China - A Chilling Tale!
And so to the final part of my trilogy “Peter” a tale of chilling deception and disappointment in China.
Peter, one the three entrepreneurs featured in Channel 4’s “Brits get rich in China” was unique in that he was hoping to export to China rather than import their cheap goods back to the West. Now I am not ageist, far from it; retirement now-a-days with recent age discrimination legislation can mean any age…. however Peter who had the bulk of his working life behind rather than ahead of him was choosing to risk his life savings and his pension on a small gadget he had invented which cut the electricity consumption of air conditioning units.
As Peter stood in in a busy street in Hong Kong you could see why he was so inspired… above him stretching upwards for 100 floors were 1000s of air conditioning units all greedily consuming electricity. He could almost count the size of his market, and as the camera’s pointed skywards and Peter looked warmly up to his intended customers the future did indeed look promising for him.
However it was not to be, and in the end Peter’s tale was one of chilling loss rather than heart-warming gain. He found as so many entrepreneurs do, that getting a new product to market is the hardest part of product innovation. Peter just couldn’t break into the market, the invention was too new, untried, untested and ultimately not trusted. As his savings dwindled away, Peter linked up with a Chinese partner also untried, untested and ultimately untrustworthy! This “partner” promised the earth and once he had Peter’s invention in his possession, he disappeared with it. Was his design copied? was it stolen? was it a success? we will never know.
The lessons are clear here, choose a market that is interested in energy conservation! China with its appalling record of fossil fuelled energy and pollution was never going to be the right platform to launch a product that would help save the planet. If Hong Kong is interested in saving a little electricity they could start by turning out a few lights! The business model was flawed from the start even if the product was not. Never assume that because you can “see” a market that it actually exists. Marketing has its roots in understanding who your customer is and what they need & more importantly want. Many entrepreneurs never look beyond their own need to make a lot of money and never get as far as considering that the business should be based on what their customer’s want! The golden rule is this: you are in business for your customers… not for yourself and understanding that simple principle could have saved Peter from financial meltdown.
At Business Link we can assist in all sorts of ways to help you explore whether a home or export market exists before you risk all you own. Telephone our information centre and ask to speak with an advisor. …with us you are guaranteed a warm reception, and lets face it…its what we are in business for - not for ourselves but for our customers!
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