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- Jan 8, 2013
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So continuing from the last post...
We arrived at the large factory and was taking to their offices. After some more chit chat introductions to these guys as well as some coke and water - the manager of the factory came in. He took us down to the "showroom" where some of their products were.
Not all the designs were present in the showroom as they had just been to a big exhibition in Europe and taken a lot of their show products their, its funny he mentioned it as me and my partner had planned to go to this exhibition next time it came around!
We had a look at all their products and saw some we were interested in. The quality was impressive as well as the prices, turns out that this factory had better prices than the other factory we were working with, score - now we have two good factories we can potentially work with and not keep all our eggs in one basket.
Before we entered the offices, it was evident how big their operation was, boxes and boxes of product laid around everywhere, ready to be shipped off to the US, with the names of the product and the distributor they were being sent to on the box, I made note of all the distributors and the brand to research later... I thought to myself these guys must be killing it!
When I first met the manager he seemed pretty unfazed but seemed to warm up after he had taken us to the show room, I think it was a combination of the fact we had done our due diligence reflected in the questions we were asking as well as finding a mutual interest/religion we have.
He was surprised that I too was the same religion and mentioned that British members were in his opinion "better" practicers of the faith than his fellow Chinese practitioners.
Unplanned and unknown to us, he then took us to the production part of the factory and he explained the whole process to us! We literally started at the first step and went through to the last one - it was amazing. We got to see how a similar product to ours starts off and is made step by step, people working at the speed of light, there were hundreds of workers - really impressive considering right now is the off peak time for all of the factories in the area!
When witnessing the whole process I thought how analogous it is to a real business, if you have a clear system with your steps clearly laid out, the output will take care of itself! (With a little oversight of course). Their operation was really impressive and I held back a few wows. It was evident the quality of the product as well as their Quality Assurance, they had rows of people checking all the products etc.
After we came out of the factory (still littered with boxes of products ready to be shipped) the manager asked me what I thought, I told him it was great *signalled a thumbs up, due to lack of language skills*.
The manager took us back to his office and we took his contacts details and he took ours. I noticed he was improving upon his language skills and we had a little convo about that. When we were about to leave he told my partner in Chinese that "we are brothers all over the world, welcome to china" and lifted out a gift from under his desk.
I was totally taken a-back, we hadn't even started business with them yet and he had kindly given me a gift.. what hospitality - they knew we were just beginners too and also the fact that I am quite young. I told him thanks and he is welcome at my house any time if he visits London, send me a message if he comes.
We said our goodbyes and happy with the new friends we had made, they insisted we eat with them, unfortunately we had to go and meet some other friends so we had to politely decline.
After this encounter I felt really inspired and after seeing the process of how the product started from raw materials turned into a product and ready for shipping to the distributers I am/was pumped to make this venture successful.
The gift the manager gave me turned out to be "Pu-Er" Tea, an expensive Tea from the Yunan province. Wonderful! I asked my partner if this is common for Chinese people and they said no, I thought to myself I must have made a good friendship!
When we got back I sent the manager a message telling him thanks, good luck with his learning which he replied and said if I have anything I need help with or any questions dont hesitate to ask him. Awesome.
After this trip we were pretty pleased and it was great to find a factory with lots of experience that was producing a major brand (one of our competitors, but on the low end side, we are aiming for high end). I am really seeing how this is all tying together. I am of the opinion that true rich people are not only rich in terms of money, that they can replicate the process again from nothing and that they have character - unlike the people in the trade market.
Time to make this a success!
So next stop is Guangzhou next week, we are going to see the factory that produced our samples as well going to look for some more for the other parts of our product, you can never have too few great factories right? Got to weed out all the crap.
My partners father let us know that word is that one of the factories in Guangzhou had a contract with a guy who wanted them to produce lots of their product, they produced them all but the guy backed out and didn't pay them, now the factory is in a tough position and has to get rid of a lot of high quality stock at a low price, oppurtunity? I think so.. we are going to look at the products when we get their, problem is they are already branded... so we will have to see how that works out.
Until next time...
Edit: A few pictures of the gift he gave..
We arrived at the large factory and was taking to their offices. After some more chit chat introductions to these guys as well as some coke and water - the manager of the factory came in. He took us down to the "showroom" where some of their products were.
Not all the designs were present in the showroom as they had just been to a big exhibition in Europe and taken a lot of their show products their, its funny he mentioned it as me and my partner had planned to go to this exhibition next time it came around!
We had a look at all their products and saw some we were interested in. The quality was impressive as well as the prices, turns out that this factory had better prices than the other factory we were working with, score - now we have two good factories we can potentially work with and not keep all our eggs in one basket.
Before we entered the offices, it was evident how big their operation was, boxes and boxes of product laid around everywhere, ready to be shipped off to the US, with the names of the product and the distributor they were being sent to on the box, I made note of all the distributors and the brand to research later... I thought to myself these guys must be killing it!
When I first met the manager he seemed pretty unfazed but seemed to warm up after he had taken us to the show room, I think it was a combination of the fact we had done our due diligence reflected in the questions we were asking as well as finding a mutual interest/religion we have.
He was surprised that I too was the same religion and mentioned that British members were in his opinion "better" practicers of the faith than his fellow Chinese practitioners.
Unplanned and unknown to us, he then took us to the production part of the factory and he explained the whole process to us! We literally started at the first step and went through to the last one - it was amazing. We got to see how a similar product to ours starts off and is made step by step, people working at the speed of light, there were hundreds of workers - really impressive considering right now is the off peak time for all of the factories in the area!
When witnessing the whole process I thought how analogous it is to a real business, if you have a clear system with your steps clearly laid out, the output will take care of itself! (With a little oversight of course). Their operation was really impressive and I held back a few wows. It was evident the quality of the product as well as their Quality Assurance, they had rows of people checking all the products etc.
After we came out of the factory (still littered with boxes of products ready to be shipped) the manager asked me what I thought, I told him it was great *signalled a thumbs up, due to lack of language skills*.
The manager took us back to his office and we took his contacts details and he took ours. I noticed he was improving upon his language skills and we had a little convo about that. When we were about to leave he told my partner in Chinese that "we are brothers all over the world, welcome to china" and lifted out a gift from under his desk.
I was totally taken a-back, we hadn't even started business with them yet and he had kindly given me a gift.. what hospitality - they knew we were just beginners too and also the fact that I am quite young. I told him thanks and he is welcome at my house any time if he visits London, send me a message if he comes.
We said our goodbyes and happy with the new friends we had made, they insisted we eat with them, unfortunately we had to go and meet some other friends so we had to politely decline.
After this encounter I felt really inspired and after seeing the process of how the product started from raw materials turned into a product and ready for shipping to the distributers I am/was pumped to make this venture successful.
The gift the manager gave me turned out to be "Pu-Er" Tea, an expensive Tea from the Yunan province. Wonderful! I asked my partner if this is common for Chinese people and they said no, I thought to myself I must have made a good friendship!
When we got back I sent the manager a message telling him thanks, good luck with his learning which he replied and said if I have anything I need help with or any questions dont hesitate to ask him. Awesome.
After this trip we were pretty pleased and it was great to find a factory with lots of experience that was producing a major brand (one of our competitors, but on the low end side, we are aiming for high end). I am really seeing how this is all tying together. I am of the opinion that true rich people are not only rich in terms of money, that they can replicate the process again from nothing and that they have character - unlike the people in the trade market.
Time to make this a success!
So next stop is Guangzhou next week, we are going to see the factory that produced our samples as well going to look for some more for the other parts of our product, you can never have too few great factories right? Got to weed out all the crap.
My partners father let us know that word is that one of the factories in Guangzhou had a contract with a guy who wanted them to produce lots of their product, they produced them all but the guy backed out and didn't pay them, now the factory is in a tough position and has to get rid of a lot of high quality stock at a low price, oppurtunity? I think so.. we are going to look at the products when we get their, problem is they are already branded... so we will have to see how that works out.
Until next time...
Edit: A few pictures of the gift he gave..