Importing from China

Posted by chinaguy | Uncategorized | Monday 30 March 2009 6:28 am

Importing from China is a risky business, at least for those that don’t know what they are doing. Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way. Nowadays I have great relationships, directly with suppliers, and know the easy way through what used to be excruciating import export procedures. I run a successful business importing from China, and I only need to work a few days a month to maintain it!

How is it possible for me to be earning much more than a full time income from a few days of work a month? Well it did not come easy, I will tell you that. It took over 6 months of planning, talking, research and basic hard work to set it up, but now it is on autopilot!

My biggest client is a tire distributor (who shall remain unnamed) that I have set up shipment for, directly from China. Now all I have to do is check the shipments are all ok, and collect my check every time the shipment arrives (about every 3 months). Let me tell you that one of these checks alone can set me up for lying on the beach all year!

Though, I digress, and I have had a lot of bad experiences finally getting to this point. Let me explain what happened to me:

—–

I used to work for a very large peripherals producer in the US. I was asked to source some computer parts from China by my manager. We were looking to cut costs in our business because buying locally was very prohibitive. So being the good employee I did some research online,even bought some books on the subject to study up.

I found some suppliers through some trading sites, contacted those that seemed good, then after negotiating on price found a good one to work with.

I had found an amazing low price that would cut our production costs by 38%! I set up the first shipment- a rather large order for $56,000 worth of parts. I was so confident that this would be a turning point for the business and my career! I was so proud of myself, I treated my girlfriend to a nice dinner. Boy was I in for a shock. This is when nightmare started.

We had confirmed payment and they had told us when the shipment was setting out. They asked us to forward the payment a little early so they could pay off the cost of the extra workers they needed. We had signed a contract so I thought that if anything went wrong I would be protected.

I thought my money would be safe. WRONG!

They started to be very unresponsive to emails and calls. Then they announced they had a problem at the factory and the shipment woudl be delayed. I asked for how long but they could only give me an ambiguous “As Soon As Possible”. My boss was asking me for a status update and I was hesitant to give it to him. The shipment became one week late, then two. I was not sure what to do!

They had our money and we had nothing to show for it!

I tried frantically to look for someone I could contact, perhaps some trade authority that could help me resolve the issue and enforce the contract, which at this point seemed moot. All the agencies I tried to find were in Chinese. I asked my Chinese friend to contact them, but there was no reply, or if there was it was to the extent of “It’s not my problem”. I even tried to contact the WTO and other large governing bodies. They just seemed to shrug their shoulders!

I could find no authority to help me! I didn’t know what to do!

My boss became concerned because a lot of time had passed and looked into it. When he saw the state of affairs and the amount of money that had been paid already he went into a rage! It was my decision making that allowed this to happen , and it was my responsibility.

My job was on the line and I could even end up getting sued by my company!

I had no idea what to do, I felt my hands were tied. My emails and calls to the company went unanswered. Then finally one day they sent me a happy email declaring that they had finished and were sending the shipment off now. I felt a great burden lift. It was a month late but at least it was finally on it’s way. After waiting what seemed like decades for the shipment to arrive, I went to the docks to inspect the shipment myself. Then is when the final stroke hit me.

They had sent me the wrong product!

They had sent me a computer part, while functionally almost the same was an inferior version. The real kicker was that I found out (later) that this part was only worth 50% of the value of the part I needed. They had done the bait and switch and sent me a part that was half the price to produce but charged me the price for the expensive version!

I ended up paying more to import from China than the cost for manufacturing directly the US!

Months of headaches, threats from my boss and I ended up losing the company money! Needless to say my boss gave me a firm handshake and showed me the door after that. Luckily the company managed to use the parts in some way to recoup some of their losses.

That Chinese manufacturer had played me for the fool, and ran away with the profits.

In the end, I realized I should have learned more before I decided to play with the pros. Everything I learned from my books was useless in my predicament.

Then my friend recommended to me this guide. I thought at this point I don’t want to be in this business anymore,I don’t want to be burned again. Reluctantly though I though, why not take a look.

I picked up the book and could not believe it!

If I had known these things when I started I would have not had such problems!

I immediately forgot about my previous trouble and got down to work. It was a lot easier than I had imagined. By following the step by step checklists in the book, I was able to set up reliable consistent connections with manufacturers and have a plan of action for any problems that occured.

It was not an easy task to get to where I am today, but with this book, it was easy to know what to do and when. Nowadays my business is almost on autopilot. I hired a couple of guys to monitor the deals, and collect my cheques when the shipments come in. It is so easy now.

Importing From China Book

Importing From China Book

In this tough economy China is making a killing, and I am glad I get my slice of that big pie!

So buy the book today before you go bankrupt trying to figure it out yourself!

You can check out more information about the book here: http://importingfromchina.com.au

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment