AMA - Ask me anything on sourcing/importing from Asia..

[bombaytea]

Hi Lovecharm and MJ,

Just found your thread as I'm fairly new on this board.
First I would like to say to MJ; what you have created
by setting up this board is absolutely soooo COOL! Thank you.

Lovecharm; I just want to thank you so very much for putting
so much time in here helping all of us out a great deal.
I have one suggestion......with all of your wisdom and great
success, you should write a book on your life. I know it would
really help a lot of business minded people out, all over the world.

Thanks........looking forward to reading more of your posts to learn
even more of this business.

Chow,
Warren

 

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[merryrows]

What about people who need certain type of design in their products? Mostly for small quantities but would love to hear about the process for big quantities as well.

Let´s say we are dealing with furnitures. We figure out the materials that we need for our product. We find supplier? that can sell small quantities (very rare?) and buy the materials from them. We forward the materials to a manufacturer that will build the product. We also provide the design for the manufacturer so he is able to build it just like how we want it to be. How close am I?

I would assume there is severally a manufacturers that do custom work or?
Would you recommend a certain city for somebody who is looking out to manufacture custom made furnitures? I would be importing from Asia and sell them in countries in europa

What would be the process and thinking when considering something like this so I can apply your answer even to another products like clothing's or electronics?

Thanks in advance

Hi Zetta, I am from the Philippines.. I know some manufacturers who can do custom made furnitures for you. They are supplying Wholesale and Retail Stores in US and Europe.

 

[lovecharm]

Here's a question: What are some of the biggest PITA's in your workflow that you deal with day to day? What would help your business go more smoothly and free up your time for more productive activities?

First of all, what is PITA?

As for your second question, good managers, decision makers and good cash flow will free me up a lot..

 

[lovecharm]

How Asian business man sees a business man who is fully tattooed? Fingers/hands + face/neck?

Does it create a lot of more challenge on finding and making deals in Asia?

What challenges may business mans who look like that get in Asia?

ps: thanks for a great value driven thread!

Its going to be intimidating looks for sure, but thats not the end of the world.

At the end of the day, money speaks the loudest.. If you got money then people will do business even with monkeys.

However, I would advice you to look normal initially, once you got goo cash flow and businesses running well then you can do more wild things..

 

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[Natural]

Great great thread. Thank you so much for answering every question and often in such detail - it helps a lot.

I've sent you a PM btw.

Hope ur taking over LA soon!

 

[Clive]

Great thread!

Hopefully you will give me some insights. I am looking into importing from China however the item I need is tricky - has so many variants. I wonder if you can point me further into the right direction. I will send you a PM.

 

[trshosta]

Lots of good information here.

I want to find business directories for different countries in Asia. How do I go about it? Like Manta, Thomas registry, or even Yellow Pages, for countries like China, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, etc. Any ideas? Google gives me limited results. I am looking for massive lists.

 

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[Option]

About the negotiation part; is it an idea to use an app like Voice Translate Pro to actually talk via Skype.
Might help to cut out some misunderstanding and I guess it will make them smile if you are able to talk Mandarin for example.
Reading along, very interesting information!

 

[Lagron]

Okay, so you own/run a textiles company... feel free to PM me a link to an online catalog. It would be nice to add more to my companies brand.

Get back to me through pm here and we can get in touch through e-mail/skype/phone soon.

Thanks.
From Lagron

 

[lovecharm]

Lots of good information here.

I want to find business directories for different countries in Asia. How do I go about it? Like Manta, Thomas registry, or even Yellow Pages, for countries like China, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, etc. Any ideas? Google gives me limited results. I am looking for massive lists.

Check the local chamber of commerce, may be call them up, they usually have a published version of the directories.

 

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[Daniel A]

So if you have any questions regarding importing or sourcing

Hello LoveCharm,

Or anyone else who can help This seemed like the best thread on importing after I searched for relevant terms. I'm really curious about importing/exporting/eCommerce now. BTW: All my recent focus has been on internet marketing but I believe this is something I should take advantage of.

The country where I might be able to get product from is not in Asia, it's in Central America, specifically Guatemala.

Since this idea seems like a big "DUH!" I want to validate it. Can you please help?

I have family in Guatemala and almost all of them have businesses there, in different industries. Personally I am not too close to them but my parents are and our family is really tight, especially on my mom's side.

My interest is in coffee right now since one of the businesses they have there is coffee farms (I know that for sure, but I'm not sure about what else they do yet). My dad told me that one of my uncle's got 100 lbs of coffee for free as a gift from a family member recently. So I thought, can't I import it myself...business within the family?

If I get some coffee beans, should I start with selling to local coffee shops? I guess I'll be the middleman but I'll learn new things and it's a start.

Is this something I should go with?

Cheers

 

[Natural]

Updaaates!

How is everything going?

 

[lovecharm]

Hello LoveCharm,

Or anyone else who can help This seemed like the best thread on importing after I searched for relevant terms. I'm really curious about importing/exporting/eCommerce now. BTW: All my recent focus has been on internet marketing but I believe this is something I should take advantage of.

The country where I might be able to get product from is not in Asia, it's in Central America, specifically Guatemala.

Since this idea seems like a big "DUH!" I want to validate it. Can you please help?

I have family in Guatemala and almost all of them have businesses there, in different industries. Personally I am not too close to them but my parents are and our family is really tight, especially on my mom's side.

My interest is in coffee right now since one of the businesses they have there is coffee farms (I know that for sure, but I'm not sure about what else they do yet). My dad told me that one of my uncle's got 100 lbs of coffee for free as a gift from a family member recently. So I thought, can't I import it myself...business within the family?

If I get some coffee beans, should I start with selling to local coffee shops? I guess I'll be the middleman but I'll learn new things and it's a start.

Is this something I should go with?

Cheers

Well,

I can't answer you if you should go with it or not because everything depends on you.. You are the best person to answer it. I always believed that there are opportunities every where, its just whether you want it or not is the main question.

If I were you then I will brain storm the following:-

1:- Can I sell it to the local coffee shops? If yes then for how much and how much profit will be there for me.
2:- Can I actually start to make a brand out of these coffee and market them? There are various types of coffee now a days, like energising coffee, antioxidant coffee, relaxing coffee (they are decaffeinated and added some camomile and lavender). So think if you can put some twists in your coffee and market them uniquely, if you just try to sell plain coffee then you will be up against major big players. I personally buy those unique types of coffees and I know that market for them are on the up, but the big players are not focusing on them much.

Good luck.

LC.

 

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[Daniel A]

Can I actually start to make a brand out of these coffee and market them?

I'm glad you replied to my post! That was exactly what I was thinking about today, I need to brand the coffee if I go with the idea. If I do well it will be a win-win for myself and my family member. I'm sure you know who the guy is, but there is a guy who created a nice successful brand and his first product was "upgraded coffee" I believe. Plus I heard it comes from Guatemala

I need to think of what my own brand can be though. Plus many other things about this potential business haha.

Thank you for the advice

 

[Berters]

Hey LoveCharm, really appreciate this thread and your offer to help. I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a brand and have been in talks with clothing manufacturers in China. I was wondering if perhaps we could fire a few quick messages over Skype some time?

Looking forward to becoming an active member on the forum!

 

[lovecharm]

Hey LoveCharm, really appreciate this thread and your offer to help. I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a brand and have been in talks with clothing manufacturers in China. I was wondering if perhaps we could fire a few quick messages over Skype some time?

Looking forward to becoming an active member on the forum!

Sure send me a PM.. Or send the questions over there.. By the way, are you in UK? We do have our showroom in London..

 

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[TFM]

Hi lovecharm, I managed to get 2000€ worth of sales in one week for preorders on my new ecommerce website. I'm going to push the order to the forwarding agent tomorrow so it can get here at the end of the next week (I'm shipping by DHL Express).

If you need any help with marketing I might have some tips but only for retail marketing, idk about wholesale marketing :/

I'm now going to get some more different kinds of products so I can cross-sell and use the client base I already have

Do you mind sharing what you did to get that many preorders in one week?

 

[TheRanger]

Question: I am selling books. My distributors are in asia and I dropship for them (or do they dropship from me?). When a customer buys from me, I buy from them and they ship it to their house using DHL or UPS expedited shipping. Their cost is very good and the shipping is FREE (of course the shipping is included in the price but it is still very low cost)

What I am asking is this: How do they get such good rate on the shipping?? When I look up expedited international shipping on DHL or UPS it is like 100+ dollars for something like a book, CD, toys, etc. I check the tracking number of the products and it ships from their country to the customers country (UK or USA) so how do they get it done?

Thanks in advance

 

[Phones]

Do you mind sharing what you did to get that many preorders in one week?

Sorry only checked this now, what I did was a partnership with a Facebook Fan page with around 150k fans. Facebook reach is worse now but it is still achievable. The problem with this is scalling, FB advertising might be more expensive but you have much greater scale.

And I didn't sell them as pre-orders, I sold them with a 1-2 week delivery time.

 

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[Tehcasa]

Hey LoveCharm I'm in the developing stage of manufacturing several prototypes of my product design to Alibaba.
I need your help as to how I should do this. Do I find companies who produce prototypes and different ones to actually make the product. Or do I try and stay with the same company who can do both? Do you know anyone who does this for a reasonable price/cheap.

Thanks Pat

 

[David Ortiz]

Hey LoveCharm I'm in the developing stage of manufacturing several prototypes of my product design to Alibaba.
I need your help as to how I should do this. Do I find companies who produce prototypes and different ones to actually make the product. Or do I try and stay with the same company who can do both? Do you know anyone who does this for a reasonable price/cheap.

Thanks Pat

Hi Pat,
It's a good question. It really depends on the stage you are at with your prototype. If you are looking for simply a "touch and feel" of the prototype - it might be better to do rapid prototyping locally first as the cost is likely comparable but the turnaround time is much quicker.

However if you are at the working sample stage, it's always better to begin engaging the actual manufacturer of the product so they can ensure the design is mass production ready.

Hope that helps.

Dave

 

[PopEmersen]

I have an idea for a consumer electronic product, I've reached out via alibaba, to some manufacturers about getting a prototype done but I am hitting walls. How would you suggest getting around those walls?

 

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[Tehcasa]

Hi Pat,
It's a good question. It really depends on the stage you are at with your prototype. If you are looking for simply a "touch and feel" of the prototype - it might be better to do rapid prototyping locally first as the cost is likely comparable but the turnaround time is much quicker.

However if you are at the working sample stage, it's always better to begin engaging the actual manufacturer of the product so they can ensure the design is mass production ready.

Hope that helps.

Dave

That did help a bit
Thanks Dave

 

[Matt B]

I have an idea for a consumer electronic product, I've reached out via alibaba, to some manufacturers about getting a prototype done but I am hitting walls. How would you suggest getting around those walls?

Depends on the wall.
If you say you "have an idea", I'd assume you don't have things like the 3D-drawings or specifications set out, right?
In this case I'd recommend finding a local partner to specify what you're actually looking for and afterwards get in touch with manufacturers via alibaba.

 

[PopEmersen]

I have sketches and specs, i got a guy from odesk to do it.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

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[Arman]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002P6EQPW/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

I want to import the same thing to Indonesia if it is not patented design. Anybody know how to find the supplier on alibaba or where?
Thanks.

 

[lovecharm]

Guys,

Sorry been away from this forum for last 2 months, this year has started with a BANG big time, so had loads to do.

I will reply to all of you and will reply the PM's as well.

Apologies for the delay, I will be regular from now on.

LC

 

[5holiday]

Hi LC,

I have a role in a small designed-product manufacture and distribution business in the UK, but I don't have a background in the area. I'm having trouble meeting people who know about taking products and building a distribution network around them (aka, turning a product into a business).

1. To help me get an idea of how I should act in my own situation: if you were starting in a new market - how would you approach developing your network of clients?

2. Do you have many BDM's working for you? If so, do you basically choose them based on their existing networks? I saw in one of your earlier posts that you find their existing network very useful.

3. Out of curiosity, if you were to restart in this industry would you prefer to be a broker first, or focus instead of establishing a production capacity?

Many thanks!

 

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[Nadia]

Hey every one,

Since every one has been helping me out and giving me tips on online marketing, so I thought why not give some value back to the community by sharing my knowledge..

I have offices in China, Hong kong and Bangladesh. We manufacture clothing in Bangladesh and export to major brands in US, UK and EU. We also source tons of stuff (raw materials) from China, India, Hong kong pretty much every week.

So if you have any questions regarding importing or sourcing or how to deal with suppliers in Asia then ask away, I will try my best to help you out.

LC

I would like to know about importing Silk into the UK on wholesale to supply buyers for apparel.

1) How to source them?
2) How to know they are legit (i.e can be trusted, reliability etc)
3) How to get them interested on a small scale first ?

Nadia

 

[lovecharm]

Hi LC,

I have a role in a small designed-product manufacture and distribution business in the UK, but I don't have a background in the area. I'm having trouble meeting people who know about taking products and building a distribution network around them (aka, turning a product into a business).

1. To help me get an idea of how I should act in my own situation: if you were starting in a new market - how would you approach developing your network of clients?

2. Do you have many BDM's working for you? If so, do you basically choose them based on their existing networks? I saw in one of your earlier posts that you find their existing network very useful.

3. Out of curiosity, if you were to restart in this industry would you prefer to be a broker first, or focus instead of establishing a production capacity?

Many thanks!

Here are my answers:-

1:- If I were to market a new product then this is what I will do:-

a) Look at the market, how big is it, who are selling them, how much are they selling them for, what are their USP, how will I differentiate myself from them, where are they sourcing from, what is the future potential of the market etc.

2:- What is BDM?

3:- Well, it depends, ideally having own production capacity always helps. But that means your initial investments will be quite big. For any one with low start ups, trading or brokerage is the best way to enter.

Believe it or not, right now I am doing research on a totally new market, I won't reveal too much now, but all I will say is its the soft drinks industry. Now, I am going to source the product and then have my own packaging factory where I will pack them and then will distribute in UK and EU. If business goes well then we will actually buy lands and grow the raw material by ourselves!!