Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Don't take shortcuts. The longer solid road is always the route to making your business sustainable.
- Alibaba is a good start to identifying factories.
- Developing specific quality control guidelines will help ensure your product arrives as expected.
- Always place a small first order to test the factory.
- Addressing the issues of knockoffs and people stealing your design; you can stay competitive as long as you provide value to your customer.
- One way to handle quality control is to hire an inspection company to check the product quality before it is shipped to you.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 273.
Speaker:And we always tell factories,
Speaker:Hey, it's a sample order so that we can understand you
Speaker:and to test your quality attention.
Speaker:Gifters bakers,
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Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
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Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
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Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights are
Speaker:there it's too.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me here today.
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Speaker:Now today we're going to be talking with Brian.
Speaker:He's an American who's lived in China for 10 years and
Speaker:coordinates the logistics of getting products from the factories to us
Speaker:over here in the U S have you ever wondered how
Speaker:people get their products made abroad?
Speaker:It can be an entire product or individual pieces for a
Speaker:product that then you assemble state side.
Speaker:You're going to learn where to go to source a factory
Speaker:overseas, how to communicate with them and the process you go
Speaker:through to get from concept to having an actual physical product
Speaker:in your hands.
Speaker:We also discussed the Corona virus and what it's been like
Speaker:for them there.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:me, I don't shy from the tougher topics like the frustrating
Speaker:risk of knockoffs right now.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:Tension runs high between China and the U S.
Speaker:So I was hesitant at first to air this episode,
Speaker:but regardless of what happens,
Speaker:politically, this information can be applied to any foreign factory you
Speaker:may work with regardless of the country.
Speaker:The process is essentially the same.
Speaker:So let's take a trip abroad.
Speaker:Shall we?
Speaker:Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Brian Miller
Speaker:of easy China warehouse.
Speaker:Originally from Trumbull,
Speaker:Connecticut. Brian has been living in China for the past 10
Speaker:years. He previously worked for one of the largest Chinese government
Speaker:owned manufacturers,
Speaker:managing their Northern American export operations.
Speaker:Now Brian runs a third party logistics warehouse in Shen Jenn
Speaker:China. The company provides third party logistics and shipping for Amazon
Speaker:FBA sellers and any e-commerce company,
Speaker:creating products in China.
Speaker:Brian, welcome to the gift biz on repped podcasts.
Speaker:Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:I'm really happy that we are talking today because we haven't
Speaker:really covered the subject before.
Speaker:So it'll be brand new information for everybody.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:what time is it over there?
Speaker:It's 10 o'clock yeah,
Speaker:you just got me before.
Speaker:I'm ready for bed,
Speaker:but it's perfect.
Speaker:I'm still awake now.
Speaker:And it's 9:00 AM here and I'm drinking my coffee anyway,
Speaker:before we get started,
Speaker:I do something.
Speaker:That's become a little bit of a tradition here,
Speaker:Brian. And that is to have each of my guests describe
Speaker:themselves by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to share a little bit about you
Speaker:in a different way,
Speaker:what would a motivational candle look like by color and quote?
Speaker:Yeah, so the color I'm going to be a little bit
Speaker:boring with.
Speaker:I think it has to be red for me and red
Speaker:shows kind of the energy and passion that I have for
Speaker:the work I do,
Speaker:but also kind of a symbol of China,
Speaker:right? So I've been in China for a long time and
Speaker:it's kind of my home now and a place where I
Speaker:live and that identify with very closely.
Speaker:And of course,
Speaker:China is very famous for their Chinese red.
Speaker:And so that's what color I choose for myself.
Speaker:Okay. And do you have a quote for the candle?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:it's kinda my own quote,
Speaker:actually. It's not any other people's quotes.
Speaker:That's better.
Speaker:Cause that's original.
Speaker:Yeah. So I always tell people that we never take the
Speaker:shortcut because the long,
Speaker:hard road is always more sustainable for our business.
Speaker:So that's kinda my quote that I'd put on the outside
Speaker:of my candle.
Speaker:They really liked that.
Speaker:Given that I work with people who want to turn a
Speaker:hobby or a craft into a business,
Speaker:one of the things I'm really adamant about saying is there
Speaker:are no quick wins here.
Speaker:There are quick wins in terms of small parts,
Speaker:being small pieces being successful.
Speaker:But if you're looking at doing this to automatically make a
Speaker:million dollars in a year,
Speaker:forget it,
Speaker:like that's not real.
Speaker:Right. And it always takes a while,
Speaker:right? Like everyone thinks that success comes easy,
Speaker:but usually it takes time and it's tough.
Speaker:And so every time that we've taken,
Speaker:the more challenging road,
Speaker:it's been a better thing for our business and it's provided
Speaker:more value for our business.
Speaker:So I always like to avoid the shortcut which I did
Speaker:at the beginning when I started my businesses.
Speaker:And now I just take the long,
Speaker:sustainable route.
Speaker:Perfect. All right,
Speaker:well, let's go back there.
Speaker:That was a perfect segue.
Speaker:Tell me how you got to China and take us through
Speaker:your story.
Speaker:So this is like a great kind of beginning because the
Speaker:beginning of me going to try to start it at the
Speaker:other crisis that we had in 2008 is when I graduated
Speaker:university. And so now we have the Krone crisis,
Speaker:as we know,
Speaker:but at that time there weren't many jobs and I didn't
Speaker:really know what I wanted to do with my life.
Speaker:And so I left the U S for Europe patrol level
Speaker:for a year,
Speaker:without any plan.
Speaker:I just wanted to like,
Speaker:kind of go explore and see the world.
Speaker:And that's what I did That tells us you're an adventurer.
Speaker:Brian, Actually,
Speaker:after that year,
Speaker:I had a friend in Taiwan.
Speaker:He was my college roommate and he had started a business
Speaker:in Taiwan and he told me,
Speaker:Brian, you've got to come out to Asia.
Speaker:Everything's like the economy's hot here.
Speaker:The culture is very different and it's super exciting,
Speaker:like the environment and you got to come out and see
Speaker:it. And so that's kind of how I ended up going
Speaker:from Europe to Asia and I arrived in Taiwan and I
Speaker:lived at his place for a few nights.
Speaker:And before I knew it,
Speaker:I kind of really loved the atmosphere,
Speaker:the people,
Speaker:the culture,
Speaker:and also the opportunity business-wise because Asia was growing and also
Speaker:China at the time was becoming a larger and larger force
Speaker:in the world.
Speaker:And Taiwan also speaks Mandarin.
Speaker:And so at that time,
Speaker:I started studying Mandarin about 10 years ago.
Speaker:And from there I moved to Beijing where I continued my
Speaker:studies and then I started working for that firm,
Speaker:stayed on company,
Speaker:doing their manufacturing in the heart of China.
Speaker:How did you jump and learn how to do manufacturing?
Speaker:Or were you learning on the job?
Speaker:Yeah, I learned more or less on the job,
Speaker:so they kind of hired us to help with their export
Speaker:market. So we had different foreign employees that were at the
Speaker:company and we each kind of manage the region that we
Speaker:were from.
Speaker:So from the U S and I managed the North American
Speaker:region of exporting,
Speaker:and I had other colleagues that manage Europe and South America
Speaker:and Russia.
Speaker:And so on the job,
Speaker:they gave us a lot of the training about like how
Speaker:manufacturing works and how you make molds and how you make
Speaker:tooling and how we design products.
Speaker:We were doing manufacturing for industrial products.
Speaker:So those are products that went into like automobiles,
Speaker:railroad cars,
Speaker:wind power.
Speaker:So like bigger,
Speaker:larger components that were more industrial,
Speaker:uh, not consumer,
Speaker:however, like the same kind of manufacturing principles are very similar
Speaker:across all types of manufacturing.
Speaker:So that's where I've learned how it works and how kind
Speaker:of China works and how manufacturing in China works.
Speaker:So it was more like on the job training as I
Speaker:help them sell their products to us companies.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And so were you working with just one set of factories
Speaker:or were you finding what factories would be appropriate for whatever
Speaker:products you were making?
Speaker:Yeah, so I actually worked for the factory.
Speaker:I was hired directly by the Chinese government at one of
Speaker:their government manufacturing facilities.
Speaker:So our company was a subsidiary of a larger company and
Speaker:we in our city had about 11 different factories and those
Speaker:factories manufactured different components in the industrial market.
Speaker:So even though we were just a small company within a
Speaker:larger company,
Speaker:we did have multiple factories that were making all different components
Speaker:out. Gotcha.
Speaker:I love that because that means you were really close to
Speaker:the action.
Speaker:So you really got to understand a lot,
Speaker:even though you weren't working in the factory,
Speaker:per se,
Speaker:you weren't the export portion,
Speaker:you were right in there amongst everything.
Speaker:So you weren't like in a separate area of China and
Speaker:just talking to them,
Speaker:you saw everything,
Speaker:I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker:Yeah. Like I worked with Chinese colleagues,
Speaker:like in the overseas sales department and our office was basically
Speaker:like right next to the factory.
Speaker:So although we didn't like go there often,
Speaker:like we could literally walk a hundred yards and just be
Speaker:right in the middle of the factory.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it was good exposure to like how manufacturing works and how,
Speaker:when we hear a lot of problems from our factories,
Speaker:like I really got to see what was really happening in
Speaker:the backend and not always what they're saying is what's actually
Speaker:happening. Right.
Speaker:So, yeah,
Speaker:I got like a really good view of what the world
Speaker:looks like behind the factory.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. And so let's continue on to where you are today.
Speaker:Yeah, Sure.
Speaker:So after I worked there for five years,
Speaker:I started with a friend and eCommerce company.
Speaker:We developed some Bluetooth speakers that we manufacture on our own
Speaker:like custom Bluetooth speakers that we sell mainly in the U
Speaker:S online.
Speaker:So we sell primarily on Amazon,
Speaker:but also on our own website.
Speaker:And then from there,
Speaker:I basically started a company that help e-commerce companies like mine
Speaker:ship their products from China.
Speaker:So in the process of starting my own eCommerce company,
Speaker:I felt like there was a huge opportunity where a lot
Speaker:of my friends were having trouble basically taking their product from
Speaker:the factory and how to get it overseas or how to
Speaker:get it to Amazon warehouses or how to get it to
Speaker:their end customer.
Speaker:And so we have a warehouse in Shenzhen,
Speaker:China, which is the border city to Hong Kong.
Speaker:I know a lot of people know Hong Kong and we
Speaker:help eCommerce companies basically take the product from the factory and
Speaker:distributed around the world to their customers or to other fulfillment
Speaker:centers for their company.
Speaker:Okay. So logistics of any kind.
Speaker:So it might be pieces that you're using as part,
Speaker:like, because all of my listeners are creators.
Speaker:Right. So it might be parts that they're getting,
Speaker:if they're going directly to a factory or it could be
Speaker:the completed piece,
Speaker:whichever. Yeah,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Yeah. So we might ship components to people like maybe a
Speaker:lot of the people that you talk to are assembling own
Speaker:products, or we might take the product directly from China and
Speaker:ship it to the young customer.
Speaker:So maybe if people manufacturer higher scale in China,
Speaker:we can ship the product to the end customer anywhere around
Speaker:the world.
Speaker:Or we can ship it in bulk by like sea or
Speaker:air freight to a warehouse let's say in the U S
Speaker:for them to distribute the products to the customer.
Speaker:So we do both sides of it.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Perfect. Wonderful.
Speaker:Okay. I think right now,
Speaker:since we're still in the middle of the Corona situation,
Speaker:as we're speaking,
Speaker:although we're going to talk further,
Speaker:Brian, I think about manufacturing in China overall,
Speaker:because I think that will be significant and interesting for us
Speaker:as we move forward.
Speaker:Just share a little bit about where you are right now
Speaker:in the situation with the factories.
Speaker:Are they back up and running,
Speaker:what's happening with shipping pricing of shipping?
Speaker:Just give us a little bit of an overview and for
Speaker:reference gift biz listeners,
Speaker:where we're doing this interview,
Speaker:interestingly enough,
Speaker:on Memorial day here in America.
Speaker:So that gives you a little bit of reference in time.
Speaker:So Memorial day 2020,
Speaker:what's the situation over there right now?
Speaker:Yeah. So I'll just bring it back a little bit,
Speaker:just so that people can have a slight background on how
Speaker:production progressed throughout the months and basically in January where it
Speaker:first started and where it kind of ramped up in China
Speaker:and to the end of January is where we went into
Speaker:Chinese new year.
Speaker:So typically in China,
Speaker:that's when manufacturing slows down a little bit,
Speaker:like just getting into Chinese new year.
Speaker:So in the beginning of January,
Speaker:or we saw like a lot of factories finish out their
Speaker:orders before the end of the year for China.
Speaker:And then starting after Chinese new year,
Speaker:which started in February,
Speaker:we saw a lot of factories,
Speaker:very slow to get back up to production.
Speaker:And that was because the virus was still spreading quite rapidly.
Speaker:And also a lot of quarantine measures were taken within China.
Speaker:So a lot of the factories and people were not able
Speaker:to get back to work.
Speaker:So we saw most of the production offline in February.
Speaker:And then in March,
Speaker:we saw a lot of the production start to come back.
Speaker:So I'd say by the end of the March,
Speaker:we had about 80% of production back,
Speaker:online production capacity.
Speaker:And then in April,
Speaker:we were about full capacity.
Speaker:So that's kind of the timeline.
Speaker:And as far as like production,
Speaker:so we were kind of,
Speaker:if people were making things in China,
Speaker:it was really tough to get their orders out,
Speaker:or orders started to be made in February.
Speaker:But by now actually factories are relatively desperate for orders because
Speaker:demand around the world has kind of contracted because of the
Speaker:virus. And so there are a lot of factories that are
Speaker:like really looking for new orders,
Speaker:but that can probably help a lot of the listeners negotiate,
Speaker:lower order number amounts or negotiate a better price or payment
Speaker:terms at the moment,
Speaker:because really it's a buyer's market.
Speaker:The buyer really has the power at the moment.
Speaker:I'd say,
Speaker:as far as manufacturing goes,
Speaker:Is this a statement across the whole country?
Speaker:All of China.
Speaker:Yeah. I would say in general,
Speaker:like we've seen a,
Speaker:quite a few factories that have gone on like longterm vacation
Speaker:and by long term vacation don't have enough orders to like
Speaker:open the whole facility.
Speaker:So we're seeing like the economy kind of a struggle.
Speaker:So the opportunity for buyers to come in and purchase low
Speaker:quantities is really good right now because a lot of factories
Speaker:will take any order they can get.
Speaker:I don't want it to sound so great.
Speaker:But like for your listeners that might just be starting or
Speaker:might be looking to order something smaller in the beginning.
Speaker:I think it's a really good opportunity now to start talking
Speaker:to factories,
Speaker:to see what type of quantities and prices you can get
Speaker:on some of the products that you might want,
Speaker:or the components that you want to buy it from China.
Speaker:Well, you've just given me an idea because I worked directly
Speaker:with the factory down,
Speaker:like in the garment creating area and my orders supposed to
Speaker:get on the water,
Speaker:I'd say within the month or so.
Speaker:So maybe I ought to go back and add to it.
Speaker:See if I can add in some things a little bit,
Speaker:do some negotiation here.
Speaker:We'll see.
Speaker:Yeah. And I don't say like be too tough,
Speaker:but at least it's time that you can at least bring
Speaker:up some of these questions and you might be surprised at
Speaker:how willing factories are willing to work with you.
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:And helping them out too.
Speaker:Right. Because if they have a lot of downtime right now,
Speaker:because the demand hasn't been as great,
Speaker:then it's a win win,
Speaker:really. Yeah.
Speaker:And also if you think about that as well,
Speaker:as far as like developing new product lines,
Speaker:a lot of factories right now do have a lot of
Speaker:downtime. So they are more willing to spend more time with
Speaker:you to develop maybe a new concept or maybe a new
Speaker:idea that you have for a product.
Speaker:So at the same time,
Speaker:it's also a really good opportunity now to think about new
Speaker:product lines that you can develop with your factories,
Speaker:because they're eager to do it at this moment.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's talk then to a listener.
Speaker:Who's never considered this before,
Speaker:but they've created a product that they're now making themself.
Speaker:Right. And they're getting to the point where the demand is
Speaker:such that they need to either bring in help like an
Speaker:employee. Who's going to be with them here in America,
Speaker:or now maybe we've sparked an idea of Hm,
Speaker:should I maybe consider making whatever my creation is over in
Speaker:China? What are the pros and cons there of doing it
Speaker:here in America versus hiring a factory in China?
Speaker:Yeah. So I guess there's a few things like in the
Speaker:U S for sure,
Speaker:if you're going to do it on your own,
Speaker:you're definitely going to be able to control the process more.
Speaker:And also the quality of product that you push out on
Speaker:your own.
Speaker:Right? It's not to say that China doesn't make good product
Speaker:because there is good factories that make really good product,
Speaker:but it's much more difficult to control the quality when you
Speaker:are manufacturing in China.
Speaker:So I would say that's one of the negatives,
Speaker:but one of the,
Speaker:a few of the big positives are obviously scale.
Speaker:So China has very strong supply chains,
Speaker:including a large labor force that are able to manufacture like
Speaker:really high volume products.
Speaker:So that's one of the benefits.
Speaker:If your business does grow,
Speaker:it's easy to keep up with sales as your business grows
Speaker:quickly, which is a huge advantage.
Speaker:And of course we all know is cost,
Speaker:right? So you're going to get a better cost price point
Speaker:in China,
Speaker:and it's going to help you improve your margins and also
Speaker:produce more cashflow obviously for the business that will help you
Speaker:grow. So I'd say those are like big benefits,
Speaker:as opposed to the benefit in the U S the negatives
Speaker:would also be as long lead time,
Speaker:right? So in China,
Speaker:you need at least probably a month to manufacture something.
Speaker:And then if you ship it by sea,
Speaker:you probably need another month.
Speaker:So like two to three months to get your product on
Speaker:shore in the U S.
Speaker:And so the lead times,
Speaker:and the complexity of shipping also can add a bit of
Speaker:complexity to your whole process.
Speaker:So there's pluses and minuses on both sides,
Speaker:right? You have to look at your specific product and see
Speaker:if it makes sense.
Speaker:Plus, I'm thinking the volume that you're going to produce.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you're not going to have a Chinese factory producing 10 pieces.
Speaker:Like there have to be quite a few,
Speaker:like, how do you figure out what the volume break would
Speaker:need to be to make this worthwhile?
Speaker:Where would you go if you were doing this?
Speaker:Well, I'm not even going to say It depends on what
Speaker:type of product you make.
Speaker:So if someone's interested in this,
Speaker:okay, so they hear the pros and the cons,
Speaker:the pros that you gave her,
Speaker:obviously the scale,
Speaker:the volume and the cost,
Speaker:because production costs,
Speaker:we all know is lower there,
Speaker:but then you do have your shipping tariffs.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:all of that from experience,
Speaker:I'd say the pricing is still better when you're doing something
Speaker:like that overseas versus trying to source it in America,
Speaker:depending on your product.
Speaker:And then the cons of course,
Speaker:are quality.
Speaker:You have to clearly have very specific guidelines of your product
Speaker:and lead time,
Speaker:as long as you're planning far out,
Speaker:and that can fit your process and your inventory,
Speaker:you can work it.
Speaker:You just have to know that you do need months.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:not my product coming in.
Speaker:So I do all of my ribbon over in China,
Speaker:Brian and it's turnaround at the very shortest is three months.
Speaker:And it's been up to six months.
Speaker:Right. But if you know that in a complaint for it,
Speaker:then it's okay.
Speaker:What I've also found.
Speaker:And you're the logistics guy.
Speaker:So you know,
Speaker:this better than I do.
Speaker:But what I've also found is if you have a smaller
Speaker:order and you're going by sea over the water,
Speaker:it might take longer because they need to fill up full
Speaker:containers. So when I was just starting in,
Speaker:my orders were smaller as I was testing everything out,
Speaker:my shipping took longer because I was such a small part
Speaker:of a container.
Speaker:Right. Yeah.
Speaker:That's absolutely true.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Okay. So if someone is thinking,
Speaker:okay, I don't know if this is for me,
Speaker:but I don't even know what steps I would take first
Speaker:to even consider this,
Speaker:but talk about someone who has a product that could be
Speaker:replicated and let's go so far as they already have the
Speaker:design spec.
Speaker:So they've already got that taken care of on this end,
Speaker:over here.
Speaker:What's the next from there?
Speaker:Yeah. I think that the best way to start,
Speaker:and it's kind of cliche,
Speaker:but it's still the best place to look for factories is
Speaker:to go on Alibaba.
Speaker:So we all know Alibaba or some of us don't,
Speaker:but it's basically a search engine in China for factories.
Speaker:There's both factories and trading companies on the platform.
Speaker:So you have to be aware that there's both types of
Speaker:types of companies,
Speaker:but in that interface,
Speaker:and in that website,
Speaker:you can basically search for your commodity and or whatever you're
Speaker:trying to make.
Speaker:And factories will come up in the search results that might
Speaker:match the product that you want to make.
Speaker:And so on this website,
Speaker:you can look for factories and you can directly contact with
Speaker:them directly through the website,
Speaker:or sometimes they have their email written on their sales page,
Speaker:where you can send them an email to kind of inquire
Speaker:about making your product.
Speaker:And so for anyone starting,
Speaker:I still recommend that this is the best way to start
Speaker:looking. And would you suggest choosing one or three,
Speaker:or you already said that it makes sense.
Speaker:This is pretty obvious,
Speaker:but it makes sense to choose a factory.
Speaker:Who's already making something similar to what you have because they
Speaker:have the experience and the equipment for it.
Speaker:Right. Should you choose one or three and start talking to
Speaker:several at a time?
Speaker:Or what do you say?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's clearly what I do in America.
Speaker:Yeah. I'd say there's no like magic number,
Speaker:but definitely more than three.
Speaker:So I would say,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we've talked to like 20 or 30,
Speaker:just to find one or 50 to find one good factory,
Speaker:but it depends on how the progress with the first three
Speaker:to five factories that you talk to,
Speaker:how you feel about it,
Speaker:the pricing they give you how the communication goes,
Speaker:whether you believe that they're trustworthy,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So usually I like to tell people first,
Speaker:get your feelers out.
Speaker:Have people provide quotes when they do provide quotes,
Speaker:the quotes will be all over the place.
Speaker:Meaning you might get a quote for making something one factory
Speaker:quotes, $3,
Speaker:the other factory quotes,
Speaker:$8, the other one quotes $10.
Speaker:And after they quote,
Speaker:you can start asking them,
Speaker:Hey, why did you quote this amount?
Speaker:Why is your so much lower than other people's?
Speaker:They might be using different materials.
Speaker:They might have a better production line set up for that,
Speaker:and they're already making it.
Speaker:And that's why they're able to keep the cost so low
Speaker:is because they're so experience.
Speaker:So you've got to start asking questions and open that dialogue
Speaker:and understand how professional they are and how they respond.
Speaker:And that's where you start getting a good feel for who
Speaker:you want to narrow down the factories to kind of be
Speaker:the last couple that you consider,
Speaker:basically. Okay.
Speaker:And then when you get to your final two,
Speaker:any suggestions there?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So we always recommend that even if it's not exactly your
Speaker:product, even if it's close to your product,
Speaker:that you purchase samples from the factory.
Speaker:So you purchase one sample from each of the factories and
Speaker:you have those samples shipped to you.
Speaker:And that's where you're going to get an idea of,
Speaker:okay, is the quality of the product.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Is it bad?
Speaker:And that's where you can compare the costs between each factory
Speaker:and the product that you actually have in your hand.
Speaker:And so that's where you really start understanding where each factory
Speaker:is. And then from there,
Speaker:you can go into the next negotiation,
Speaker:which is probably choosing one of those factories to start developing
Speaker:your prototype.
Speaker:Okay. So that's when you would send over the technical drawings
Speaker:and those would then already be copyrighted here,
Speaker:how do you protect your product?
Speaker:Cause now you're sending it to China,
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:I'm going to be a little,
Speaker:this is probably gonna make a lot of people a little
Speaker:bit uncomfortable,
Speaker:but I don't believe regardless of what you do,
Speaker:whether you sign an NDA or not,
Speaker:that you're protected in any way,
Speaker:other than having protection in the country of sale.
Speaker:So if you have a patent on your product in the
Speaker:U S then you're definitely protected.
Speaker:However, the thing about China is if you have one factory
Speaker:that can make a thing,
Speaker:a widget,
Speaker:let's say there's probably 1000 other factories that can make the
Speaker:same widget.
Speaker:And so even if you have your factory,
Speaker:who's a trusted factory,
Speaker:make your product and you become successful,
Speaker:which we all hope everyone does.
Speaker:It's not to say that some other factory could make the
Speaker:same product,
Speaker:right? And so I don't recommend that people worry too much
Speaker:about protection,
Speaker:or let's say IP protection in China,
Speaker:they should focus on the IP protection in the country that
Speaker:they want to sell their product in.
Speaker:That's the only way to really protect your company and yourself
Speaker:from people trying to copy it.
Speaker:We've learned from other interviews we've done on the legal side
Speaker:with copyrights,
Speaker:trademarks, patents,
Speaker:whatever it is.
Speaker:It's always based on whatever country you're selling in.
Speaker:So if you are selling internationally,
Speaker:you need to get these documents in every single country.
Speaker:So I totally buy into what you're saying,
Speaker:Brian, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:The other thing I want to say to you guys who
Speaker:are listening is remember just as Brian saying,
Speaker:like our products can be replicated.
Speaker:Your candles can be made by somebody else.
Speaker:Not as good as you.
Speaker:We all know that,
Speaker:but what you add on top of your business,
Speaker:your branding,
Speaker:who you are,
Speaker:how you go to market,
Speaker:how you're special and different from everybody else is the added
Speaker:layer that gives you the magic,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:So today what we're really talking about here is specifically how
Speaker:to get your product created in mass.
Speaker:So I don't want you guys to freak out,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and especially people who are just starting and saying,
Speaker:Nope, I'm not doing this,
Speaker:but you're absolutely right,
Speaker:Brian. I think that does make people uncomfortable,
Speaker:but I agree with what you're saying,
Speaker:and we need to be bold enough and confident enough to
Speaker:stand up to the market and represent our product uniquely.
Speaker:Yeah. And just to add that,
Speaker:to that,
Speaker:like, I completely agree.
Speaker:And also,
Speaker:like, we also need to think that a lot of people
Speaker:can probably make the same product as us,
Speaker:but we need to add value in our companies,
Speaker:through credible customer service and caring about our customers and our
Speaker:company values and the values that our products provide to our
Speaker:customers. And that's what really shines one company over the other,
Speaker:rather than there's a lot of people that can copy you,
Speaker:but you can still stay competitive as long as you're passionate
Speaker:about your product and your business,
Speaker:and you provide a lot of value to your customer.
Speaker:So I think that's like the best offense rather than worrying
Speaker:about whether someone's going to copy you because the fact is,
Speaker:is they probably can,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so Right.
Speaker:And I have so many people,
Speaker:I'm just going to go a little side tangent here,
Speaker:and I am going to stick with these words.
Speaker:So many people who will be like,
Speaker:I have an idea,
Speaker:but I'm not telling anybody because someone will steal it.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And the fact is the second year ideas on the market,
Speaker:someone can copy it.
Speaker:Let's just be real,
Speaker:right. Even if it's the most unique product you've ever thought
Speaker:of someone can knock you off.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that happens all the time.
Speaker:So the things that both Brian and I were just talking
Speaker:about are the ways that you make yourself different,
Speaker:that you're attracting your right audience,
Speaker:that people are going to buy from you and you'll have
Speaker:a profitable business,
Speaker:but it starts with having the product to sell.
Speaker:So let's go back to that And we'll continue this conversation
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Speaker:So you get some samples,
Speaker:they look good.
Speaker:You then send over the specs and then you get a
Speaker:prototype and the prototype comes back to you and you might
Speaker:have a couple of rounds right back and forth.
Speaker:And what I love about this process,
Speaker:Brian is if something ends up faltering,
Speaker:you've already done your research and you have some backup factories
Speaker:that you can go to later if need be.
Speaker:So you're already further along in the process,
Speaker:but you finally get the prototype that looks good.
Speaker:You're like foams up.
Speaker:I'm excited.
Speaker:This is going to work.
Speaker:Then what?
Speaker:Yeah. So then you would make,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:this is what we recommend to make a final sample.
Speaker:So the final sample would be like the exact sample that
Speaker:you want them.
Speaker:You make an order for 100 or a thousand or 10,000
Speaker:pieces. And you want every single unit to look exactly the
Speaker:same. And that's from the size,
Speaker:the shape,
Speaker:the material,
Speaker:the packaging,
Speaker:everything. So you want to make sure that you have that
Speaker:final approved sample and that there are some guidelines that you
Speaker:give the factory to tell them how they might package it
Speaker:or how it fits in the box or how the sticker
Speaker:on the top is labeled or where it's put in the
Speaker:top. All those little details are important.
Speaker:And because if you don't mention it to them,
Speaker:they're going to put the sticker wherever they want,
Speaker:or they're going to shove the product in the box and
Speaker:whatever the way they want.
Speaker:So it's important to have that final sample and then have
Speaker:additional instructions to denote every detail that you might think that
Speaker:they might not put in the way that you want it.
Speaker:Okay. This is important.
Speaker:And this,
Speaker:the quality I'll be honest,
Speaker:Brian, maybe you can give me some pointers.
Speaker:Here has been a little bit of a challenge.
Speaker:Now. I think if I had a product that had specific
Speaker:hard piece parts,
Speaker:it might be different.
Speaker:I'm doing a fabric material that has a special finish that
Speaker:we've created that needs to go on.
Speaker:It's cut in certain ways that the rolls are rolled to
Speaker:a certain size.
Speaker:All of that.
Speaker:And I have seen a variance from lot to lot that
Speaker:comes in,
Speaker:which becomes very challenging because then what I've put on the
Speaker:website that we are selling isn't necessarily the product that's come
Speaker:in. Now having said that,
Speaker:I absolutely love my factory.
Speaker:I've been there.
Speaker:I've seen them.
Speaker:I can tell everybody with a million percent confidence,
Speaker:it's not a sweat shop because that's of course always a
Speaker:concern here.
Speaker:Maybe we can address that in a little while.
Speaker:I love my people.
Speaker:I think they're honest.
Speaker:I believe in them.
Speaker:And anytime I've had a bad shipment,
Speaker:they have made it right for me.
Speaker:I know there's been timing issues then.
Speaker:Cause we've got a couple more months before we get it
Speaker:in, but my experience has been very good with them.
Speaker:I just wish that the consistency would be better.
Speaker:Do you have any comments?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:How many Brian?
Speaker:I've got tons,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:like as far as consistency.
Speaker:So there's a few things.
Speaker:One is like,
Speaker:people need to keep in mind that factories are factories and
Speaker:humans are humans and there is going to be some variation,
Speaker:always between products just because we are humans and we make
Speaker:everything differently,
Speaker:right. Even when you mold a product.
Speaker:So when you put a plastic piece in a mold and
Speaker:you mold it,
Speaker:so you heat it up and you create a piece of
Speaker:plastic, there's going to be variations in weight and how much
Speaker:plastic you put in and even the color of the plastic,
Speaker:because when you die things,
Speaker:it's not going to die perfectly.
Speaker:So I think as buyers,
Speaker:we need to keep that in mind specifically,
Speaker:like if you're buying a textiles or some type of yarn
Speaker:or threads or whatever,
Speaker:they have to diet to the best of their ability to
Speaker:the closest that they can get to the Pantone color that
Speaker:you're working with.
Speaker:And there's always going to be a little variation.
Speaker:The goal of us is to make sure that that variation
Speaker:is to the minimum.
Speaker:And there are industry regulations too,
Speaker:right? Their industry regulations of acceptable variances in color.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I get that.
Speaker:Absolutely. But I think the best way for us to kind
Speaker:of control it,
Speaker:to create some type of it,
Speaker:doesn't have to be like a serious document,
Speaker:but some type of written document that you send to your
Speaker:factory to tell them what you have to sapped and what
Speaker:you don't accept.
Speaker:And when you do that,
Speaker:it kind of clearly sets out the guidelines.
Speaker:And then before you do make the shipment,
Speaker:we recommend specifically when you just start working with a factory
Speaker:for the first few batches of shipment,
Speaker:you hire a China inspection agency to go to the factory
Speaker:and inspect the product.
Speaker:And this shows your factory that you're serious and that you're
Speaker:willing to reject products so that they're going to lose money.
Speaker:Right. And just showing them this will make them more stringent
Speaker:on their own quality checks that they do for you.
Speaker:And so I think this is a really good way to
Speaker:like put them in line for me,
Speaker:since I live in China,
Speaker:people are going to laugh in order to get my factories
Speaker:to get better in shape.
Speaker:I actually go to my factory myself and I check the
Speaker:product one by one,
Speaker:myself, if there's bad product.
Speaker:And I reject to myself and this makes the factory feel,
Speaker:they kind of like lose face that the boss is going
Speaker:in there and sweating the factory all day to check the
Speaker:product and usually embarrasses them enough that they won't do it
Speaker:again. So I know everyone can't go to China,
Speaker:but the best alternative is to hire an inspection company that
Speaker:can go on your behalf and check your product before it
Speaker:leaves the farm.
Speaker:Okay. I have a couple of questions about that.
Speaker:So I didn't know about these inspection people until recently,
Speaker:but I've stayed just tightly working with the factory.
Speaker:And now my liaison there,
Speaker:who's like probably the only person who speaks English there does
Speaker:exactly what you say.
Speaker:He goes in and he inspects and make sure everything's going
Speaker:as it should.
Speaker:And then he also sends me pictures for verification.
Speaker:And if we see something over on our side,
Speaker:I'll be like,
Speaker:okay, hold on,
Speaker:go back and look at this,
Speaker:this color,
Speaker:this size,
Speaker:roll this tightness of rolling,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whatever, make sure it's to our standards.
Speaker:So we kind of work it back and forth so that
Speaker:I feel comfortable that what is going to take yet another
Speaker:30 days on the water to get to me is actually
Speaker:going to be usable once we get it here.
Speaker:But I didn't use to do that in the beginning.
Speaker:So I would highly recommend these China inspection agencies as you're
Speaker:getting started.
Speaker:How would you find an agency there?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker:I just know from experience,
Speaker:we have one that we always recommend.
Speaker:They're a little bit more expensive than the average inspection agency,
Speaker:but they do a really good job.
Speaker:I can give that to you.
Speaker:And you can maybe put it in the show notes and
Speaker:share it with your listeners.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:we have one that I recommend to my friends.
Speaker:We have no affiliation with them at all.
Speaker:Just so everyone knows.
Speaker:We just think they're like a really good company and yeah,
Speaker:you can share it with your listeners in the show notes
Speaker:or if you want to send them out an email or
Speaker:whatever. Okay.
Speaker:So you guys,
Speaker:if you're willing to give it to me,
Speaker:I will put that in the show notes as an agency,
Speaker:Brian would recommend.
Speaker:Okay. So product's ready.
Speaker:It's been inspected.
Speaker:How do I decide whether I want to air it over
Speaker:or send it on the water besides timing?
Speaker:Cause that's obvious.
Speaker:Yeah. So if you have a very small order,
Speaker:Yeah. Some of them can be very small products.
Speaker:You could might have thousands,
Speaker:but they're small.
Speaker:Yeah. So if it's less than we always go by kilograms,
Speaker:but if it's less than about a hundred kilograms,
Speaker:usually it always makes sense to ship by air just because
Speaker:the cost to ship by sea is just too exorbitant compared
Speaker:to air.
Speaker:But once you get over a certain threshold for our company,
Speaker:we consolidate freight for other people at a minimum of a
Speaker:hundred kilograms,
Speaker:which is really small.
Speaker:And usually you can find people that will ship it by
Speaker:CTU, a hundred kilograms and above.
Speaker:And so for really small shipments,
Speaker:you've got an Airship and for larger shipments,
Speaker:we recommend sea shipment.
Speaker:Okay. And then people would come to someone like you,
Speaker:right. An export company,
Speaker:right? Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. So we basically help companies or small companies take their
Speaker:freight from the factory,
Speaker:put it in containers that go onto the ships,
Speaker:bring it to the U S clear it through customs and
Speaker:then deliver it to the end destination.
Speaker:So that's like what we do to bring your product from
Speaker:the factory to wherever you want to get it.
Speaker:So we would arrange that whole travel for your product wherever
Speaker:you wanted it.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Okay. So what I'm doing right now is my factory is
Speaker:arranging everything up to the port in China.
Speaker:And then I have someone state side picking up from there.
Speaker:So they're doing the same type of thing you just happened
Speaker:to be there versus the person I'm using here.
Speaker:Right? I mean a little bit different because we add value
Speaker:because we basically take a lot of people's freight and load
Speaker:it into the container before it gets to the port.
Speaker:And then we take a full container and split all those
Speaker:port fees against,
Speaker:or amongst all the sellers in the container.
Speaker:And so for doing less than container loads,
Speaker:which can be expensive.
Speaker:We lower the cost in comparison to our competitors because we're
Speaker:loading the containers before they get to the port.
Speaker:So we do a little bit different not to get in
Speaker:it too much detail,
Speaker:but we optimize for people that have smaller amounts of freight
Speaker:that want to ship by seat.
Speaker:Okay. So you are definitely a resource for all of us.
Speaker:If we are looking at getting into this,
Speaker:we could certainly ask you questions,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker:sure. Yeah.
Speaker:If anyone has questions,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I could tell you our contact information at the end and
Speaker:they can get in touch with us for sure.
Speaker:We'll do that.
Speaker:Okay. And so what is your comment on right now?
Speaker:Like the tariffs and the shipping costs currently?
Speaker:Because this is a question I actually,
Speaker:Brian asked my audience,
Speaker:like what types of things do you want me to ask
Speaker:Brian, here's our chance.
Speaker:And one of their questions was what about shipping costs right
Speaker:now Turning the whole Krone virus.
Speaker:Basically most of the sea was relatively stable and stable in
Speaker:terms of the amount of capacity in the market and the
Speaker:cost. So you would see a relatively,
Speaker:a similar costs this year,
Speaker:as you would,
Speaker:the years previous,
Speaker:however, air freight this year was a lot different.
Speaker:So usually in Q4 going up to Christmas,
Speaker:we have like kind of the highest air freight prices of
Speaker:the year.
Speaker:And this year was a little bit different because the highest
Speaker:we've ever seen during the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaker:And the reason for that is a lot of people don't
Speaker:realize is about 50% of air freight is shipped in the
Speaker:bellies of passenger flights.
Speaker:So since most of the passenger flights around the world or
Speaker:in our continental ones were canceled,
Speaker:we basically had about 50% of the capacity in the air
Speaker:freight market taken away.
Speaker:And then we had an increase in demand because we had
Speaker:a lot of factory delays after Chinese new year.
Speaker:So a lot of people wanted to get their product on
Speaker:planes, but also we had a big need for PPE personal
Speaker:protection equipment for a lot of hospitals around the world.
Speaker:And those were all being airfreighted.
Speaker:And so we had a huge surge in demand and a
Speaker:huge shortage of supply and capacity.
Speaker:And so air freight prices have almost tripled.
Speaker:So, but luckily,
Speaker:actually about two weeks ago,
Speaker:I have good news for everyone.
Speaker:It kind of peaked.
Speaker:So we saw the peak of prices and for about two
Speaker:weeks, we've seen prices go down.
Speaker:And so I think this is a relatively good trend that
Speaker:we're seeing every week.
Speaker:We're seeing the prices go down slightly.
Speaker:So I think for people that do want to Airship,
Speaker:it's been a good trend and I hope it should continue
Speaker:in the next few months to continue to go down as
Speaker:well. You have a different product that I also source overseas
Speaker:only because honestly,
Speaker:and I have to say this for our customers only because
Speaker:I can't get it in America.
Speaker:It doesn't exist here because I do try to buy American
Speaker:as much as I can to support our Homeland,
Speaker:especially as we're talking Memorial day right now,
Speaker:but I do have another product and they did not increase
Speaker:my prices for shipping at all.
Speaker:It stayed the same.
Speaker:And I just did that.
Speaker:What last week I placed the order last week.
Speaker:So I can confirm what you're saying.
Speaker:Brian is the point and that's a relief to all of
Speaker:us, I think.
Speaker:And not only that,
Speaker:I think it's a relief on the personal end too,
Speaker:because when we go shopping for things,
Speaker:a lot of things that we buy are still made overseas.
Speaker:And if now the channels have kind of been cleaned up
Speaker:and things are starting to go,
Speaker:I don't know about flights coming in as much,
Speaker:but maybe a little bit,
Speaker:like you're saying,
Speaker:it'll take a little while to catch up,
Speaker:but things should start getting back to what we're accustomed to
Speaker:is what it sounds like.
Speaker:Yeah, I hope so.
Speaker:I think if there is still spread around the world,
Speaker:which there should be until there's kind of a vaccine,
Speaker:I think prices will be relatively elevated a little bit higher
Speaker:than normal,
Speaker:but we do see them going down from here,
Speaker:from there kind of crazy outrageous two or three times what
Speaker:they used to be.
Speaker:Right. So yeah,
Speaker:I think throughout the year they will be higher than normal.
Speaker:However, we're starting to see them going down,
Speaker:at least in the market,
Speaker:which I think is good for everyone.
Speaker:Okay. And what about timing?
Speaker:Yeah. So timing,
Speaker:we've seen a lot of delays,
Speaker:usually your typical DHL or ups express shipment from China that
Speaker:takes three to five days to the U S has taken
Speaker:at the worst times up to two weeks,
Speaker:which is like unheard of.
Speaker:And that has to do with a lot of the fact
Speaker:that they couldn't get a lot of the products on planes.
Speaker:So a lot of the product would actually sit in line
Speaker:before it was loaded onto those express planes.
Speaker:We had a lot of our product stuck in Hong Kong,
Speaker:sitting at the airport because when we book our freight,
Speaker:it's like first come first serve.
Speaker:So if we book the freight and we put it at
Speaker:the airport,
Speaker:whoever's in front of us,
Speaker:gets loaded on the plane first.
Speaker:And then we have to wait in line depending on when
Speaker:we get our product there.
Speaker:And so we saw like large lines for freight getting onto
Speaker:the aircraft over the past two to three months.
Speaker:But we're seeing that these lines are reducing over the last
Speaker:few weeks.
Speaker:So for most people,
Speaker:I think there still should be some slight delays in the
Speaker:market, but we're seeing that shipment times are getting improved and
Speaker:they should get better and better over the next month for
Speaker:sure. Alright.
Speaker:And is it the type of thing where they're going to
Speaker:try and be as efficient with the space that they have
Speaker:available as they can?
Speaker:So if they have,
Speaker:let's say three large shipments that they're trying to fit on
Speaker:a plane,
Speaker:they can fit too,
Speaker:but they have space for a smaller shipment.
Speaker:Will they go and try and find that shipment and put
Speaker:it in there?
Speaker:Like, so they'll try and fit full capacity based on the
Speaker:space available.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So like maybe some person,
Speaker:like a little bit pushed ahead just because they have a
Speaker:little bit less,
Speaker:but generally it's kind of first come first serve,
Speaker:but we're seeing less and less lines going out on air
Speaker:freight in the last two weeks.
Speaker:So I think people will have to worry about it less
Speaker:and less when we look into like June,
Speaker:July for sure.
Speaker:Well, great,
Speaker:perfect. And someone who's just now considering by the time they
Speaker:go through this whole process,
Speaker:probably be a nonissue depending on how fast you would go
Speaker:through. If you're considering it.
Speaker:Once again,
Speaker:I do want to tackle this question,
Speaker:which I think is something that's on a lot of my
Speaker:listeners minds and that is over here.
Speaker:Sometimes we hear like how much can you trust the factories?
Speaker:And I hear people saying,
Speaker:well, it's not always truthful the message that you're getting.
Speaker:I will tell you that has not been my experience.
Speaker:I've already said how much I love my factory,
Speaker:but not everyone is in a situation like I am where
Speaker:we took the trip and the trains way down into remote
Speaker:areas to actually visit and make a connection with the factories.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know that I'm fortunate enough to have been able to
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:The majority of people never will.
Speaker:So what can you say in terms of that,
Speaker:to help people with this idea of you?
Speaker:Okay, but this is a foreign country.
Speaker:I really don't know a lot about them.
Speaker:Is it worth my risk mean?
Speaker:I think I'm Lucky I've been here for awhile and I've
Speaker:never had any trouble ever with any factories apart from like
Speaker:small quality issues,
Speaker:which is probably everyone's going to have,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:a good way to kind of mitigate that is to always
Speaker:start small with your factory.
Speaker:So never put in a huge order on the first order.
Speaker:And you could do that if you visited them and you
Speaker:understand who they are and you've signed contracts and all that
Speaker:stuff, but as smaller businesses like us that want to get
Speaker:started, it's probably good to start with a very small kind
Speaker:of you like to say to the factory of sample order.
Speaker:If you do say that,
Speaker:then they're more willing to like create a very small order
Speaker:size for you to get started.
Speaker:And we always tell is,
Speaker:Hey, it's a sample order so that we can understand you
Speaker:and to test your quality.
Speaker:And they're usually okay with making a smaller batch in the
Speaker:beginning. And so that's how we always recommend that people start
Speaker:out just in order to not only get a feel for
Speaker:the factory,
Speaker:but also mitigate your risk if someone were to run away
Speaker:with your money.
Speaker:And if you do have one of those small orders and
Speaker:it's only a thousand or $2,
Speaker:you're not going to lose everything.
Speaker:Right. So that's what we recommend to do in the beginning.
Speaker:Okay. You know,
Speaker:I think another thing,
Speaker:and even my factory is a little bit hesitant with this
Speaker:only because of the language barrier.
Speaker:But if you were able to deepen your relationship through,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:having some of your calls over Skype,
Speaker:where you can actually see each other that starts to build
Speaker:more of a relationship.
Speaker:And I know I had already been there,
Speaker:so I knew my folks,
Speaker:but it just continues to reinforce the relationship and give you
Speaker:a little bit more confidence and trust.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And I think also you can ask them for maybe like,
Speaker:not all of their buyers are gonna want to do this
Speaker:because they also don't want other people to know where they're
Speaker:buying stuff,
Speaker:but they might not have like a recommendation letter or a
Speaker:reference that you can ask for.
Speaker:And that might be helpful for you to like get a
Speaker:little bit more confidence in them.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:And so real quickly,
Speaker:because I want to cover everything with you,
Speaker:Brian, let's say you're not going to do a full product
Speaker:over there,
Speaker:but some of the sub components,
Speaker:I think you call them of your product are being manufactured
Speaker:over in China.
Speaker:Um, what do you say about the middle man who is
Speaker:purchasing those products for you?
Speaker:Is there anything that we should be aware of from a
Speaker:middleman supplier?
Speaker:Yeah, actually this is probably gonna surprise a lot of people,
Speaker:but I actually don't mind buying from middlemen.
Speaker:There's a couple of reasons for that middleman serve like a
Speaker:really good purpose in the market.
Speaker:And they're usually very experienced buyers of certain types of commodities.
Speaker:And so the benefit of them is they understand the supply
Speaker:chain really well.
Speaker:They have really good relationships with factories.
Speaker:They often can get a better price than you can get,
Speaker:even if you were to go directly with the factory.
Speaker:And that's because they've been working with that factory forever.
Speaker:And so from middleman,
Speaker:you get all of that experience,
Speaker:but you also get the ability to buy smaller quantities because
Speaker:they've been working with that factories for so long.
Speaker:So you got to leverage kind of,
Speaker:person's really like strong experience working with these people over a
Speaker:long period of time.
Speaker:So I'm not very as negative as a lot of other
Speaker:people are about middleman because I think they serve a really
Speaker:good purpose in the market.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:if you have a product that you make over a long
Speaker:period of time,
Speaker:you might want to work directly with the factory just for
Speaker:kind of production reasons and ease of manufacturing and ease of
Speaker:communication. But I would recommend to your listeners that don't just
Speaker:count out a middleman just because they're a middleman,
Speaker:give them consideration and seriously consider their offer if they do
Speaker:give you an offer.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Great advice there.
Speaker:Anything we haven't covered that you think we should include in
Speaker:our conversation here?
Speaker:Wow. That's a great question.
Speaker:Which of the thousand things,
Speaker:right? Any big holes doesn't mean we don't ever have you
Speaker:on again,
Speaker:right? Like if there's a lot of questions after this,
Speaker:maybe you'll be hearing from me to say Oprah,
Speaker:we need more information,
Speaker:but are there any holes?
Speaker:Yeah. Like China's,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's hard to say like one thing,
Speaker:cause there's a lot of complexities to manufacturing and China's kind
Speaker:of complex in that way.
Speaker:But I think going through the route that we kind of
Speaker:told you guys like the start with finding a factory and
Speaker:start creating the samples and then create a prototype and then
Speaker:a final sample and then mass production.
Speaker:And then your quality check is kind of like the really
Speaker:good, basic way to get started.
Speaker:Don't go for a home run on the first,
Speaker:hit, get a smaller production than run and see how it
Speaker:goes. And the only thing I could say is like,
Speaker:if anyone has questions,
Speaker:they're more than welcome to send me an email and I'd
Speaker:be happy to try to answer anyone's question.
Speaker:Cause it's really hard for me to kind of pinpoint.
Speaker:There's a lot of different problems that arise when people manufacturer
Speaker:and everyone kind of has their own unique issues,
Speaker:let's say.
Speaker:And so it's really hard for me to say like one
Speaker:thing in specific,
Speaker:I would say it's kind of a bad answer,
Speaker:but Well I want the real answers.
Speaker:Yeah. I think what we went through is okay.
Speaker:Alright, perfect.
Speaker:And we'll have your email also over on the show notes
Speaker:page. So if there's listeners,
Speaker:you'll be able to jump over there,
Speaker:but go ahead and throw it in here right now to
Speaker:Brian. What's your email?
Speaker:It's Brian B R I E.
Speaker:Brian with an I n@easychinawarehouse.com.
Speaker:Super easy.
Speaker:Perfect. So if anyone has any questions more than welcome to
Speaker:send me an email about manufacturing or logistics or whatever you'd
Speaker:like to ask and I'll try and get back to you
Speaker:as fast as I can.
Speaker:Wonderful. Okay.
Speaker:As we close on out,
Speaker:Brian, I'm really curious,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've had a little journey already,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:who knew that when you were going off to just travel
Speaker:for a little bit,
Speaker:that you'd end up in China for your life,
Speaker:at least your life up to this point.
Speaker:Right. And neither did my mother for sure.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:What do you see as the future,
Speaker:as you start dreaming bigger and looking further,
Speaker:what do you see for your life?
Speaker:Yeah, so I think like one of the biggest things for
Speaker:me is like I started my business for ultimately the main
Speaker:reason why I do it is for freedom and freedom being
Speaker:to kind of wake up and do what I want to
Speaker:do every day and have the opportunity and the time to
Speaker:do it.
Speaker:And so like for me,
Speaker:I'm optimistic about continuing to grow the business and also to
Speaker:provide more freedom for myself.
Speaker:And that's,
Speaker:for me personally,
Speaker:what I'm most optimistic about in starting a small business,
Speaker:specifically creating products and selling them to other people.
Speaker:So for me,
Speaker:that's what I like the most and what I'm the most
Speaker:kind of hat I'll be about and excited to wake up
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:Doing wonderful.
Speaker:Do you think you'll stay in China?
Speaker:That's a great question.
Speaker:My mom asks me all the time.
Speaker:I bet I've built a lot of skills here and they're
Speaker:super useful in China.
Speaker:I think they're less useful probably in other places.
Speaker:And so because of my unique set of skills,
Speaker:I think it's likely that I'll stay here longer term to
Speaker:kind of utilize what I've built here.
Speaker:You'd say.
Speaker:Yep. So for now,
Speaker:at least I'd say yes,
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:you found something you love,
Speaker:which is awesome.
Speaker:And now you're just going to keep building on top of
Speaker:what you already have.
Speaker:Absolutely. I love that.
Speaker:Well, this has been such great information.
Speaker:I learned some things,
Speaker:our listeners,
Speaker:I know,
Speaker:learned a lot.
Speaker:I know this will be an interview that people will come
Speaker:back to and I'll reference,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as they start developing and establishing and taking their businesses to
Speaker:the next level.
Speaker:So I so appreciate your coming on,
Speaker:sharing your knowledge,
Speaker:also offering for our listeners to talk with you directly.
Speaker:So thank you once again.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate all your information.
Speaker:Great. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:I know it feels unpatriotic to have products made overseas.
Speaker:We all want to buy American,
Speaker:but the truth at least for now is that not everything
Speaker:is even available here for us in the U S and
Speaker:until that changes,
Speaker:it's good to know that there are options.
Speaker:And hopefully today you've seen that the process is not as
Speaker:mysterious or cumbersome,
Speaker:as you may have thought next week,
Speaker:we're entering into a brand new series.
Speaker:I'm going to be bringing you experts,
Speaker:covering all the various selling platforms that are available to you
Speaker:online from Facebook shops to Etsy,
Speaker:Amazon, and next week,
Speaker:the first one eBay you'll learn the pros and cons of
Speaker:each platform.
Speaker:So you can choose the one or more.
Speaker:That makes sense for you,
Speaker:always in conjunction with your own website.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:And before we sign off,
Speaker:if you have a second,
Speaker:will you please jump over and leave a rating or review
Speaker:on iTunes that single gesture means the world to us podcasters.
Speaker:And I know it's hard to figure out what to say.
Speaker:So here you go.
Speaker:Just answer this question.
Speaker:What episode did you just listen to?
Speaker:And what did you learn?
Speaker:An easy way to leave a rating and review is right
Speaker:through this link rate,
Speaker:this podcast.com
Speaker:forward slash gift biz unwrapped.
Speaker:Thank you so much to those of you who have already
Speaker:left a rating and review,
Speaker:and thanks in advance for those of you who are going
Speaker:to do it now.
Speaker:Okay. That's a wrap.
Speaker:Have a great week and I'll see you again next Monday.
Speaker:Be safe and be well,
Speaker:bye for now.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite post every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what,
Speaker:aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
