hello my name is Gary Shotton and I’m here as a part of inspiring better business and today I’m going to talk about the subject of made-in-china now a lot of our lessons are a little bit geared to the African audience the East African audience but they apply to anybody and everyone and this is a lesson that is being taught because something keeps reoccurring and that’s the realities that shops open up in Africa on a regular basis that are reselling what we would call wholesale from shipments that are coming from China and they’re actually quite low quality products and there’s a lot of these shops now all of us know that if we look inside the back of our shirts or on a tag of our shirts or on the package that will see that the products are labeled made in a certain country well again we’re not picking on China when we talk here we’re just saying that this is a great example of a lesson on what we need to look for when we’re starting a business so I’m going to ask the question or answer would should I start a business selling foreign-made Goods that’s the question and we’re going to try to look at both sides of the situation I’m not going to again be a critical of China because I have Chinese friends I’ve been to China several times they’re actually great people in fact from my point of view they’re pretty good business people and here’s where I’d say in the marketing and selling of goods they know who their target market is and when their target market is usually a Chinese owned company that’s shipping and distributing through a name-brand company in the u.s. believe me they have quality inspections and they have someone from the main company they’re making sure that the quality meets and matches and exceeds those expectations and that’s matching the customer with the demand they have when it’s made for America it’s made at a very high standard and I will tell you China can make anything and everything in my opinion that’s made anywhere else in the world so it’s not a question of the China he’s not being able to make something it’s a question of good business when they sell things to Africa they make them frankly very very cheaply they do not last very long well those are better in Africa know that already that’s what they get when they get something from Africa and so I’m going to talk about the situation that really we face that we have from many times someone says to me that they are opening a shop well they could be opening a shop selling local produce some bread some cakes but a lot of them are opening a shop that are selling plastic goods again made in China metal goods made in China toys made in China and I’m not just ragging on China but that’s the type type topic here and so when it comes to that a lot of times again I’ve kind of defended the Chinese because they can make whatever we want to buy now let’s talk about it from the African or the business owner standpoint a lot of times they bypassed all other logic in what would be normal to starting and owning your own business here’s the situation in my opinion many times that individual is desperate in some way desperate to get something going there’s no job and there’s a very low or there’s very low pay in that job so if they’re desperate they’re liable to do something that’s not actually best for them and then comes this opportunity the opportunities presented to them to open a shop with goods made in a foreign land and they’re then entering into a low cost shop with low quality typically and the big problem is there could be 10 other shops in the same square mile doing exactly the same thing so the cost of entry is low but the chances of making a profit are extremely difficult and I have no real answer for that because it’s bypassed all of the the care crack criteria that we think would be good in starting a business so let’s go over those and this happened because a shop owner just last week last Saturday asked me how can I make profit in my shop and I asked what kind of shop is it and they told me this is the gentleman a good man I’m selling ladies dresses oh that’s interesting and where are you getting the dresses well I’m getting as they said wholesale from a wholesaler well where does the wholesaler to get it low quality from China and I said I’ll bet you it’s hard to make a sale yes it is I bet it’s hard to make a profit yes it is and to be honest I have very little to offer you that can make that work because the things we would like you to look at is look at something that’s very passionate that you’re passionate about I doubt and he said he was not passionate about selling ladies clothes he had that so farthest things from his mind and then he would sell on quality you need to find something that you’re confident of that you have a quality a product that you can sell if you’re high buying it from a wholesaler and it’s from any foreign country you would have to have assurance that the quality is going to be consistent I’m just reviewing a few things that we teach all the time and then you need to identify your customer and you need to move away from that customer that’s just cost lowest cost provider lowest cost provider move away from that customer and move into somebody that values quality and in every single business in my opinion there is an opportunity to find something if you’re selling I’ll use this before with another person if they’re selling children’s shoes I ask the question there are there cobblers or anyone in your area that makes shoes yes but they’re going to be more expensive I know that they’re going to be more expensive than the shoes that last only four or five months that’s all the length of time that these foreign shoes last but if you sell a quality shoe to a customer that’s knowing and can understand that a pair of shoes could last not just three or four months they could last three or four kids they could grow outside those kids and the next kids could hand it and then you understand so we’ve got to think differently don’t jump on something just because it’s easy don’t jumps on something just because you think that you can now quote be in business go through the lessons we’re teaching and listen closely and find out what really fits you well I hope this helps again if you’re not from Africa please bear with me it does apply in almost every developing nation and it will deploy all so I’ll just say locally in the United States sometimes people start owning a business for the most unusual reasons and those businesses do not fit their passion that’s what we would call the sixth sense when you’re passionate about something you’re almost working extra to be sure things are right but if it’s just like just a job then it’s not going to be quite as good well thanks for being a part of inspiring better business hope these are valuable Up next