If you want to conduct business negotiations in China, you better be absolutely prepared. You are far from home and cannot just run across town to fetch a missing document or your contract if you forgot to bring it along. Of course, you may be able to ask your staff, at home, to send you [...]

The first thing you want to do, if you have not done so already, is to establish your own in-house quality control department. That is the first step to making sure that your company has the means to control the quality of all incoming samples or any other quality issues before you place any purchase [...]

After making your decision about which supplier to contract with, order your product samples but plan to evaluate them after you return home. Sample Preparation Sample preparation, depending which kind of products you want to import, can take considerable time. Contrary to what many people think, factories usually do not keep samples in their warehouse [...]

As you visit each of your factory’s various departments, you may learn a portion of the production is subcontracted to other factories. Unless special circumstances apply, the subcontractors are usually near by. The factories find this to be a sensitive issue and may be reluctant to disclose it. They may try pretending the other factory [...]

This is often an economic decision because overseas trips are expensive. I would say that you should visit each of your factories at least once a year. Combining it with Trade Fair visits helps you save on costs. Certainly, it also depends on the current quality and performance of your factory. A factory continuously causing [...]

If you talk to the wrong people during your visit you will not get the best results, even if the rest of your Trade Fair preparations are close to perfect. Making First Contact It should be a straight forward task making contact with the companies your previously contacted from your home country. You should have [...]

Branding Your Products Many importers underestimate the importance of this step and get into trouble later on. Having your own brand name and a convincing gift box design (product packaging) could be the main key to success for your import business. Why is it so important to have your own brand name and gift box [...]

The present economic downturn affects many facets of business including manufacturers in China and their overseas customers. To completely stop importing is not an option because business must go on but perhaps on a smaller scale. On the other side, factories in China are hungry for orders right now and starting an import business at [...]

The good news for all importers is, there is no substitute to importing from China. Products at more economic prices have become part of our daily life. Most of these products are made in China and have replaced locally made products that could not compete with them for various reasons. The bad news is that [...]