In this mini-podcast episode, Rico talks about what would he have told himself when he was just starting. Based on what he knows now, he would have told himself the following:
- Build more relationships with factories
- Spend more time with the business partners and factory owners
- Get their perspective, get their insight about the project
- Respect the ability you have overtime
- Respect the value you give
- Pick better clients
Read MoreIn 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
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
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?
Read MoreRico 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
Read MoreIn 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
Read MoreAn update of the previous two Made In China Podcast episodes with John Graham Harper on his legal case. Since the verdict has been passed, John is no longer a flight risk in China and he discusses his plans after winning the case.
Episode Notes:
- Being a flight risk and being legally-tried in the China Legal System
- Totally being rejected his appeal through China’s legal system rather than seeing the substantial evidence presented
- Lawyers marketing themselves about their practice, [In John’s opinion] some of the lawyers lack the experience of the practice
- When the final verdict arrived and how John settled, not being able to talk about the trial online and how it could affect the process
- Raising funds from crowdfunding to hire a legal team, the scammer that sued John doesn’t like to show himself to the media
- John on his podcast as he started producing and creating content, interviewing people that have crazy stories in China at The JG Show
- How the White Collar Fight Night affected by Coronavirus Pandemic, when John leaves China after the trial
- China is still a place to be for John
Read MoreIn this episode, Renaud Anjoran, partner and CEO of Sofeast Ltd, sits down with Rico to talk about Factories improvement, Inspections, Risk Management, Prototyping, Supply Management, Factory Vetting, Production Management. There has been a shared experience of their companies growing their business through multimedia and exporting/importing Medical PPEs.
Episode Notes:
Foreign Trading Companies opening their own Factory
Clients’ struggle on finding suppliers, Transparency in Manufacturing-Consulting
Convincing the clients how Chinese factories work and transparency with Chinese factories
Trust and Transparency gets things moving on your relationship with your client
Media growing their business, SFA’s podcast and Renaund’s blog
Factory on Quality Control and Transparency to their customers through a report
Factory jumping into manufacturing Medical PPE products as soon as they re-open
Risks and loss of opportunity when doing medical PPE’s business
Learning about the Certifications and Policies on Medical PPE’s
Global Business and Industry Climate — what to look out for
In this video, Rico and ChinaMike enlist their good friend, Alan Scanlan of Newlands Sourcing. They discuss what it’s like to be in Hong Kong as a foreigner with tight health protocols from the government. An interesting exchange they have is how they look forward to emerging small businesses and how people get creative on business ideas.
Some important points:
Wearing masks in HK is a big deal to locals, Coronavirus in HK compared to other countries
COVID-19 symptoms and friends that they know who got sick, Tracking Bands for monitoring in HK, Contact Tracing on other countries
Breaking Quarantine Protocols in HK, Alan jumping in Medical Supplies business, Factories jumping into producing masks
Pivoting the business to address the demand, the sense of security that SFA provides to our clients
Health Protocols that companies are complying, Flexible work arrangements in HK, Medical Supplies situation in Ireland
No new standards when exporting products to Europe, Denmark inspection issues for personal shipments
Unrealistic Standards imposed to meet some requirements in exporting, customers that buy the Medical Supplies are not expert of the products, filtering business leads
Business in general in terms of sourcing, Medical Supplies business as a safety net
Getting creative and coming up with a business idea during a crisis, emerging businesses online starting from homes, the “New Normal” after the pandemic
In this episode, Rico sits down with one of his good friends, Michael Michelini, as they talk about building an online presence on social media and Mike starting a 3-month program on how to navigate business during the pandemic. They also had a funny exchange of the stigma if you’re a foreigner that has travel history from China. They also talk about how the pandemic affected Mike, personally.
Some important points:
Mike talks about Alpha Rock Capital, Getting verified pages on Social Media, Becoming a Public Figure
Mike on “Coronavirus Coaching” 3-month Program, Navigating factory difficulties during the pandemic
What would SFA do if factories don’t re-open in May, working with part-time employees in China
Residency situations in other countries as a foreigner, being away from the family with a crucial situation
Quarantine situations in China, Media and Customs in China, being stuck in the Philippines
After the pandemic, what to consider/think moving forward in the following years
In this episode, Rico and ChinaMike catch you up with the COVID-19 transactions they face at this point. With them is their most trusted Operations Manager, Immigen Lam. They discuss how crazy it was when they got back to business since February’s lockdown in China and how this crisis gave them growth.
Topics:
Getting back to business in China, foreign trade companies selling masks, and Chinese government policies
Profitable Mask Business
The Challenges of people not able to understand Foreign Trade and Sourcing Process
Difficulties in this line of business during a crisis, best practices for shipping goods in this pandemic
SFA Growth, Working with people on different timezones, Remote work as a normal working set up for SFA
In a previous video, Rico talks about navigating the madness in import-export policies. In this episode, Rico and ChinaMike catch you up with the climate of shipping medical supplies. They discuss the challenges they face in this line of business and how they felt doing this for weeks but it felt like a month — must be the quarantine, boys.
Some important points:
Difference between US and Europe requirements
Factory climate, their current capacity, and certifications
US Customs, holding shipments, and taxes
Client’s trust and processing orders
Shipping best practices
The COVID-19 crisIs has created a huge shortage of protective supplies all over the world which has lead to panic buying by inexperienced buyers, who are unfamiliar with the Asian market and unable to identify the red flags that can occur during deals.
Rico Ngoma tries to clarify some of the ethical questions that arise when sourcing goods to supply people in need, the dilemma of profiting off a crisis, and how to add a social agenda when potentially profiting. Below you find some highlighted minutes for you to navigate the interview. Watch the video if you are curious about the sourcing process behind the protective supplies that are necessary to fight the pandemic.
Some important points:
Source Find Asia’s product focus on this crisis
importance of ‘guan xi’, keeping promises and building trust
Shortage of protective supplies
The ethical questions arising when ‘profiting’ on a crises
Transparency in the supply chain
Questions regarding the work conditions in the factories supplying the goods
How to get in contact and setting up sourcing channels
In this episode, Rico and Nick launched an episode straight from the cozy couch of their apartment. An apartment that misses some fixtures, like literally. They talk about their lockdown experiences on day 17 of their quarantine, business climates from sourcing and manufacturing standpoint, routines for quarantine, and cheers for the positivity.
Some important points:
- Coming to the Philippines
- How Coronavirus Affected Businesses
- Manufacturing Climate
- Lockdown in the Philippines
- Living in BGC, Taguig
- Crisis Opportunist in this COVID-19 Pandemic
- Routines to keep you motivated in quarantine
Read MoreIn this episode, Rico calls one of his mentors, Andy Church. It has been two years since Andy has been in this podcast. This episode reunites them as Rico jots down notes from his sensei as they talk about working remotely, past experiences, Coronavirus, expanding out of China and more.
Topics:
Remote Work, going 100% remote
Importance of getting the work done
Business in Southeast Asia countries other than China
Challenges on lacking knowledge of the industry
Andy’s experience in Southeast Asian Countries
Establishing a relationship with a client and factories
Expansion outside of China
Strategic Partnerships in strategic places
In this episode, Rico and Mike talk about getting involved on the demand of Protective Medical supplies on a global scale. They both recognize the following: the importance of helping people, putting up content to educate people, the process and some forecasts.
In this podcast, Rico and ChinaMike talk about:
Helping people and getting involved
Orders of Medical Supplies SFA handles
The vetting process of the factories
Restrictions implemented to the factories by the Chinese Gov’t
Transparency in Sourcing, the rapid changes of quotations
Educating everybody involved in sourcing and factories
Qingming Festival, Price Hikes
Updates, Business Climate for the next 2 weeks
In this episode, Rico and Mike talk about getting involved in the demand of Protective Medical supplies on a global scale. They both recognize the following: the importance of helping people, putting up content to educate people, the process and some forecasts.
Topics:
Helping people and getting involved
Orders of Medical Supplies SFA handles
The vetting process of the factories
Restrictions implemented to the factories by the Chinese government
Transparency in sourcing, the rapid changes of quotations
Educating everybody involved in sourcing and factories
Qingming Festival, Price Hikes
Updates, Business Climate for the next 2 weeks
As an update with the current business climate when sourcing masks, Rico and ChinaMike talk about the information they get from their contacts and employees in China. The country has implemented restrictions and regulations when manufacturing and shipping surgical masks. They also talk about the volume of inquiries they receive on Coronavirus testing kits.
Bullet Points Details:
Mike talks about that time when he heard the Coronavirus when he was in China
They both give perspective of the sourcing of medical supplies, specifically surgical masks
Factories that are manufacturing masks
The volume of inquiries they get in the current situation
The crazy volume of orders and shipping
Skinny timelines that potential buyers are giving them
They also talk about some reality checks and stress management during the quarantine
Read MoreIn this episode, Rico interviews David Abusiewiez of Alpha Rock Capital. David shares his journey of leaving the US to start a company in the Philippines.
Topics include:
Leaving the comfort zone to start the Asian adventure
Profile of western entrepreneurs in Manila.
What it’s like living in the Philippines?
How Alpha Rock started
Best moments living in the Philippines
