Mr. Hong Kong
To be fair, I did meet Mr. Hong Kong a few days later in Malaysia. Mr. Hong Kong (a 42 year old British chap) was playing with his three year old daughter and my four year old son in the hotel swimming pool.
He moved to Hong Kong from the UK ten years ago and set up a company selling car insurance. His company is now the largest in Hong Kong employing 130 people, “The Direct Line of Hong Kong” as he called it.
We spoke mostly about Hong Kong and China. Like Singapore, Hong Kong is growing and he told me with a 16% maximum tax rate is a great place to live.
Mr. Hong Kong made a comment that really interested me. “China is not good at creating and developing products. They manufacturer an idea created from somewhere else in the world.” It was exactly the same when I had my interest in “In The Bag Limited”. Product designs were created in the UK and sent to China where they sourced the materials and made up the samples, finally manufacturing the product.
The second point Mr. Hong Kong made was that Chinese companies (or at least some of them) will then take your product and speak to your UK customer directly undercutting you on price. This follows the theme that I have heard where Chinese companies will take a product designed in the UK and then sell it to other international markets.
Hence, there are numerous opportunities for the British entrepreneur in China. There will be products in existence that have been tried and tested. You do not need to create a new product, just take an existing one and tweak it.
For me, it is time to get ready for a little trip over to the land of the rising sun.
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