A warning we received yesterday...

Since launching the blog, we've had numerous people emailing us with advice and ideas. A lot of the emails are very encouraging, but a good percentage are along the lines of "you are crazy, these aren't great ideas, why are you leaving your perfectly good jobs?!"

Last night we received a great email from a potential handbag supplier. We met her in Guangzhou at the wholesale market and had a private meeting with her in her store. (I say "private" only because most of the sellers keep their stores and merchandise behind curtains to prevent the other factories from stealing their designs.)

She was insistent to get our email address, and clearly she wanted it to warn us off going into the handbag business. Now even the merchants are warning us off! It's actually a sad tale of how hard it is for some of the Chinese factories right now.

dear mike:

i hope you don't mind  i call you like this. do you 
remember me? when you came to my shop i told you that 
i never see the buyer so handsome as you also your 
friend?

have you go back your country? or still in guangzhou? 
in fact i send the email to you. just by my curiosity. 
because of the financial crisis .many people hope can 
stop doing this business. all the factory can not bear 
the test of this business. for example: long time no 
have order. even if have order but the price is 
terrible. they don't know accept this order or cancel.

at the some time for the buyer .they are afraid to take 
the big order. and afraid some desight they order but 
can not sale in their country. always keep so many 
stock. however they were already begining. that is why 
they can not stop doing this business. they know if 
stopping they will lose more money. so they must stick 
to that. one year come to china for two time or three 
time. it is not easy for some buyer.

sorry! i just want to tell you that now it is too late 
to do this business. as i know you and your friend have 
a stable job. so i think no need to try this hard work. 
anyway it is just my personal advise. if you want to 
try. i hope i can give you some help.

ok. i hope you are happy and enjoy the time in china or 
in your country everyday. and i hope we can keep in 
touch. take care!