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| Our coastal route visiting factoriesin China for Livliga |
Easily put, the life of a young company is an amazing
adventure. Much of it is the reality of “first time” experiences. There are
also decisions you have to make in context of this fledgling business that are
new to you. Up until now my careers have been about running service-oriented
companies. I knew nothing about manufacturing. Now with Livliga my husband and I are learning the
challenges of how to get quality products manufactured in another country, with
a different language and unfamiliar ways of operating.
Because we care passionately about helping people live
healthier lives, we have created dishware, serveware and glassware for adults
and children to
help make it easier to right size their balanced meals and feel full. These are
such original designs we have them patented. What this also means is that
manufacturing them requires partnering with factories to figure out how to get
them produced and in a repeatable manner so we can make larger and larger
quantities. Although we tried, it was not possible to have them made in
America; the factories do not exist.
Getting our LivSpoons
manufactured has been our biggest challenge so far. We were very naïve about
the challenges of getting such a complex design fabricated. We are now on our 6th
factory (not our choice but because of the management through our trading
company) and it has taken us the better part of 3 years to get a sample
produced in a way that it can be mass-produced. We finally realized, with
increasing encouragement from other entrepreneurs, we had to go to China to
work directly with the factories making our product. All along we had relied on
agents to help us, believing that with the language barrier we were better off
relying on them to translate, negotiate and navigate the challenges for us. It
became clear we were relying too heavily on them to solve the issues and we
were running out of time and money to get our product on line.
Once we decided to go, there wasn’t much time before we left,
since we had a window between tradeshows to go. In about 6 weeks time we got
our passports renewed, applied for visas, booked our flight, contacted the
three different factories producing our product, and figured out the route for
the visits. We planned to be there for a little over 2 weeks.
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| Official of Hainan Airlines with Sammie and Sax (photo by LivligaHome) |
It was an incredible trip, full of memorable moments. We
started out the trip by booking with Hainan Airlines through Seattle to
Shanghai. It turns out it was their inaugural flight out of Seattle. Prior to
boarding the flight, there were ceremonies, speeches, cake, Chinese music
played by a live ensemble and many officials from Hainan airlines, Seattle and
the airport. We all got inflatable neck pillows and postcards and codes for
future discounts. Since it was our inaugural trip to Mainland China, I thought
it would be memorable to have our children’s book Sammie
and Sax in the Land of Quinoa: The Search for a Balanced Meal
photographed with one of the Hainan Airlines officials. He agreed and we
promptly tweeted out the moment.
We visited China during the time of year when it is the
hottest and most humid. It reminded me of my summers in Kansas City growing up.
It meant packing light, and wearing light, drip dry clothes. I gave up curling
my hair after the first day and instead changed to pulling it back in a French
braid. Key lesson as an entrepreneur—adapt!
We traveled about 2000 miles along the coast of Southern
China. That is where all the factories are. It makes sense when you think about
it because they are near where the ships load to take the product to other
countries, like the USA. At one point we were at the South China Sea, 30 miles
away from Vietnam.
Here are highlights of what we learned about doing business
in China:
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| One of the machines used in fabricating our LivSpoons in one of the factories we visited (photo by LivligaHome) |
A factory means many
things. We found that a “factory” can be anything from a small garage to large
warehouse spaces with multiple buildings. We quickly learned that as a start up
with the volume of product we are ordering, we have no control over who is
really making our product. We may know the lead factory but there may end up
being any number of other factories doing a part of the fabricating. For
instance, for us there is the cutting of the raw metal, stamping of the bowl of
the spoon, then there is the bending of the handle, welding, polishing,
printing of the packaging, packing the product in the packaging, to name the
biggest steps involved. Each of these processes can represent a different
factory. This can present some unique challenges. If the welding is not done
well it makes polishing and finishing of the product unsatisfactory. Even the
cleanliness of a factory can have an impact on the quality of the finished
product. Quality control becomes a moving target. You have to rely on your main
factory to hold firm to the required set of standards.
It is more common to
tear apart a sample to create molds than to use 3D CAD drawings. As we
visited the factories we became more and more aware that the 3D CAD drawings we
had sent were not the reference point for the fabrication of our product.
Instead they used our samples as their guide. This meant that sometimes parts
of the design were missed…like the fact that the handles on our set of spoons
are each different. Lesson? Never assume.
When an issue arises
it is more likely they will solve it without asking for help or feedback.
We couldn’t figure out why as issues arose we were not looked to for discussion
and resolution. A great example was the engraving on the back of the spoons
with our logo and the designated sizes for each spoon. When we were at one
factory to oversee the etchings and to approve them we saw that the font we
selected looked off. With some probing we discovered that they could not open
the drawings for the etchings in the format we sent them in. Instead of asking
us for a different format the engraver ended up redrawing our logo and other
markings, spending much time to do so. We discovered that the reason this
happened is due to the need to “save face” in the Chinese culture. They would
rather find another solution rather than ask you for help. Asking for help is seen
as a sign of failure. Lesson? You need to probe and ask questions to make sure
your factory has what they need and in a way where that does not diminish them.
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| Rituaized meals are key to doing successful business in China (photo by LivligaHome). |
There is an important
ritual embedded in doing business. You remember Mad Men and the lore about the three-hour lunches? Well those
lunches still exist in China. It is actually a key part of doing business. It
is how relationships are built and the nuances of personalities and approaches
are figured out. Being busy Americans we have the tendency to want to truncate
this process. I wouldn’t recommend it. It is a great way to get to know with whom
you are working and have them get to know you. Since face time is brief when
you are on a business trip, the quickest way to get to know someone is actually
over a meal. In addition, part of the adventure is trying new foods and eating
with chopsticks (I am writing a whole other blog on our experience with food
and the Chinese cuisine…stay tuned).
Relationships are
still the key to building trust and long term partners for your business.
It is hard to get a sense of whom you are working with long distance,
particularly if you are working through agents. Understanding the people who
are working on your behalf is key to success. We have been learning this up
front and personal and the hard way. We have been so fortunate with our
relationships with the porcelain factory that has made our dishware. This has
not been the case with producing our LivSpoons. The difference? Our
relationship with our agents. It is better to get to know the people sooner
rather than later and see with your own eyes how things are being handled where
your product is being manufactured. We have lost a lot of time and money
relying on people we now understand we cannot rely on.
Regular trips to
China are a must. We have now learned our lesson. If you are a product
based company you have to invest in the relationships responsible for producing
your product. Period.
We so enjoyed being in China. We were wowed by the magnitude
and size of everything from the roads and buildings to the number of people. A
small town in China is considered one with 10 million people. In the cities we
visited it was clear there is a strong middle class. The economy seems to be
booming with lots of construction, busy malls and lots of “pop up” factories.
We found a great affinity with the people we had the privilege to meet who are
also working hard to make their businesses grow and succeed.
#Startup
#Travel
#Business
#China
#Smallbusiness
#Entrepreneur
#Livliga
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