Made in China Podcast: International Business | Crowdfunding | Entrepreneurship

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

In 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 the mindset from working for a company to starting a business

* Learning new skillsets, 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

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?

Rico 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

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

An 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