[BDXpert]

I have over 10 years working experience in the sales and business development in Hong Kong in the industries of IT, Telecom and Publishing. I have been thinking to run my own business. Recently, I've come up an idea of running a business service which will specialize in sales and business development. The service that will be offered includes the following:

1) provide market intelligences or studies to foreign companies who plan to explore, develop and expand business in Hong Kong and China;

2) provide sales advices and recommendations to local or foreign companies who want to improve or increase sales volume;

3) provide one stop business development services including staff hiring, sales training, sales strategies, sales coaching and on-going sales monitoring;

4) act as a bridge between foreign companies and their customers/suppliers/manufacturers/distributors in Hong Kong or China, especially on the issues of product/service control, inspection and assessment etc;

The charges for the above services will be on project or hourly basis. I would like to hear your advice on my proposed busines including:

a) the feasibility of this kind of business service;
b) the potential and demand in Australia;
c) any other comment

Thank you in advance for your input!

Best Regards

[greentea]

Your ideas sound good. But I think it will be secure to do a business if you have some potential clients before you run it.

[BDXpert]

You are right. I also have the same point of view. Thanks for reminding me.

[howard_roark]

Buddy -

There is always demand for sage advice in any business - as information is the essence of business and you are offering that.

The service you are offering can get you USD 10 / hr to USD1000 / hr; it all depends upon your previous experiences & your specialization.

You are the best person to assess your own skills and resultant benefits/risks.

[BDXpert]

Thanks for your message. I appreciate it very much!

[nation]

You'll be competing against InvestHK and the HK Trade Council. Both Government sponsored and both with a wealth of resources in advising foreign businesseses looking to invest in HK, including a long list of business/strategy consultancies already based in HK.

The market for this type of service can be saturated, however, can potentially be viable dependant on referals and business partnering. Rather than promoting your product in HK your best bet is to promote in the countries you're targeting. You mention Australia and that's a good start given the number of Australian SMEs looking at HK as an entre into the Asian market. Accordingly you should be looking to partner with Australian CA firms, business consultancies, even bankers in Australia the idea being that if their clients are looking to set up operations in HK they can be referred to you. In this regard loook to expand your services from a one off one- stop shop to a service which also provides longer term business partnering with clients.

[BDXpert]

Thanks for your advices. I wish I could compete with InvestHK or TDC in one day in the future. Though, my focus was more on the sales and business development (item 2 & 3). Initially, I have planned to target both local and overseas companies. I know how to reach the local companies. About targeting the overseas companies, I want to post free ads in some free websites in overseas. However, I don't have a clue yet. If you have some ideas on how to reach the overseas customers, please advise me. Many thanks.