Comments on: the first draft (and subsequent questions) http://blogs.globeservebusiness.com/china/2007/07/17/the-first-draft-and-subsequent-questions/ Developing a Business as Mission company to reach China Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:09:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Tres http://blogs.globeservebusiness.com/china/2007/07/17/the-first-draft-and-subsequent-questions/#comment-10 Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:16:22 +0000 http://blogs.globeservebusiness.com/china/2007/07/17/the-first-draft-and-subsequent-questions/#comment-10 Hmmm, location has been a key issue for us as well. When it comes to establishing a financially viable training center one of the lessons I've borne out from our successes and failures is that its often best to shoot for the middle, as in a mid-size Chinese city. This is especially true if, like us, one of your biggest competitive advantages is foreign native speakers. In the giant, wealthy cities Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin etc., there are already bunches of foreigners, foreign teachers and language centers. This seriously erodes that competitive advantage and unless you're planning a very large scale operation with a big-time advertising budget, or planning on entering into a partnership with local Chinese university it would be hard to enter that market successfully. Fortunately there are a bunch of mid-size cities in China. These cities have millions of people, bunches of professionals in all fields, and a huge demand for language training. These cities are growing in wealth and population they don't (yet) have a saturation of training centers and native speakers are relatively few and in very high demand. This market is much easier to enter. Look at the three or four top cities in a few Chinese provinces in terms of wealth and population. In the wealthiest provinces maybe the top city has already been oversaturated. In the poorer ones maybe only the top one is viable. Another thing to consider is that each local government has different rules for setting up and running a business and these are often more complex for foreigners. I won't pretend to understand the laws of my city but they've caused us headaches and this is a must to check out. Hopefully the contacts you're building know people on the ground that can help you with that. Incidentally, this is where having a Chinese business partner like a university can sometimes make things easier. Hope this helps. Blessings. -Tres Hmmm, location has been a key issue for us as well. When it comes to establishing a financially viable training center one of the lessons I’ve borne out from our successes and failures is that its often best to shoot for the middle, as in a mid-size Chinese city.
This is especially true if, like us, one of your biggest competitive advantages is foreign native speakers. In the giant, wealthy cities Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin etc., there are already bunches of foreigners, foreign teachers and language centers. This seriously erodes that competitive advantage and unless you’re planning a very large scale operation with a big-time advertising budget, or planning on entering into a partnership with local Chinese university it would be hard to enter that market successfully.
Fortunately there are a bunch of mid-size cities in China. These cities have millions of people, bunches of professionals in all fields, and a huge demand for language training. These cities are growing in wealth and population they don’t (yet) have a saturation of training centers and native speakers are relatively few and in very high demand. This market is much easier to enter.
Look at the three or four top cities in a few Chinese provinces in terms of wealth and population. In the wealthiest provinces maybe the top city has already been oversaturated. In the poorer ones maybe only the top one is viable.
Another thing to consider is that each local government has different rules for setting up and running a business and these are often more complex for foreigners. I won’t pretend to understand the laws of my city but they’ve caused us headaches and this is a must to check out. Hopefully the contacts you’re building know people on the ground that can help you with that. Incidentally, this is where having a Chinese business partner like a university can sometimes make things easier.
Hope this helps. Blessings.

-Tres

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