No contact details, please.

Quoting from [Simon Xu]:



Dear All Freinds,



I have a personal question regarding my career that need your kind suggestion. The question is: shall I be a purchasing agent or open a trading firm?



My situation is as follows. I am male, 30, living in Shenzhen, China, an international business engineer. I have 7 years of experience of import/export business after graduation from university. I am familiar with and able to handle smoothly the whole procedure of international business, like participating trade fair, following up inquiries, handling quotation and sample request, applying for Customs certificates, booking vessel and Im/Ep Customs clearance, L/C documents and negotiation, cancel after verification & tax return (in China), searching and negotiating with suppliers. And I have accumulated a lot of good partners related to international business to work with, like freight forwarders, courier companies, Customs declaration clerk, etc. Fluent spoken and written English. Mature personality. Good negotiation and communication skills



I am now working in a foreign trading company as a sales manager. My job is to purchase for orders from overseas sister companies and developing distribution agents in other market, report to general manager. Now I want to work for myself. I think I have two choices:



1) To be a purchase agent for foreign buyers and make a living by commission


2) To form a import/export firm and earn profits



I ever worked in following industries: garden decoration products, consumer electronics, lighting products. But I hope to buy and sell sundry items, like crafts & arts, promotional items, gifts, toys, stationery, etc. I don’t have much money to get a company to operate smoothly. Provided I work for foreign buyers, what is a reasonable commission rate?



Looking forward to any suggestions and thanks for your valuable time!


Kind regards,



Simon

No contact details, please

Simon, I will respond to you via e-mail to your question.  I made the very same decision 23 years ago and I will explain in detail what I did in the email.

Best regards,

Ranger

Replying to [Ranger]:

Hi Ranger,

Very glad to hear from you and thanks extremely for your kindness! A good decision is very important to my future career and life. I look forward to receiving your e-mail.

What can I do for you in China? May I be of some help to you? I hope much to make friends with you. I will advise my other contact details via e-mail.

Kind regards,
Simon

Replying to [Simon Xu]:
Many people like you think about working for them selfs after working for a supplier for some time. The situation is not the same as you will be on your own, the company you work for maybe has good pulling power using web sites and gold memberships, able to give excellent prices, good cimmunication, and if established will have good trust within the market as a supplier, can provide help to clients via travel and visits to the company and offer marteting sales like going to mainland china business fairs and international meeting too, because of this they have a good return of feed back from clients and many mails but will also have a large outley of money too.
So this way you need to think how will you offer your services, if you have clients that will come to your new company and start new business this is good, but looks like you will start a fresh.

If you offer services like an agent and charge a rate, that's fine, but you need to work for sone time without money, i have many customers coming to china and want us to show them new suppliers, this is ok, but remember the cost to you,, can add up after a few days, and you would need a car to show them the suppliers and collect them form airport, if after they make a order that's good business, but many would just come to look.

If you want to act like a trade co, would you use another company to take payments for you, can you get deals from the suppliers for these products?, how would you get clients to contact you?, and would you get a office or use you own home?

I hope you make the right choice, i know many people who do very very well like this, but all of them have paid much money to get their business going and later have some good clients, but not all get these good clients.

Replying to [JBsportsuk]:

Hi John,

Thanks for your message!

I agree with what you say above. But I want to communicate further.

The first, to open a trade firm. As I don't have existing clients of a certain industry, I shall encounter the biggest problem of developing good clients and then good relationship with domestic factories. There should be many difficulties that I cannot forecast if I don't actally do. In my experience, many overseas buyers hope to establish deep cooperation relationship, not just sell and buy. They expect to get strong support from their suppliers. In some small new or fractionized market that not very competitive, I may have some chance.

The second, to be a purchase agent. I intend to help those buyers who are not in a position to establish their purchasing liaison offices in China. The targeted buyers are small or middle-sized companies who must have regular purchase business from China. I can only serve one or two buyers. For those buyers who just want to ask for some information or come to look, they will not be considered as my target client. And my client shall pay regular salary and commission based on orders I handled.

What I am supposed to do are described below:


source and investigate manufacturers and suppliers throughout China
collect product information and pricing information
purchase designated goods according to requirement
negotiate with vendors to get best prices and payment terms
monitor production and inspect goods quality and quantity
arrange transportation and Customs clearance in China
purchase various products in small quantities at one time
search qualified OEM for product development and processing
investigate cost breakdown and profit margin


I think there should be a lot of potential demand for such purchase agent. I think such an right-hand agent will make their business more competitive.

If I can find a good employer, it is much easier to get business going then the first choice.

What would you comment? Thanks

Simon

Replying to [Simon Xu]:

I would think you can help buyers, and be their eyes on the ground in China for them, but like a fire needs 3 things to start you are the same, 1. experience of exports. 2. working in China. 3. clients
As we know the main one is the clients, but i am sure you can put the work into the business and come out on top,

Let's talk more, maybe we can help you.

Replying to [JBsportsuk]:

Thank you! If I can be of some help to you or your freinds, feel free to let me know. As long as I am in a position to do, I will not hesitate.

Simon

Replying to [Simon Xu]: Simon I have sent you an email.


 

Replying to [JBsportsuk]:  I think you have missed Simon's point.  IM sure he is aware that developing a multi-million dollar company does not happen over nite.  The second thing is that no person that wants to be sucessful would even entertain an Idea to leave the security of a company unless they had first thought thru the costs.  But the thing here is that he has stated that he has the contacts therefore he has already developed the working relationships.  He can hit the ground running not crawling because he has the working relationships that others would not have.  Since IM sure he already has the basic necessities setting up an office is but a small part of the business.  In fact his only real and most prominent cost might be in the marketing of his services to clients outside of China.

Ranger


 

Replying to [Ranger]: Thank you. But I didn't get the e-mail. Can you please forward the e-mail my another e-mail address: simonxu@188.com? Thank you in advance!!

Replying to [JBsportsuk]: Your analysis is detailed and resonable. if one has good business customers and the profit is quite good, then he can start his own company. otherwise just acts as SOHO or as agent of buyers.