Is your company doing business in China?  Are you thinking about entering the Chinese market?  If so, please read these tips to produce results.

1. Focus on products that have high labor content value. Products whose selling price is dominated by raw material costs (corrugated stock, sheet metal, bulk wire, chemical feedstock, etc.) aren’t likely to cost less in China than they do at home. Instead, focus your procurement efforts on value added products that require multiple steps to manufacture and package.
2. Get terms. Credit terms use to favor the vendor abroad but times are changing. It’s time to push back. Customers with long-term trading relationships should ask for a minimum of net 30 day terms. Remember that net 30 is still the equivalent of prepayment when you factor in ocean shipping times.
3. Deal directly with your vendors. Forget working with agents, brokers and trading companies that markup your cost and don’t offer real value.
4. Negotiate the price in RMB. Small and mid-size North American companies now have access to foreign exchange banks and can arrange for direct payments in RMB. Paying your vendor in yuan takes currency variation out of his court and makes you a more attractive customer.
5. Know your vendor! Pick up the phone, visit, make a plan to reach out and establish a direct relationship.

What you pack depends on where you’re traveling.  For instance, many churches in Europe and South America frown upon visitors wearing shorts and/or low-cut, halter-neck or midriff-baring tops.

In many areas of the Middle East it’s not a “must” to cover up, but it is respectful to the local culture.  Conservative attire that helps you blend in is always appropriate.

Malay & Tagalog Words
ketchup:from kicap, meaning “fish sauce”
launch:a type of boat
orangutan:from orang, meaning “man” and hutan, “wilderness, jungle”

Tagalog (northern Philippines)
boondocks:from bundok, meaning “mountain.” During the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the word was adopted by American soldiers, who used it to refer to any far-off or wild place. Later it passed into the general vocabulary.

futon: a type of mattress.
geisha: from gei, meaning “art” and sha, “person.”
honcho: from a word meaning “squad leader.”
kamikaze: is translated literally as “divine wind,” from the name of a typhoon that saved Japan by destroying the Mongol navy in 1281.
karaoke: from kara, meaning “void, empty” and oke(sutora), meaning “orchestra.” In a case of reverse borrowing, the Japanese word okesutora came from the English word orchestra.
karate: from words meaning “empty hand.”
tsunami: meaning a “large ocean wave.”
tycoon: from taikun, meaning “great prince.” Used as a title, the word was originally borrowed into Japanese from Chinese. It was brought to the U.S. after Matthew Perry’s visit to Japan in 1853 and 1854. Members of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet used it as an affectionate nickname for the president. Later it was applied to business magnates such as J. P. Morgan.

Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)

chop suey – from a word meaning “miscellaneous bits.”
chow – related to chop in chop suey, from a word meaning “food, miscellany.”
kumquat – a small citrus fruit.
typhoon – from the words for “great wind.”
yen – meaning a “yearning” or “strong desire.”

Mandarin (Beijing, China; official national standard)

gung ho – a motto used by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, from words meaning “work together.” It was picked up by U.S. Marines during World War II.

kow-tow – from words meaning “to knock [one's] head.”