Hi Fastlaners,
I'm a Korean (25M) who grew up attending international schools in China and Malaysia.
After graduating from university in Hong Kong, I initially joined a Big 4 accounting firm there since understanding accounting standards, tax codes, and company law is crucial for doing business in Korea and China. The former is a de-facto socialist economy with a 50% estate tax and a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and the latter is an actual socialist regime.
After half a year, however, I have already gained a sufficient knowledge of accounting, taxes and law to start my own business. Furthermore, Hong Kong's high cost of business, coupled with a small market of 7 million makes it a place not suitable for any entrepreneurship outside finance. Without hesitation, I quit my Big 4 job and immediately incorporated a company in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, China (next to Hong Kong). I was planning on posting contents related to studying abroad as my value skew is having attended one of China's best international schools (Shanghai High School International Division) and university in Hong Kong (the Hong Kong Unviersity of Science and Technology) where the medium of instruction is English. Basically leveraging credentials to advertise study-abroad consulting services and English cram schools.
I, however, was not too well-versed in China's immigration law. It turned out that China did not allow work visas for those without more than two years of work experience in the relevant field. In addition, I would have to earn a personal income which is 4 times that of the city's average, which is close to six figures in USD. First, I am nowhere near earning that much, and second, I would have to pay more than 50% in personal income tax and social security even if I turn up. Plus, foreign nationals are mostly banned from the education sector in China, and I am a Korean national.
After squandering several thousand grands on these futile efforts, I moved to my parents' in Korea, which was when I came across the The Millionaire Fastlane. Inspired by MJ's anecdote of driving limos to understand the ground transportation market, I started working as an English tutor at a study-abroad center in Korea to observe customer needs in person.
Based on my interactions with students with parents, market demand for local students who just started learning English is already fulfilled by the endless supply of teachers who went to college in the US. Competing in this arena would inadvertently result in a race to the bottom thanks to the plethora of US college graduates who couldn't secure an H1-B visa.
This got me desperately searching for my value skew, which turned out to be teaching English literature to Asian-American and Asian-Canadian students who repatriated to parents' home country. Their parents, despite speaking and writing English flawlessly, have no idea how to help their children with English literature classes at international schools since they haven't read Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Sophocles etc growing up.
This value-skew, however, only can target upper-class parents in Asia as English and a Western-style education are status symbols here. In other words, crazy high barrier to entry and high margins but not scalable. This means I'll have to grind and put in the teaching hours myself until I gather sufficient funds to establish myself in a rich neighborhood and come up with a curriculum which I can franchise in Korea and eventually throughout Asia.
I joined the Fastlane forum to connect with other aspiring entrepreneurs like me going through the same gruesome process and gain insights from others further down the road.
I'm a Korean (25M) who grew up attending international schools in China and Malaysia.
After graduating from university in Hong Kong, I initially joined a Big 4 accounting firm there since understanding accounting standards, tax codes, and company law is crucial for doing business in Korea and China. The former is a de-facto socialist economy with a 50% estate tax and a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and the latter is an actual socialist regime.
After half a year, however, I have already gained a sufficient knowledge of accounting, taxes and law to start my own business. Furthermore, Hong Kong's high cost of business, coupled with a small market of 7 million makes it a place not suitable for any entrepreneurship outside finance. Without hesitation, I quit my Big 4 job and immediately incorporated a company in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, China (next to Hong Kong). I was planning on posting contents related to studying abroad as my value skew is having attended one of China's best international schools (Shanghai High School International Division) and university in Hong Kong (the Hong Kong Unviersity of Science and Technology) where the medium of instruction is English. Basically leveraging credentials to advertise study-abroad consulting services and English cram schools.
I, however, was not too well-versed in China's immigration law. It turned out that China did not allow work visas for those without more than two years of work experience in the relevant field. In addition, I would have to earn a personal income which is 4 times that of the city's average, which is close to six figures in USD. First, I am nowhere near earning that much, and second, I would have to pay more than 50% in personal income tax and social security even if I turn up. Plus, foreign nationals are mostly banned from the education sector in China, and I am a Korean national.
After squandering several thousand grands on these futile efforts, I moved to my parents' in Korea, which was when I came across the The Millionaire Fastlane. Inspired by MJ's anecdote of driving limos to understand the ground transportation market, I started working as an English tutor at a study-abroad center in Korea to observe customer needs in person.
Based on my interactions with students with parents, market demand for local students who just started learning English is already fulfilled by the endless supply of teachers who went to college in the US. Competing in this arena would inadvertently result in a race to the bottom thanks to the plethora of US college graduates who couldn't secure an H1-B visa.
This got me desperately searching for my value skew, which turned out to be teaching English literature to Asian-American and Asian-Canadian students who repatriated to parents' home country. Their parents, despite speaking and writing English flawlessly, have no idea how to help their children with English literature classes at international schools since they haven't read Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Sophocles etc growing up.
This value-skew, however, only can target upper-class parents in Asia as English and a Western-style education are status symbols here. In other words, crazy high barrier to entry and high margins but not scalable. This means I'll have to grind and put in the teaching hours myself until I gather sufficient funds to establish myself in a rich neighborhood and come up with a curriculum which I can franchise in Korea and eventually throughout Asia.
I joined the Fastlane forum to connect with other aspiring entrepreneurs like me going through the same gruesome process and gain insights from others further down the road.
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