Choosing a Product Category For Your Import, Export Business in China with Deepak Madnani

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Thank you everyone for tuning in – I am so excited to announce I have released the book Hong Kong Business Supercharged – almost 8 years doing business in Asia, 1 year of doing these podcasts, 4 months writing it, and have prepared a nice sales page on globalfromasia.com/hksuper to check out- there are 3 packages to choose from for various budgets and needs. Kept my word getting it out by November 1st and had to spend the last couple days building up to it full time on preparing – but it feels so amazing that it is on the market and already getting good feedback from people, so please check it out and let me know what you think!

OK no onto this week’s show – we have Deepak Madnani, a true global businessman who has traveled and lived around the world but keeps coming back to his base of Hong Kong, where he is focusing on his global furniture brand and also a pretty awesome coworking and startup academy space called Paperclip HK. He has tons of experience in import / export and will share how he got into the furniture and educational supply industries. I thought this was a good topic because I know tons of entrepreneurs who just pick a product randomly or don’t focus on a product category at all (I made that mistake all too often). So hope this helps those in that situation, let’s listen in!

Topics Covered in this Episode

• Intro Deepak Madnani – Deepak was born in Hong Kong and was educated in HK, Switzerland and the US. He was honored this year as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (weforum.org/node/128116) and also serves as an advisor to WillowTree Impact Investors (willowimpact.com). He manages companies in design, manufacturing and China supply chain management for retailers globally, focusing on educational products and furniture. He has worked in China, Chile, Dubai, India, Poland and the Czech Republic. His prior experiences include venture capital and technology startups. His interests in sustainability led to the creation of sustasia.com and founding the Alliance of a Beautiful Hong Kong (abhk.com).
• How Deepak got started in China / Asia trading business
• Why Hong Kong
• Furniture business / manufacturing
• How you choose your first product category?
• How to develop your product skill set and organization?
• Paperclip Coworking and training academy
• Also investor?
• Tips for hiring Chinese staff around China
• Tips for business people setting up in Hong Kong
• How to get in touch, contacting Deepak – linkedin?

People / Companies / Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Mike’s book – Hong Kong Business Supercharged
• Deepak’s Coworking and Startup Campus Papercliphk
• His supply chain management business – Deepgreen
• Buys from factories in Qingdao, Zhejiang, Guangdong
• Stationary products more than education products
• Entrepreneurial ADD
• Supply Chain Management – getting the right product for the quality standards you want
• Li and Fung trading
• Ikea
• Kickstarter
• Internet of Things
• Alibaba
• Spend time with your customers, walk through the trade fairs, look at their shops, spend time at the factories
• Key point is be a problem solver
• Entrepreneur journey is an 8 year history, an MBA
• Deepak’s fund / JV division – Yamei
• TIE entrepreneurship mentor program
• Yahoo remote worker call back
• marks and spencers
• Deepak’s email deepak.m @papercliphk.com
• Deepak Madnani on Linkedin

Episode Length 30:57

Thanks so much Deepak for coming on the show – he and I had a lot of fun in that one and I learned a bit more and was motivated as well. I think we need to get Deepak back on the show – be sure to take him up on his offer for the free 2 day pass at Paperclip HK coworking, it is a nice comfortable workspace in Sheung Wan (next to central district, walking distance) so when you’re coming through from overseas stop by and say hi to Deepak for me! Also I have had people message me if it OK to reach out to these people we interview – PLEASE do – I love it when you guys thank them for coming on the show and sharing. Til next time guys, enjoy the rest of your week!

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