Tips for overseas trip to find suppliers

My DH & I are seriously considering going o/s to source suppliers. We are investigating China, India, & Bali. My interest lies in children's apparel while my DH's interest is in anything that will make some money. Just wanting to hear from anyone else that has had any experience with doing these buying trips and what pitfalls to look out for.

TIA
Cam

The only tip I can give you is to make sure you know someone from that area that is familiar with the language and the people. Someone that is streetsmart and has a business background. This way you can avoid being scammed. Someone from that area should be well aware of scams and ploys that scammers use in those locations.

Read up on buiness customs in those countries before you go. This will make a big difference to your success there. For example, in China, personal connections or guanxi (pronounced GWAN-shee) are highly valued. Your contacts will expect to develop a friendship with you, as trust is considered a very important part of forming a business relationship.

And a few other tips:

In China, saving face is considered very important– thus you may find it difficult to get a straight answer about any problems unless you ask repeatedly. Chinese like to maintain a good personal relationship at all costs, which can be a bit frustrating if you don't understand what is going on.

And lastly, it's considered polite to make small talk first before getting down to business.

I have never been of the content , how ever I have heard that men should be ready to go out every night and drink huge amounts of booze, the more you can drink the more you will be respected.
-China is a cash only country
-Cab drivers don't know English (normaly)
-You will need a Chines name
-Time your trip for a trade show
Hope that helps
Adam

Thanks for your replies. We should have a few contacts through family connections, still trying to decide what to do.

My best advice would be to go to some of the chinese trade-shows held on the mainland. Here you will find the legit companies and suppliers. You can probably do a google search and turn up when these shows are going...In addition you will be able to get tickets and accomadations right next to the show area and too they will have english speaking reps at the trade shows whereas you will kind of be on your own if you just take a peice meal trip over in search of suppliers.....Also you might want to visit some websites such as global B2B and some of the other B2b sites as they normally will have the trade show dates listed in the 'new' section located somewhere on the site.

Visit this site: Link hidden: Login to view

It will have information on the : '7th International China Consumer Goods Fair'.

I think there are 2 fairs,, one in Ningbo and the other in Shanghi..

More shows and some have packages that will take you around to the factories:
Link hidden: Login to view (china's supreme trade show)
Link hidden: Login to view (a list of all of china trade shows and contact info)

Have fun....