and resources worldwide. And the Chinese government has been subsidizing the growth and global expansion of many of their homegrown companies on an ongoing basis for almost two decades.

Why is China looking inwards economically, even though its economy boomed by being open to the international market?

China is not changing course, but this is a building block along their course. By opening themselves up, they became manufacturing giants. By being the manufacturing source for the West, they learned from these other companies. China wants to compete further up the value-chain and this is a natural evolution in their economic development. They want to be known as more than an outsourcing destination for low-cost manufacturing and have been evolving into innovators, not just replicators. China is also preparing for their next generation of advanced workers.

It makes sense. And why wouldn’t the Chinese want to maximize their profit share of their own highly sought-after domestic market?

What should foreign companies already in China do now?

China is too big of a market opportunity for foreign companies to give up on entirely. However, the Chinese government makes it extremely difficult to do business in China, and it will likely only get worse. Currently, many foreign companies are required to establish joint ventures with domestic Chinese companies in order to have access to their market, and they are often required to give up majority ownership to the Chinese partner. This also leaves foreign companies feeling insecure about the protection of their intellectual property, among other concerns.

This self-sufficiency declaration will only amplify the bureaucracy challenges and market access barriers. Foreign companies need to operate with their eyes wide open in China.

They might also consider diversifying investments and global expansion efforts into other emerging countries, where it is easier to do business. That’s why I believe that, in the bigger global picture, this “plan” might be good for overall global trade. It could provide other countries more opportunities as Western companies hedge their bets, so to speak, and seek China-alternatives. If other emerging countries make it easier to do business therein, it would offer a natural migration option.

Protectionism, or “nation-insulation”, has short-term benefits but is not a long-run productive solution. The economies of nations are too interdependent and intertwined. This approach often provokes retaliation from other nations that will close their doors to China exports as well.

Why China is positioning itself as the leader of free trade even as it seeks to essentially cut off the world market in the long term?

This could be a re-branding strategy. China may simply be repositioning themselves as a quality goods provider as opposed to just a manufacturing source, and letting the world know that they are in an officially new position of strength and evolution.

It could also be a way of letting foreign companies know that China is on a buying spree if they want to sell – or sell out.

Bottom line

Although aggressive, the plan only furthers China’s existing strategy and makes even clearer their desire to be a dominant global player. With the right strategy, there will be foreign companies and countries who find opportunity in the #MadeinChina2025 plan.

The optimal approach for all nations involved – China included – is one of co-opetition (a combined competitive and cooperative attitude) and reciprocity. Stay tuned for more on that in the next article.

To learn more about the best strategies for doing business in China, check out The China Factor: Leveraging Emerging Business Strategies to Compete, Grow, and Win in the New Global Economy

The post China to be self-sufficient by 2025 – What about the rest of us? appeared first on Trade Ready.

But as an exporting SME looking to China, or an entrepreneur with sights set on President Xi’s “China Dream”, should we be worried? Not at all…

I moved to China in 2011 and spent just shy of five years living in Zhejiang Province in what has been the most prolific learning experience of my life.

In that time, I had the privilege of working, teaching, selling to, and studying with hundreds of incredible Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs all across the mainland.

With the ups and downs of being a young “Laowai” (outsider), I’ve been on a steep learning curve in what I consider to be a pretty unique combo of business experiences.

As such, I felt compelled to share some insights to other like-minded international entrepreneurs who plan to develop a new import/export-oriented venture on the ground, as a foreigner.

1) Make foreign universities your initial hub

We all know education has been a thriving industry in China (especially for the EFL market), but few outside the country know just how much progress has been made, and how cosmopolitan and aspirational some of China’s foreign campuses are.

More importantly, very few foreign companies have cottoned-on to how much of an asset these hubs of activity are for starting a business.

For me, it was the University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo. I initially studied there, and the sheer amount of local resources and support for launching a business (being right next to the port helped) was amazing.

The University of Liverpool has a similar set up in Suzhou, as does New York University in Shanghai.

Whilst you don’t need to study at these campuses to benefit, hiring interns from these schools full of local knowledge and social links, is invaluable.

There are always open seminars to go and speak at, whereby the campuses are always happy to have foreign companies or entrepreneurs in attendance.

I can promise you, the first few initial Skype calls you will make to set up a meeting and a flight out will pay off a hundred-fold a year or two down the line.

2) Build ‘Guanxi’ in the second-tier cities

As cool as the mega-cities are, and as much as I am infatuated with Shanghai, setting up a small office or having an informal base in one of the booming second-tier cities is a strategy for small exporters (or like me at the time, an importer) that especially benefits fresh entrepreneurs or SME’s with a limited budget to develop sales here.

These cities are considered small by Chinese standards, but are much larger in population than many of the biggest Western cities, and have booming consumer markets with deep pockets and insatiable desires for foreign goods.

Although this isn’t breaking news in itself, getting some traction for your products and finding some suppliers on the ground isn’t as crazy as it sounds.

Approaching Chinese business networks (local chambers of commerce) is a treasure chest of Guanxi building (a system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings).

You very well may be the only foreign entrepreneur savvy enough to build relationships in such a direct way, and the locals will know it, and will be very keen to help you connect with whoever you need to find.

The foreign business clubs in the Tier-1 Cities tend to be more like social hubs that invite prominent people to give expert advice. This is also valuable, but usually more beneficial for larger firms.

Over the space of a few years of repeated networking in one of these smaller cities, you will have built direct links to sales networks to export to, and have the face-time that Chinese businesspeople value so much.

3) WeChat is an essential tool for exporters/importers

Some of you whom have been to China on business trips will know that this is the mother of all social networks. For those that aren’t familiar with it, Wechat is like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined!

With nearly a billion hands holding smart phones, and doing everything from banking and shopping to talking and browsing through this app, it really is essential.

As some of you will know, Facebook and Twitter are banned in the mainland.

Since these two are often a budding entrepreneur or SME’s best friend, I’d strongly advise downloading Wechat and playing around with it to see how it functions as a replacement.

I didn’t quite get to the stage of selling our wines through it, but if I got into importing beverages again, this is a prime way to drum up some interest.

You can even configure a small shipment of your goods at a port here in China to be hooked up to orders and sell straight out of the warehouses via Wechat (this is the next big thing for small firms wanting to export. We can explore this at length in another article).

4) Harness the benefits of competing provincial ports

One day Deng Xiaoping decided to take his grandson to visit Mao. “Call me granduncle,” Mao offered warmly. “Oh, I certainly couldn’t do that, Chairman Mao,” the awe-struck child replied. “Why don’t you give him an apple?” suggested Deng. No sooner had Mao done so than the boy happily chirped, “Oh thank you, Granduncle.” “You see,” said Deng, “what incentives can achieve?” (“Capitalism,”1984,p. 62)

It might seem like an odd concept at first, but foreign exporters (or importers if you set up an office here) stand to gain from the competition of provincial ports aiming to attract more activity to their port and trade zones.

Depending on what you are exporting, it can pay to see what schemes and incentives the local governments have to attract you to use their port.

You could land yourself a neat free showroom space in a free trade zone, often very swanky and modern.

There are many savvy local service firms you can hire to be your reps there, on an ad-hoc basis, when you arrange for potential clients to visit the showroom and see your stock – which if you are small and novice like we were, could be as little as a couple of pallets.

5) Export small first and embrace the unconventionality

I am a passionate advocate of learning by doing, and realizing you can scale things up when once your trials work (or most likely don’t! But that’s all part of the process!).

There is a tendency with all foreigners wanting to “Crack China” to limit themselves to only the famous, established channels. The impulse is to wait, and do so only once they are seasoned exporters or a well-established company.

I have met dozens of small firms in the U.S. and UK who are interested in China, and could totally bag some small initial orders with very little extra investment, other than their time and patience in dealing with Chinese buyers directly.

Partnered with targeted, strategic efforts and some on-the-ground savvy, it’s very possible to build a side project in export sales in China with a slight change in mindset to embrace some unconventional methods.

Being small and going direct is not for the faint of heart, but it is very doable with my tips in mind.

Depending on your goals, it may require a change in mindset from the traditional “Exports are for huge orders” thinking. Hold off on the big-trade shows and expensive agents for some longer term, Chinese –style business development.

I hope this helps folks! Reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any questions or want some more info.

The post Top 5 tips for international entrepreneurs from on the ground in China appeared first on Trade Ready.