Thats the thing about small business, YOU ARE ALWAYS on call. I am trying to get on somewhat of a schedule between Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, but life of a traveling salesman / social media dude (aka ME) life is anything but predictable and schedule-able....
I should cross promote the two blogs more, not sure if people even realize i have this blog translated to chinese. When I first came to China at the end of 2007 my good friend, Gao Xing, gave me my chinese name, mai li ni , which is a best effort to convert my...
Added Guangzhou to my weekly travel the past couple weeks, due to the Canton fair. Back in Shenzhen today, at least all these trade fairs are over now. Its just added that much more stress and complexity to my daily work life.
After spending Sunday (easter sunday!)...
Came to Hong Kong this morning from Shenzhen, crossing the border, taking the bus to Wan Chai, knowing where to get quick food, stopping off at boot hk coworking space, preparing which booths I would visit, walking in, already being pre-registered for the show...
A couple weeks a photo journalist, Li Jia, came to the Dongguan Fiveislands ecommerce warehouse, but also other factories in the business network here in Chang An. Her main project was to interview and photograph the lives of factory women and their love life....
Been to Canton fair a few years now, thinking about my 2008 canton fair trip here. The Canton Fair is the biggest trade fair for Chinese factories to meet foreign buyers. Its held 2 times a year, in the spring (where we are now…) and then again in the fall.
I...
Took a few years but i am finally “broken in”…..it was something expats here told me would happen the longer i stayed here…..and I didn’t believe them! stop resisting and just let go. China is China, and its not going to change for...
As you can see, I’m pretty open about the extreme stress I have been under in business and travel. I think I am developing quicker. There is a saying I saw on a facebook status update that I liked and tweeted:
“Always do what you are afraid to do”...
After Dongguan meetings and training sessions with new hires, came to Shenzhen to check out potential coworking office spaces. Met up with Gareth, who is working in the Overseas Chinese Scholars Venture Building, which was setup to attract overseas Chinese to...
I was writing this as an email update for those wondering where I will be the next few days….seems the most common message or email I get from people is
“Where are you now? Are you in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, or?”
So I thought I would share...
While some may not believe, I survived to successfully enter China and speak about Twitter and Facebook promotion (amazing because the government forbids and blocks it). But Chinese businesses that need foreign customers (ie export businesses) NEED TO USE TWITTER...
After months of preparation, last week we launched cash n carry Chinese shopping cart to sell the products in our fiveislands ecommerce center. It’s exciting to see it come alive…I am working mostly on helping foreigners enter the Chinese market, via this...
I think I am getting a bit more settled on the fact / idea / reality that I will be remaining in China (or at least Asia) for the next 5 years.
That is an important step for my own mind…balance, and business goals. But it took me a long time to accept. ...
Recently got an email from a NY times reporter doing research on the Chinese internet space…and yea, while giving free reply and probably no reply or a thank you, I thought I would share and expand on the questions I received and answered in the email.
1)...
At this years’s biggest Chinese SEO fair I just spoke about optimizing English social media channels (SNS) which I worried about, as we all know, Chinese government has been blocking these websites, so about 80% of my topic cannot be accessed by my audience,...
