Last week's blog: Chinese Manufacturing Best Practices was one of the most popular of my recent blogs.

Would you like to know a bit more about this topic? I thought so.

This week, I decided to continue the conversation by addressing 3 keys to importing your product.

I imported for over 8 years and during that time, I made many mistakes, but I also learned a lot. My goal is to pass on information to you to help shorten your learning curve – and to help you avoid the pitfalls I encountered. Sound good?

Read on.

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Click on the blue button below now to grab your FREE copy of – Chinese Importing Resources – cheat sheet now.

You'll learn some good tips and tricks and resources.

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Key #1 – Assemble Your Team

You cannot import a product from China (or anywhere, for that matter) without a team to assist you.

But, it is not as difficult to do if you assemble a good team that consists of three key members:

  1. Your key contact at the factory
  2. Your freight forwarder
  3. Your U.S. Customs broker

These team members work hand-in-glove to get your product manufactured (the factory contact), then freighted to the nearest Chinese port (freight forwarder), then loaded on a U.S. bound ship (freight forwarder and U.S. Customs broker). Finally, once it arrives in the U.S. (often Port of Long Beach, CA) to have it offloaded then freighted via truck to your city for final delivery (freight forwarder). 

Sounds simple, right?

Okay, it's not that simple, but with a good team of 3, it really does work pretty well. The process is the same every time you import. Due diligence is advised, but there are many good freight forwarders, as well as good U.S. Customs brokers you can work with. If you would like to get my recommendations, just read the free Chinese Importing Resources – cheat sheet.

Key #2: Trust, but Verify Your Manufacturer

Whenever you work with a factory, it is a challenge getting through the initial logistics of getting a prototype sent to the factory, then working with them to get a final product created that you can then have packaged and manufactured in large quantities. Then, the hard work is over, right? All you have to do going forward is simply to order the quantities you need, pay them, and all is good.

Well, it isn't quite that simple.

I worked with the same reputable factory in China for over 8 years. My product was a wallet that had series of plastic card-holding pages. The factory manufactured the leather wallet, but a third party provided them with the plastic inserts that held credit cards and IDs for customers.

At one point, I received a large shipment of plastic replacement inserts (much like a small photo album in appearance) – I think several thousand. Only weeks after I began supplying them to customers did I discover, they all had an unexpected weakness or flaw, such that the inserts would tear loose, causing people to lose all of their cards! This cost me a lot of money and several key customers as well.

The solution is to have someone as a product auditor – who will go to the factory and spot check a good sample of your product – before it is shipped to you to ensure the quality meets all of your requirements. There are quite a few companies in China who will provide such product quality audits for you for a reasonable fee. This can save you a lot of headaches.

Key #3: Create a Shipping Logistics Spreadsheet

Every business has predictable, repeatable processes – right? This is definitely true with importing your product. 

For my first shipment, I was learning the ropes and sort of winging it – okay enough clichés!

But, I discovered that, from start to finish, from the moment I finalized an order for shipmen to when I actually received that freight in my city – the duration was very close to 3 months long.

For my situation, here were the key pieces of the puzzle:

  • Factory receives my order, then completes it – ready to ship out to Hong Kong – 2 months
  • Freight forwarder gets it from the factory to Hong Kong – 1 week
  • Ocean freight from Hong Kong to Port of Long Beach, CA – 2 weeks
  • Freight forwarder gets the freight unloaded from the ship and sent via truck to me in Dallas, TX – 1 week

I further broke down each of the elements into more detail, for example, ships sailed from Hong Kong to Long Beach weekly, departing on Sundays. This means, it was important that the freight from the factory be at the Port of Hong Kong by Friday morning to allow sufficient time for approval and loading of the freight before the ship would sail on Sunday. 

So, I simply created a shipping logistics spreadsheet that I used for every shipment of my product. All I had to do was plug in the start date and I would have each of the key dates all set up. This certainly simplified the process for me. 

I hope you enjoyed this information.

Stay tuned!

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Want to learn more keys to importing your product?

Click on the blue button below now to grab your FREE copy of – Chinese Importing Resources – cheat sheet now.

You'll learn some good tips and tricks and resources.

Want to attend a FREE live, interactive webinar all about licensing?

Learn why licensing is actually more lucrative than venturing your product.

Click on the orange button below to attend the next FREE – License Your Invention for Royalties – webinar.