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Forced Deadlines and Being Uncomfortable: Moving to China in October 2018

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buildingbetter

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I work best under pressure and an opportunity has come up for me to move to China for 4-5 months from October. I'm aiming to start an e-commerce business while I'm out there (starting with FBA and expanding when I return to Europe). Very few people get the opportunity to converse with their suppliers in person, look around factories, examine the product and ship directly from China to Amazon warehouses, etc and I want to make sure I take full advantage of it. It's not without its challenges though.

I've got debt to clear and savings to build. I currently owe around £3650. I have around £5500 in savings. I'm doing something akin to freelancing to earn money and I want to start treating that as a business over the next few months in order to clear the debt and build up some more cash for the business. I use my savings to make more money (it's risk-free, don't panic) so I can't just pay off my debt without wiping out my ability to earn more but the debt is on high interest credit cards.

I think the biggest challenge this year will be mental, though. I always stay within my comfort zone and avoid taking risks. It's silly because I'm also confident in my ability to pull through if things go wrong because I've done it plenty of times before. I decided that this is the year that I learn how to commit to a decision and take a risk or I'll be stuck in the same situation forever. I'll be living in at least two new countries this year, doing at least one new job (possibly 2-3) and starting a business. Not easy for an anxious human!

So my plan for the rest of the year:
  • Now-October: Clear my debt, build up savings further (need to work on a specific $ goal). I may or may not be moving to Spain for a job until October - waiting to hear on that one. Work on finding a few products that might work so I can hit the ground running in China. Look for/apply for business grants.
  • October-Jan/Feb: China. Source whatever product(s) I decide on, ship to FBA. I'll be working 30 hours/week and will have my days free but will be working evenings/weekends probably. If I can, I want to take Chinese language classes.
  • Feb-?: Moving to another EU country. I'm British and obviously Brexit is happening. I'm not happy about it and want to retain free movement within the EU if I can. Right now, it looks like if you're resident in an EU country when Brexit happens you'll have the right to remain and keep that permanently as long as you return at least once every 5 years. My goal would be to eventually get citizenship.

    Once I'm back in Europe, the plan is to build my own e-commerce store and possibly expand to eBay if it makes sense to. If needed, I have family in the UK who could handle postage there and I could handle the rest. I know HTML, CSS and bits and pieces of other things that will make the web design thing a little easier. I'm confident I'll be able to manage a lot of that on my own.
 
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S.Y.

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I've got debt to clear and savings to build. I currently owe around £3650. I have around £5500 in savings. I'm doing something akin to freelancing to earn money and I want to start treating that as a business over the next few months in order to clear the debt and build up some more cash for the business. I use my savings to make more money (it's risk-free, don't panic) so I can't just pay off my debt without wiping out my ability to earn more but the debt is on high interest credit cards.

Risk-free investments have usually low returns. How does your return compare to the interest on your credit cards? It might be wise to stop investing and put more towards clearing the debt.

I think the biggest challenge this year will be mental, though. I always stay within my comfort zone and avoid taking risks. It's silly because I'm also confident in my ability to pull through if things go wrong because I've done it plenty of times before. I decided that this is the year that I learn how to commit to a decision and take a risk or I'll be stuck in the same situation forever. I'll be living in at least two new countries this year, doing at least one new job (possibly 2-3) and starting a business. Not easy for an anxious human!

How do you plan to manage all those changes while lifting an e-com?

So my plan for the rest of the year:
  • Now-October: Clear my debt, build up savings further (need to work on a specific $ goal). I may or may not be moving to Spain for a job until October - waiting to hear on that one. Work on finding a few products that might work so I can hit the ground running in China. Look for/apply for business grants.

I don't see the ability to converse with suppliers directly as a competitive advantage. I might be wrong. (wondering what is @biophase opinion on that one)

Also, what have you done since posting this?
 

biophase

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I don't see the ability to converse with suppliers directly as a competitive advantage. I might be wrong. (wondering what is @biophase opinion on that one)

Yes, I always find this sort of odd. But she's not traveling there just for this, she will be living in China which is great. China is a big place and your top 3 factories you are choosing from could be 10 hour drives from each other. But if you find one in your city, yes absolutely go visit them face to face. I'm sure they will take you more seriously than some other person at the other end of an email.
 

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