In this episode, Debbie Arcangeles speaks with Rico from The Offbeat Life:
“Over the last 5 years, his company has exported over USD 15 million worth of goods globally. Basically, if you want to make something in China — he’s your guy!”
Important Notes:
Living an Offbeat Life
Being an old soul
Moving to China
Being a big fan of Tim Ferriss
Enjoying High Peak times
Description: Sits down and looks back on his early days in SFA. He talks about how to get by on bad decisions, selecting clients, and being blamed for failures on the project.
- SFA being audited, being forced to look back on past projects
- Not being proactive about dealing with products and selecting clients
- Pressure on operational expenses, getting clients during Chinese New Year
- Dealing with stubborn clients in the early days of SFA
- Being blamed by a client for lack of progress
- Consequences of clients that don’t read proposals/contracts
- Cancelling a project before starting it, dealing with clients that request refunds
- Trusting your gut when doing big decisions
Read MoreDescription:
Rico talks about how conscious are they when choosing their Outro Music in the early days of Made in China Podcast. In this bonus episode, they talk about how relevant it is to them and how would you understand them through music.
Music in the Podcast:
Middle Feat. Bipolar Sunshine by DJ Snake
Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun
Paradise Lost by Rick Ross
Kick Push by Lupe Fiasco
Read MoreDescription:
In this episode, Rico interviews Emma Schermer Tamir, the owner and founder of Marketing by Emma — an Amazon Listing Optimization company. She talks about how it is to transition from a passionate writer to a business person and how hard to give up the control in order for her business to move forward. Check out out the whole story below.
Important Notes:
- Marketing as a great space on understanding how humans work and help businesses find success
- Teaching English as means to live migrate and live to another country
- Amazon FBA Community being relatively a small space in Business, Current Amazon FBA Climate
- Amazon Listing Optimization, Keyword Strategy, SEO, and Copywriting to help product/brand success
- An E-Commerce page is equivalent of your listing, the misconception of selling to everybody and taking on your biggest competitor
- How can a customer effectively choose your product
- How decision-paralysis costs her time and how she minimizes it, how hard to let go of her control to move forward
- Mentoring Writers, Operating the Business on a bigger picture, Being a Business Person first then Artist second
- Growing their business during the pandemic, Success in business with honesty and integrity
Read MoreRico talks about how conscious are they when choosing their Outro Music in the early days of Made in China Podcast. In this bonus episode, they talk about how relevant it is to them and how would you understand them through music.
Music in the Podcast:
Work feat. Drake by Rihanna
Say Whatchu Want by Zein BassFlexx
Death and All His Friends by Coldplay
Read MoreDescription:
With her book releasing, Rico chats with Nicole Webb, author of the “China Blonde.” In this episode, they talk about the story behind the book, moving to a foreign country with no one but her family, and her sheer persistence to get to the life she wanted.
Important Notes:
- Moving out from New Zealand to Hong Kong, raising a kid in Hong Kong
- How amazing the landscape and culture in Hong Kong, moving to Xi’an
- Their first encounter on Cross Border Summit as an emcee
- Starting a blog, being a journalist and the voice of her blog, and monetizing it
- The story behind her book, “China Blonde”
- The language barrier she encountered in Hong Kong
- The contrast between Mainland China and Hong Kong
- Interviewing locals and expats on the start of her blog and book
- Difference between writing for journalism and writing a book
Read MoreDescription:
As mentioned in this episode, similar to the 2008 recession, a lot of products or businesses will be launched after the pandemic. If you are one of the people forced to work from home or work online, this is the best time to think about launching a business/product. Tune in to this episode to know more.
Important Notes:
- Being location-independent, being a Brand Marketer, Starting a career from producing videos to E-Commerce
- Creating your own Brand rather than selling on Amazon, their Million-Dollar Product from Kickstarter
- Trying out the Digital Nomad lifestyle, living in Asia, Being an Amazon FBA Guru
- Struggles in Launching a Crowdfunding, Infringement in their first Brand of Silicone Rings
- A solid launch strategy doesn’t guarantee success, losing lots of money on multiple products they launched
- The Crowdfunding Climate: Then and Now, 2016 was the Golden year to launch a crowdfunding
- The Pandemic forcing people to work at home, and launch a commerce product
- Misconceptions in Crowdfunding, Pros, and Cons of Crowdfunding Platforms
- Personal Life struggles during the pandemic
Read MoreRico 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
Rico sits down and reflects on the decisions that he made, and the things that worked out after making those decisions. He also talks about believing in Karma, the current situation in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, moving to the Philippines right before it went on lockdown, and more.
Episode Notes:
Moving to the Philippines during the pandemic, saying no to parties, catching on sleep
Setting up a remote business, putting up systems for your business, empowering employees
Dealing with an employee on the brink of leaving, pushing the business in the right direction
Communicational barriers from a cultural standpoint, leaving China
Productivity levels when outside the office, making employees feel family or partner of the business
Testing out the remote work systems in the company, adjusting to different time zones
Communication channels for remote systems, developing Standard Operating Procedures
As part of the Interview questions for MarketWatch’s Founder Spotlight, Rico shares his thoughts about where things are headed in the Next 5 Years.
Episode Notes:
Covid-19 caused a big shift to where things are headed
His canceled travel plans for Network Expansion
Strengthening SFA’s Services
Approach in Marketing
Building partnerships, and a whole ecosystem of network
Transitioning to a Knowledge-base company
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
