Overdue and slow payments are a significant challenge.

You have to find a way to secure your payment when you deal in local currency. If you deal in local currency you can not open an L/C so there is no way to you secure payment if customers will not accept 100% prepayment. I do not have a better answer to this problem than trying to ask for as much prepayment as possible.

The key to holding on to good people in China is to treat them with respect. Give them good working conditions. Give them responsibility and trust. The same things that work anywhere else will work here. Many managers come to China and try to run their office by fear. They create fear by firing 10% of the staff each year. They are proud of this. I say this is complete crap. But I think there are quite a lot of people doing this. It’s quite common with local companies, and I think that some foreign managers think that this is the norm in China.

Chinese don’t like taking responsibility for making decisions. They like to pass it on and let the leaders make the decision. People in Denmark are much more independent. I delegate as much to my staff as I possibly can, and let them take it as their own responsibility. At first they don’t like it much, but over time they learn to handle it and really appreciate the responsibility. Explain to them why they have to take responsibility on their own and being in charge of something. They’re not accustomed to this way, but once they get used to it they love it. We’ve definitely seen great results in a fairly short amount of time.

The most important thing is to get the right people.

Good, hardworking, motivated people.
This is absolutely your # 1 priority in China – without this you’ll get nowhere. I judge people by their personality, educational background, and the ability to communicate. I do pay attention to what school they went to, because in our sector that is the first question clients ask. It’s because we are in such a technically demanding and specialized area. Experience is important, but very hard to find. We’re too specialized to find a lot of salesmen with good experience. Everyone in this industry is always trying to hire the same group of experienced people.

Full support from your HQ overseas.

They have to fully back you in terms of resources, attention, and time commitment. They have to realize that China is a long term investment and is not about quick profits. If you are on a strict timetable, you might lose everything here.

Learn from those who came before.

Do your due diligence before you make a decision about investing here. Try to go around and talk to as many people who have been through the same process so you can learn from their experience. Local chambers of commerce and trade groups can put you in touch with a lot of people who are willing to share their experience. There is no reason to make the same mistakes as others have. Talk to other ex-pats who have been through the same thing before. Then you can relate to one another and understand one another. As a newcomer, information is your top priority, but there isn’t enough time to do research and learn all about the China market. This is a fast way to gain a lot of information quickly. Listen and learn.