I think there's a great future for home offices in China to support both Western and Chinese firms in international trading.

Other than the obvious cost savings to the western party, home offices on the mainland have the potential to smooth those insane time and holiday differences between China and particularly USA and Europe.

On holidays and festivals, China is at play while the USA works and vice versa. That greatly lessens the period when both countries work on the same calendar dates.

But, we also effectively get a three day weekend in both countries. China is ahead of eastern and western USA by 13 and 16 hours respectively. So, as far as inter-communication goes, Friday workday is lost in USA because it's Friday night in China. And, Monday workday is lost in China because it's of course Sunday in USA.

That three day weekend plus the differing holidays leaves surprisingly small windows where both continents work during the same consecutive days. It leaves around only 150 days per year when consecutive daily work is happening. In business terms this means there's only 150 days each year on which either the USA or Chinese party can expect a reply email on the following day.

And, of course it's got to be "following day" reply because of that darn day-night difference between the two.

The combination of that 150 day equation and the day-night factor makes for some pretty interesting scenes in USA offices. The frustration is mainly on the USA side because of the typical impatience of USA managers.

While doing business in USA, I've actually seen USA bosses yelling at their staff "I want goddam answers out of China right now". Of course, there's little chance of that because China is sound asleep or close to. And, if it's a Friday morning email from USA to China, there's a three day wait for a reply until return to the office on Monday morning.

And, so it goes on ... it drives people crazy.

No matter if the USA company has a specialist agent in Hong Kong or on the mainland. The agent works out of a Chinese office and that office closes at night and on Chinese holidays.

Okay ... phone the Chinese party on his / her home phone at night?

Hohaaa ... all good little Chinese managers and agents seem to dine out every night of the week. It's just so darn cheap to dine out like a King every night of the week in downtown China!

Talking in "real time" with China is almost essential in doing business with China and this is where Chinese home office workers are particularly valuable. At say 3-5pm LA time it's 7-9am in China or at 9-10am New York time its 10pm-midnight in China, which are reasonably civilised hours in a Chinese home office.

The merit of home offices in China is blindingly obvious. The competent Chinese manager who tosses in his/her $75 per week job to work full time from home for a western company for say $150 per week is not on a bad wicket either.

To talk in real time with a Chinese party, to talk virtually every day of the year and to have one's own feet on the ground in China for a couple of hundred bucks a week (plus home office disbursements and travel) is a bargain.

Yes, I am a great believer in Chinese home offices.

This thread is very interesting and i know for a fact there are thousands of western buyers who would require such a service, especially the sourcing side of things. May i suggest on behalf of myself and other buyers i know that a good service you could offer is a STANDARD SOURCING service, this would be ideal for the many buyers that only want say 4 hours of your time to find them a particular product with the specific specifications they require.

This would involve you finding them the product doing the basic negotiations, and then handing the reigns over to buyer and seller. And for every such completed sourcing deal that goes through you recieve a one off payment.


And if you think about it if you started to become well estabilished and you knew how to reach out to the people that require your service. There will be new clients who are asking for previously sourced products. E.g a new client requires dvd players and you have already sourced this product for an existing client (job already done) and a fee is payed for little work, and the client is very happy. And you could almost if you like build up a PORTFOLIO of reliable suppliers you have sourced from in the past.

Just some input from the prospective of someone who considering finding a sourcing agent. Just out of interest guys what sort of one off fee would you guys charge for sourcing a product i.e portable DVD and carrying out the basic negotiations?

Replying to [Aussie]:

Great idea, mutually benefitial,objective oriented & affordable and reasonable

Quoting from [Aussie]:


Replying to [JMS wei]:


In a Home Office, where your work is exclusively for one western party:


A. Land line of course for home phone.


B. 3 in 1 Fax machine / photo copier / phone message recorder.


C. Laptop Computer / internet connection.


D. Microsoft Office software (to deal with western party on excel spreadsheets and the like).


E. Bank account for western party to pay your monthly fee and travel etc expenses into.


F. Business cards of course. English on side / Chinese the other, stating the western party you represent.


.................................


Agreement with western party, for rough example:


(a) Fixed Fee: paid monthly, first payment 2 weeks after commencement (so that monthly fee is always two weeks in arrears and two weeks in advance).


(b) Overheads: Western party to pay office expenses such as telephone, and other out of pocket expenses such as travel. No expense to be incurred without email approval.


(c) Expense Account: an agreed Petty Cash sum paid on day one. Say $500. To be replenished as money is spent so that cash is always on hand for expenses (ie do not use your own money to pay expenses when the "fixed fee" is a salary type arrangement). The unspent money in petty cash is the property of the western party.


(d) Authority: Chinese party does not have power to bind western party to any liability in China without written authority of western party.


(e) Relationship: Not employee / employer relationship.


(f) Termination: either party may terminate on 30 days notice or without notice for gross negligence and / or dishonest conduct.


(g) Confidentiality: Chinese party must not reveal commercial information to others.


(h) Restriction: during first year after Termination, Chinese party must not deal with western parties' competitors.

Very Clear, thanks for the guide.

Replying to [Aussie]:
isn't it a SOHO?
i'd like to be such kind. i like working without restriction in my time and freeness. if i'm tired i will have a rest, and if customers online, i will chat with them even if it's midnight. i dream of that life. so i think i agree with you.

Replying to [Aussie]:

We won't even entertain your reply.

Hi,Tony,This is Yingchun here.Great idea.YOU must be a veteran in trading world.Especially your detailed tutorial really helps a lot.


Wish you best of your business.

Wish everyone here and passers-by a bright future.

Replying to [S McB]:
For me, for example I think I can charge you only USD150 including phone fee to souce a DVD factory in China. It is USD100 cheaper than others. Of course, same to them, this does not include sample inspection for clients. What I do is to find a reliable and best factories for clients.

Without any doubt, I will give all informaiton of the factory to buyer and I will definitely be independent in the interest of their deal.

Replying to S McB: Those were excellent and very practical questions / observations you made ... especially about a fixed little fee for sourcing.

So far, in respect of ferreting out actual costs of engaging Chinese based Home Office help for sourcing, due diligence and pre-shipment inspections etc, this is where we seem to be at:

1. Uncle Kevin a westerner, near HK, who is an engineer and marketing man with much higher than usual "trading skills" including knowledge of patent and trade mark protection ... around $1,000 pw.

2. Yiwuagent, whose team particularly specialises in the vast Yiwu markets ... 3% of value for an A-Z job, or around $250 fixed sourcing only fee.

3. Peter Chan, an independent consultant with a network of mainland contacts, specialising in both very small specific tasks as well as a full A-Z sourcing and due diligence ... around $10 per hour including telephone and local travel costs (with about 1/2 day minimum fee), or $150 sourcing fee.

S McB, I suggest that a sourcing fee contract, even for the above small sums, include these sort of conditions, among other obvious:

(a) Approaches be made to minimum 20 potential Suppliers.

(b) Name of those Suppliers be provided to client.

(c) Subsequent Report to client as to each of those 20 (one or two sentences is sufficient report on each).

(d) Consultant make at least three local calls to check local references of the recommended Supplier.

(e) Consultant negotiate best terms for sample to be sent (but not check the sample).

[It goes without saying that further due diligence and etc would need to be done if a deal is struck in principle after the sample is received.]

As said earlier in this thread, I do not object to Chinese Home Office consultants / agents publishing themselves here as long as COSTS are provided ... as the overriding interest is to encourage western buyers to do due diligence to avoid being scammed.

Replying to [JMS wei]:
thanks for outline information.