Global Sourcing Using A Retail Buy Plan with Tracy Hazzard and Brenda Crimi

Protect your brand, product or invention from the hazards of consumer product launching and go from idea to product to big brand. With guidance from retail product design and development experts Tracy and Tom Hazard. Get the insider secrets to put the right things in the right order with the right resources so you can out design, outsource and out profit your way to retail success.

Hey, Tracy Hazard here from Product Launch Hazards and we are going to talk product sourcing in China for the first time. When you're sourcing for the first time in China, it's kind of intimidating. When you're even making your first trip, it's intimidating. And I've got Brenda Creme here, AMZ alliance, one of our product launch hazards expert. And it's her first trip and she's coming with me. And we're really not going to China. We're going to Hong Kong. But a lot of the Chinese vendors will be there. And so it is still sourcing at the same time. So we're sourcing overall global Asia sourcing. So, Brenda, are you excited?

Yeah. You know what, though? I feel like a newbie. It's crazy because we've been selling for four and a half years and we have several suppliers we've been working with in China, but I've never gone there. And so I was like, I don't know what to expect. It's very intimidating. And I'm so thankful that you invited me to come along with you to the global Sourcing Summit because I don't know that I would have overcome this fear. So I'm very excited to learn because I know there's lots of stuff I don't know.

Well, yeah. So I want to start out. I'm going to have you ask me tons of questions. That's why I invited you on here, because there is all these, like, what ifs, how do I do this? Like, running through your head the first time you go, it is scary. And I have to say that I. I made my very first trip all by myself. Wow. And I have to tell you, the anxiety was super, super high for me. And I swallowed that all down and just did it. And I was like, why was I nervous? Like, there's nothing. Like, it was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. But especially when you have partners that you're going to meet up with or good factories that you're like, they really handhold for you. And so there's a lot going on there. But I thought I would start with some of the things you should prep on your end before you Go. And this is not about what to pack. We can talk about that later. But this is really about being prepared for your business. So if you're going to source for your brand or for multiple brands. So let's say you're bringing in lots of different. I have lots of clients and we have lots of people on the Amazon selling side who have what I would call catalogs of different brands.

Right.

So you have tons of different products that you're buying and that's no different than any retailer. So you need to start thinking of yourself like a retailer and using some of the retailer tools. Right. So those are things like. Have you ever heard the term a buy plan?

No.

No.

Have a plan.

Yeah.

I thought I was just going shopping. Like I go to the mall. That doesn't work that way. I will tell you, I've gone to.

This is why I am there with you, to hold your hand so that you will not just go shopping because is not impulse time.

Oh, got it.

Okay. Important for you to remember that. So, yes, have a buy plan. Have you ever heard the term open to buy?

No.

Okay. Open to buy is how. Well, not having an open to buy calculation and inventory understanding is one of the number one reason most retailers go out of business because they don't know how to manage their inventory. So that can be the same case where you get into a serious inventory problem and you lose profitability as an Amazon seller. So. Or an E Commerce seller in general. And so it's based on inventory level. So I'm going to mention that real quick. But I'm not going to go into deep dive detail because this isn't. It's math and I'm not going to draw it on the board here and you're not going to be able to all visualize this in your business. But essentially it's this. At the beginning of a month you have an inventory level. Maybe it's $100,000 of inventory you have on hand. That's probably really high for most Amazon sellers. Maybe it's $10,000. So let's start there. So $10,000 in inventory you have in your garage and. Yeah. Or wherever. I know you've got a little warehouse, but we're closer to that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 100,000 is probably closer to your mark. Right, exactly. But let's start with 10,000 because it's nice and small and people can sort of understand that. So the problem is, is that if you don't continue to hold at about that level and let's say you've been selling at a very consistent rate. And that 10,000 is the perfect number for you to do enough turns. Inventory turns right where you're selling enough and you don't run out over the course of the month because when you run out it means you underbought, right? You've got an under buy situation and you're going to miss sales. It also doesn't mean you overbought and you have too much sitting there that's taking months and months to turn and you're eating up your cash flow. So you have to balance those two things. And so it's like, okay, so If I have 10,000 and I want to maintain this inventory level, but I'm going to discontinue a couple of products, or a couple of products are in decline, or a couple are on the rise, I might rise my inventory level to 15,000 coming up in the next quarter or for fourth quarter you might do something like that. I don't recommend you go buying for fourth quarter in October because you can't get it in. So that's not a possibility. But be thinking about that, right? So you don't want to base your numbers on the wrong time of the year. You want to base it on the time of year that you're going to be shopping for. So if in fact you're in this place where you're looking at buying inventory or buying you're sourcing products for, let's say February, March and April, you want to use your past February, March and April's inventory numbers and say, has my business scaled up and if it's grown 20%, then I want to add 20% to that inventory level. I want to use that as my starting number. If my overall business has grown that much over the course of this year or whatever that is, because you can't totally base it on year over year at the same rate because your business has grown, right? So you start with that beginning inventory level. You look at your sales turns that you're doing on your existing products and say, okay, well how much left am I going to have if I'm not adding in new products or if I'm not buying more? And you also want to look at your markdown levels. And so your how much have you had to mark down and discount based on the past products that you've introduced or the products that you're currently in and you're knowing that they're in decline? So maybe I need to mark them down more. You want to look at those two numbers and then what is left is an open to buy. So if you had 10,000 and you say, okay, well, based on what I've got, I've got $2,000 more to spend. And so you look at that and you go, and if I fill that 2000 with great product, then I'm going to end at the same inventory level and that's going to balance me out and keep me growing so that I can have the same or growing revenue. And so that's where you look at that. And that's what an open to buy plan is. It's a financial side of the plan. It doesn't tell you what to buy.

Okay?

So it just told you how much you can buy. And this is where people get in trouble because they say, I have this much in my checkbook, right? I'm like, oh, I can buy $10,000 worth of inventory. No, you cannot. Okay. Because you have cash flow for other reasons. And so this is where you can get into trouble. And what you really do need to look at now, there is a difference to I'm saying I might come in and I'm going to say I'm going to go from 10,000 to 20,000 because I'm going to grow and double my product line. But it's an investment, okay? And so you're clear about that, that I'm growing, that it's not about keeping your steady inventory level and the amount of products you have on your shelf.

Right. And to that point, this is one of the biggest educators I have with my clients is that cash flow projection. So it's like, okay, yeah, I can buy. I've got this much money. I'm going to buy a container full. But are you going to be able to keep up with that demand of that particular product? Are you going to come up with be able to replenish that container full or whatever that order is in another two months or so? Because when you're sourcing overseas, you have that lag time before the product's here. So you're ordering your next product before it's even landed and you're selling it. So you've got to make sure you've got the cash flow, especially if you're expanding, right?

Absolutely. And so you do want to be thinking about all those things. So there is a financial component and I like to start there because obviously if you don't have the money, you shouldn't be sourcing. So let's be thinking about that clearly. And so anyway, that is one of the areas at which I look at that as the first, first portion of what you should be doing. The second portion of that is like what do you want to buy? Right. So what's really cool and what's worth buying and where do I want to go with my business and how is that working? And is there any of those products that I categories that I'm missing or is there stuff that I want to round out? And you mentioned to me that before that you have a line of products that you already have and you're looking to maybe bring other products to surround it, to support it. Because that's a great way to grow. To grow in collections is a great way to do that. And so maybe you don't know exactly what that is. Right. Maybe you say, I know it's kitchen accessories or I know it's going to be stuff for the garden, but you don't actually know what that product looks like. What I want to encourage you to do is both plan to have a plan. That's my number one rule. Right.

So.

So you're going to write this down eventually, right? And you're going to figure out a way to have this plan. Okay. And we're going to call this your buy plan. Okay. The inventory number is still there or the investment number is still there. It's at the start of it, you're saying, I'm not going to spend more than $2,000 on inventory or $10,000 on inventory, whatever that might be. Right. And I'm going to spend it over three months time. My purchase orders will be planned that way. So you set that in your mind. Okay? The second thing I do want you to think about in this plan, to have a plan is your profitability number. So you should have, at a certain point in your business, it's a little hard when you're starting, but you should have a minimum margin that you're willing to accept and you should never deviate below that. And I highly recommend you add 5% to that, 10% to that, and don't deviate below that because stuff comes up, tariffs are coming up. There's a lot of issues that you may not know about. Right? Yeah, the face went. Because you do have these things that creep up on you. And so I always like to have a margin reserve as well. So that way when you go in there, you have a negotiation position too. So you can go in there and say, I'm sorry, this product's not priced right for my margin requirements. My margin requirements are 35% or whatever the number that you have in your head Are, that's my minimum. I can't deviate below that. And you'd be surprised. They may just negotiate with you right there and give you that extra 10%. So that gives you that margin of error you wished you had before. And now you're in a better cash position too. So keep that in mind as a number two. Like, I always keep that in mind. And I don't necessarily. Although occasionally we do adjust it by category of product type. So margins may be higher. I require margins higher on cost of goods for furniture, for instance, because the landing is so expensive, because it's heavy and it's large and it costs a lot of money, and my margins will end up lower there. So, like, I have an adjusted margin that is required when I help companies source furniture, but I may not do that on other products. So if you have an unusual category like that, be thinking about that. You may have multiple numbers there, but general, it should be across. All of your products should have a minimum margin requirement. Okay, so the second thing you need to do then do is do some research, right? You should do some research ahead of time, right? You should say, I've got this product that I want to support. What else is selling out there? What else might be the right kind of thing? You should have some ideas in mind. You may not know exactly what that is, but you should have some ideas in mind. So a lot of times we used to get brought into companies to actually plan that out, because we would be creating those products from scratch. So we would be going in and saying, well, not only do we want to find these products, but we want them to also end up looking like this at the end of the day. So we'd actually already know exactly what it was. And so we would create buy plans for retailers, large retailers like Target and other places like that, where they actually had pictures of what we wanted it to look like and renderings that we had done with all the margins lined out, the inventories, the turns we expected, and the amount of inventory we would buy initially. So, like, it would be very full buy plan. We come in with that documentation. But that's a little bit advanced. And it's a product designer advanced level of, like, if you're going to develop and design your own products. So sometimes I go in though, with, I'd like to find a company that has this product, because if we start with this product that already exists and it has these qualities to it, then I know that I'll be able to create the thing that I want to create. Because they have the good starting point, they have all the features I need to start with and then I'll work with them to develop it all the way into the unique thing that I want to develop it to. So having some research around what that looks like, what those features might be, making sure you know your requirements, sizes, colors are not important at this stage because you can always get them to make another color.

Right.

So we don't have to have it that specific. But if it's something that is we are going to just straight by from what they have today, then we do want to know what our colors should be and we should have a palette of them already. We should say, is this the right blue, Is it the right pink? Whatever we might be going for, you should bring those things with you. So having some research ahead of time and knowing what's trending and knowing where you might want to go with that is a good idea. Do you need total specifics? No, because you are also going to look and get inspired. But having some guidelines about what you don't want to do is you don't want to walk away and go, wow, I now need to go, I'm going to buy it. And then you walk away and realize, wow, I should have checked Etsy and I should have checked Pinterest and I should have checked all these things because this is out of trend and you didn't think about that at that time. You should have that in your mind ahead of time. What are people talking about in this category already? And then when you see something, you go, that's it. That will play with what's the kind of ongoing messaging in the marketplace. The other thing you need to do is, as I mentioned before, know your numbers, right? So you need to know your numbers, but you should also know very, very clearly what your inventory, your initial buy will be because they're going to quote you. You want to know what your initial buy will be and then you want to know what your high buy will be. So at volume, what do you do? What do you believe you can do? And that's where a little bit of research in a category, if it's a kitchen accessory and you're already doing kitchen accessories, you can expect without doing a ton of research, that they're going to turn around the same amount because there's a little bit difference in nuances and categories for sure. But it gives you a sense of my initial buy is a thousand pieces and my long term buy will be 10,000 at a time once it passes its first test. And so having those numbers in your head is saying, what am I willing to do? And what do I think I can do at high volume? Get you a better quote at the end of the day? And they look at you and they go, oh, they were serious. They knew exactly those numbers ahead of time. So that's a part of being professional in front of those people. Brenda, I know you know your numbers.

Well, you know, I'm jotting, and when I'm looking down, I'm jotting notes. You're talking with my questions and things, because this is great stuff. I didn't have the official, like, buy plan and what you were titled, the different segments as, but absolutely, I'm proud to say that I'm pretty clear on those different points. The budget is one of the things that you have to consider now. I'm looking to expand, and so definitely I do need to come forward, though, when I need to go there with an actual budget. I mean, I have this general. This is a great exercise for me because it's making me kind of be a little bit more pinpoint. And I think by doing so, I'm going to be more successful and I'm going to make better choices. So I kind of was approaching this with, well, let's just see what's out there. And if I'm with a general idea of what I wanted to do and I'm seeing that, that could set me up for failure. So thank you for bringing these points to light.

Yeah. So the last two things I have are simple. Make a written document. Because if you write it down for yourself and you've got it out there and you can pull it out in front of the vendors, in front of the factories or whatever, they go, this is a serious buyer. They understand their numbers, they understand where they are. The other thing is that they all start to blur together. So the other thing about the written document is I always leave lots of room. So I might have, like, if I'm looking for spatulas or something like that, and I have like, some images of some ideas, just reminding myself of some of the research I did. And I have some of that up and my numbers up at the top for myself below it, I leave space. So I might just take up the top third of the page and leave the rest blank. And that way I can make notes from that particular suppliers because they start to blur together after a while. And so I like to make sure that I am making notations that is going to help me remind me why I thought that they might have Something good. And especially if they're going to follow up and send you samples later and they're not going to give you something there, which happens a lot of times. You want to make sure that you've got all the right people and all the right things. And I throw a stapler in my bag so I can staple their business card right to that page. Packing tip number one, get a stapler. Because they all give you business cards. Right. And so you want to stable it. So if I'm going to follow up and ask them for a sample and I want to do that or I still want to consider it, then I want to have make sure I have the exact contact person of who I'm going to be and not have to go remember which one of these 40 factories I saw in a couple of days should I follow up with? Right. Like which one was it? I forgot. So it's very hard to be organized.

Yeah. Just as a little side of. That's brilliant. When I went to the ASD show for the first time, I was halfway through before I got the brilliant idea of having the vendor hold up their business card and I take a picture with them. So I also had the business card in my pile, but then I was able to connect who they were.

That's good if you are a face person. Right. And that's a really great way to do it as well. And so. Yeah. And that's another thing that you can do, you can do for yourself. But I always like to then staple that business card to my plan because I want to make sure that it's on the product because I also, at the end of the day, have to associate it with the product and not just a whole bunch of pictures on my phone.

Great.

Yeah. And so. And a lot of them will let you take pictures of the products. You could also hold up the product, the card, the person. Like. Right. So that's also helpful. But having that written document is really important for you because just it sets you up for professionalism with them and it sets you apart from the other sellers that are coming in and looking at just like ad hoc buying. And so then they know that you are serious and you know what you're talking about and you're not just blowing smoke when you say, I will buy 10,000 pieces. And so these are really also important things for sort of setting up the communication that you need and setting it up for success from the get go. So the last thing, my last tip on it is do not impulse buy. Okay. If they tell you There's a deal. That deal will still be there later. You can still negotiate it later. You do not need to place a purchase order at the show. Show discounts are myths. They will have them later. They would have given them to you anyway. You can negotiate them anytime. So I have never had a problem negotiating a discount or whatever. The special was a week later. If you need to go back and you say, I found something and this is so cool and it wasn't on my radar, but I need to do my product research. I need to go on Amazon. I need to research these keywords. I need to be sure of my turns before I place this purchase order. Then you take your time to do that. It's not going to make any difference. They're not going to run out of inventory. They don't have any. I guarantee you they haven't made it. So that's kind of like my overall general, just like quick five tips. So plan to have a plan. Do your research, know the numbers, make a written document, and don't impulse buy.

Great tips, great reminders. I have some questions.

Lay them on me. I'm ready.

Okay. So, you know, one of the things that you know in combination with your tips and things going there was overwhelming to say. Okay. Sometimes I'm shopping for clients. Let's just say get my thought together before I start speaking.

Right.

So let's take the example. If I'm shopping for a client, sometimes they say, I'm open to anything, find the next hottest thing. So there was that expectation that I was like, well, I'm not going to have the data there. What kind of Internet connection am I going to be able to do my research that I normally do to be confident? So I love your tip that you said, don't worry about it. You'll come back with that data, do your research and then follow up and connect with them later.

Yeah. So here's the thing. Yes. In Hong Kong, you should be just fine. There's Internet there. I know from a for a fact the show is going to have good Internet because they asked me to live stream from the floor. So they should have something decent. In and around China, there are areas where you just cannot get on you. You cannot go on Facebook. You can't do things without a vpn. So if you're going to go into mainland. Into mainland China, then you should have a VPN service. Yeah. Thank you. Tom's yelling across the office service. Yes, a VPN service. And so there's lots of them out there. Now, when we were Going there was a couple of them. I don't even remember what they're called. They're probably still in business, but they're great. And what they do is they disguise where you are and they say, hey, I'm back in Los Angeles. And so it lets me get on Facebook. And so. But within the factories, most of them have very good Internet access. They need it to run their businesses nowadays. So I don't find a problem there. Most of the hotels are very good as well with that. But again, you get blocked from being able to go to all the places you might want to go. You can't go to Pinterest and research what you need to research without that VPN set up in place. And so what you do is you dial into the vpn, then you go online and you go to Pinterest or you go to wherever. Dial in. Tom's like, dial in is bad. Well, you know what I mean. You set it like your WI fi, right? Like, that's right. I know I'm a little old school. Can you tell you to have to dial in? Yeah, that's the old school. How long I've been going to China, Right.

As soon as you hear the word dial in, I hear the screeching noises in my ears, like I automatically want to go there.

Well, and you hook up lan. So like, we used to carry it with us, but almost all hotels have it. Like, our computers don't all have them anymore. But you used the thing that looks like a phone jack.

Oh, you clip it in.

You used to clip it in. And so like, that's the way most of the hotels, they have that. And so if you didn't have that in your computer anymore because your computer is too advanced, you actually couldn't get a good Internet because you couldn't tap into the land. So that used to be a problem, but now a lot of that's changed in most of the decent sized hotels. And so you shouldn't have a problem unless you're very, very rural. But then again, you hit the factory and you'll be fine.

Cool. So you mentioned samples. Obviously, I like to have samples prior to purchasing big lots. So should I have an expectation that I can walk away with samples? And if so, what kind of. I mean, do I pay them with a credit card for that? Do they accept credit cards? Do I have to have co with cash and exchange it?

So it's different all the time? It depends. What I can tell you is the more professional you act, the more likely they are to hand them to you. So the more professional you are, the more proven you are. So I always travel a show with a host with someone who is my partner. So our partner is Hanson Hahn, and he's been fabulous with us. But someone from his team or someone like that usually escorts us so that we have a translator. And because that translator we use someone who is an expert and not just a translator, because he has expertise and he's been working with us and doing this for over a decade. Because of that, when he presents us to them and translates that in Chinese, he's giving us the authority that we need to be able to just walk away with those. So that is if that's your expectation that you're at that level. And, and you do have someone maybe from a factory or from a. If you're using a sourcing agency, like a sourcing agent in the process, trading partner, call them a trading company, any of those things. Ask someone to escort you through the show or meet you there, and then you can build your business in person with them anyway. So if you do are working with any of those people, invite them to come with you. So because that adds that set, that layer of authority that you need to say, this is a pro. This is not someone who just said, hey, I think I'm gonna buy stuff. And so having the plan in place, just them seeing all this professional and interaction with them is going to help you through that process. For the most part, I never pay for samples unless I ask people to make something like, unique, because obviously I'm asking them to build something for me. And we do always offer to pay for samples because there's no guarantee we'll buy at the end of the day. And I don't feel that that's right. That's my personal how I work with factories and they respect that. But a lot of them still don't even charge. They just still will say, no, no, no, you've given us enough business. We're happy to make samples for you. And so, so. But that takes a lot of time to build up to that level. So expect to have to pay but very little money. I'd say PayPal there is getting to be more and more common. So having an email address and being able to just straight PayPal. Keep in mind that you have to put a. To compensate for the fees. So you always need to add a little bit extra and talk with them about what that is. So if you need to add $5 more for the fee or whatever that might be 10%, 3%, whatever. The amount needs to be make sure that you've added that. And yes, sometimes you can walk away with it, sometimes you cannot.

I know when I've been sourcing from here overseas, whenever I've requested samples, oftentimes I've had to pay for them and then they credit that towards.

They will do that.

Your initial. But one of the things that I was surprised with and may be helpful to some of the listeners if they're not familiar with this. My intention unless the size is such where I could easily put it in my suitcase without having weight would probably be that they're mailing them to you or air shipping them to you after the fact. And most of the time you're paying for the air shipment, not necessarily the sample. So they'll say I'll give you a free sample. And really the expectation for a general weighted size products is about 50 to 60 bucks to get it here. So if you have a supplier that you have multiple samples from, you want to make sure you request them in the same shipment so that you can.

Right. So this is it. Yeah. Let's go to the packing tips. Don't over pack because you may want to put samples in your bag. So we used to do like have you ever gone to Costco and you know how they give you the like the set of like three bags and. And they all inside of each other. Right. We sometimes used to go with the medium size and the large size. So I'd pack my clothes in the medium size but send the whole thing into the large size because we would be taking back large samp and so then the whole large suitcase would end up with as much stuff in it because when you're coming back from Asia they don't care about the weight of your suitcase, which is so awesome in international travel. They really don't totally care about the weight. I mean sometimes it gets way overweight. They will charge you, but they don't.

Great tip.

Yeah. So if you're really going to do that significant amount of that, you can pack a suitcase within a suitcase on your way out and have two on the way back. No big deal. You can also I've had factories box up entire pieces of furniture and bring me to the airport with the box and put it on a plane with me. So like you never know what you can get to accomplish to get it home. So which is still at some point it's probably about the same amount but you're going home with it immediately. And for us sometimes that was like a. We were doing the Final review of a product that needed to go and we were going, I was going straight from there to going, meeting with a retailer and having to show it to them. So. So like it was a timing thing more than anything else. But no, have your DHL number, have everything you might need to do that, to prep a doc, email it to them, make sure you're just really prepared with all of that to be able to execute that right there if you want that sample. And that kind of seriousness of like I'm just going to go online and I'm going to get you my DHL number right now. That's great because it just is going to put you in this place of which you are way ahead and more professional than all the other people that they saw over the course. It's that, oh, I'll email it to you later and then it'll be like a week or two weeks later and you're just way ahead of that.

Right.

So again, professionalism and communication. So great. Yeah, absolutely.

You know that's a great tip and I can speak from that. When we first started in our very first order that we did overseas, I had no idea what a custom broker was or freight forward or any of those things. I tried to do it all on my own. And those first couple of transactions with the suppliers, I can look back now and go I just totally not necessarily taken advantage of that isn't accurate. But I could have gotten better deals. Now it's interesting. They respect, they want to do business with people who are doing business and they're professional. They want to build a long term relationship. They don't want little onesies and twosies fly by night transactions because it takes just as much time.

Yeah, exactly. And a lot of communication, especially when they have somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. It's a lot of education on their part with no guarantee of sale.

So.

So you can understand why they are not as eager to give you the best price and all of those things from the beginning. But when they see someone professional they're happy to do that and because it means that they know that they could begin to establish a relationship. So that's another one of those reasons Brenda, that knowing your product category ahead of time, you're mentioning freight forwarding and the cost and all of those things. There is also just not knowing your category or not knowing what category you're going to go into. Like when it's so open like that. That's another reason not to buy on site because you do need to line those numbers up and make some calls and find out what classification your product is going to end up and what tariff code it's going to be in. And you need all that information in order to be sure that you are on your budget for that profitability. Because at the end of the day, if it's not profitable, you should not be doing it well.

And we talk often about our passion. It's like it's our mission to keep people from having garage fulls of product and not being able to move it. And so your point of don't be impulsive and do your data research first before you commit to anything is so spot on.

Well, I have a lot of clients who do like, who would happily like we'll just do a thousand piece test, we don't care. But to me, that effort and that marketing effort and all of that, I think it's crazy. I just personally that's not where I want to be and it's why I don't do it. Right? I mean it's.

And you don't have to.

Right? You should be thinking harder. It's like, yes, I do want to test my stuff. I want to make sure because it's better for me and it's better for me, for the factory if I'm testing that and I know for sure I can sell this. So I do want to do that. But I don't want to just do it on just anything that strikes my fancy that doesn't make a lot of sense to me because that my time and my app and my effort is valuable at the end of the day. So you don't want to work harder for this.

I got to tell you, these are perfect tips. And it's so funny because if you would have asked me before this call if I was prepared like, yeah, no, you know, I got an idea, I've got it, you know, got this covered and I would have been like, I would have been there like, God, I wish I had this and God, I wish I had that. So these are perfect points. Just to be very focused and specific in what I'm looking for in the criteria will also help me not be impulsive. So even having the reminder was great. But when you have the data there and the specifics on what you're trying to accomplish, it will help you not be impulsive and shiny object.

That's right. So what other questions do you have?

You covered them? I was jotting them down as you were talking. So brilliantly done. I will say I am expecting that there will be a little pressure. And this is the next hot item, hot selling item. And to me, I'm not necessarily looking for the next hot item because if they think it's already hot, that means it's already been playing out and there's been plenty of other people saying it's a hot item. So I'm looking for things that look unique and I can then present to the market that are an alternative to what's already out there.

Right? So this is actually how I like to structure my trade show visits anywhere I go. So I'm just going to mention how I structure it because I think that's a good point that you're making. There is. I go the first day without any appointments. So if I plan to meet up with people, I never meet them on the first day. I walk the entire show floor if I can. Some of them are way too big and you can't. But I walk as much of it as I can because what happens is that you walk into the first booth and they're like all hot on something and you're like, that's cool, I haven't seen it. And then you see it everywhere. So the last thing you want to have done was bought, right? Because you'll be kicking yourself later. So you want to find the hidden gems, the things that they are hiding behind the counter that they haven't shown anyone. I walk around and then I go, okay, I want to meet with these people because they had either a unique offering or they seemed to know what they were doing more when I conversed with them, and they seemed more open. And so that's kind of how I do it. And then I'll go back to them and I'll make appointments and I'll go see them. Or I'll just step into their booth the second day and purposefully sit down and say, okay, now show me what you haven't shown anyone else. And when I sit down and I ask them, I say, I'm looking specifically for stuff like this. If they don't have it, you know what's wonderful about them? They'll tell me who does. They're so collaborative. They're so happy to help their fellow factories because it all comes back to them. They are very, very gracious about referring others. And so if they don't have it or they don't have it with them, they will get it to you. They'll share it with you. They'll get pictures on their phone, right? Then for you, they'll have someone in the factory go Take a picture of something in their showroom that they didn't bring with them. So having a conversation about what you're looking for and why you're looking for it is really important too. So if you find one that you just say, these people know what they're doing. They seem great. It's a great factory location. The quality looks really good. I'm going to sit down and have a further conversation. I didn't see exactly what I wanted, but I'm going to have a further conversation. Do that. And so that's what I do the second day. And then the third day I go back and buy if I was ready to buy, if I knew purposefully, like I had come there to buy something specific or do something specific. And that's kind of how I do most trade shows when I do them. Or I go in and I ask for the sample on the third day, say, I'm more serious about what I want from you. I like the sample. You can have it sent from your factory. I see you didn't have it here, but have them send it to me. Here's my DHL number. And, you know, I'd like it as soon as possible. And I'm looking to buy January 1st or prior to Chinese New Year at post Chinese New Year. So, like, also be really clear about that. And so, yeah, I mean, that's kind of my sort of basic approach. So the last thing I thought maybe we should touch on is what to pack. Brenda.

Okay.

Pack an umbrella. Ah, Okay. I will be packing plenty of flat iron and plenty of hair frizz because it's humid always. And Mike is. My hair gets bigger and bigger.

Right.

So. So, yeah, baggies. I pack lots of extra baggies. And I always double bag all of my liquids because you're going up to a higher altitude and things that you didn't imagine will bust. And the last thing you need is all your clothes to smell nasty or something to happen. So just be really careful with anything you've got that are liquids or creams or anything like that. But the umbrella is a necessity because you just never know it will, like, come out of nowhere. It's kind of like I always, like. It's like Florida in the summer. You like, all of a sudden there's a storm and you didn't expect it. It can just happen. Yeah.

And it dumps on you for 15 minutes and then it's gone.

Exactly. But.

Walk somewhere and get somewhere, right? Yeah, absolutely. You asked about money earlier on. Yep. And so you should definitely always have cash. Right. Have local currency on you. You can convert it at the airport. That's not a problem. But you should have cash. There's just so many times when you're going to need it for something, and you'll just convert it back when you come home. Although I keep, like, I still have, like. I'm like, oh, I found some in my drawer because I was going on so many trips that I just, like, never reconverted it back. But you should do that. And that's also a great way is like, if you wanted to buy samples, to just walk out with a sample right then and there, as if you hand them cash, they're happy to give it to you. That's like an even bigger incentive than paypaling them. So keep in mind that most of these samples don't cost a ton of money.

Right?

Right. So at the end of the day, you're giving them it to them in their currency, and they're happy with that. So that's something you should do. I'm going to say this for the women out there. Bring your own tampons, please. Never rely on it. Even if you don't think it's your time of the month, bring them with you. Stick them in your bag. Because theirs have menthol in them or something like that. And they're like, they burn. That's all I can tell you. They burn. And you don't want to be in that situation.

Thanks for the heads up.

And I always keep them with me. And so I've traveled with other women. They're like, please give me yours. I'm like, okay, here.

There's a reason for it. Yeah. But also just a really great. This is really great. So not to do something illegal, mind you, or not to do something. But if you set them all on top of your suitcase, they will not rummage through your suitcase.

So if you don't want everything all messed up and wrinkled when you get there, like, throw them on top. They won't touch your suitcase.

That's hilarious.

I discovered that because the bag burst and they were all over the top and they were like, you know, they open it up to inspect it in front of you, and they're like, okay, close it.

That's good.

Cause. Yeah, exactly. Embarrassing. Anyway, that's hilarious. I did not discover it. Doing something covert. Find you. That's. But, you know, they can't bring water on the plane when you're in China. Like, you can't even buy water in the airport and bring that on. Just there's a few little things that happen that are just a little bit different. So the rules are usually posted. Just pay attention to them because you don't want to be buying drinks and then realize you can't drink any of it once you get. You have to dump it all. So there's just a few things like that. But, you know, all in all, it's going to be a great trip. It's so much fun. The people are so nice and the food is so good.

That's what I'm looking forward to. I'm still on my way through Hong.

Kong, and I got a few tips from a couple of people who said, oh, you should go here in Hong Kong. So I've gotten a couple of places we should go.

Nice, nice. Well, shopping professionally, of course.

So yes. And, you know, there are marketplaces and other things we can buy bags and shoes and fun stuff like that. The fashion trade show is going on at the same time. There are samples there that may be just. I'm not buying them to buy for anyone but myself. As long as you're honest with them, a lot of times they'll let you take them anyway. That's why you want the extra cash on hand.

Cool. These have been fabulous tips, and just talking through them with you has eased my anxiety a little bit. I can actually feel like I can present myself professionally now versus just scattered and showing up.

Well. And my favorite thing to do is. So the way that we're traveling, we're traveling and basically we get there in the morning, so we get there at night. What do we get? When do we get there?

We get there in the morning.

We get there in the morning. Traveling all night, Right. And we get there in the morning, which is great. So you sleep as much on the plane as possible. That is like, sleep as much as you can. And we get on the plane and we'll work or do something or go out and check things out and just enjoy the day. Because the last thing you want to do is you need to, as fast as possible, acclimate to the time. Right. So you just want to force yourself into doing that. So we'll do that and then we'll go to bed early because it's not a. We'll just go to bed early that night. But you want to do that and you want to get into that time zone mode as fast as possible. But from there to kind of avoid the second day is you hydrate all day too. Like, that's the other thing. You just got to drink more water and Then my favorite thing to do right before bed that night is to go and get a foot massage.

Okay.

Yeah, I figured you'd be in.

So they're really relaxing. Hour long. You wear your clothes, you put your foot in a bath. Like it's really simple. And they massage your feet and your shoulders and everything while it is. So it's not the kind of massage where you're laying on a table or anything like that. You're sitting in a chair, actually. But it is so relaxing. And you will go right to sleep after that.

Nice.

And then you try to sleep as long as you can. I tend to wake up like four in the morning, that kind of thing. You wake up earlier the first day, but sleep as long as you can and then eat, eat on their schedule. Go have breakfast. Make sure you do that because you'll be burning lots of calories walking that show floor.

Nice.

Anyway, well, this has been so much fun and I can't wait. And I'm so looking forward to spending my time with you as well. There.

Thank you. I am too. And I can't say again, thank you for helping me wrap my mind around all this stuff because these are great, great tips. Even as a seasoned seller thinking I got this, I really wouldn't have. And I would have been wishing I had this information ahead of time.

Oh, good. Well, that's why I thought we'd do this episode together. So anyway, well, if any of you have questions prior to you going and joining us at the Global Source Summit, and of course Brenda and I will be there, so we'd love to meet up with you. So please connect with us and let us know that. But if you have any questions, reach out to me on Facebook or YouTube or anywhere. Actually, hazDesign.

We're everywhere. Yeah, we're everywhere.

Or go to the productlaunchhazards.com website. Connect with us there and ask us a question. So we're happy to answer those for you. So thanks everyone for joining us. This has been Tracy and Brenda on Product Launch Hazards.

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