It is Friday again so it is time to refer something that really works if you are trying to do business in Hong Kong, or in China from HK ,or do business globally. This week I would like to share TEN or The Entrepreneurs' Network with you.
It is a funny story of how I found out about TEN. I had a vendor, an American guy in Hong Kong, who made merchandising aids and POS materials. He helped me made signs and furniture for a chain of car care centers we were creating. Just after the program launched and the furniture and fixtures were shipping, he vanished. Phone calls and emails were unanswered but the only place we knew we could find him was at the TEN meeting the second Thursday of every month! So this is how I came to attend TEN meetings. What I found was a group of entrepreneurs born all over the world: HK, China, Australia, Canada, Nepal,India,the US,France,Germany, Holland, you name it, TEN had it! In the men and women who attended TEN, I saw several things: the desire to improve themselves and their businesses, eagerness to 'give back' to teach/help others, no desire to sell me anything, lots of creative and practical advice for the small entrepreneurial business. The club is not for profit and charges just HK$ 300 (US$39) for annual dues or HK$100 per meeting for non-members including a free drink at the door.
Sometimes when you are in your own business you have no one to talk with about the opportunities and challenges you face daily. Also you may not have the time or money to hire consultants or take time away from work to attend seminars.TEN is a great sounding board. From TEN I learned how:
*Do email blasts very professionally for less than $80 peryear
*What Facebook could do for my business
*How to get a CEPA certificate so we could set a full legal subsidiary in China that could invoice.
*How to be a better negotiator
*How to get 50% of our tradeshow expense refunded by the HK government
*How to get government backed , low cost SME financing
*How to do complete background searches before hiring new team members
*What to look for before buying a factory in China
I certainly got my $39 out of TEN! Check it out, the next meeting is Thursday 14th October , 6:30 in Vertigo Ultralounge, QRE Centre (across from Hopewell Center)
Find TEN at
website: www.ten.org.hk
blog: tenhk.typepad.com
TEN also has groups in Linkedin and Face book, Check it out!