Going Global!

Hong Kong is #1 for Business

Bloomberg recently selected Hong Kong as the #1 place in the World to do business. I have to agree.

Here is their summary:

Hong Kong

Overall Rank: 1

Economic Integration: 13
Business Startup Cost: 2
Labor/Material Cost: 2
Transport Cost: 5
Less Tangible Costs: 2
Local Consumer Base: 1

China Requires Flexibility

Today I had lunch with two Americans who both own successful businesses in China. Although both gentlemen had very different personalities, they shared one common trait: they were flexible.

Business in China is a lot like sailing into uncharted waters. When Plan A does not work, one must be creative and come up with  Plan B and give it a try.

Check out the attached article from today's International Herald Tribune  about a guy from the Bronx who went to Beijing to teach English and wound up running the school after the owners vanished. Chick the link to view the article  View this photo

British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong features Posh Pile !

BritCham as it is known in Hong Kong, reported on our little company in their October issue of Britain in Hong Kong magazine! The article is entitled Making the Internet Pay.

It lays out how we made the Posh Pile website and social media central to introducing our excellent new car mat brand to auto enthusiasts.

We just passed 75 million impressions between Google Search and Facebook. Yesterday our You Tube site  broke the 5,000 views milestone!  End users are calling us, emailing us and visiting our office to get our exciting new car mats.

Please click the link to read the article Download BIHK Oct 2010-p6

Now we are ready to take Posh Pile global! We are looking for the very best international distributors. Thanks Britcham for the kind words!  

Referral Friday: e-Print Hong Kong

Hi out there! Sorry we missed you last Friday, we were doing business in China without access to the blog. I have lived in Hong Kong for over 18 years, always working in Marketing. Man have I printed a lot of catalogs, sell sheets, packaging business cards etc!

Generally printing in Hong Kong is excellent. Most of the printers use the very best presses from Germany and the U.S., with ink from Japan and Europe.

A few months ago, we discovered e-print. Their website is www.e-print.com.hk .  Their English site  is:  www.e-print.com.hk/en/aboutus.htm . e-print is an amazing time and money saver. We estimate e-print saves us 30% on our printing costs, and because they operate 24 hours per day, they are twice as fast as a normal printer!

Imagine ordering 100 business cards in 4 color for HK$38 or US$ 4.90 and getting them in 48 hours!  Imagine getting a banner like this made 6 feet tall for less than US$15.00 and getting it in less than 2 days! e-print does everything from envelops to pizza boxes!

International Success Can Only Come From The Top

I have been focused on selling U.S. products to markets outside the U.S. for over 20 years and have sold over a half a billion dollars of U.S. products internationally.  In 2009 , I traveled from Hong Kong to the U.S.  seven times to visit over 20 U.S. companies with under $100 million in sales to explore taking them global. Unfortunately many of these companies were extremely challenging to help. What all these companies had in common was that  international expansion was not a critical focus of the owner or the CEO. In these companies they still saw their business as being U.S. based but ‘heard from friends that there was money to be made in China, Europe or the Middle East'.

Conversely I have worked with two companies that grew amazing international businesses: Loctite and Meguiar’s. The common international success ingredients in both these companies were:

*The CEO made international his job. At Loctite Ken Butterworth and David Freeman were huge zealouts of international expansion. At Meguiar’s, Barry Meguiar made going global his focus. 

*They gave international the company’s best resources.

*They put the best people in international and understood very well since international expansion is a sales and marketing focus: sales and marketing talent would be needed first. 

*They showed the entire company that they were keenly interested in growth outside the U.S, and that smart managers within the organization should support international and have the same focus if they wanted to move ahead in their careers.

*They understood the need for investment to grow an international business and were willing to invest for 5 years before expecting a return. In both companies the returns came as planned and were equivalent, even superior to those of the U.S. business.

*They realized the need to plan and created ten year plans, monitored monthly, reviewed quarterly and updated annually with presentations to the management team in HQ or international markets which they organized and always attended. 

Sadly many of the U.S. firms I visited last year do not look like they will ever earn international success on the magnitude of Loctite or Meguiar’s because:

*They see their U.S. business as their primary business and ‘export’ business as ‘gravy’. They see their future in the U.S. market. They said they ‘don’t like the food or international travel’. If the owner or CEO says this , guess what: no one in the company will spend any time helping the company expand internationally. In one company with huge potential overseas, the owner gave international responsibility  to his difficult brother to literally get him out of country because domestic managers were tired of him messing with the US business.

*They have no 10 year international plan or even a distribution policy. Some even  accept very small orders from international accounts they had never seen or had any understanding of. 

*The CEO or owner is not focused on international expansion and has given responsibility for international to customer service or the v.p. of U.S. sales. 

*They allocate resources poorly: I have seen many a  non-sales and marketing person put in charge in the early days of an international business. I worked with packaging engineers and manufacturing guys given the responsibility for growing international sales  who missed so much of their potential opportunity because of their own skill set. These companies never became #1 or #2 in their markets outside the U.S.

*They are too slow to respond to customers. I can tell you that in Asia especially, customers demand a 24 hour response. They get it from the good Asian suppliers. 

*Instead of a ‘Win/Win’ culture, they had a ‘Take it or Leave it ‘ attitude. Well as  I am sure you can guess, most international customers when presented with ‘Win/Lose’ would prefer to leave it. Customers today have a world of choices. 

CEOs/Owners: only 6% of the world’s population lives in the U.S.A.  It is time to rebuild the U.S. economy by taking advantage of the weak dollar and expanding emerging markets. It is time for you to sell your products to the other 94% of your potential customers! To be successful you must make international growth your mission!

Referral Friday: TEN The Entrepreneurs' Network

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!

Referral Fridays - eeVoices

I am going to start something new on the Going Global blog. After living and working in Asia for almost  18 years, I get asked all the time: "where do I find this" or "how do I do that". So every Friday I am going to refer a business, place, product, or service that is a true gem in Asia.

One of the biggest things any business struggles with in Asia is hiring the very best talent. Hong Kong actually has more stringent privacy laws than in the US, and in China the reliability and availability of data is a real challenge when checking out job candidates. Two years ago I met a seasoned executive from Canada named Greg Basham. Greg is CEO of a Hong Kong based company called eeVoices: www.eeVoices.com   Greg's company does complete background checks including verifying work histories, references,educational credentials, and even criminal reference checks. Their fees are extremely reasonable, even for a small company like mine.

 eeVoices helped us dodge a bullet about two years ago. We had an opening for our finance manager position (the person who handles all our money). We found a lady who seemed perfect for the job. She passed her interviews with our entire team with flying colors. When eeVoices tried to get her HK identity card photo copy to run a routine background and criminal record check, the candidate suddenly lost her ID and after repeated calls said; "she was out of the country". Obviously there was something she did not want us to know. 

 I wholeheartedly recommend eeVoices. Greg's phone number is (852) 2262-2729. He can also be reached through his company website.

eeVoices can run backgrounds checks globally: U.S., Canada, the EU, Asia, Australia etc. 

HKTDC a Valuable Business Partner

 

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Are you trying to develop your China entry strategy?

Are you a Hong Kong based company or regional office trying to expand globally?

The HKTDC is a valuable free business resource. Its sole purpose is to suppose trade with and through Hong Kong.

In our company we have used the HKTDC to:

*find out the process to get our CEPA certificate (Our company now has a full China subsidiary in Zhuhai with a business license to trade as a local company in China). The HKTDC pointed us in the right direction in terms of outlining the process, helping us find a China attested lawyer etc.

*find thousands of prospective international distributor prospects for our products. The HKTDC has many proprietary databases that you can search for free on their terminals in their Wanchai HQ (pictured above in the Convention Center).

*The HKTDC puts together publications and now videos (they has a first class production team - with talent exceeding many of the HK TV stations, in my opinion). The HKTDC saw an upcoming article for the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on how our company is leveraging Web 2.0 to take our brand of luxury car mats Posh Pile global. Joe Kainz of the HKTDC asked if we would help them do an educational piece for HK SMEs on leveraging technology to connect with end users. Check out our 'behind the scenes' video of us filming the HKTDC (link on the video link above)   For more info on the Hong Trade Development Council visit:  www.hktdc.com 

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Standard Chartered Bank Reports a 41% increase in Lending to Hong Kong SMEs

Image by Stuck in Customsvia Flickr

Just returned last night from two weeks in the U.S. , and a small side trip to Costa Rica. Spent time in Georgia, Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio, and Florida while in the States. In December I spoke with the president of an excellent local bank in the North Georgia mountains. He predicted a challenging summer of 2010, as the banks, real estate and building contractors, as well as home owners worked through their real estate debt. I was rather shocked when I heard this at the end of last year, but by all first hand accounts from U.S. friends and business associates: he was right. The recovery in the U.S. appears to be on track, but it varies by region and by industry. I am fortune to be deeply involved in both the automotive aftermarket and DIY consumer/retail segments which have weathered the tsunami with amazing resiliency even in the States. In Asia and the emerging markets (like Costa Rica), our segments are booming.

Fast forward to Asia and in today's Hong Kong Standard newspaper was a short article on Standard Chartered Bank boosting loans to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) by 41%. The article even went on to say the bank was adding staff to better service this expansion in lending. Click the link to read the article... View this photo    Banks in Hong Kong have fairly conservative lending practices, so this tells me that SME's are doing quite well.

Saturday as I left Chicago's O'Hare Airport, the United lounge and the bars were spilling out into the aisles with World Cup fans. Last night as I arrived home in Stanley, HK, the waterfront bars and restaurants were teeming at midnight with World Cup fans. The world gets smaller and more interconnected every day!

An Expat Icon: Don Battles

On our recent Phuket vacation, the family could not wait to go to Don's Cafe. For my daughter, it was for the juicy cheeseburgers, for my wife: the greek salad - (she loves Don's feta cheese from his own factory), and for me; it was just to watch this 76 year old whiz who could 'herd the cats' both staff and customer alike, always keeping a very positive attitude.

Don was a positive example to all ex-pats. He came to Thailand at 59 years old and started a successful engineering business in Bangkok. About  13 years ago he started Don's Cafe in a small convenience store cooking his signature ribs. 8 years ago he moved into Don's Cafe and Mall with a restaurant, a bar with cowboy paintings, a butcher/cheese shop, a convenience store, a wine shop and even an ATM machine!

His restaurant was the first one I saw 8 years ago where all the waitresses entered the customers orders on wireless PDAs.

Please click the clickView this photo  to read more about Don Battles. Sadly he closed Don's Mall on March 13th to focus on his factories in Bangkok and Chiang Rai that make over 56 food products, and to travel to Kunming to learn Chinese!

One Chinese Company Captures almost 1/3 of the California Solar Panel Market in Less than 1 Year

Image by richardmasonervia Flickr

When I was last in the U.S. at Christmas I saw, what I thought were stimulus funds at work repaving the highways. This was worrying. In our last serious economic event in the early 1980's the U.S. economy shifted from manufacturing jobs to service and technology, a strategic shift that worked very well for almost 30 years.

Now is the time for the U.S. to pioneer and develop alternative energy sources. Wind and Solar are great examples. While we pave the roads, the Chinese government and smart, fast, and aggressive Chinese companies are getting into solar and wind energy in a big way (often funded at the local level by U.S. or state tax credits). Click one the link  View this photo  to read how Yingli, a Chinese Solar panel company captured over 1/3 of the California market in less than a year. Now they are moving into New Jersey.

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CEPA Gives Hong Kong an Edge

Image by jondresner via Flickr

For centuries China Trade has been important. Never before is it more importantant than today, and CEPA gives Hong Kong an edge over regional rivals like Singapore. CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) originally created in 2003 to help open the door for HK businesses to operate in China as 'Chinese' businesses has been broadened dramatically. TEN (The Entrepreneurs' Network of HK) recently featured the topic of CEPA in it's March meeting www.tenhk.typepad.com

William Lam and Winy Tse attorneys at Hui & Lam delivered a fact filled and informative presentation on CEPA. Please click the link Download CEPA EXPLAINED

We are in the process of getting our HKSS CEPA certificate so we can distribute our products directly and invoice in China. If you want to do business directly in China, I recommend you set an appointment with the China Trade Specialists at the Hong Kong TDC (Trade and Development Council). The service is free, although the extremely knowledgeable trade specialist we consulted with did not speak English, so be prepared to bring a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker along. Once you decide CEPA is for you, a China attested lawyer in HK is your next step. You can get a list of these lawyers from the TDC. We used HUI & Lam.

If you are a successful business doing business in China or you would like to be, do check out CEPA. It is available for companies in the trading, services, or investment fields.

30% Chinese

Image via Wikipedia

This was a big week at our little Hong Kong company. Meguiar's our primary focus for the last 10 years moved out today, and we bought majority share in an adhesives factory in Shanghai whose other shareholders wanted our sales & marketing help to take global.

Our printer who I have dealt with since I moved from the U.S. in 1992, stopped in to talk with me about some new business cards. About 5 years ago this fellow told me that he used to print marketing materials for my oldest brother when he ran 3M  Far East in the 1970's! Since our printer is one of our most special suppliers, I shared my plans and vision for our new business.

He looked at me seriously and said "Tom you are 30% Chinese". I took this as a true complement from this man of very few words. I love working in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, because the people are so pragmatic and fast. The place has a buzz and an enthusiasm. If you are entrepreneurial, it's your kind of place!

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Power of Persausion

Saw Evan Davis' amazing documentary on Warren Buffet. Buffet says the Dale Carnegie Course changed his life.  Lee Iaccoca said the same thing in his autobiography in the 1980's

I took the Dale Carnegie Sales Course in 1981 after I started by first job as a muffler sales person for Walker Manufacturing. It gave me the skills to take my territory from $200,000 per year to $2.700,000 per year within 12 months of completing the course.

Now I will not have any sales people who have not attended a comprehensive course like Dale Carnegie. If they are not trained, we invest in their training (just as Walker invested in my training).  In my experience 1-3 day seminars are not that effective. There is no substitute for the 6-8 week, 3 hours once a week course to realize real long term skills growth and performance improvement.

Be a Business Owner

Flew back from an excellent trade show in Beijing Sunday night in economy on Dragonair to Hong Kong. On the video screen they had an amazing BBC business program: Evan Davis (host of the UK version of Dragon's Den) Meets Warren Buffet: The World'd Greatest Money Maker. Take 10 minutes and check out this video:

I have been investing since 1995. With the Tech Bubble of 2000 and the recent Tsunami, I now subscribe to Warren Buffet's adage: be a business owner. My two best investments by a long margin have been my own business and real estate in Asia.

This is a great documentary: don't miss Warren Buffet on 'Mr. Market' or his example of how he taught his children about money.