When is doing business in China a dream that will never be realized and when is it a perfectly rational reality that can work on a very financially viable level? Is the answer as easy as hard work and perseverance? I think so. Well, mostly. I have found one more trait a little hard to come by at times, at least for myself: focus.
The majority of entrepreneurs I see in China seem to approach their business one of two ways. One, just open the default small consulting business and do a little bit of everything that can be done to earn money. Or two, extreme focus on one business idea, even if that venture is not really profitable. Where is the happy middle ground?
Now, I say the majority of entrepreneurs fit in those two categories, but that is just from my experience in the less developed regions of Southwest China. I am sure there are hundreds of focused and prepared entrepreneurs hitting the streets of Shanghai and Beijing, at least, I sure hope they are more prepared than those here.
Especially with China's current lack of registration renewal of NGOs (or at least, smaller NGOs), many of these organizationally minded folks want to recalibrate their work into a business form to retain a visa and residence in China and keep up their work. Sometimes, that can work, but some fundamental, financial thinking may be missing, namely, learning to focus on the actions that make profit instead of those that have the common good as the focus, regardless of expense.
Many entrepreneurs are aiming at business in China with a shotgun focus. This is an excellent way to difuse any specialty upon which the business could have capitalized. Customers want to find a specialist in the field they seek to invest or work. They do not want some guy who, along with being a self-proclaimed business consultant in China, openly admits he can also do anything else that you might need done. Seek focus.
On the other side of things, many small business people have built up a dreamy, unprofitable business idea which is unlikely to work. Sure this is focused, but the natural balance of profitable focus is necessary.
Basically, a lot of well-intentioned foreigners are hitting the scenes in China's towns and cities, arming themselves with the necessary business consulting license, and only then stop to figure out how to answer Chinese when they ask what your business does. "Consulting...you know...business consulting." The blank looks are the first clue that more focus is needed.
This is a lesson I have to continually force myself to undergo. I keep coming up with new ideas, new start ups that I think would be profitable or just great fun. But if I spend all my time thinking through the dozens of new ideas, I am just wasting time and creativity which could be used to make my focus area all the better. Some advice I received is to write these ideas down on a piece of paper and file them for that time when the current business project is successful and the time has come to move to something new.
