Russell Smith of RS Marketing

This is exciting as we now introduce our third member in our Global From Asia series! Ladies and gents, I present to you, Russell Smith of RS Marketing and Living Leaf Tea.

Russell wanted to build a business that could be run from anywhere, and when doing eBay sales, he didn’t feel entirely comfortable dealing with physical products, shipping and other issues. So, he started learning online marketing skills like copywriting, content marketing and web design. He found being in China and having manufacturer connections provided a unique position along with having web design skills to offer. He also mentioned that his manufacturing friends were all in need of websites, so the demand was really high. That’s when he started his company. From there, he has expanded his services to include Western clients and startups, which he really enjoys.

He’s really looking to both grow and streamline his business. He plans to develop a managed hosting package for his clients and to build up monthly recurring revenue. He also hopes to specialize in some professional areas, to offer specialized marketing services to those niches, though the company is not quite there yet. As for a specific vision, he said the sky’s the limit and he will just have to see what opportunities will come up when the company is bigger and more stable.

He also mentioned that It was more a case of circumstance for choosing China for business. He came to China first to learn Chinese and teach English. Those were a great few years for him, but he wanted something more. He started with the eBay project and things evolved from there.

When we asked Russell about his challenges, he said they were mostly cultural and communication differences. Chinese clients’ expectations of their contractors and employees are very different than what he expected back home. It’s a really big challenge for both sides, so he’s constantly working on improving communication, and finding ways of working together is really important. He also found some challenges setting up the legal / financial side of things, specifically getting paid and paying taxes.

When we asked, if he could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out, He stated this: “If someone is just getting started out in business in general, I would tell them to take action as soon as possible. Yes, it’s good to study and learn (and you definitely should!) but there’s a lot of true learning that happens when you start doing things (whether that’s winning or losing) and you will start to gain momentum earlier, which results in higher chance of ‘serendipitous’ or ‘lucky’ things coming your way. In a nutshell, get from ‘I’m planning to do…’ to ‘I do…’ as fast as possible.

Before we end this week’s series, we asked Russell if he could give us a feedback about Global From Asia and what we can improve to better serve our members. He said:

“I used Mike’s consulting services to set up my Hong Kong Limited company, which is now my setup for tax purposes. GFAVIP offers great value there for anyone setting up in Asia; I and several friends have benefitted from his services. I always have a ton of questions and Mike always seems to know the answers. His book Hong Kong Supercharged is a goldmine of information for anyone looking to set up in Hong Kong – highly recommended.”