Hi Fastlaners!
I originally posted this in another thread, but it was considered off-topic (newbie mistake). So here's my own thread:
I'm looking for potential pain points and unmet needs, especially of people who purchase from Chinese vendors or otherwise have business dealings with Chinese companies. I'm specifically looking for such unmet needs from a legal angle due to my professional background (I'm an in-house attorney at a multinational in Taiwan). I'm also bilingual (English/Mandarin) and was wondering if I could use my skill set to create a service or product that would be of value to people or companies in the West doing business with Chinese companies.
My questions to Fastlaners who have experience with business dealings and negotiations with Chinese vendors would be:
1. What are your specific pain points or needs, if any, when it comes to communicating in English with your Chinese vendors (is the language barrier a real problem)? Would it make sense, in your view, to use standard letters or documents (such as POs, RFQ, etc) in English attached with a reliable Chinese translation just as a back-up to avoid miscommunications? Or is this never an issue?
2. Do you ever actually enter contracts with the Chinese side and if so, what kind of contracts would that be in your biz? Would these contracts be signed in English or Chinese or both? What are common problems you encounter with contracts? (A friend of mine who used to be a garment manufacturer in China before he retired told me he never used any contracts with his mostly US buyers at all, so I'm wondering if this is true in general or just in his particular line of business).
3. Would you see any value in having (customizable) drafts of contracts, baseline agreements, Terms & Conditions, clauses, letters or forms (or any other legal documents) available to you in English, attached with a reliable Chinese translation that has been reviewed and approved by a local Chinese lawyer as conforming with local laws?
These are my basic questions so far as I'm still in the "chasing needs" phase and wondering if I should take this further or not.
In case there exists such a need, I'd be willing to invest some time in creating some of those generic documents mentioned above, based on your input, and also provide Chinese translations and share them here at no cost.
It would be great to get some feedback directly from the frontlines. Thanks a lot in advance!
I originally posted this in another thread, but it was considered off-topic (newbie mistake). So here's my own thread:
I'm looking for potential pain points and unmet needs, especially of people who purchase from Chinese vendors or otherwise have business dealings with Chinese companies. I'm specifically looking for such unmet needs from a legal angle due to my professional background (I'm an in-house attorney at a multinational in Taiwan). I'm also bilingual (English/Mandarin) and was wondering if I could use my skill set to create a service or product that would be of value to people or companies in the West doing business with Chinese companies.
My questions to Fastlaners who have experience with business dealings and negotiations with Chinese vendors would be:
1. What are your specific pain points or needs, if any, when it comes to communicating in English with your Chinese vendors (is the language barrier a real problem)? Would it make sense, in your view, to use standard letters or documents (such as POs, RFQ, etc) in English attached with a reliable Chinese translation just as a back-up to avoid miscommunications? Or is this never an issue?
2. Do you ever actually enter contracts with the Chinese side and if so, what kind of contracts would that be in your biz? Would these contracts be signed in English or Chinese or both? What are common problems you encounter with contracts? (A friend of mine who used to be a garment manufacturer in China before he retired told me he never used any contracts with his mostly US buyers at all, so I'm wondering if this is true in general or just in his particular line of business).
3. Would you see any value in having (customizable) drafts of contracts, baseline agreements, Terms & Conditions, clauses, letters or forms (or any other legal documents) available to you in English, attached with a reliable Chinese translation that has been reviewed and approved by a local Chinese lawyer as conforming with local laws?
These are my basic questions so far as I'm still in the "chasing needs" phase and wondering if I should take this further or not.
In case there exists such a need, I'd be willing to invest some time in creating some of those generic documents mentioned above, based on your input, and also provide Chinese translations and share them here at no cost.
It would be great to get some feedback directly from the frontlines. Thanks a lot in advance!
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