EP 182 - Preparing for a Crowdfunding Campaign from a Sourcing Standpoint

Description: Citing Coolest Cooler Crowdfunding in Kickstarter, Rico lays down some key-points that can help you prepare a successful Crowdfunding when launching your first ODM product in the market.

Important Notes:

- Focusing more on Marketing and not Sourcing

- Don’t over complicate your first Product

- Allocate Enough Time for Mass Production

- Plan ahead, and allocate enough Budget

- 4 Key-points for Preparing a Crowdfunding

By the way we are launching a free evergreen conference that we’re running year-round. Along with enthralling topics in the physical manufacturing space.

Sound off in the comments section below for specific topics that you want to hear, and questions that you want answered.

Source Find Asia, Business, ChinaRicoNovember 19, 2020YouTube, SFA, Marketing, CrowdfundingComment

EP 164 - Debbie Arcangeles on Digital Nomads, Panic Attacks, and Starting a Podcast

Rico got to sit down with Debbie Arcangeles, Founder and CEO of The Offbeat Life. In this episode, they talk about growing up as an Immigrant in the West, Filipino Culture in General, and Create a living off of what you want to do.

Episode Notes:

Debbie on Digital Nomads, Difference between a Digital Nomad and a Location-Independent Entrepreneur
Growing up with hardworking parents and as immigrants, Filipino Expectations for their Family being Nurses
Working on 9 to 5 jobs to being an Entrepreneur, Dealing with Panic Attacks for several years
Starting a Podcast and quitting a 9-5 job, scaling the podcast and starting to earn from it
Creating a system to your business, the right mentality to implement on a business
Importance of getting people on board, and the consequences of doing the business all by yourself
Getting sponsorships quickly, getting on other people’s podcast for Marketing, getting featured in big Publications
Being a female Entrepreneur in the West, Females of being the head of the household

Business, Source Find Asia, Lifestyle, NetworkingRicoAugust 27, 2020YouTube, SFA, Podcast, Marketing, Digital Nomad, 4-Hour Work WeekComment

EP 160 - Rico on 90-Day FBA Challenge by FBA Lifestyle

In this episode, Rico appears on the 90-day FBA hosted by Riley Bennet, founder of Amazing Marketing Co. (an Amazon Marketing Company), and host of a travel blog called Livin’ That Life. Here he presents the 4 Steps to Find Quality Suppliers in China.

Episode notes:

Searching for Suppliers, Assessing Quality, Finalizing your order, Elevating your relationship
How to spot a trading company from a factory, Communicating to Chinese Factories
Dealing with non-English speaking Chinese staff, asking relevant questions point-blank
Charging or paying in RMB or USD, Applying for Import/Export License, Shipment best practices
Consolidating samples from different suppliers, Setting up contracts for OEM and ODM projects
Translating contracts with Hongkongese Lawyers, Verification of Business License of a Chinese company
Communication Channels when doing transactions with factories/suppliers in China
The importance of building connections and relationships with salespersons
Understanding how the factory operates and its chain-of-command

Business, Source Find Asia, Networking, LifestyleRicoJuly 30, 2020YouTube, SFA, Marketing, Communication, Amazon FBAComment

EP 159 - Andrew Smith on the Importance of Communication and Cross-Cultural Skills

In this episode, we hear from a person that has a great passion for Communication. He has worked with clients that do business in Asia. Let’s tune in to hear from Andrew Smith. In this interview, Andrew talks about the importance of cross-cultural skills and communication, also how Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Work Week changed his mindset.

Episode Notes:

Asian Countries varying from each other, How Andrew got started, his passion for Communication
The struggle of shifting mindset from working for a company to starting a business
Learning new skill sets, surrounding yourself with like-minded people, finding a mentor, joining significant groups on Social Media
Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Work Week, Focusing on what really matter to achieve your goals
Being efficient and optimizing your time, driving your business in different ways
Andrew’s coaching program, Remote work will be the future of workplaces
The need to do good business, having great communication and cross-cultural skills
Difference between doing business in the West and in Asia, Showing up and being consistent

Business, Source Find Asia, NetworkingRicoJuly 23, 2020YouTube, SFA, Marketing, Crowdfunding, Remote Team, Mindset, 4-Hour Work Week, CommunicationComment

EP 158 - Rico on A Day in the Lab with James Davis

This episode is an appearance of Rico on the Day in the Life Podcast with the Owner of LabHand Engineering — James Davis. James takes notes from Rico on Prototyping, Product Development, Crowdfunding and much more.

Episode notes:

Rico on ODM and OEM, Average Life Cycle of Products when people come to Source Find Asia
How people underestimate the process of developing products, Rico’s “Survival Chinese”
The range that an entrepreneur could cost for product manufacturing, process and cost of prototyping
The Graphite Wallet story, How crowdfunding works, Nalin of Crush Crowdfunding
Engineering, Sourcing and Manufacturing is often not a known industry, Seeing people of color as entrepreneurs
Marketing Strategies before launching your crowdfunding campaign, buffering timelines to support your backers
Getting designers involved as early as possible, Starting without a bare minimum design
Difference between doing business in China and the US

EP 157 - Rico on Global From Asia - Running a Chinese Import/Export Company Outside China

In today’s episode, we have Rico Ngoma appeared again at Global from Asia Podcast with Michael Michelini. Here he talked about running his sourcing business outside of China. He shares his insights, how he did it, his strategy – sort of a follow up how he did the transition.

Episode Notes:

- Spending time out of China - made him realize he couldn’t go back

- Incentivizing his General Manager

- Financial Tools Used

- Management tools Used For the Team

- Future Plans - Philippines, then where?

EP 156 - Arjun Rai on Data Science, Growth Mindset, and Helping Underdogs

Rico interviews Arjun Rai of HelloWoofy and talks about helping the small businesses he refers to as ‘underdogs.’ They have a good exchange about what it’s like to be an Immigrant in another country and moving from state to state so much.

Topics include:

- Helping “Underdogs” in Business using Data Science, Solving the Problem for Creatives in Collaboration

- Taking advantage of Instagram before Facebook acquired it, Starting small when reaching your audience thru social media

- Misconceptions of using Emojis (and Hashtags) on your Emails and Social Media Marketing

- Raising capital even during the pandemic, Be an early adapter of Crowd Funding

- Arjun getting rejected and getting another shot, overcoming struggles in order to grow

- Going all in and betting on the product, and getting clients moving forward

- Having the right mindset and surrounding yourself with people who pick you up, getting a day job to support your hustle

- Using history as basis to your day-to-day or big decisions, Visual Language in ancient history to Emojis in our phones

- Setting remote teams and managing them like a portfolio in a hedge fund

EP 155 - Nalin Chuapetcharasopon on Crowdfunding, Solving Cool Problems, and Launching Cool Ideas

In this episode, Rico interviews Nalin Chuapetcharasopon of Crush Crowdfunding and she shares about how she got started as an entrepreneur and her many failures. They discuss how Crowdfunding starts your Marketing Strategy and building credibility and trust from your backers/prospects.

Episode Notes:

- The lifestyle of an Entrepreneur, solving cool problems, and meeting new people

- How to get started, looking at other models, failures until finding something right

- Crowdfunding as a start of the Marketing Phase of a product, changes in Crowdfunding

- Importance of focusing on Traffic, channels where to reach an audience

- The process of building and then working with their own team, growing it and being remote

- Crush Crowdfunding building a test-heavy marketing phase, crowdfunding on Indiegogo and Kickstarter

- Marketing Budget on Ad Spend, Multimedia, Landing Page to start a campaign

- Connecting People with the network you have to launch a project/product

- Marketing is Attention, spending a cost effective strategy for organic leads, speeding up lead-generation process

- Advantages and disadvantages of Influencer Marketing

- Entrepreneurs should work to build credibility and trust ahead of launching your product

- Addressing fears and frustrations of prospects, converting your audience to backers of you project

- Breaking even is a best scenario in Crowdfunding, maximize number of users and activate to upsell and cross-sell

- Choosing the right Crowdfunding platform for your product

- Crowdfunding climate during the Covid-19 Pandemic, this is the best moment to be an Entrepreneur

Business, Source Find Asia, Networking, Crowdfunding, KickstarterRicoJune 25, 2020YouTube, SFA, Philippines, Crowdfunding, MarketingComment

Made in China Podcast

International Business | Crowdfunding | Entrepreneurship