I am addicted to blogging, and sharing with the world what I am doing. But I think it has been really effective…as most people are so afraid of the NEGATIVE of being public online….there is SO MUCH POSITIVE. If people know what my goals are, and my interests, those who agree and have similar visions will come together and help each other succeed. This is the new world, the social internet, and it will only become more open, more collaboration, more compounding and exponential growth as a group, not as individuals.

So let me take today’s blog entry to explain what my business (es) are, as I know even for me its hard to keep up, there is normally in an article the “5 W’s” – who, what, when, where, why, and how. I will mostly cover the what and where.

WHAT: do I do….

1. Internet marketing consulting (SEO, social media)

   I think this is my passion…my calling in life…I wouldn’t call it SEO anymore, sadly SEO (search engine optimization) is getting such a bad name lately….and really the opportunity and growth is in SOCIAL media….which is what I naturally believe I love to do….meeting, networking, connecting over an online medium. I have grown into this business overtime….mostly by friends and referrals seeing my success and interest in it. I have a few projects in China/Hong Kong and USA that I advise and service, leveraging teams in China and Philippines to help me build contents, build links, and overall grow online presence for these clients. This consulting business is what mainly “pays my bills”, as ones following are more in development / growth stages.

2. Ecommerce between USA and China

   Ecommerce is a broad term, but since 2004 and newyorkbarstore experience / bar products business (rough ride for me), its been there to keep my interest in the online world, become an internet marketing consultant (above) and sourcing bar products in China is what got me to Asia in the first place….

   But most exciting now is the Loadpipe “pipe dream” as some call it, connecting USA and China ecommerce is coming alive. Since the beginning of 2011 I joined a great team and exciting opportunity to convert a factory into fiveislands ecommerce warehouse center, being what I’ve always dream of making, a dual ended (China domestic market and a export / USA / international shipping from China) distribution platform and system. It just seems perfectly aligned. And we have a quick page made for a holding company of domains called cyberchina.com limited in Hong Kong to build a massive network of shopping carts and content delivery networks to build buzz and business on the web. So excited about each day’s developments here.

3. South China Coworking / Internet / Ecommerce Meetings, networking

   I have always loved the coworking idea, since back in 2007 working in San Diego I loved the idea of a middle between working alone in your apartment, a coffee shop, or a boring / expensive corporate office. It has always been such a massive idea, SEEMS LIKE SHENZHEN China is well positioned to be next. But community is key, working in boot hong kong coworking, testing some shenzhen ecommerce meetings, and learning Manila, Philippines meetups didn’t have enough interest, I have learned where and how and gotten some people supporting the idea and growing it.

WHERE in the world I am and will be

For those reading this CRAZY blog of my life….may have experienced my near decisions to live in New York or Philippines…..they were VERY close to being reality….and maybe I upset some with changing my mind…this is a rather big life decision, and I have to make the best choice…..

So I took that return flight back to Hong Kong in November last year. It seems like again, I belong in South China, as the opportunities for entrepreneurship and startups is in South China / PRD (Pearl River Delta) are growing exponentially – for me at least….just based on my 1 year in 2010 exploring many places in China, USA, Philippines – money flow (as Warren Buffet tells us – follow the money flow) is all in China now….whether we like it or not, its a fact….and I can feel my business and my opportunities going to China and Hong Kong as the “path of least resistance”. Listening to my heart. this is where I belong for the next few years at least.

So hopefully that helped people understand what I’m up to these days…writing it down has helped me…and may as well publish it to the world and see what people think too, I don’t have anything to hide.

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Some of my friends in Hong Kong were up all night Friday buying off the apple website, to sell the ipad 2 in Hong Kong a week later.

This morning, on my way to Dongguan, Philip mentioned I should have my USA friends buy the ipad2 and sell in China….between the taxes and customs crap…

in Hong Kong, can sell the ipad 2 for 7,000 HKD (around 900usd) for the cheapest ipad 2 model, just wifi model, no 3g!
in China the ipad 2 would be even more, at least 10,000rmb (over 1200usd).

Also the smart cover case, there is a special ipad 2 case that is a hot item…selling on Taobao (Chinese ebay) for a healthy profit as well.

How in the world can the ipad 2, which you can get in USA for $500usd, sell for almost double in Hong Kong and China? WHEN IT IS MADE ON THIS SIDE OF THE WORLD!!! Crazy right.

I still get messages from friends in USA who ask me to buy them cheap electronics in China, thinking the costs in Asia are lower. I have talked about comparing costs in USA and Asia and really, many luxury items are so much cheaper in America…..

Why is the ipad 2 cheaper in USA than China?

I know its crazy, Chinese people actually get upset…heck, I even get upset….but there are a couple reasons:

• VOLUME – America is the world consumer…buying up tons of ipads and iphones and other consumer electronics. Therefore the bulk of the goods are sold there first, in large quantities.
• Protect Intellectual Property – I think both Americans, and Chinese, can agree, it is still not “safe” to sell in China…..
• Taxes – USA has low taxes, with simply sales tax in each state as the main tax (ranging from 6% to 8% from my experience). In China, there is VAT (value added tax) that is about 17% on top of

So basically, this is the thought process of Apple and other big brands – make the big money quick in USA, and then the rest of the world is “Cream” or pure profit. To get the money from USA customers quickly, pay back the upfront investment on marketing and R&D to invest in the iPad 3! Then release to the worldwide international marketplace to “get residual” income for the next 6 months to a year.

But Apple has been getting better at doing business in China, by allowing the iphone and ipad to be sold in the domestic Chinese market faster. Apple now has its own branded stores in China, whereas in the past they were using only resellers. This is also due to the fact that CHINA IS RICH now and not just a country to outsource and manufacture in….its a viable consumer marketplace that is growing rapidly.

So hey, my USA friends, want to make some extra cash buying iPad 2 and shipping to me in Hong Kong? Lets do it!

Hey Mike, funny you speak of this. It is really tough to get an ipad
2 here in the states. I was hoping to get one and it was nuts. They
released it for sale to customers at 5PM friday afternoon. I called
the apple store on my way from work and they couldnt tell me how many
they had, all they could tell me is that the line of people is over
200 and not to even bother showing up. Luckily there is a best buy
nearby too where I went instead. the line here was around 60 people
(and people got in line behind me, some said they came from the apple
store which was 1000 people long according to their estimates) – what
sucked is they only had 55 ipads. they announced it and the 2 guys in
front of me left (i guess i was 58th) so i was next in line hoping
someone would want one that is not avail. and thats what happened. the
guy in front of me wanted a 3G one and all they had was the wifi – so
he left and i got it. then another guy decided he didnt want to wait
any longer (we had to wait 45 minutes after getting the ticket to buy
an ipad) so he turned his ticket in and some lucky lady that showed up
at the right time got it. incredible. so many people left. people
kept coming trying to get in line, but the best buy guy said they were
all out. so then this one guy comes by, it sounded like he was from
western africa and he wanted one too. except he didnt turn away, he
said he needed the ipad for his company. he said he needed to ship it
to china the next day. he looked nice and was polite and was dressed
well, and offered the lady $200 for her ticket (for a 16GB wifi only).
she couldnt believe it and agreed. He came back 15 mins later with
$200 cash. the lady made $200 USD for showing up at the right place
at the right time – incredible.
I got mine and im happy. i ended up with what was left but i got
pretty much what i wanted. (i wanted a 32GB wifi only, i got a 64GB
wifi only) and after the accessories and tax the thing was like $860
USD. incredible. i looked on craigslist today, check it out or ebay,
and people are selling them like crazy!!! but like the commercial
says the first time you use facetime, you smile. I talked to my dad
this weekend and he immediately smiled when he saw my face, and I
smiled when i saw him. its an incredible tool.
but ur right – its all for a purpose. its all hype. Apple on purpose
hyped it up, didnt announce numbers, and only had limited quantities.
thats how they make an item HOT!!! but i think the black market may
be hurting them. imagine that they could be making those 200-300
markups cause people are willing to pay for it – incredible.
but apple is smart – at the apple store, you wait for someone to help
you, you wait while you play with the stuff and as soon as someone is
available, they come up to you, ask you if you have questions. You
talk, ask questions, they help you find stuff, and if you are ready to
purchase, they dont send you to checkout, they actually check you out.
they have iphones with credit card swipers and they check you out
right then and there, and they email you the receipt (or they can
print it) incredible!!!!! so i hope they come up with a better way to
get these ipads to the people, without the scalpers, or the lines. it
shoudl be a lottery or something to get the first one.
in the future im pretty sure they will have to make the line waiting
better, google some of the stories, people are angry they waited in
line for hours and the apple store employees couldnt tell them if they
had enough ipads for everyone or not.

another follow up
Gary just told me – Just drop by wanchai computer, today price for ipad2 16g wifi hkd8500, smart cover hkd850

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Its going one step further, as bigger blogs like techcrunch making people use facebook to comment…..PEOPLE HAVE TO BE PEOPLE to comment now.

Robert Scoble, a very open and bold blogger, really goes out there and calls people COWARDS who are afraid to put their name / identity to their comments on the internet, part of his article is quoted below:

Hello! Name one person on the web that doesn’t use Google or Bing. One. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Hint, your 700 friends are on Google. Your grandma is on google. Your five ex-girlfriends are on Google. My ex-wife is on Google.

Thinking back over my 46-year life I’ve only read something more wrong a few times.

Not to mention I worked with an executive at NEC who got fired for something he anonymously wrote on a forum (a racist post). Someone figured out where the IP address came from and sent the post to his boss, who quickly fired him. Being truly anonymous and untrackable on the Web is very difficult.

So, what’s going on here? Why is it causing people to lose all perspective on EVERYTHING?
These “authenticity is dead” people are cowards.

See, where I ONLY post opinions I’m willing to sign my name to, lots of people are actually cowards and just not willing to sign their names to their mealy-mouthed attacks.

He is a little harsh there….but if more and more big blogs force you to use facebook connect in order to comment….then either people will have to start creating fake facebook accounts (which do exist I am sure, but is not allowed by facebook’s terms of service) OR only comment when they are not afraid everyone in their life can see what they are saying, and new people they don’t know can look them up on facebook and connect with them more.

For example, I have had my fair share of “comment trolls” on this blog here…..they would use fake names and reach out and criticize me, one some of my friends and readers here (I’m not even going to go back on this blog and check his fake name) he really did annoy me…and he never would say who he was. Every blog post he would say some new annoying comment and upset me, as well as the readers here. I didn’t want to delete / moderate his comments, but after so many of my friends complained I had to block him/her from leaving future comments.

Maybe I will soon force blog commenters here to use facebook connect in order to comment?

Its also going to change SEO as well, as we all know how much comment spam we get in blogs with keywords as the comment name and the SEO target website too. Things keep on changing….social media and SEO merging. People and businesses becoming 1…..the dividing line between personal life and business life blurring….

When can we separate our work life from our personal life? that is another issue.

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As China grows, it is consuming more and more. Its middle class has been hungry for foreign brands and foreign goods. So how do you take advantage of this boomtown in China?

If you have a product that you think would rock in China, but not sure how to logistically get it into Mainland, then read on!

There are 3 methods, (a) traditional and legal way, (b) newer, newly developing method of utilizing logistics companies trucking services, and (c) illegal border smuggling. Lets go through each of the methods:

(a) Traditional, 100% legal way – This is shipping it from the county of origin, with the proper invoices and packing slips and going through customs yourself. There is the base VAT (value added tax, commonly known as Fa Piao) fee of 17% no matter what product it is, plus the tarffi tax, which is a percentage dependant on the classification of the goods, which can get extremely high. No only will you pay a high tax rate, making your newly imported goods more expensive off the bat, you will also have to spend a lot of time with paperwork, and proving the country of origin, the core ingredients of the products – food and other digestable items such as vitamins are highly regulated and difficult to import.

(b) Utilizing a 3rd party Mainland China registered logistics company (import company) – this has become a very popular method, especially for SME (small and medium sized enterprises) that have online shops such as Tao Bao. The method involves having the foreign goods sent to Hong Kong, to the logistic companies warehouse. You then have them take care of all filiing and documentation with the Mainland Chinese government, therefore making the requirements for official invoices and other paperwork much less stringent. The cost for this is also a variable one, but much more straight forward and manageable. For example, if you are importing powdered baby’s milk – the cost (at the time of this article being published) is 14 – 18 chinese yuan (RMB) per KG. Another popular product for sale in china is foreign cosmetics, and the current rate for importing into Mainland China is at least 18 reminbi per kilogram.

(c) Illigal smuggling – This has to be listed in the article to complete the whole story of how goods are currently imported into main land China, but we do not endorse, assist, or support this method. For those who have cross the hong kong / Shenzhen border, you must have noticed the massive boxes and bags some travellers were carrying. There are certain quantities of goods individuals can carry legally across the border, depending on the product – and it is rapidly changing, with the trend in the direction of decreasing the quantity of goods. But for those who risk this method, it makes sense to do this for high value, smaller items – which normally is electronics. In current times, this is iphones and ipads, because the Chinese tax on the domestic Chinese electronics are so high, its significantly cheaper to buy it outside of mainlaind…and in Hong kong or USA.

These are the current three methods of importing merchandise into Mainland China. If you would like us to assist you in the first 2 ways, I will gladly speak to you about your specific case and products. If you are interested in smuggling, good luck and don’t call me!

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Seems a lot of that money is going towards international expansion outside of the US market. And…….CHINA seems to be red hot on their list………so many of my friends have been chatting about it the past week or so…..job offers flying around, offices opening…..

Will they be another eBay? Coming into China and trying to copy/paste their technology and translate it into Chinese? Or like Google and stop listening to Chinese government and un-filtering their results? Or will they try to do it like Yahoo China, and instead do an equity swap with a Chinese internet company like Alibaba and hand over daily operations for a minority stake?

My friend Marshall Taplits at Shenzhen Standard just published a great layout of the current group buying marketing in China and how Groupon China will have to react to compete.

Marshall writes it a bit more “politically correct” and luckily on my personal blog here I can say what I want to say…..Definitely groupon has play CATCH UP in China…..there have been copy-cats out here almost since groupon opened its doors (and especially since it got popular over a year ago).

Love it or hate it, when a new product comes out in USA, other countries copy it. But they don’t only COPY it, they tailor fit it for their culture, their people’s tastes!

And how many foreigners are they going to hire? With a foreign headquarters, you will need English speaking management, and translating everything back and forth English to Chinese and Chinese to English. I bet many of those Chinese groupon sites only operate in the Chinese language, have already built their technology, and customized it for the Chinese market, and move very quickly to changes in the market, without having to wait for foreign headquarters to approve a new budget or changes in strategy.

Interesting to see the outcome from this.

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The idea that social media is a bunch of nerds spawned after reading Ori’s couchsurfing blog on re-living the prom again and having a social media prom, where social media users can unite and find their dates via social media and prepare for the prom via social media…..pretty cool idea!!!!

Maybe because social media is still in its early stage….and therefore the rules and daily lifestyle tactics have not been implemented – therefore we have the EARLY ADOPTERS still mostly utilizing the tools, and signing up for the newest tools first, sharing photos, location sharing, group buying.

It does take an early adapter maybe to jump into uncharted waters….as we have seen certain platforms already “join the deadpool” and all that user content is lost….so you have to have the stomach and patience to go through various new systems and tools, continuous updates and changes and new platforms, mergers, etc.

And maybe its also nerds utilizing these tools because you need to have some technical experience still…sure, blogging is getting easier and easier, don’t need to know HTML or programming to really do it after the blog is installed, but even I , who sees myself as a middle to high experience internet user, have to spend time researching how to implement certain things on my blog, or new tools….especially with mobile internet….constantly crashing my android phone, resetting, uninstalling, upgrading…..

Also I have met other twitter power users, in various twitter meetups hong kong and manila philippines meetup and yes, we all push and fight our friends to sign up and interact…but really, I see the common user of twitter as a creative, open minded, early adapter and connector. WHICH IS REALLY COOL. This means, I want to know and network with as many of them as possible. We are always staring down at our mobile phones when we’re out, checking in on foursquare, @ replying on twitter, status updates on facebook….tottally wired.

Yet I see Facebook “powerusers” as the less techy, less creative….as its more “plug and play” and WYSISYG (what you see if what you get) and more “Closed environment”

But its kind of funny, the nerds have taken over after the high school gossip and drama.

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I have talked about local sales tactics in China and gotten some experience selling Chinese bar products , but had taken a break from it for the majority of 2010….looking to get back involved in 2011!

So, being that social media is so popular today, and all my friends are on facebook and twitter, I decided to open up the question for suggestions and ideas, which I’ll post in a second.

But seems some of my posts about China really gets people’s blood boiling….in the past, I have posted about China business and my American friends seem to blame Chinese for lost jobs, bad quality products, civil liberties, etc. I will address this first:

Unemployment in America – man, this hard….but is it China’s problem that America has almost a 10% unemployment? This is a whole blog post in itself, but its an effect of globalization overall, and America has to think of ways to adjust.

Bad Product Quality – we can also say its the responsibility of the American buyer….then again, we have all struggled with QC issues….myself included

Civil Liberties in China – yes, this is a major problem right now in China….but if you were to visit China, you would see MAJOR differences in the younger generation and the current generation that is in political power….and it may take a decade or two, but I promise you, once the current Chinese college graduates come into power…..there will be a LOT of changes towards more openness and free speech. So just wait….these changes take generations to change, and its in process.

So now for the products to import into China ideas and brainstorming:

only 1 reply on twitter:

@jilldimalantaRN Try manila’s rice cakes! – RT @michelini: Looking for products to buy overseas and IMPORT #in china for chinese sales

but tons on FACEBOOK, per below:

Michael Michelini Looking for products to import into china, ideas?

Catherine Lam likes this.

Andy Blahnik anything thats not easy to copy

Darren Whittaker Facebook?

Michael Michelini They already have a,few copied facebooks, haha

Arvie Bibanco Vallo Never heard of import “to” china. I thought it was always import “from”.

David Carlino Tabano Cheese. The Chinese can’t do cheese. At least mozzarella so you can have decent pizza!

Nikki Guttmann Schwartz Mobile Checkbook

Gregory Sirochinsky Civil liberties

Michael Michelini Chinese dont have a taste for chinese…but they r getting there…as they r liking wine more too.

Steven W. Tabara USA-made FORD Automobiles

Russell Van Sweden mike, i think you mean they don’t have a taste for cheese, i hope they have a taste for chinese…lol

Noel Yagami chinese can copy everything….. genius…..even egg/soy sauces can be FAKE…. unbelievable

Judy Ng Yes, we certainly don’t eat ourselves;). No cheese, my people are a lactose intolerant group. Anything from the west that claims to improve health is gold.

Miro Celejewski Here are a couple thoughts; do people in china think that products made in the USA are crappy quality, also how about some made in the USA knockoffs of Chinese knockoffs…

Cristos Petropoulos RED WINE! try travelling on a train on monday morning from hk-shenzhen and u will see how they bring wine over! quite amusing! a whole bunch of 20-30 asians put 4 bottles of wine in backpacks and cross the border! must be a massive market for RED WINE!

Roger Leszczynski women with T&A ! lol

Cristos Petropoulos oh another option – import more white guys lol

Samir R. Shah Mike, if you want to import wine into China — contact me. I have good experience in the wine industry.

Marshall Taplits Vitamins

David Weinzierl Hey Mike check your inbox..

Steven W. Tabara How about non-tainted baby food, non-tainted pet food, children’s toys that are not coated with toxins or the idea of “integrity and quality in manufacturing goods that are safe for all to use”.

Brian McKeon civil rights, and guns to run the red coats out of town

Dwayne Patterson Lego’s

Larry Engleman Cheap American labor?

Miro Celejewski Since everyone is on a roll, how about Mexican landscapers, of course they would have no papers there either…

Dwayne Patterson LMAO

Dwayne Patterson The best way to answer the question is when you came home to visit,what did we have that they didn’t? And how would you market it?

Michael Michelini whoa…lots of status updates to wake up too…let me drink my coffee and write a blog post summarizing all of this
21 seconds ago · Like

It is still amazing, social media today, how I can quickly get some research and ideas….

So to summarize some of these:

manila, philippines rice cakes – a twitter follower said this, maybe it will work….but seems a bit niche to me unless all of a sudden Chinese people get a huge taste for them.

cheese – this is one I think of too, but Chinese (as Judy also says) are mostly lactose intolerant, and also think cheese doesn’t taste good….ALTHOUGH lately I’m noticing more eating it at “wine and cheese” events to fit in with the foreigners and are so interested in foreign things.

mobile apps (mobile checkbook) – yes…this may be a good one, I have some experience with mobile apps in america, but would have to get more contacts with China Unicom and China mobile, telecom, etc….seems more of a big contract rather then direct consumer sales….and needs a lot of time / guanxi (relationship building with government)

Ford Cars – THIS IS HUGE! I was told about an opportunity to open a GM dealership in An hui province last year….but this seems more like a franchise deal to me than an more open/ flexible deal structure for a product that is not already in China.

Wine – SO popular in China…its booming…..maybe there is room for me to get in too, I do have a lot of contacts, and I do sell bar products…..but taxes are high – thus you will notice Chinese carrying in as much as they can across the Hong Kong/ Shenzhen border (to avoid taxes, as there’s no wine tax in Hong Kong)

work force – tempting too…..maybe I can import Americans to work in China….actually working on this at the moment.

vitamins – yes….health products…but I think taxes are here too….my friend Eric has an online health shop, I’ll talk to him.

Legos – is this a joke Dwyane? but maybe Children toys….Legos is already here though.

So lets see what this research brings….again, chinese middle class is growing rapidly, and they are consuming / buying everything they can get their hands on!

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I like this paragraph in the middle of the article:

But the sad fact is that Americans are not learning Mandarin, the main tongue spoken in mainland China, in droves. Just take a look at the numbers. According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, in 2008 only 4 percent of middle and high schools that offer foreign-language instruction included Mandarin. That’s up from 1 percent in 1997. While that initially seems like respectable growth, the same survey reveals that 13 percent of schools still offer Latin and a full 10-fold more schools offer French than Mandarin. How is it that one a dead language and the other a language primarily used to impress your dinner companion can trounce one spoken by 1.3 billion natives and many millions more expats and immigrants abroad?

I’m a little embarassed myself, I’ve been in China since late 2007 and still do not have a good grip on the language…..I can come up with excuses and reasoning (normally I say because i’m focusing on business, and mainly selling to english speaking customers – and can’t dedicate time / money / resources to going to classes) but the fact is, I have to face facts and LEARN IT.

But this is another REALITY check – another reason I don’t have to force myself to learn Chinese in China is because SO MANY CHINESE HAVE LEARNED ENGLISH. At least when we are talking about the major cities, the majority of younger people speak english. They grow up learning it in their schools!!!!!!!!!!

So…..think about that……………

The majority of the young population in China will be speaking English fairly fluently in the coming decades……

yet….

The majority of the American population still won’t speak Chinese…..

What does this mean? Sure, there will be even more English speaking people around the globe, right. And the “world will be flat”, and maybe the world language and business language will still be English…….but…

more and more rich people are CHINESE. And they love it when they can speak Chinese to a foreigner. It shows a sign of respect to them, as learning their language, you almost also have to learn about their culture…..

I am mostly upset at myself….I should have applied myself more to learn Chinese.  When I was first in China, I started having Melissa tutor me for an hour a day between working.  Then as it got busier with work, we re-allocated that time to working……

I then tried selling bar products in China and I got nervous, and I realized I needed to rely on my staff completely…for the whole sales process….plus this wasn’t the right product line for China then (back in 2008) and even now still!

grrrrrr…..upset at myself.

But its on my list for sure, improve my Chinese.  Maybe living deeper in a factory city will be better.

Put this on my 2011 New Years Resolution List.

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a) Increased my business contacts and leads exponentially – between the networking events, face time with people I have been working with, and over all hustling around the USA in 2 months, I have built up a new long list of business contacts and ways to work new angles

b) Got some quality time with family – Most of my family is in Florida, and I was able to spent about a week and a half with parents, visit to grandma and the uncles, as well as cousin Alicia in Orlando. Even squeezed in a day trip in NYC with Uncle Bill. I didn’t get to see my sister in Milwaukee, or my cousins in Vermont…but hey…..

c) Missed out on some old friends – getting scolded a bit from some friends that I didn’t get to visit while in USA….jeeez, I tried my best, I was open about where I was and when…..I made some open invites to some get-togethers….if I lose friends because of this, then I guess maybe they weren’t really a friend?
And it was difficult not to feel like I was using people…..crashing on couches, getting rides from train station to bus station, maybe if I wasn’t a hustling entrepreneur I could budget rental cars and hotels in all those cities I went to…..but its amazing I can even afford the flights and train tickets to all these places. And I would constantly thank, and offer gift, dinner, etc….trying my best….

This was the most stressful part….I guess its because I hate to ask for favors. Hate to not have control…..to not be able to come and go from a place when I need to or have to. I don’t know many who can…..when you get hungry, tired to go to sleep, or have to go to another event / meeting / get together. And then I will try to connect people, introduce others. In the past, I have been told I should not mix up various groups of friends, because their lifestyles are so far apart it is awkward. I wonder about that still, as I think meeting people from different lifestyles is valuable and important to grow as a person.
I know, I am too sensitive…..

But also taking back my idea to stay in New York City has maybe lost confidence in some of my friends…..I got overexcited, and realized it was going to take a lot more money and time and patience for the sales and business to develop in USA versus staying overseas and developing it.

Life is life, my decision is made. And I have to be selfish, or I will never be happy right?

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Bill Cosby

I’m just going to keep on moving forward, I’m still friendly to those I didn’t see, but feel maybe they have discounted our friendship as we didn’t touch base face to face after so long.

But the USA trip was good for business, and for family, so that is what I should focus on, right

1) Too young – maybe I would be perceived as too young to own and operate a business, and if a potential customer saw that I was the owner, operator – maybe they would doubt it. I remember making websites seem large, like an army of people must be behind that company

2) Fear of being “found” – maybe that is the old internet, “web 1.0” – where names and personal faces were not online – people would make up strange “handles” or usernames to mask their personal self from the internet – I remember forums and BBS usernames like superman1413, angelstar631, etc – not many people used to put their personal name and tied it to the internet. This fear of being found on the internet.

3) Liability – Sure, there is a “corporate veil” in business, that protects the owners from lawsuits and other liabilities of the company if there is some unforeseen problem. “piercing the corporate veil” was never clear to me exactly, and if the veil is pierced in a lawsuit, the assets of the personal owners and / or directors can also be liable. In USA everyone sues pretty easily, and therefore when I was younger, this was also a reason to keep business and personal separate.

4) Scalability – If your business is only you, and your name, it is also hard to grow, right? I mean if customers only want to talk to the owner and do business with the owner, how can the company expand? But maybe this isn’t the case, as I feel sure there is relationships in business, but not daily operations, that can be scaled. Companies need “mascots”.

5) Sellability – If a business is to be sold, and the above point is proved that the owner must stay with the company in order for it to operate, this may be a problem in the future. To be able to separate the current owner to a new owner….you would want that to be smooth. I think its called a process-oriented company instead of a owner-oriented company.

But man, I am totally just putting it all online….being a real person on the internet. I meet friends, customers, and potential customers – and people know a lot of what I’ve been upto without me having to explain. I guess that was the main reason for creating this blog, so friends could follow me on my travels and I don’t have to repeat my crazy stories over and over again each dinner and bar I go. But its almost kinda scary.

And I run with EMOTIONS. Passion. So many people tell me I have to be less emotional. But I’m thinking its gotten me to where I am today, and I’m an emotional person – I am not afraid to tell people how I feel anymore. I am hustling all over the world….and I don’t have time for “games” so I learned along my way I just have to get it all out there and not hold back. People aren’t mind readers, right?

And starting a business, bootstrapping, feeling every speed bump along the way – is a struggle – it’s a fight. And a dog fight. You have to be ready for anything, adapt quickly. And it takes RAW EMOTION. The will and drive to put up with the bad days, and stay calm on the good days – because you have to be ready for the rainy day.

So there it is, I am a bit nervous about the move to NY – it is one of the most expensive places in the world to live- but its my kind of place – and I am certain I will grow clients and relationships and networking like a madman while I’m here.

Hung out at the Teak bar meeting old friends stopping in and out – it was great to see so many faces after such a long time. Richard Persaud stuck with me most of the night, and we had our traditional Johnny walker black and coke drinks! I’m such a traveler, brought my backpack to the bar, which was a rather upscale yuppie bar, and I am in there looking like a college student with my stuffed backpack holding my laptop and change of clothes. Just living life on the road, my friends all said I looked the same as I had left, even younger! Jeez, all over the place in NY and NJ I’m getting ID’d – as I look in my teens or early 20s…..unbelievable. I know, I should be thankful that I look young- I’m almost 30 years old and people think I’m 18 or something!!! Haha…. gotta live with what we got and make the best of it.

Sunday had a lot of meetings to catch up with people in Hoboken.  and again Social media helped me meet and connect with more people – sunday morning grabbing coffee I checked in on foursquare and James Runkle saw I was 1 block from his apartment and asked to meet up – we grabbed coffee and walked around, talking internet, social media, sales cooperation, etc.  It was really cool and amazing.  And this is why I love twitter, facebook, blogging, foursquare, linkedin – its all about not only making NEW connections – but strengthening current relationships….

Anther great thing is the FOOD – I have been going to these buffet stations where you can grab anything you want, they charge you by the pound – so I’m grabbing things I haven’t had in China / Philippines like cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese, salmon (cooked a certain way here), and all kinds of random things.  SO AWESOME!  jeez…i’m probably gonna gain more weight here…..

So after hanging out with Lily,  Richie, alan, cindy, James runkle, Mike Andrews, Nornalie, Lauren, and Silvio Laccetti – man just working deals – met some professors at Stevens Tech…..hope to work more closely with Stevens as they do an exchange program in China – maybe I can help them do something like this in the Philippines…but then again, not sure if its financially possible.  Just want to make things happen and make win-win deals.

ended up buying a NEW PHONE….signing a 2 year contract for US phone service, since I can pause it when I’m not here and it just adds to the time (meaning you cannot escape using 2 full years of service, but can pause it) – I ended up picking t-mobile phone service with an android operating system (google’s new system) – on a samsung galaxy S phone  – a complete copy of the iphone shape/style.  I am a little nervous using a 100% touchscreen – because of prior bad experiences – but the sales rep told me this has a special material, and he threw one on the ground on front of me and it worked fine afterwards.  So lets hope.  The one negative thing is that it doesnt have a flash on its camera!  And I am noticing battery life is only about 7 hours….I need to charge it in the same day I am using it….But I love being wired all the time, as I got the data plan with unlimited data and text messages.

Just still soaking in all the changes and feelings of being back in USA!  Especially New York, I love this crazy hyperactive city.  But I really need some rest, been an intense 4 days.

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Just seeing the hustle in new york….jewish shop owners yelling at spanish truck delivery guys in the street corner…..everyone on their mobile phone hustling something, buying , selling, wheeling, dealing……the rush of business surrrounding me……feeling maybe like my late grandfather gelindo michelini must have felt when he came from italy for new business opportunity….
Also my good friend Josh Griffiths has been growing his new york jiu jitsu studio nicely and seeing him do exciting things as he is letting me crash over his place the past couple nights

Later on yesterday I went to visit my friend Dave at a new bar he is involved with on west 40th street called Sky Bar – he is marketing director there as well as working on a new nightclub management system. I’ve known him a few years and he is doing well, also has a lot of various business opportunities on his mind.

Checking into foursquare.com my friend Christina Lascalea contacted me yesterday afternoon and we met up for drinks at B-Bar on bowery and 4th. She is doing well, used to work at MTV but now doing more independent PR. Getting ideas of changes in her and her friends, weddings, moving, new people working coming from her home state of Texas. I was very passionately showing / selling my internet marketing (SEO) skills to her and her friend Amanda Grace explaining the convergence of internet marketing and social media. She is interested for the bands that she does PR for.  I just love it!

Just a long, exhausting day yesterday, brain on overload. I just love the hustle, crashed over Josh’s place in cooper union again and woke up 7am again – jeez only about 5 hours of sleep – but excitement and maybe jet-lag wouldn’t let me go back to sleep.
Working hard on emails and appointment setting in the morning – able to grab my favorite New York breakfast – bacon,egg, and cheese on a roll with a tall black coffee – just inspiring me to work hard, think faster, FOCUS to achieve the goals.

Took a trip downtown to Wall Street…..felt like a few years ago commuting to the office at Deutsche Bank. Walked up the subway stairs onto broadway and wall street – past the NY stock exchange and into 60 Wall street NY headquarters of Deutsche Bank. Still love the trading floor atmosphere – saw my good friends Brian Sharkey, Justin Ramos and some others from the trading floor of distressed debt and high yield. Some new faces, and some old faces gone, but it looked pretty much the same as I had left it back in march 2007. Still, it’s a great job and career – but not one I could live with.

And just this afternoon headed up to upper east side, met my good friend Sean Murph from murphguide.com talking about business and cross promotion opportunities. He is moving along well, advertising for lots of bars in new york. I am just looking and considering strategic alliances – I need more USA representation as I’m all Asia based at the moment!

Heading to Chinatown for a Filipino / Chinese wedding – haah, back in USA for 3 days and I’m going to Chinatown for a Chinese wedding…

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Online Sales, All the Time

I have always loved the hustle.  That’s what attracted me to Wall Street, to New York.  To China. to wholesale markets.  Life is going faster then ever….I’m running between 4 or 5 countries in a couple months.  Have alliances, offices throughout China (shanghai, fujian, shenzhen), Philippines, USA.  I’m getting phone calls from India, speaking bad chinese to phone call salesman.

Blood is flowing.  Making things work.  Deadlines approach.

I remember many times hearing “How is Mike gonna get outta this one this time”?

Locked out of an office, phone battery dead.  Supplier withholding product.  Customer Service Manager out on holiday unreachable.  Customer not providing delivery address and shipping courier is in your face pushing you to fill out the customs paperwork.

So many times I complain, but its the game. Its the hustle.  Having people approach me with their new product or service idea.  Someone coming to me as a resource, connecting them to the right person.  Helping someone get a job (been doing a ton of that lately).

How to monetize this, or is it all long term, relationship building.  That will come back tenfold.

I do have my core businesses selling bar products online and doing some internet marketing consulting.  But I get friends coming to me about a new product, where to get CAD.  Where to get rapid prototyping.  Black box manufacturing.  Its taken years of getting my ass kicked, on the ground, as the man in the arena in the warzone on the forefront of business…..

Then I go back to the “jack of all trades, master of none”, and focus focus focus!  But isn’t social media sales and marketing a focus?  The topic of what is sold or marketed becomes less important as the actual marketing and sales function.

Then there is PERSONAL BRANDING thats being thrown around everywhere.  People want to do business with people, not companies.  And facebook, twitter, blogs are not about being some corporate monster conglomorate, but an APPROACHABLE, friendly, knowledgeable source for others to come to.

I mean, i’m focusing around:

MAIN LOCATIONS: China, USA, Philippines

SERVICES: internet marketing, ecommerce, product development, (international trade and merchant payments)

PRODUCTS: More on the home decor, bar, and gift / novelty sector instead of electronics.

Just building up critical mass, online.  Sources, and people who want to access those sources.  And its value add is these people both trust my judgement……I’ve made some mistakes connecting wrong people, but I keep on tweaking it on both sides.

I have just become so passionate about interacting with people online, and turning online relationships into business and real life meetings!  I think it started when i was traveling and in order to stay in touch I decided to blog it online for those who wanted to keep up.  And my love for the internet kept growing, and finding more people, and that is where I’m finding my niche.

Is it a JOB, or is it a BUSINESS?  Networking.

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I am going to go through a few I can remember

1) Freshman year of high school – running for class president – As in previous posts, I reluctantly went to a small catholic high school rather then the public school all my friends went to.  It was to my parent’s request, as they thought it was OK to go to inner city public school for K-8 (elementary) but in high school, I would magically become some drug dealer or con-artist….so i went to a catholic school about 20 minutes drive from my home.  I knew nobody!  But the first couple weeks, there was upcoming class president elections, and I wanted to run for it.

I remember the people in my homeroom (morning room where they take attendance) telling me, “no one knows who you are, you’re gonna lose”, or “Lindsay [I think that was her name] is the most popular girl in our class, and her big brother is also popular, she’s definitely going to win, you are stupid to try”.  And it would carry on like this in between classes and in the cafeteria.  But I still ran, I still did my speech, printed my posters to hang up on the walls.  I found some allies who helped promote me.

You know what?  An EXACT TIE for freshman class president, the teachers couldn’t believe it.  They counted it over and over, but an exact 50/50 ties.  So her and I were co-presidents that year.  And the funniest thing of all, was her family moved away half way through the year and I became full class president.

I ran every year, and won every year.  There were some years people would write slanderous remarks on my posters, calling me names, or making jokes.  Sure, it annoyed me, but I kept going on, and I kept winning each year’s elections.

LESSON – I guess my feeling from that is, sure there will always be some people who don’t like you, and want to see you lose, but as long as there are more people that support

2) I was working at Price Rite grocery store in high school, and a coworker in my department, Derric, had a crush on a cashier, Tonya. I had no interest in her at all, but she was attracted to me.  He was heavily pursuing her, and some kind of gossip got around about a he-said she-said story and Derric ran up into my face in the back of the grocery store.  He wanted to fight me, right there, right now – in the FREEZER room….I tell him to calm down and let me talk, but he runs full on at me.  So what do I do?  I walk out of his path and push him head first into the freezer wall.  I used his energy against him and knocked some sense into him.  Luckily I avoided him from crashing into the external electricity outlet, which was really close to his head when he crashed.  But really…..he put ALL HIS RAGE and negative energy towards me, and I didn’t have to do much more then move out of his way quickly.  Used his energy against him.  Finally he realized what the real situation and story was with this crazy girl, and we were good friends soon again.  Saw him off for his time served with the US Navy.

Lesson learned, if you have some enraged guy running at you not listening, get out of his way!

3) Negative comments on this blog!  I think it has only been 1 person, with 2 different aliases, but it is starting to get a little annoying.  I wonder what it takes for a person to put enough time and energy to pass negative feeling to another. What is the purpose, the goal, the feeling this person has in mind?  Sure, I can filter and delete these people’s comments….but it just blows my mind that people spend time doing this in the first place!  BUT IT MOTIVATES ME!  It pushes me to be smarter, faster, stronger – both personally and professionally.  And I cannot be everyone’s friend.  no matter how hard I try, there will always be someone who doesn’t agree with my perspective or views, and the stronger I become one way or another in life, the stronger friends…..and….people who don’t.

Lesson learned – you can’t be everyone’s friend.  And you can’t please everyone, or else you will please no one!

But you know what……I think it is motivating to me – to have people pushing me.  To prove them WRONG.  I think that is what inspires many people, those who doubt us, is what keeps us fighting to get to the top!

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I never liked to be a big pressure sales guy, I like to have people who are looking for a solution come to me.  That is why I LOVE THE INTERNET.  Because it is inbound marketing rather than pushing sales.  I do have a more commercial site on WWW.michaelmichelini.com that I call my “office” here on the menu bar, but seems it is not enough to make it obvious to people that is where they can learn about my professional experiences.

I did have some stupid “google ads” on this blog years ago, but it made no money, and didn’t really make a good impression to people coming on the blog, like I’m just writing this blog to get some PPC income from visitors.

The reason I blog here is to share my experiences, and its my “online journal” – since I have always kept a journal since early in high school, I thought rather then carrying a heavy paper journal around with me on my travels, I would keep it digital and online.

So these “banner ads” are simply displaying the businesses I am involved with for those of you curious enough.  I’ll add and remove, since I realize how many different “businesses” I am involved with.  I LOVE startups.  Its my passion, and business is so integrated into my life….why not integrate the business I am involved with into my personal blog to.

Its all about today’s explosion of SOCIAL MEDIA, and dealing with PEOPLE rather then BUSINESSES.  I used to be scared to connect my personal life to my business life.  I used to hide my name on newyorkbarstore.com – I remember all of us in the business wanted to hide our personal names from the website – maybe for 1 it would make it seem to small and for 2 maybe there would get some crazy stalker.

But seems today’s internet world, everyone is connecting their personal “brand” to their business brand, and I may as well do it here on the blog.

So enough for the JUSTIFICATION and explanation, there’s just gonna be a few small square banners on the right navigation bar now, so deal with it 

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