Simply Junior

Have you considered outsourcing for your small business? If you are like the majority of small business owners, the answer is probably not. In fact, many small business owners fail to realize the unique and cost saving benefits that global sourcing can provide their company.

While business owners are often offered countless tidbits of business advice, rarely does the advice offered include the suggestion of turning to other countries to fill staffing and manufacturing needs. This tip, however, is often one of the most useful that a small business owner can encounter. Outsourcing can easily save a great deal of money without requiring an owner to compromise on quality or production needs.

Several years ago, global sourcing was an option only for the largest companies. Negotiating with factories was difficult and finding skilled labor was almost impossible. A lot has changed in the past couple of decades. The worldwide market makes it easy to outsource manufacturing, skilled labor and call center needs to a variety of countries including China and India. Each company will need to carefully consider their manufacturing and staffing needs to best determine how outsourcing can benefit them. Nearly every small business start-up will find, however, that global sourcing can offer a large variety of cost saving solutions for their business.

Small business owners are often enjoyably astounded when they discover the many opportunities that are available. In fact, outsourcing can successfully accommodate a wide range of business needs. Factories can easily produce almost any product. These goods produced in other countries are often available at much lower price than many business owners are able to anticipate. This is not all. Outsourcing can help with various labor needs. There are many talented professionals available in a skilled labor workforce that can help to affordably meet many company needs and objectives. Call center work is also available at a fraction of the cost.

Business owners that have not considered global sourcing may be missing out on a valuable and cost saving opportunity. Before starting any small business, it is wise to consider the bounty of opportunities available through outsourcing and to determine how they can benefit your company.

As a wholesaler from China, I have many chances to see all sorts of scams from handbags to electronics. They are exposed by angry victims in business forums, blogs and even websites dedicated to Chinese scams. Reading them surely doesn’t feel good, not to say a lot of content sways from the wholesale topics to a pure hatred to the Chinese.

Scammers are obnoxious, but they are just a fraction compared to the legitimate ones. Their existence won’t dent the overall confidence of wholesaling from China. And more importantly, they are easier to spot and get rid of than you think, with this guide.

Check Reviews & Exclude Proven Scammers

What does your wholesaler look in the eyes of other buyers? Sometimes one thing that has happened to your wholesaler is enough to rule it out forever. You just need to take several minutes to find if your supplier has any priors.

The tip is to make a search on Google with the wholesaler’s business name, domain name, email address (prefix especially), telephone or cell phone number and other uniquely identifiable information. The aim is to see if your wholesaler has appeared or involved in any complaints, scam lists, and other negative conditions.

It should be mentioned that a legitimate company isn’t equal to that it should be of zero complaints.  You need to make an analysis about each of your supplier’s cases, to make sure whether it’s of scam nature or just due to an unsatisfactory product or service, though wholesalers of the latter case are often not comfortable to work with too.

You are lucky if your wholesaler has been proven in a scamming activity. But most times no such confirmation is available. On the one hand, new wholesalers emerge like mushrooms these days, too rapidly to get reviewed; on the other hand, bogus websites are created faster than they die out. A latest listed scammer you have discovered is often out of date. So it rarely happens a wholesaler you are talking with has already been listed. In fact, you may be shocked to know a fake company could set up hundreds of websites in order to maximize their victims.

Checking reviews won’t help you decide right away which wholesalers you should buy from, as it calls for further evaluation to choose your business partner, but it gives you clues which wholesalers you should dismiss.

Examine Wholesale Websites

Check the following indicators of your wholesaler’s website. When isolated, they may not mean anything. When coming together, however, they should ring some alarm bells.

1) Is it an independent site or hosted on another website?

If the wholesaler is hosted on another site, like free space, and B2B portals such as alibaba.com, try to track down its own website. If you can’t find the wholesaler’s own web presence, leave it.

Many would trust wholesalers or suppliers on B2B portals and take it for granted all suppliers on these portals are trustworthy simply because these portals are real. Not like that. B2B portals are the most abused web resources by bad guys, especially the second-tier B2B portals, which have almost become the hunting grounds for scammers. Don’t trust recommended companies or products on those sites too. The status of these listings is bought with money, not earned with their quality.

Whenever you get a wholesaler on a third party, never stay there or try to send an inquiry. Instead, you should try to find the wholesaler’s own website. If you can’t track it down, drop it.  Don’t waste your time.  You have to make your purchase 100% secure.

2) Look at the Website Name

Cheaters look like cheaters. Though the name of a website doesn’t decide the nature of the company, there’s something in the domain name.

Several types of domain names should call your special attention:

1) domain names that contain numbers;

2) domain names that are meaningless;

3) domain names that sound too big or sound like hype; and

4) domain names that pretend to be official.

The following domain names are from a scammers list:

1st-phones.com

16988.cn

adidas-nike.net

3seal.biz

5y8l.com

bag-trading.com

super-electronics.com.cn

shopping-kingdom.com.cn