Tips For Identifiying A Home Based Big Money Business
Il y a 17 ans
samedi 28 février 2009
A Guide to Doing Business in China 4 - How To Set Up Your Staff
If you've established a representative office in China, you're not legally allowed to engage staff directly; you will need to use the services of a government accredited HR agency. Such as the foreign services enterprise corporation (or FESCO for short) who will employ your staff and effectively second them to your organisation and you have to pay FESCO a fee for that service; you will also have to contribute social welfare payments for your staff.
If you're setting up a wholly foreign owned enterprise, or a joint venture, you can engage staff directly but you do need to have a written contract with all your staff. If you don't have a written contract with your staff then there are penalties. If you don't have a written contract within one month then you're liable to pay your staff double their compensation, if you don't have a written contract within twelve months then not only do you have to pay them double their compensation but they will automatically move onto an open ended contract with means it's much harder to get rid of them, you have to pay higher levels of severance pay and there are also fines which you will have to pay.
There is a lack in China of experienced, skilled senior level management, especially those with English skills or particular technical knowledge. A lot of companies, when going to China, plan on engaging local staff, but when they cant find the necessary skills they then have to employ British staff to fill that skills gap and the budget will go up accordingly. Obviously if you're wanting to recruit staff that are in short supply, you'll need to pay appropriate salary levels and they can be equivalent to western salaries in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Once you've employed the staff, you then need to make sure you retain them, obviously providing an attractive salary would be one incentive but there are other ways you can retain staff. Providing a clearly defined career progression, also by providing opportunities for training and opportunities to travel aboard.
Termination of staff in china can be very difficult, summarily dismissal of staff is allowed but you need to have a good reason, they could have committed an act of gross misconduct or committed a crime. You do need to keep accurate records of their acts of misconduct or crimes. There are some staff who are untouchable unless they've committed acts of gross misconduct or crimes, for example, anyone who's pregnant or on maternity leave or staff who are suffering from a work related injury. Redundancy in china is also very difficult; one point to bear in mind is probationary periods, the maximum probationary period is six months for employees who are on a contract of three years or more. If you have staff on a contract of two to three years, the maximum probationary period is two months, one to two years is one month and staff on a contact of under one year; the maximum probationary period is half a month.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-setting-up-and-hr
If you're setting up a wholly foreign owned enterprise, or a joint venture, you can engage staff directly but you do need to have a written contract with all your staff. If you don't have a written contract with your staff then there are penalties. If you don't have a written contract within one month then you're liable to pay your staff double their compensation, if you don't have a written contract within twelve months then not only do you have to pay them double their compensation but they will automatically move onto an open ended contract with means it's much harder to get rid of them, you have to pay higher levels of severance pay and there are also fines which you will have to pay.
There is a lack in China of experienced, skilled senior level management, especially those with English skills or particular technical knowledge. A lot of companies, when going to China, plan on engaging local staff, but when they cant find the necessary skills they then have to employ British staff to fill that skills gap and the budget will go up accordingly. Obviously if you're wanting to recruit staff that are in short supply, you'll need to pay appropriate salary levels and they can be equivalent to western salaries in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Once you've employed the staff, you then need to make sure you retain them, obviously providing an attractive salary would be one incentive but there are other ways you can retain staff. Providing a clearly defined career progression, also by providing opportunities for training and opportunities to travel aboard.
Termination of staff in china can be very difficult, summarily dismissal of staff is allowed but you need to have a good reason, they could have committed an act of gross misconduct or committed a crime. You do need to keep accurate records of their acts of misconduct or crimes. There are some staff who are untouchable unless they've committed acts of gross misconduct or crimes, for example, anyone who's pregnant or on maternity leave or staff who are suffering from a work related injury. Redundancy in china is also very difficult; one point to bear in mind is probationary periods, the maximum probationary period is six months for employees who are on a contract of three years or more. If you have staff on a contract of two to three years, the maximum probationary period is two months, one to two years is one month and staff on a contact of under one year; the maximum probationary period is half a month.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-setting-up-and-hr
A Guide to Doing Business in China 3 - Understanding the Cultural Differences
The main characteristic about business in China is that it's relationship driven, this means that in China you have to develop a relationship before you do business, whereas in western cultures you often do a transaction and then develop a relationship. There are certain characteristics about relationships in China otherwise known as guanxi, first of all they tend to be reciprocal in nature, so if someone grants you a favour, you should grant one back, also when you maintain relationships in China, you have to pay attention to other aspects such as whether the Chinese side looses faith and that's going to damage a relationship. You also need to pay attention to hierarchy as this is another aspect which is important in Chinese culture, treating people according to their rank is important.
In a first meeting the exchange of business cards is a really important part of doing business, in this case you should be prepared and have your business card translated into Chinese, paying particular attention to getting your rank and title translated accurately as these are very important in Chinese business cultures. When you give and receive a business card, you should do so with two hands as this shows great respect to the person that you're meeting. Other important aspects on how you can leave a good impression with the Chinese side are knowing a bit of Chinese for example and also showing some formality during a meeting in terms of presenting your company and listening to the Chinese side, and finishing your encounter, if you want to continue your business relationship, by presenting the Chinese side with a small gift.
When it comes to doing business in China, you will need language skills, which is why it's recommended you employ an interpreter and even a Chinese employee to talk to the Chinese and communicate with the Chinese in a language they understand so that there are no misunderstandings. Remember, things like technical jargon and humor will not translate very well. It would also be a good idea to have a couple of pages from your website translated into Chinese along with your business cards.
Whether you're going to China for leisure reasons or for business reasons, you still need a visa. The particular characteristics of a business visa is that you need either a letter of invitation from a Chinese company or a visa notification form from an issuing authority in China and it's that which you use along with your application form to go to the China visa application service center in London or the Chinese consulates in Edinburgh or Manchester. There are different types of business visa that you can apply for, including single entry, double entry, or multiple entry so you have to think about how often you're going to be going to China throughout the year. If you have a letter of invitation, it may need to state which type of visa you're going to have to apply for.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-operational-business-advice-cu lture
In a first meeting the exchange of business cards is a really important part of doing business, in this case you should be prepared and have your business card translated into Chinese, paying particular attention to getting your rank and title translated accurately as these are very important in Chinese business cultures. When you give and receive a business card, you should do so with two hands as this shows great respect to the person that you're meeting. Other important aspects on how you can leave a good impression with the Chinese side are knowing a bit of Chinese for example and also showing some formality during a meeting in terms of presenting your company and listening to the Chinese side, and finishing your encounter, if you want to continue your business relationship, by presenting the Chinese side with a small gift.
When it comes to doing business in China, you will need language skills, which is why it's recommended you employ an interpreter and even a Chinese employee to talk to the Chinese and communicate with the Chinese in a language they understand so that there are no misunderstandings. Remember, things like technical jargon and humor will not translate very well. It would also be a good idea to have a couple of pages from your website translated into Chinese along with your business cards.
Whether you're going to China for leisure reasons or for business reasons, you still need a visa. The particular characteristics of a business visa is that you need either a letter of invitation from a Chinese company or a visa notification form from an issuing authority in China and it's that which you use along with your application form to go to the China visa application service center in London or the Chinese consulates in Edinburgh or Manchester. There are different types of business visa that you can apply for, including single entry, double entry, or multiple entry so you have to think about how often you're going to be going to China throughout the year. If you have a letter of invitation, it may need to state which type of visa you're going to have to apply for.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-operational-business-advice-cu lture
vendredi 27 février 2009
A Guide to Doing Business in China 2 - How To Set Up Your Office
So you've realized how profitable it can be for your operation to set up business in China, you've done your research and you now have a list of contacts and practical locations. Now you need to set your office up and you've got a choice of three corporate structures to do this.
A representative office, this allows you to establish a presence in China relatively quickly and cost effectively. It allows companies to engage in a number of activities through a legal entity with their company name registered in China. Activities that their representative office can engage in, include marketing, research, business liaison activities and coordinating activities but what it doesn't allow you to do is engage in direct sales. Through a representative office, you can't issue invoices in Renminbi, the local Chinese currency.
A joint venture can either be an equity joint venture, which most companies choose to use, or a contractual joint venture. A joint venture, commonly abbreviated to JV, is a limited liability company formed by a Chinese company and a foreign company; the foreign company would own a minimum 25% of the new entity. It is not a merger; it is a new entity, which is partly owned by the foreign company and the Chinese company. With a joint venture, you can choose between an equity joint venture or a contractual joint venture. An equity joint venture means the profits and looses are split according to the shares each party has in the company. With a contractual joint venture, the profits and looses are split according to what is stated in the contract.
Since 2004, companies have been able to set up foreign invested commercial enterprises (FICE), which are either wholly foreign owned enterprises (WFOE) or joint enterprises in order to establish retailing, franchising or distribution operations in China. More and more companies are choosing to invest in China through mergers and acquisitions and ultimately the merger or acquisition will either be a wholly foreign owned enterprise or a joint venture.
So which one do you go for? In some industries, such as telecoms, where restrictions on foreign investments exist, setting up a joint venture may be your only option.
With a wholly owned foreign enterprise you have a hundred percent ownership of the business which means it's much easier to install your own corporate culture, with your own systems and procedures. You also get to keep 100% of the profits and it's also much easier to protect your intellectual property. However, on the down side, you have to fund 100% of the business and you also have to establish your own sales and distribution networks.
With a joint venture your joint venture partner should provide the facilities and the work force and they should also provide sales and distribution networks, although you should carry out due diligence as you will need to check the sales and distribution networks they say they have do actually exist. On the down side of a joint venture you will have to share the profits with your joint venture partner, it's also much harder to install your own business culture, your management policies and system procedures and its harder to protect your intellectual properties.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-setting-up-and-hr
A representative office, this allows you to establish a presence in China relatively quickly and cost effectively. It allows companies to engage in a number of activities through a legal entity with their company name registered in China. Activities that their representative office can engage in, include marketing, research, business liaison activities and coordinating activities but what it doesn't allow you to do is engage in direct sales. Through a representative office, you can't issue invoices in Renminbi, the local Chinese currency.
A joint venture can either be an equity joint venture, which most companies choose to use, or a contractual joint venture. A joint venture, commonly abbreviated to JV, is a limited liability company formed by a Chinese company and a foreign company; the foreign company would own a minimum 25% of the new entity. It is not a merger; it is a new entity, which is partly owned by the foreign company and the Chinese company. With a joint venture, you can choose between an equity joint venture or a contractual joint venture. An equity joint venture means the profits and looses are split according to the shares each party has in the company. With a contractual joint venture, the profits and looses are split according to what is stated in the contract.
Since 2004, companies have been able to set up foreign invested commercial enterprises (FICE), which are either wholly foreign owned enterprises (WFOE) or joint enterprises in order to establish retailing, franchising or distribution operations in China. More and more companies are choosing to invest in China through mergers and acquisitions and ultimately the merger or acquisition will either be a wholly foreign owned enterprise or a joint venture.
So which one do you go for? In some industries, such as telecoms, where restrictions on foreign investments exist, setting up a joint venture may be your only option.
With a wholly owned foreign enterprise you have a hundred percent ownership of the business which means it's much easier to install your own corporate culture, with your own systems and procedures. You also get to keep 100% of the profits and it's also much easier to protect your intellectual property. However, on the down side, you have to fund 100% of the business and you also have to establish your own sales and distribution networks.
With a joint venture your joint venture partner should provide the facilities and the work force and they should also provide sales and distribution networks, although you should carry out due diligence as you will need to check the sales and distribution networks they say they have do actually exist. On the down side of a joint venture you will have to share the profits with your joint venture partner, it's also much harder to install your own business culture, your management policies and system procedures and its harder to protect your intellectual properties.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-setting-up-and-hr
A Guide to doing Business in China 1 - The Basic Research
With the global economic status in turmoil you're probably just trying to ensure your business doesn't become another victim of the recession. Major companies having to make cutbacks are dominating headline news on a daily basis. But what if your business is doing OK? Well then you're going to want to make sure it stays that way right? While planes for major expansion may not be the most sensible route for most companies you will have to do something proactive to ensure your business stays healthy. Have you ever thought about doing business in China?
As China's prominence on the world stage increases it really is a market that any company in the UK that has in international outlook cannot fail to consider. There is increasing demand in China for UK products and services and this stems across all sectors. If you have a good product or service then you could do well in China.
So how does a British company enter the Chinese market? The simple answer is to get well prepared before hand, the time that is spent on effective and thorough research is time very well spent and once a company has done that they're in a much better position to be able to move onto the next step which would ideally be to pay a visit to China to set up some meetings and take things onto the next stage.
You can utilize a number of channels to help you find the right partner or supplier in China, such as looking at internet resources (typing in a phrase like 'how to set up a business in China' or 'setting up a business in China' into a search engine would give you a list of websites), news reports or B2B websites which are extremely useful as a starting point. You can also contact trade facilitators and intermediaries such as trade councils or UK Trade and Investment. You can also visit the market that's part of the trade group. Once you've identified a list of potential suppliers or partners you need to develop ongoing dialog as well as trade relationships. This all needs to be done with due diligence, often the high level questions and information are easy to answer such as company size and employee numbers or a particular location of the company. The more in depth information can be difficult to access and is usually done through investigation using local knowledge and local partners to do that.
It's not just the right people you're going to need to find but the right location too. The location of a partner of supplier is normally dependant on the focus and objective of the buyer in the UK. Usually you would find a cluster of concentrated Chinese companies operating in the same sector, usually concentrating in a geographic location, this is particularly beneficial if a company wanted to start up targeting a particular location to begin with.
There are a number of ways in which British companies can get support for developing their business in China and overseas, the best way to find out more about that is to contact your local international trade advisor at UK trade and investment and they can provide all the details.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-faq-business-with-china
As China's prominence on the world stage increases it really is a market that any company in the UK that has in international outlook cannot fail to consider. There is increasing demand in China for UK products and services and this stems across all sectors. If you have a good product or service then you could do well in China.
So how does a British company enter the Chinese market? The simple answer is to get well prepared before hand, the time that is spent on effective and thorough research is time very well spent and once a company has done that they're in a much better position to be able to move onto the next step which would ideally be to pay a visit to China to set up some meetings and take things onto the next stage.
You can utilize a number of channels to help you find the right partner or supplier in China, such as looking at internet resources (typing in a phrase like 'how to set up a business in China' or 'setting up a business in China' into a search engine would give you a list of websites), news reports or B2B websites which are extremely useful as a starting point. You can also contact trade facilitators and intermediaries such as trade councils or UK Trade and Investment. You can also visit the market that's part of the trade group. Once you've identified a list of potential suppliers or partners you need to develop ongoing dialog as well as trade relationships. This all needs to be done with due diligence, often the high level questions and information are easy to answer such as company size and employee numbers or a particular location of the company. The more in depth information can be difficult to access and is usually done through investigation using local knowledge and local partners to do that.
It's not just the right people you're going to need to find but the right location too. The location of a partner of supplier is normally dependant on the focus and objective of the buyer in the UK. Usually you would find a cluster of concentrated Chinese companies operating in the same sector, usually concentrating in a geographic location, this is particularly beneficial if a company wanted to start up targeting a particular location to begin with.
There are a number of ways in which British companies can get support for developing their business in China and overseas, the best way to find out more about that is to contact your local international trade advisor at UK trade and investment and they can provide all the details.
----------------------------------------------------
The China Britain Business Council is the UK's leading organisation helping British companies do business in China. In these exclusive sets from GuruOnline, several of their senior staff offer free business advice to anyone thinking of doing business in China. Their sets cover everything from where to find the help you'll need through to the technical aspects of running your China office. http://www.guruonline.tv/cbbc-faq-business-with-china
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)
