I got a visit from 2 representatives from Alibaba.com today. Alibaba is the biggest sourcing website for finding suppliers in China and Asia. Until now we had a free account there to promote our company and products to possible customers in Europe and USA. We get enquiries almost every day but having a free account has a big disadvantage: the number of products is limited to 50pcs only. A friend of mine got a Gold Membership last year but never activated it because of personal reasons and he offered me to take over his membership for free. That is a really generous offer because usually these memberships cost around 40,000 HKD (~ 4,000 EURO) per year. I promised him to send him a cheque if we find a lot more customers with this new account. 😉 So the guys from Alibaba came to check out my office and verify the business address. I will get the new Gold Member account within the next few days and I will be able to upload and promote as many products I have. Keeping my fingers crossed to find more potential wholesale customers for my business.
An old customer of us visited me today in my office. He is from Germany and wanted to see our current products. Last year in April he visited me for the first time, I wrote about it here. He was our first visitor visiting us at our new office. Today, he ordered some items we had in stock and we may be also helping him to make a new online shop and optimize it for Google. His current shop isn’t suitable for Google and Alan will be able to optimize it for him. Alan is really knowledgeable about Google Search Engine Optimization and a very skillfull programmer. Anyone interested in Search Engine Optimization SEO, please have a look at his website: SEO Expert
Today we got a suprise visit from France. A couple rang at our office door and introduced themselves as shopowners from France. I was surprised as I have never heard from them before and they didn’t even announce their visit with a phone call. We invited them in and they told me that they would like to buy my Tenshi Neko bags and wallets. I showed them some Tenshi Neko bags and Tenshi Neko wallets and explained our usual wholesale procedure. They left me their contact details so I can send them my wholesale catalogs.
They were really lucky to meet us because its Chinese New Year and therefore a public holiday. We decided to work today (we are so hard working) and catch up on some work. Lucky them 😉
The writer of the kawaii blog “Kawaii Gazette” was so kind and added our online shop to her link list. In return I would like to mention her blog here. Have a look: Kawaii Gazette
She writes a lot about kawaii items like Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma and other cute characters from Asia. But be aware, she writes in Italian 😉
Today we had a visit from a french company who is looking for new suppliers for their shops. It is really interesting to meet people from around the world. They are very interested in our skulls fashion items. Let’s see if they will place an oder with us.
I went to the Gifts & Premium Fair the first time today. We were just curious what they are offering there and hoped that we are lucky and find something interesting for our shop. The fair was huge; so many halls. Every time I go to a trade fair I come back home with burning feet and legs. It is SO exhausting. You don’t realize it while you are there because there are so many things to see so you are totally distracted. But after leaving the premises you suddenly realize how many kilometres you must have walked. High Heels are a No-NO, you just wouldn’t make it through countless aisles of booths.
I was really lucky this time as I met a Japanese guy who is the official distributor of San-X. If you don’t know San-X, here is the official website. They have lots of cute kawaii-style characters like Rilakkuma (a cute bear) and Mamegoma (a baby seal). San-X didn’t have a booth there but the factory who is producing their products gave me the contact details. I will definitely contact them. Their items would fit perfectly into our shop.
Rilakkuma, the cute Relax Bear
Mamegoma, a baby seal
We also found a contact for a printing shop here in Hong Kong who could make low quantity of t-shirts for us. The printing quality is really good so that could be a useful contact in the future. We plan to make our own t-shirts soon. And low quantities are always welcomed. There was also a company who could make our prints on stickers, so our customers could iron the designs themselves onto their t-shirts. But I personally think the printing shop is more interesting because the quality is just better.
We are constantly on the lookout for new products. This year I decided to go to all trade fairs in Hong Kong that sound interesting. You never know what you will find. As I live in Hong Kong and there are so many international trade fairs here, I should take this chance and check them out.
Today, Alan and I went to the Gifts & Houseware Fair to look for some new ideas. And we really found some interesting things. Alan is really into ceramic knives and we found 2 factories who could manufacture them for us. I also found some factories for badges, cute fans, plastic accessories (mobile phone straps, bracelets etc.) and factories who produce blankets and doormats for one of my customers. Alan also found a company who makes iPhone skinz but unfortunately, their quality isn’t good enough for his expectations. He is doing a local chinese blog related to iPhone news, software etc. and always looking for new products that could be interesting to blog about.
For my my company modeS4u, the cute, kawaii-style fans and the badges could be interesting to add to our current collection. Here are some pictures of the fans, aren’t they cute?
Today, our first visitor came by to check out our new showroom and our products. Great, just 4 days after we opened it.
At the moment our “showroom” doesn’t look nice yet. We still have to buy some extra shelfs and hangers so we can present our products in a nice way. And there is still some decorating to do. But one step after the other. Our customer is a buyer from Germany who is looking for new products for the german and dutch market. I have to say, he found what he was looking for 😉
FINALLY, our online shop www.modes4u.com is online and ready for orders, just in time for the Easter holidays. The shop was officially released on Thursday, 20.3.2008. We have quite a lot of products online now but there are still items missing because we got new stock that we haven’t taken pictures of yet. So visit our online shop frequently for updates and new products. 😉
We have a great offer for our online shop customers: Shipping costs for small (low weight) items are just 3 Euro per item, big items (heavy weight) cost 5 Euro. This offer is valid to any country worldwide. Additionally, for any order worth 60 Euro or more we offer FREE SHIPPING! Isn’t that great? 😉
I wish you Happy Shopping and lot’s of fun in our online shop!
xoxo Sandra
How did i start this whole adventure?
Well, I will start right from the beginning. In 2004 i finished my Master studies in Computer Science at the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg in Austria. Now I could call myself Dipl.Ing.(FH) Sandra Boch. 😉 During my last semester I was invited by a Hong Kong university (Polytechnic University Hong Kong) to join their 2004 summer school program. Since High School I always wanted to study/live abroad for a while. As i haven’t had any plans yet, I decided to join this summer university. The program was conducted in Hong Kong for 4 weeks and after that we flew to Beijing for another 2 weeks. The classes were about Chinese language (Putonghua) and Chinese culture.
my classmates and me at our Putonghua class during summer university
During that time I realised how desperately I wanted to go abroad and started looking for suitable interesting study programs while being in Hong Kong. As it was summer already, the number of choices were very limited. I was looking for a marketing/business management course for 1 year (including a degree). Luckily, I found one called Business Management and I would get a Bachelor degree in Business Management at the end of one year. The course was conducted by Northumbria University in the UK, but classes were hold in Hong Kong. During that year I learned a lot about Hong Kong people and culture, studying in china (such a difference to Austria) and so on. I started thinking about my future and what I should do after finishing this degree. I successfully graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with Second Class Honours (Upper Division) in Business Management in May 2005.
with my classmates (Weny, Yan, Cybill and me)
I didn’t like the idea of looking for a “normal” full-time job as i hate paternalism and restrictions and love the challenge. So i decided to try and start my own business right after leaving university. During that year i also met my future husband Alan. He also had his own company and supported me in the idea to start my own business.
That’s how my adventure started….
- 1
- 2