Start an Asian consulting business?

**EasternLight** · 11-20-2008 09:32 PM

My name is Ben and I am relatively young and used to work for a regional company developing their Chinese market. Everything was going smoothly until the big recession hit home and I was laid off.

I tried to find other jobs but none that match my passion- international business.

So I sat down and realized my biggest assets are the fact that I speak fluent Chinese, have a huge base of Chinese contacts to back me up, been to China multiple times, and understand the business environment there well.

I thought about starting a consulting business that help companies outsource work to China; has anyone started a consulting business on here before? What I mean is that I can help companies find product suppliers in China, maybe help them do IT outsourcing; things like web design, graphic design, etc.

Any advice? Is it even a viable idea to do so? I guess my biggest obstacle is how to get people to believe me? I know I can deliver solid results but others might have different ideas.

Thanks

Ben

**adamwade** · 11-21-2008 08:09 AM

Great question Ben -

I have been working as an outsourcing consultant since 2001. It sounds like you have a ton of expertise, but no clients....

You are going to have to find some small clients..willing to take a chance with you...it's not just knowledge of China and it workings, but what are you going to do when something goes wrong ? who do you call ? what resources do you have ?

You need to get an intimate knowledge of what you clients want and not just know China, but understand margins, supply chain and fullfillment...

Send me a PM or call me...I am happy to get you pointed in the right direction.

Adam

**EasternLight** · 01-05-2009 09:40 PM

Hi guys, first let me say that if you sent me a PM, I apologize for getting back to you so late. Things just have been a little crazy lately with the Holidays and everything just rolled into one.

So now, I took a few steps forward with me idea.

1. I found some capital to help me get things started. I am still talking with my investors about exactly how much is enough to get things started.

2. Found a trustworthy partner in China. We will likely be going back and forth finalizing the details of cooperation soon. I felt this was important since I will be stationed in the U.S. and can not be in China 24/7/365.

So there are some major questions that comes into play too,

1. How to do you market a consulting business? I do have some contacts in the states but what is the key in getting started? Cold-calling? Direct-Mailing?

2. How to ensure a balance between my partner in China and me. Because I can not be in China all the time, I will have to likely delegate a lot of the tasks to my partner. But then, I feel like I will relegated to a very "confined" share of the business. How can I overcome that?

THANKS

BEN

p.S- will respond to all of your PMs very soon.

**leonyu** · 01-06-2009 11:38 AM

Hi, Ben,

I think your experience will really really help you!

I have been working in an American based company and realized some Americans really know very little about China-though they source from China and cooperate with Chinese Suppliers, this makes it difficult for both sides.

As you have good experience with China culture and Chinese vendors, there should be no problem on the China side, you need to convince US buyers that you can help them-show your achievements to them!

And on your question of "How to ensure a balance between my partner in China and me.", I think you might bad experiences in China-many foreigners I know have been cheated or mistreated while cooperating with Chinese-I do not want to tell who is right or who is wrong-but I believe once you find a good partner here in China, this question will be answered with satisfaction. There are many talents in China, but CHARACTER is the most important thing when choose your partner.

Thanks.

**Vaze** · 01-06-2009 04:37 PM

It sounds like you have all the puzzle pieces and can probably make this work. The key it would seem, is to be aggressive in marketing the services state side - good luck!

As an aside to that, I've long been interested in trying to do something in China but don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Does anyone know if that would be a major barrier to trying to develop some sort of business? (I've been to China a few times, including some pretty rural areas and found virtually no one speaking English, but that was a few years ago, don't know if that is changing or not)

**Gibbo** · 01-06-2009 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by Vaze

It sounds like you have all the puzzle pieces and can probably make this work. The key it would seem, is to be aggressive in marketing the services state side - good luck!

As an aside to that, I've long been interested in trying to do something in China but don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Does anyone know if that would be a major barrier to trying to develop some sort of business? (I've been to China a few times, including some pretty rural areas and found virtually no one speaking English, but that was a few years ago, don't know if that is changing or not)

I've really noticed a difference in the past four years, more and more Chinese people are learning and speaking English. I still believe that you need a good knowledge of the language to do business there, if you're going it alone! Trying to find a trustworthy partner could, I believe, be a time consuming yet rewarding thing to do.

**Vaze** · 01-06-2009 05:36 PM

Gibbo - Thanks for responding, I wouldn't consider trying to "go it alone" in that market and would definitely try to either develop a partner or connect with some other like minded individuals to pool our funds and/or areas of expertise to minimise the risk.

**Tavarez** · 01-07-2009 05:45 AM

Ben: Communications technology may be able to level the playing field between you and your partner. A virtual LAN and instant-communication workspace can bring you far.

**davidqi** · 02-08-2009 08:54 PM

Ben, find a good person, whom with rich experence in the international business in China and let him to handle the Chinese suppliers and info. , you only take the charge of your markets develping and info. That's all. good luck.

**JosephJohn** · 02-09-2009 01:04 AM

Originally Posted by EasternLight

My name is Ben and I am relatively young and used to work for a regional company developing their Chinese market. Everything was going smoothly until the big recession hit home and I was laid off.

I tried to find other jobs but none that match my passion- international business.

So I sat down and realized my biggest assets are the fact that I speak fluent Chinese, have a huge base of Chinese contacts to back me up, been to China multiple times, and understand the business environment there well.

I thought about starting a consulting business that help companies outsource work to China; has anyone started a consulting business on here before? What I mean is that I can help companies find product suppliers in China, maybe help them do IT outsourcing; things like web design, graphic design, etc.

Any advice? Is it even a viable idea to do so? I guess my biggest obstacle is how to get people to believe me? I know I can deliver solid results but others might have different ideas.

Thanks

Ben

HI Ben,

I would appreciate your decision to start up a consultancy firm. Ours is a start up firm doing software development and services in India. what i would recommend you is to get project such as (Website, Web Application, Database driven solutions, data migration and custom build software in any Technology) and out source to us. we can grow with each other. Feel free to to contact us in cubeAtechnologies@in .com