Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I came across and interesting article in Black Enterprise magazine.  An entrepreneur designed a new type of motorcycle helmet, but couldn`t come to agreeable terms with any U.S. manufacturer.  He finally outsourced the manufacturing to a facility in China.  The first  batches of helmets the facility produced were no good.  The factory did not follow the design spec`s and used cheap parts.  The designer finally had to fly to China.  He then went out onto the production floor and worked along side the factory workers.  He made sure they understood exactly what he wanted at each station.  While he finally got the quality he wanted, it cost him a lot of time and money.  This is something to consider when thinking about outsourcing manufacturing to foreign countries.


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The older we get, the more excuses we make for not chasing after our dreams. But truth is, goals are attainable at any age.

Not long ago, we were talking with a friend of ours who makes wooden soldiers along the lines of the Nutcracker. You know the kind, you see them often around Christmas. Hers are formed out of plaster, then hand-painted and decorated with various costumes.

She`d thought to have one of her most popular models made in China, so she sent a sample statue. She particularly asked if they`d be able to make it, to examine it, then send it back.

The first thing was they smashed it open to see what was inside. They did eventually send back the parts. The second thing was they quoted her a price, which seemed acceptable. So she ordered a basic quantity of however many hundreds.

When they arrived, she found that to "save money" the Chinese company had used the same arm and leg on both the left and right side. When you see a soldier like that, they often have a stripe down the outer side of the pants. In this case, one stripe was on the outside, the other stripe on the inside.

The one arm had the hand backwards, since it was just a copy of the first arm. The parts weren`t formed of one piece, only glued together, so when she picked up the sample the head fell off, then a leg.

Unfortunately, she was out the shipping and contract charges, and the time it took to get some of the money back was long enough to make it almost pointless. The Chinese company was all upset, promising they could do better, but the fact is they said they`d do an excellent job the first time around. Then they cheated her, all to "save money."