Project Startup Update Week 27 - The name of the game is SEO

Hey y'all - it's been awhile since I've blogged. Now that I am also blogging for the business website, chances to write are fewer and further in between. But, because this is not only a way to update some of you guys, but also a way to look back later and see how the business "grew up", I'm going to try to do at least one update a week.

Overall, up until the past couple of weeks, I've been still nailing down our operational model and figuring out processes -- the best way to follow up with sales leads, making sure our testing lab partner was using the right methods, tweaking the report analysis, creating invoice forms, etc. Most of that has been done, so now the emphasis is on getting the work out and creating awareness.

Nowadays, no business, no matter how small, can get by without a website. Especially for us, where credibility is key to customer acceptance, and in this market, where expatriates turn to the internet to find answers to their questions more than back at home, we had to create a very professional website, and one that would be current, relevant, popular, and most of all, highly ranked in searches. Enter SEO or search engine optimization. Up until two weeks ago, this was just a term. I had no idea what went into the mystical Google ranking algorithm. Then once the website launched and I started playing around with it, looking at what sort of traffic it was getting (or not getting), I figured I had to learn how to make the website more visible.

I sent out requests for help to a few local SEO service firms. These guys are experts at making your website show up higher in search results. After a solid week talking with them (having companies pitch to you is definitely the best way to quickly come up to speed), I have a little sense of the lay of the land.

How your website ranks is based on a number of things, a continuously changing algorithm that varies between different search engines. But in general, there are three things that affect this:

o Onsite factors – how well your website is built: the content, presence of a blog, the amount of keywords in the content, metadata built in, tags in the photos, etc.

o Off-site factors – the interaction of your site with the rest of the internet community: is it referenced by other sites and are those sites quality, is it indexed by the search engines so they can regularly “crawl” your site, is it present in directories, do you have guest blog content posted on other sites that reference your website.

o Search engine marketing (SEM) – you can simply and immediately improve your ranking by paying for advertising that increases your score

The results of running our site through a few free automated assessment tools (is a good one told us that the site was already built pretty well and didn't have a lot of room for easy technical improvement. That leaves content creation (mainly quality blog posts) and link-building as the main areas of work. But, the nature of SEO is that this takes a lot of time, so your rank comes up slowly even if you're doing all the right things. So, what I think we're going to do is to start by giving Google some money through buying some Adwords advertising and then using that to get us instant awareness and also find out what keywords are most effective. Then, we'll use that insight to inform our SEO efforts, and when we've organically built good links, content, and exposure on the internet, scale back inorganic SEM and use our own efforts to stay high on the rankings.

That's the idea anyways, and I think we have a decent shot at it because this space is pretty immature and there are not a lot of competitors who are seriously competing for page ranking in English for our kind of business. To illustrate, a week after the site launched, the first result of Googling "air testing shanghai" turned up a reference to our site from my friend's blog about air quality and our own site turned up at #6. This was without the site even being "indexed" by Google's automated web crawler or conscious efforts. So, by spending some time doing things right, we hopefully should be able to turn up on page one of search results for the main keywords we think people are searching for.

One cool thing happened today. I have some Google alerts set up to keep me up to date on any significant relevant news. In this morning's batch (keywords: China indoor air pollution), I found a blog post I wrote this weekend! Now, if I could only figure out how to get people to read those posts :) ....

Meet the newest member of our family

(Guys at my regular fruit and produce stand)

Nope, not one of "those" emails :)

After 5 years of taking taxis, subway, bus, mototaxis, biking, and just plain walking, I broke down and bought a scooter. What made up my mind was not having income, paying 80rmb (~$12) round-trip 3x a week to go to jiujitsu, and seeing the taxi tolls add up.

So, I did a little research and found out that you can get electric powered cool Vespa-styled scooters for about 3400rmb or about $500. You get a lot of bike for that. Mine will do 55km/hr, is fairly zippy (any faster and I could get into trouble), comfortable, and has a range of supposedly over 50km with each charge. I chose the smaller of two models because I could get longer range and also to get something that is a little lighter and more maneuverable. Best, it's almost totally silent and gives off no emissions. Shanghai's moving to more of these and I think it's great.

I put on about 25km today and have the following conclusions:

1. A lot of crazy drivers (car and bike) out on the road. People turning left from the middle lane, running red lights, stopped in the middle of the road, trying to defy laws of physics... and this is just from day 1. I will definitely have to be driving defensively.

2. It's cold...I need a quality jacket and gloves. I also probably should get a filtration mask -- sucking in everyone's emissions not cool. I'm going to start wearing my skiing helmet. Pretty sure this breaks some sort of motorcycling etiquette rule, but hey, a lot of drivers wear velvet horse jockey helmets, so it's not that bad!

3. When you are riding on the road, you really feel alive. I was reminded of a college and Army buddy's description of riding his bike from Harvard to MIT back when we were going to ROTC -- "It's like a live frogger game!" I will definitely get to know the city a whole lot better this way and looking forward to it.

[Update: after 50km]

Discovered that the battery gauge is unreliable and that effective range is about 40km. Discovered that bike is difficult to push.

Project Startup: Business Launched Today!

It took 5 months, but we finally had our official opening on Sunday's Wellness Works fair!

We set up the booth at about 10am -- most of the other 30 vendors had already finished setting up. It was tough to fit all the stuff needed for the booth in one cab so we took one of the Expo minivans. Fortunately, with 3 interns (plus a

boyfriend), and my wife there, we got set up in only about 15 min. I think the booth turned out fairly decently. Several people who came by the booth during the day mentioned that it looked well thought out and pretty professional :)

We had a good location -- central, with no one to our back and no one competing on either side for signage. Our booth had essentially a backdrop with our logo on a field of green, then two self-standing banners. On the 1.8m table itself, we had a display of 9 common household pollutants and a guessing game where people had to match the pollutant to the proper

name and health effects. Not probably the most fun game, but at least it was an easier way to break the ice than a straight sell. On the right hand side, we had a lucky draw where people could win gas-removing green plants (we brought a snake plant, a peace lily, and several aloe veras), vouchers for free lead testing, vouchers worth 250 or 500rmb, and one grand prize of a free complete home assessment worth 2000rmb (around $300). Also on the table, we had a fair promotion flyer, brochures in Chinese and English, frequently asked questions, and a sample of the completed report as well as a raw Chinese test company report.

There wasn't too much traffic in the morning. At first we found out that it wasn't that easy to get people to leave their personal information. This is probably that we just didn't ask for it. I had

initially planned to offer a lucky draw to people in exchange for them going through a quick little mini-assessment, but in the future, the better idea is probably to just get them to leave a business card and a sense of what they are interested in and then follow up later. I was one of four speakers to give a little talk ("Indoor Environmental Quality in China: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", but last minute the venue changed. I am not sure if that was the reason, but there was low turnout and only about 10 people (besides our staff) were there. Fortunately, there was pretty good interaction and people asked a lot of good questions and it generated 2 leads who later came to the booth. I also found that one of the best ways to quickly get people to understand the value we add is to show them the Chinese report, which is pretty bare and just has numbers, and then show them our report, which has an initial customer profiling and recommendations on what to test, then graphical test results based on both Chinese and international standards, and then analysis of problem sources and recommendations. People understood that much more than anything else we showed or explained. We really should show this more, but I would be careful to release it as an electronic source, because it could be copied.

Chinese Marketing 101: one big takeaway is that having young, overly formal-dressed, nervous looking Chinese staff hovering definitely drives away traffic. I watched expats literally look up at the booth then veer away. When Sarah, the blonde foreigner was there by herself, she got tons of traffic.

There were other competitors and potential

partners at the fair and I went over to meet some of them. There were air purifier representatives, a water purifier company, and a health retailer. Fortunately, still no sign of anyone else doing anything like what we are doing. It was interesting that several of the representatives from the other companies said that they had heard of us, and at least one rep said he wanted to meet up later to talk about working together. Really is a small community or else word spreads quickly.

At the end of the day, we had 7 potential customer leads, of which 3 are highly likely to convert into test projects. The most interesting one was a guy from sweden who is having a mold problem and was almost begging us for our help. Unfortunately, we don't know too much about mold outside of what I've learned in books. The good news is that there is almost no one else in China who does, so we can at least add some value. When I went into his apartment to take a look (he lived in the apartment complex that was hosting the fair), I felt like I was walking into a tropical jungle. Mold loves humidity, so it wasn't hard to be able to tell him that no matter what he does, it won't be successful until he can reduce the humidity.

Since Sunday, I have been able to meet with the retailers, who want to partner with us to certify their products and co-market, and will be meeting with an air purifier manufacturer tomorrow in order to work out some sort of referral relationship. The tough thing will be finding a balance between keeping our independent third-party position, while also offering downstream solutions and being able to make some money off of it.

I also did a lot of research on mold to be able to advise the customer with the mold problem. Followed up with a call today and we spoke for about an hour. He is very happy to have someone to talk to and is an "ideal" customer. Not only is he a good customer, but if we succeed with him, we can almost certainly get more business in that apartment complex and he will probably be a good advocate. I sent a proposal earlier tonight.

In the next few weeks, we will need to keep ironing out our processes, do good work to get a solid reputation, and then start expanding our marketing channels. Once we hit about 10 customers, I think it will be time to pull the trigger on full-time staff and some investment on test equipment.

The website is live too and that's a whole another animal -- adwords, blog maintenance, promotions, cross-marketing, search engine optimization... take a look and let me know what you think. Send me a message if you don't know the website address.

It's better to burn out than to fade away...

Last night I went to feed the fish and tossed a couple pellets in. Normally, these are snapped up right away by "Jaws", one of our four fish, the one I've been training to be a goldfish piranha by giving him bloody mosquitoes I've slapped. He didn't bite. I looked around and couldn't find him. We have a lot of rocks and junk in our rock tank, so it's easy to miss a fish. The longer I looked, the more the sinking feeling grew. I didn't want to, but I looked down on the ground around the tank.

See, back when we got Jaws, he had er, a little too much bounce in his step. The first night, he jumped out of the tank twice. Then he seemed to settle down or realized that might be hazardous to his health. Every now and then though, we still heard the "bloop" sound of him doing a Free Willy. I looked around and was relieved to find no dead goldfish. Then I thought maybe our cats might have snagged him. Or the ayi (cleaning lady). No luck. Finally, I pull back the curtains, and there in the shadows of the corner, I see a shadow that looks like... a fish.

I wimped out. I made Sarah look and left the room. "It's him" she goes. I never thought I'd feel bad about a fish (we've probably flushed a dozen down the toilet in the past 18 months). But this guy was a survivor. It was a real bummer. And as I watched the other fish, I wondered what they were thinking. "Hey where'd that other guy go?" or did they think he escaped to freedom, kind of like in "The Running Man"?

Rest in peace little dude

Project Startup Update Week 19 - First customers!

They say that one of the major milestones in starting a business is the getting the first customer. I guess you could say we achieved that this week (inked the deal but haven't taken payment yet). Although I initially thought that the first bite would be from a friend who would be a test customer, it turned out to be another company in the health & wellness space. This company has been operating in Beijing for a few years now, has done well in selling retail health products and recently expanded to water and air. They decided to private label a water filtration device (healthily priced at over USD 1000). Yet, amazingly, they didn't have any R&D or test results to show how well the filtration device was doing! Normally, when you certify a water purification device through an agency like the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation), you undergo rigorous testing for device quality, safety, marketing truthfulness, and most importantly, contaimination reduction claims. They didn't get this certified (it's not a requirement in China, surprise surprise), and so had no idea whether this was working or not. They had gone to a water testing company in Beijing and were not satisfied. When I pressed for details, they said that it was because the company gave them no guidance on what they should test, didn't seem to do it scientifically, and just gave them a report with no interpretation.

This was great because their experience is exactly what we are trying to address. So, I spent probably close to 20 hours either meeting with the product manager, giving them free advice about Shanghai water, different filtration systems, researching the certification process, advising on contaminants and health effects, then suggesting different courses of action. The good side effect of this is that I learned a lot in the process. Probably put together the only 6 page statement of work for a $1200 project in existence, hehe. Although it took almost 2 months, this week they finally gave the go-ahead on a fairly comprehensive water comparison testing. If we do a good job (which I'm pretty confident we can deliver), not only do we establish credibility with our testing partner that we are doing real business of a healthy size (~$1200 project), we also are building a future business partnership with this client. They've talked about selling or pushing our testing services in their retail store and we're also interested in them being the fulfillment partner for some solutions.

Today, we also had our first residential customer! It was my childhood best friend who's lived in SH for 6 years. Recently married and expecting a baby AND having just moved into a new apartment, he and his wife, had two good reasons for getting tested. Of course, even if he wasn't interested, I would have leaned on him pretty hard, since I was his best man :) I ran them through a questionnaire about their building profile, health conditions, symptoms, etc. They didn't raise any alarm bells, so I recommended a middle of the road sort of package, focusing on air particulates, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and lead identification, which are all particularly relevant to expectant mothers. The inspection went smoothly, except that it was a little long (2 hours long). His results will be pretty baseline.

Over the next couple of weeks, we are running a friends and family special, which lets us fine tune our procedures, reports, etc, get feedback, and hopefully spread word of mouth. In exchange, friends and family get tested at near cost. I just sent out the brochure in an email on Friday, and the weekend has been pretty quiet, but hopefully there will be some nibbles in the next few days.

Last mini-milestone: we officially completed our business incorporation in HK last week! Why incorporate in HK? Setting up a wholly-foreign owned enterprise (WFOE) in China is a long, iron-bound process, and making any changes to equity ownership, etc is painful. So, many companies set up a holding company in HK and then make changes through that. The HK process only took about 2 weeks (and $1600 or so). Pretty cool feeling to have the corporate stamps and embossing tool. I went a little crazy and ran around embossing everything in sight :)

China taxes are weird

I got a call from the agent who is helping me incorporate both the Chinese and the Hong Kong company.  The HK company has to be set up as a shell company to own the Chinese company because trying to make any changes to the Chinese company equity ownership is apparently a pain in the ass.  Also, there are some tax benefits.  In any case, I'm shelling out an extra $1700 to set up the HK company and an extra $1300 in fees every year for accounting and business license.  Not real happy about it, but it will leave me the option and I won't kick myself down the road if I need to get investors.

Anyhow the agent tells me that the business district she was going to register me in has arbitrarily changed its preferential tax policies.  Despite the tax law change in 2008 that unified taxes between Chinese and foreign companies, each local govt still has the ability to do little dope deals.  So, since their main objective is to attract investment, the govt of Fengxian had a sweetheart deal with my registration agent to refund 30% of my revenue tax (5% of revenues) and 15% of my business profit tax (25%) back to me.  Quite a good deal and I wasn't expecting it at all.

Unfortunately, Fengxian decided to reduce this by half.  So, now I'm asking the agent to go searching for greener pastures.  The agent obviously doesn't want to do it because they have a special deal with that district, but they should be shopping around for their customers.  It's really surprising that the agents don't bring this up as a selling point, because that could be VERY substantial over the long run depending on the size of the company.

But I guess it also makes sense because it's probably not something they want the central government to know is going on...

 

Pound of sweat

I've just sent off draft one of content to my web page designer.  I tell you what...I think anyone in marketing should have to go through the process of creating a website -- from layout to content.  The content has taken me the most time -- probably close to 40 pages in content, complete with graphics, photos and source references (of which I am guessing I'll probably want to delete about half for skimmability)  But, the layout has been the hardest.  

Maybe I'm just totally left-brained, but doing the home page mockup kind of left me feeling really drained.  I'm just not creative.

Back to the point -- this whole exercise forces you to think about who your customers are, why they give a rat's ass about your website, products, and services, and forces you to prioritize.  It was actually a really useful process.

Let's see what the designer thinks though...

In other news, got intern #1 working, who although he's an undergrad senior, seems to be pretty sharp.  Nice not to be a one-man band anymore.  Two other master's candidates, both at Jiaotong's Environmental Studies dept, to call up tomorrow.  I like how some Chinese students put their photos on their resumes.  In some cases that works to their benefit.  Other times.... heh

All work and no play makes me a dull boy

A few days ago, I decided to take a day off and finally check out what the World Expo was all about.  The Shanghai government gave every legal resident household a free ticket and 200rmb to thank them for putting up with the construction and preparation but the ticket expires in Aug, so I had to go by today.  I didn't do too much homework - just went online to check out the buzz on some of the best pavilions and then printed put the schedule of events, which seemed to be pretty repetitive and small-time.

Took a cab to West Yanan Lu and wanted to catch Line 4 to Luban Lu, one of the Expo entrances on  the Puxi side, but I forgot that two lines both run off the same track and lost about half an hour . Doh! At least this happened on a day when I wasn't in a rush. Might as well get used to waiting.

10 min walk from subway stop and I was there. Lots of space for queues but no lines, through security in 5 min (don't bring liquids or lighters).

Went to check the event calendar and found there was a Gracie Brazilian jiujitsu (what I train) demo at night!
Then I started wandering in a general direction in that area. 

World Expo Museum - skip, just some audiovisual screens on past exhibitions, not even a narrative

Pavilion of urban footprint - not bad. Supposed to be the evolution of cities, but there are just a lot of static displays and no narrative our explanation of significance.  Actually there are a few videos that had some text, but no one was reading.  Kind of like drive-bys.  Looking at how many cameras are going off around me though, I guess this is what the chinese market wants. Photo opps and cheesy disneyland-like displays.  Been there, done that.  It's a little depressing to see especially around the displays that atte explaining concepts like sustainability that more chinese could be exposed to.

Japan Commercial Pavilion - only had to wait 17 min for this one, even less than the 30 min posted. It was a series of about 7 short marketing pieces by japanese companies.  Some were gee whiz (3D), others emotional, what's funny is that you had no options on what to see. Just had to watch all.  The highlight was that a few (about 10%) of the visitors won an invite in their gift bags to visit the"worlds most expensive bathroom". My luck held out and I had one.  Other than a solid gold toilet, however, this was no different than any nice Japanese office bathroom.

Next, I decided to go check out a different area. I went to Area B, Oceania and Asia, taking the free subway one stop.

Australia - impressive red block building very much in character with the Outback. I have been to Australia a few times and spent a fair amount of time there, but the line was short. the 360 theater was technologically nifty but lacking in content.

NZ - Virtually no wait.  I was drawn by the polynesian/mauri dancing performance, but they actually had a decent pavilion.  I thought it didn't do a good job capturing the amazing scenery and overemphasized the cities, but I guess that was intentional. to offset that though, they had this sort of landscape on top that even had a live wall of plants.  air seemed cleaner.

Philippines - No wait either.  given the recent killings of HK tourists due in part to police incompetence, I would have expected some backlash and one of the workers said that that there had been some response, but mostly not nasty. this pavilion was very accurate to how I know the philippines. Focused on music and disorganized.  But one thing made this a favorite for me: free massage.  Yep, masseuses from the Shangrila Hotel gave 10 min massages. was very nice.

Given how the lines were so light and after some food court workers told me that this was the fewest people they'd seen in awhile, I decided to go spend my remaining time this trip on the more crowded things.

Made my way to China. That building is imposing. Holy cow. Best place to take good photos is from the neighboring sky bridge that connects to all the retail and restaurants.  Unfortunately I couldn't get in because I hadn't pre-registered.  They give those out every morning at 9am at all of the gates.  I asked one of the info booth volunteers which gate had the fewest people and she said gate# 2, on Puxi side.  I also checked out Macau's pavilion from the outside but couldn't get a good photo. It is in the shape of a rabbit.  As one China blogger put it, didn't a single person on the Macau committee stop and say, "Wait a second, it's a fucking bunny??"

Turkey - 10am min wait, nifty architecture, and almost like a museum inside. They are also the first I'd seen to use bluetooth to send details as you walked through the pavilion.  Good idea.

Ireland - the "look how many famous Irish there are!" pavilion. I waited 15 min  which was about 10 min longer than this exhibit was worth. nice grass on the outside.

England - I mainly went just to see the building architecture. There are fiber optic cables all on the outside, supposedly each with a seed inside.  The net effect is that the pavilion looks like a fluffy koosh ball or maybe a dandelion. This is one design concept that must new seen to be believed.  It really does look shiny and round from a distance and then hazy up close. My camera even had a tough time focusing! There was still a big line and I've seen enough of the UK, so have it a skip.

France - this was the last pavilion I had time for and it was worth it because I can definitely say that without a doubt it was the most impressive pavilion I saw all day. First, it looked nice outside. Sophisticated, classy, cubist.  Wait was less than 20 min. Inside the courtyard, out looked a little like a French estate garden.  The theme was the "sensual life" so obviously there was a lot of emphasis on indulging the senses. The thought that came to me as I was walking through was a science and technology museum (which I ve always loved). Lots of overactive exhibits, lots of pizzazz for a reason. There were booths that had smells, lots of surround sound, and one cool thing was that they had the kitchen of the attached french restaurant integrated into the exhibits. 

After this, I had to get to the BJJ demo, so I got back over to E District. It was a pretty good show put on by another local school with attendance from fighters from Brazil and Abu Dhabi.  They did have random dancers, doing everything from traditional Chinese dress to Brazilian Carnevale costumes to cheerleader outfits which was weird.  Mixed in with bloody scenes of mixed martial arts, ultimate fighting championships and hard hitting demos, they also had some wushu and soft flowing taichi performances that really looked more like a dance performance.  Weird.

So 9 exhibits in about 10 hrs plus watching two shows was a pretty good day.

Week 11 of Project Startup: Two steps backwards, one step forward

I've just returned from a couple of chaotic weeks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and then Taiwan again.

I was first in Taiwan for my grandpa's funeral. It was a short (20 hr) bittersweet trip. Although sad to see him like that and sadder to see how broken up everyone was, it was amazing to hear some of the stories about him and how he touched so many people's lives. I also got to meet relatives I never knew before.

Went on to Indonesia to spend a week with my cousin. She's just recently gotten certified as a scuba diver and I was excited to try to help introduce her to the underwater world. We spent 5 days doing the beach thing in Central Sulawesi at a German-run place called Prince John Resort in Tanjung Karung, and then decided to "rough it" a bit by going out to a remote national park. It was definitely an adventure and merits its own blog entry. I'll post it later :)

Then back to Taiwan for my high school best friend's wedding. I was the best man, but I think I actually took the duty more seriously than my friend! Typical exchange -- Me: "Hey K, what's going on with the rehearsal?" K: "Um, rehearsal?" It was in a gorgeous location, Taiwan's northeast coast, at a resort called the Leo. Other than some thunderstorms that interrupted the reception dinner at inopportune times, things went well. The afterparty went on pretty late and I didn't go the distance because we had an early morning flight the next morning and Sarah decided to call it a night early.

I came back to Shanghai ready to get a jump on the business again, and checked in with my assistant/intern as soon as I got back. She had two pieces of unwelcome news. First, the two local Chinese companies that I had met with before leaving and had counted on to be my subcontractors had both backed out. We had good meetings and I thought that they were both onboard to do the environmental testing for us. So it was a bit of a shock to find out how they had responded to the letter I asked my assistant to write to them. One company contact seemed impatient, like he couldn't be bothered to provide us the information we were asking for. The other guy, a young manager that I got along well with (we were both former military), inexplicably said that he had heard we had contacted many companies and didn't want to do business with us. Very disappointing news.

Then to pile on to this, my intern, H, who has been invaluable in every aspect, but mainly in dealing with translations and business development with Chinese partners, informed me that her Ph D advisor was putting her on a full-time project in Wuhan in a week and she'd be unavailable to continue with the project. Not good news.

So, that was the two steps back. Within the first couple of days after I returned, though, I did make some progress. I met with the website designing company and we hashed out a plan. Since the website is such a big part of marketing and customer education (and demand creation), I was happy to have a plan in place. For $1500, I'll be pretty happy if we can pull this off without too many complications. Second, I was able to get some more information on incorporation. Registering my company is actually a pain in the ass. In the US, you can easily incorporate for a couple hundred dollars. In China, it costs about $2000-10000, depending on what agent you use and where you incorporate. Also, many WOFEs (wholly owned foreign entities) first incorporate in Hong Kong and then make that holding company the parent company registered for the China WOFE. This is to givev more flexibility around changing equity ownership and in moving money around. However, this is an additional ~$2000 to setup and an additional ~$500/yr to do the accounting/tax filing, even if you don't even run money through the HK entity. So, I had to figure out whether the pros outweighed the cons. Usually, the best way to get answers is to ask potential consultants or agents who are hungry for your business, so I talked to about 5 of them, plus an accountant. I was left more confused than when I started. What complicates things is that since I'm a US citizen, the IRS taxes me on my global income. So, for most people, it makes sense to move profits to HK in order to lower their tax bill. However, as far as I can tell, it really doesn't matter if you're a US citizen because you have to report global income from dividends no matter where they're distributed. There's probably some way to game the system, but my tax guy in the US is a pretty straight shooter and won't tell me.

Anyhow, still a work in progress -- hope to have our first customers in about 3 weeks.

Trip report on WG / YeYe's funeral

 Hi everyone, thought I'd share my notes on how this weekend's funeral
went.  Please excuse typos as I had to write this all on a mobile
phone (touchscreen keyboards suck).

Wai Gong funeral service trip
(7 Aug 2010)

Flew out on a direct flight from Pudong (less than 2 hours). TSA was
smaller than I thought. Caught Fang4 hang 2 bus to Keelung from bus
stop# 3 outside Terminal 1 and was in Keelung 30 min later. Getting a
cab was a little awkward because the cabby was an elderly guy who
couldn't read my street directions and I didn't have pinyin. I
eventually arrived comfortably before the service and it was nice to
see Mom and all the uncles.

The space for the service was pretty industrial and kind of loud, but
it was done up nicely with wreaths all around and seating set up for
about 100 people.  Mom introduced me to a number of people. Zhong Hui
and San Shu Gong were the main people I remember.  I changed into my
suit and then as the church choir rehearsed, the family had a small
service by WG's casket.  He looked small and childlike, with only his
face showing. It bothered me a little that I didn't have a strong
emotional response, but I think its because it just didn't seem like
WG at all. During the private service, some of the uncles broke down.
It was hard to watch.  Zhong Hui was particularly broken up.

The service started soon after, with about 70 people in attendance.
It was a Christian service with hymns, prayers, intermixed with
eulogies and testimonies. Mom gave a really good eulogy that touched
on his biography and how he was as a father and husband.  I had the
chance to speak as well.  Here's the English version:
_____
Greetings friends and family. I am HHW's grandson and am representing
the younger generation.

Many today have talked of Wai Gong's generosity, his great deeds, and
loyalty, so I'd like to speak of his humor and playfulness.  There are
two short stories I want to share.

When I was a boy, I spent a year living in Taichung with WG and WP.  I
was a very naughty boy.  Not a lot of people in their 70s would be
willing to take on a 7 yr old boy, but I think WG really enjoyed
having a kid around.  I would climb above a doorway and refuse to come
down until WG said, "I beg you to come to dinner." He always did this
in a joking way and it was a private joke between us for many years.

My cousin Stephanie also told me a story.  She and my uncle HZ Ming
often would take WG shopping at the nearby grocery store.  He loved to
cook and loved to go shopping. This time they got separated and they
couldn't find WG.  After searching everywhere, they feared he had hurt
himself.  Finally they decided to call Wai Poh at home to tell her
what was going on.  Guess who answered the phone? WG.  He said, "You
guys were so slow that I just came back myself."

We will remember WG not as a 100 yr old man, but as a grandpa whom we
liked to introduce to our friends because he was "cool".  I am sure
that as WG is in heaven by WPs side he is surely teasing her with a
grin on his face like he did over a lifetime.
____

There was a really good slide show set to music that Uncle Larry and
Aunt Ann arranged.  It demonstrated all different aspects of WGs life
during different phases, whether as a young man or in Yangzhou just
before he passed.  The most memorable was a short clip of him playing
chess with an old friend.  The friend was saying, "let's take a
break." WG looks at his watch and says, "stop stalling, let's go!"

Finally, Uncle Larry thanked by name many of the family and friends
who had helped out during the past few months.  Yu Jiu Ma, Dr. Dong,
and Hsu Zhong Bo and Hsu Zhong Dao were singled out for contributions.

Following this, the family went to the casket to lay flowers on WGs
chest and say a final goodbye.  It was heartwrenching.  We formed a
line to say thanks to those who had come to the service.  Then we took
the casket out to the hearse to go to the crematorium.

That night we had a big dinner.  I got a chance to meet many of our
Taiwan relatives, from Zhong Yi, the baby faced 42 yr old youngest
brother who is building a camera distributorship in TW, Zhong Dao, who
retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Information branch of the Army,
and Sun, Zhong Hui's husband, who was a ordnance guy until he retired
as a full colonel.

As funerals tend to be, there was laughter and good memories.  The
next morning, I had to head to the airport early, but the rest of the
clan headed to Taichung to see Tai Gong's grave.

It was a good way to go out and everyone contributed something to help
out.  I was really proud of our family.

--
Louie Cheng

Hsu Heng Wen

1908 (Jiansu Province, China) - July 27, 2010 (Taiwan)

I miss you Wai Gong.

Week 7 - Websites, branding, incorporation

It seems that a lot of people around here in China are in some stage of starting a business.  A business could be anything from an idea to an ongoing, revenue-generating company.  It's therefore easy to continue "working on an idea" for a long long time.  Of course easier if you have another source of income :)  I didn't want to be like that and wanted to stay on a project timeline.  Part of that was because of my own anal nature but also because I always kind of blew off people who used a business idea as an excuse to be a bum.  Also, my business partner would only be around for 2 months and I needed to make sure that he was putting in as much as he could, which would only happen if I was driving and working harder.

So, we have had a rough project plan with some milestones, but mainly just continuing to move the ball.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I saw a notice for the annual Shanghai Expatriate (Expat) Fair.  Here's the description:

-------------

The Expat Show Shanghai is the biggest gathering of the foreign community with over 12,000 visitors set to attend. The show was created to serve as a platform for over 200 exhibitors to promote their services and products to make the lives of expatriates living in Shanghai easier, not only that but the show is host to many activities such as 'Live Performances', 'Mom and Babies Fair' and a 'Private Kindergarten' to allow for an enjoyable day for all the family. Already in its 4th edition, the 'The Expat Show Shanghai' is further expanding with the inclusion of the 'Cuisine Festival' which will bring over 60 exhibitors from the culinary world, it will bring prestigious restaurants, chocolate and wine tasting as well as the chance to cook with some of the best chefs in France. This year's edition is not to be missed, so make sure you attend!

-----------

The mark was on the wall.  It seemed a little bit daunting.  We have no partners.  We lack clarity on our offerings.  We haven't tested on customers.  We have a company name but no branding, logo, or website.  We are not incorporated.  Hey, let's do it anyways.

So, now that's the pressure.  Working pretty hard now.  We have one intern, who is a finance PhD student at Jiaotong University and my business partner working part-time.  He has a very similar job to what I used to have -- Director of Strategy and Business Development for a global firm.  He's really good at networking and is an idea guy, but tends to shy away from actual hands on operations -- working with vendors, doing customer interviews, hunting down supplies, creating marketing content.  My dad is in town for a month and also is helping.  With a background in botany and as a former science teacher, he's a natural to help with questions around mold, water quality, etc, so I've given him a list of 4 things to focus on.  He tends to get distracted easily, so hopefully, he can stay on target.

So, am knocking down the different requirements needed before launch one at a time.  Yesterday was website and logo.  I went to meet with a French-Chinese design company here in Shanghai yesterday.  They were quite thorough and professional in walking me through the website creation process.  My contact suggested a few page designs and will provide a full quote to me later today.  Interestingly, he suggested that I move my hosting from GoDaddy.com in the US to a Hong Kong based server to improve search engine optimization.  The thought is that most expats in China use google and google currently redirects through HK and HK-based websites get a higher score than those based in other companies.  

Last night, I also took my brother's (and another friend's) advice to "crowd source".  Instead of trying to design our own logo (impossible since I'm not creative) or go to a design company, you essentially post a reward and a community of designers submits ideas.  For $200 ($270 with fees), you can get  20-50 ideas.  It's a great way to get a wide variety of ideas.  So I went to 99designs.com and posted a description of the company, our target market, and some of my preliminary ideas and the reverse auction will go for a week.  That, in turn, will drive the website.  You can also do this for website, but I think since our website is pretty simple, I may just go with a single local company that I can iterate with.  Interestingly, when I brought up crowd-sourcing to the design firm I met with, I expected them to scoff at it or talk about how bad the quality would be.  The guy did not.  He sort of thought about it, said that he could not go as low as the design price at the bottom tier ($495), but that they wouldn't be that far off.  Music to my ears!

Ok, onto trying to get a vendor slot at the fair now...

My three week US tour

So, I've been in the US for the past week or so, going from city to city seeing friends and family, meeting with potential business partners, and still spending a few hours each day plugging away at the business prep. I am hoping that by mid-September, when school has just started, we will be ready for a "soft opening", meaning that we will have preliminary marketing materials ready, website up, business named, and partners in place and tested. We'll start with friends and family in Shanghai at cost.

This trip, I will be in the following places:

NH - Sarah's folks and brother and sis-in-law and their ultra cute kid Ozzy. Man, NH is beautiful!

Boston - Spent a scorching July 4th with Sarah B and her family up in their place on the water on the North shore. Two kids are doing great and I am amazed how much the little one, Eliza, can talk. Then couple days with my uncle and aunt in Lincoln. Last few days will be staying with my buddy John and his wife in downtown. Was hoping to go diving (even brought some of my gear), but my dive buddy Bill suddenly got busy with work and I'll probably stay dry (sad no lobster diving this time around). Instead, the old dive gang (Bill, John, and Don) will go shooting at the range and then grab dinner. Got to see college buddy Joe before he moves down to NJ. I'm also here for my friend Paul's wedding (after 8 years of engagement!) and did karaoke last night with him and some friends.

Work wise, Sarah and I went to check out the house, moved stuff out of the attic and basement to go up to NH, and cleaned up around the property. After 7 months on the market, we are ready to drop the price if that's what's needed to sell. Selling it for less than we bought it 8 years ago is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's just too painful a process managing from overseas and the longer it sits vacant, the more likely the house will continue to have things happen to it. Bright spot is that our neighbor, the 22yr old punk and part-time pot dealer, has bought a house in Roxbury and will be moving out. FINALLY.

I also visited a well-established environmental company started by a Harvard professor. I was referred to the Harvard professor through a recent grad I met in Shanghai. The company is doing pretty much what we're looking to do, though they are light years ahead. After meeting with two of their folks for about 2 hrs, we agreed that there was a potential partnership or some way of working together. I came back with some ideas and the next step is for us to provide them a concrete business plan, resumes and some references. It's new ground for me and a little bit scary, but also exciting.

New York: Will be taking the Chinatown bus to spend a few days with Isaac and Jaime. Might try and see one or two other old friends.

San Francisco: Last stop on the US tour. Will spend 5 days with brother Loren and finally get to hang out with his darling daughter, possibly the cutest 2 year old in the world. I'll also stay with cousin Lyz, although I'll see her in less than a month in Indonesia. And, will hang out with college roommate Anton. He's one of our regular college pack that does an annual roadtrip. But this year looks like the trip may be in jeopardy, so it will be good that I've been able to see all of them on this trip.

Grandpa's ups and down's

I haven't updated on Wai Gong recently. After leaving Yangzhou (he was there for 6 weeks), he was in good shape -- potentially a slight lung infection, but he was alert and fever had broken. We were primarily moving him to Taiwan for better hospice care and physical therapy.

He was escorted there by two uncles. From that point on, I had to rely on email updates and the occasional phone call to Taiwan. Things started going downhill about 3 weeks ago. The stories about the elderly having a major surgery or stay in the hospital and never leaving seemed to be coming true. The lung infection developed into a type of pneumonia, and the difficulty in breathing led to pain and sort of a half-asleep, half-waking state. He also developed edema, a stomach ulcer, and even a fracture was identified in his neck. Doctors decided to move him to the ICU.

The whole family (mother's generation) managed to get out to Taiwan to be with him in case it was time for him to go. Displaying his typical spirit however, he refused to go so easily, and has sort of bounced back. The latest is another uptick for the better:

"This is a milestone day for yeye; doctor removed the breathing tube this afternoon without any problem. He had a couple days of "practice" before this. When I saw yeye at 2, and again at 7, he was breathing normally with oxygen mask and the O2 sat was 98%. Doctor said he is doing fine and if everything goes well he will move yeye out of ICU to regular floor on Monday.

He had the dialysis yesterday late in the day. This morning doctor told us that 5 kg of fluid was removed from his body, and the chest x-ray showed much improvement. Based on that the doctor made his decision for removing the tube. Except for his left hand, he does not show much sign of edema. His left hand (paralyzed from the stroke?) still is pretty swolllen and the skin is shiny. I will ask the doctor in the morning if there is anything can be done since dialysis apparently did not work on the left hand.

Yeye is still very weak, but he would open his eyes (barely) when we tell him who we are. He can not talk yet. At one point tonight, he gestured with his hand and we thought he wanted to write. We put a pen in his hand but he was too weak to even hold the pen. Nurse wants us to continue to work with him moving his joints, which is what Isaac and I did every time we visited him.

Tomorrow I will leave yeye and head back to US. I am hesitating telling him that in fear that he might react badly. Since there will be at least one family member at his bed side for the next couple weeks, I may decide not to tell him that I am leaving. If he asks (hope), whoever is with him can just tell him that chung ping had to go back home to take care of Billie."

A lot of people pulling for him, but we've also come to the conclusion that we just want the pain and suffering to be minimized and don't want to push our desire for him to go on onto him if it involves more trauma. In the past, he's indicated many times his desire to go. It's in divine hands now.

Powerpoint Ranger no longer

I was doing some financial projections on the company (seductively easy to do when you haven't even chosen a company name yet!) and wanted to do a projected value of the company in 3 years.  I had to refer back to notes from business school on how to do this and popped open an old powerpoint.  I then realized that it has been over 3 weeks since I've opened Powerpoint.  I don't think I've gone that long since college!

And I ain't complain'.

Wanted: Advisor or subject matter expert

Hey guys,

My top priority right now is to find a subject matter expert who I can ask questions and who has experience being in my shoes. Ideally, it is someone who runs his own company doing indoor air quality testing and remediation, but could also be someone who is in the business as a customer (ie. a building management company, facilities management, a developer, etc).

Ideally it's also someone who has few ties to China and wouldn't consider taking this idea and running with it themselves. I'm willing to pay a consulting fee for the right person who could serve as an advisor.

If you guys know of anyone who might fit the bill, please let me know... or if you have suggestions on how to find someone.

Thanks!

Goodbye corporate life

This marks the second week of being self-employed. I guess I should say "self-unemployed" to be more accurate. Although I am still officially on the payroll until the end of the month, my last day at work was a little more than a week ago.

That I walked away from my comfy job as Director of Strategy and Business Development (Asia) for a Fortune 100 global information company without another job lined up might be a little surprising to some of you who know me. Since graduating from college, I've always been part of a big organization, a cog in the wheel, making my way up the ladder. It's probably in my nature to like groups where it's clear where you stand and where you have a place and can see how advance. Heck, it surprises myself, but this isn't something I came to lightly.

I hadn't felt passion for my job for awhile. Despite the nice title, being in senior management, and being able to travel around the globe on the company dime, I just didn't feel that I was making a tremendous impact. At the risk of sounding corny, I've never had a clearly defined career track -- I've only felt that as long as I was learning something new each day, and could justify my paycheck at the end of the day, I was on the right path.

I wasn't feeling this, and the deployment last year made me feel it even more acutely. Last year at this time, I was helping in a tangible way to improving the rebuilding of Iraq and getting our guys out of a war. People were coming up to me, commenting on the value of the information I was getting out or the training sessions, and despite some of the conditions, I was having fun and looking forward to more days than not.

I hoped that coming back to work, I'd be more refreshed and ready to go. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case -- within a few days, it felt like I had never left. When you start thinking that you wish you were back in a war zone, it usually means that something is wrong. Part of this was just the nature of the function I did -- strategy guys are usually happiest when they accept the fact that they are advice providers, not doers. If they can deal with the fact that they can't control what gets implemented, they're ok. I didn't like that and tended to try to get my hands dirty. Being in a regional role is also tough -- you're squeezed in the middle between the global business unit that makes the product strategy and the country owners who choose what they want to execute. So, frequently, I felt like I was either relabeling strategy and just repackaging stuff, or if I came out with a particular direction, I would sometimes find that the countries were actually doing something totally different. Covering so many different country markets in my job also meant that I tended to be spread pretty thin. It was all pretty unsatisfying.

I had intended on giving notice in June, but a talent review forced my hand, since I didn't want to make my boss look stupid by not giving him a heads up. It went very quickly. Once I confidentially told one person in the company (the global HR head), I had taken a step that couldn't be taken back and it was a big relief. From then, I had to have the conversation with my boss, which was pretty painful, but in the end I just told him that my heart wasn't in it and it was better for him to find someone who could better meet his expectations.

The last 3 weeks was essentially transitioning and tying up loose ends. I was looking forward to taking a couple months off to travel, work on personal projects, and figure out what I wanted to do, but it was weird. As soon as i decided to leave my company, a lot of other opportunities started popping up from all directions -- headhunters, friends, relatives. It was a relief -- I didn't even really remember how to job search. But, I decided that I wanted to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum and try something entrepreneurial. I always had a lot of respect for people who went their own way, and having missed the whole internet boom in the late 90s, I thought that if I went to some corporate post during the China wild rush, I'd never forgive myself, especially while I didn't have a big family to rely on me and Sarah could be my sugar mommy.

So what instead? I sat down and brainstormed one day on a plane. I made a list of growing market trends (Chinese domestic tourism, real estate values, the education market), what I had to offer (consulting skills, services know-how, insight into the expat market), and what I was interested in (travel, operational roles, socially-redeeming activities). A few ideas popped up, but nothing breathtaking.

Then, on the way back from a golf trip in the Philippines with a good buddy (also a b-school classmate, though a few years earlier), he brought up an idea he had come up with but had never put into play. The idea was basically around being an indoor environmental (air, water) testing and remediation (correcting the problem) company serving the expat market. He had come upon this idea when he himself was trying to get his apartment tested and found no good companies that could help him navigate the different environmental hazards, recommend what tests he needed to get, and help tell him how to fix the problem.

I enjoy discussing business ideas (screening good and bad ideas was a big part of my job before), so we went at it at 20k feet (literally) and by the time we landed, I was pretty excited. There was an good market opportunity, it was not capital intensive (therefore not very risky), and I had someone who I could work with for a couple months before he went back to the states.

So, over the past month or so, we have been doing all the groundwork of building a business, from coming up with an offering document, doing market research, scanning for partners, understanding business incorporation options, preparing marketing, talking to potential customers, and pricing. Some of this was what I might have done before, but only on a project plan for someone else to do, and now that this is for myself, it's really a lot of fun. There will be a lot more to do, but succeed or fail, I will learn a lot from this venture, so I'm quite excited and have few regrets about making the leap.

I'll continue to make updates to this -- it might serve as a record to myself later on of the lessons I'm learning! Please weigh in with comments or suggestions, especially from anyone with experience in doing their own business or who might know something about the indoor environmental testing business.

Things I learned about the Chinese Medical System

So, over the past month, I've had the chance to make some first-hand observations about medicine in China. Some of it is good, some bad, some just comical...

1. Incredibly cheap - 30 days of inpatient care in a semi-private room, total hip replacement surgery, all drugs, and stroke care cost only about $7000 US.
2. That said, You sometimes get what you pay for
3. Concept of PT and rehab doesn't really exist here
4. Most hospice care comes from the patient's family, not nurses. Feed patients yourself, have to call when IV bottles are complete
5. Don't understand what doctors have to do. Dr. Dong was always around, then also went home for long lunches.
6. Learned how to move patients around on a bed, clean them, put a bedpan in, use a pee bottle and catheter, give an enema, and use a tube to reduce gas buildup

Catching up on lost time - PT 1, Grand Dad's woes

I'm long overdue for an update, as a few significant events have happened in the past several months.

First, my grandfather on my mom's side (Wai Gong) came for a visit to China and had some major medical incidents while here. He had done this trip many times, as recently as just a year ago. My mother was also here. They all wanted to see the World Expo and to go visit our distant relatives in Yangzhou, about 4 hours' bus ride from Shanghai.

It was great to see Wai Gong -- he had been a big part of my childhood, raising me for a year in Taiwan when I was 7. For a 102 yr old guy, he was still getting around on a cane, and had a razor-sharp mind. It was also great for him to see Sarah -- she hadn't seen him (or the rest of my family) in probably 5 years or so.

Then in Yangzhou, WG slipped in the bathroom and broke his hip. Not only was it broken, it was seriously crushed (as I saw from the xrays). Most people know that a broken hip is a serious injury for elderly people, due to the complications from surgery, possible infection during bedrest, and likelihood of further reduced mobility even if everything goes right. Adding in his age and worse, the fact that this was happening in a third tier Chinese city, and our worst nightmares seemed to be unfolding.

Fortunately, one of our relatives (the husband of my mom's uncle's daughter), a young, serious guy by the name of Dong Xiancheng, is an orthopedic doctor at Yangzhou's best hospital, a large new hospital built in the past several years. The Chinese guanxi system kicked in to our benefit as he was able to fast track WG to get surgery that night, with two department heads doing the surgery and anesthesia.

The surgery was a huge success. They did an entire hip replacement and WG was not only conscious afterwards, but quite alert and even cracked a joke or two. The next few days were tough as the pain set in, but WG was handling it. I did learn that the Chinese medical system operates quite differently than the hospitals in the US, but it was nothing we couldn't overcome and will many family members there to help out, we managed ok.

Mom and I left 4 or 5 days after the accident. WG was stabilized and we had set up care and funding for the Yangzhou family to start rehabilitating him. I had to get back to work, but arranged to come back in about a week. While I was in Shanghai, I was in daily contact with the YZ family and handling correspondence for all the worried family back in the US.

WG was making real progress -- he had managed to start walking again, and I was able to speak with him on the phone (surprising given that he's pretty deaf now). Then, the helper noticed that WG was simply spacing out, and she called the doctor. WG was unresponsive and they diagnosed a stroke. I arrived the day after this and everyone had long faces -- WG had lost movement in his left side and was in a haze.

During the next week, we stayed with him night and day and he passed in and out of lucidity. Nighttime was particularly bad, as he would wake up yelling for me, just to ask a question, or say he had to pee, etc. He even lost control of basic bodily functions and I became pretty good at being a hospital orderly :)

It was very depressing to see him like this. It was hardest not knowing whether there was more that we should be doing for him. Although my initial mission going back to YZ was to ensure he was getting physical therapy (without which he could be crippled for the rest of his life), it soon became clear that this was not the priority. WG had a high fever and the doctors could not figure out what the cause was. We also didn't trust the conflicting opinions and advice like, "Just have him eat porridge" (which has very little nutritional value). Eventually, we decided to evacuate him to Taiwan when he was stabilized for better care and the challenge was trying to get the airline to accept an invalid and also on how to minimize the risk of something happening to him while in transit.

Uncle Steve and Larry worked that angle, while I worked the China side. On the day I was to leave (had a long planned business trip I couldn't avoid), Steve was to arrive. I got the best surprise. Overnight, WG's fever broke and he was much more alert. He not only was asking a lot of questions, but he could actually move his left leg (not his hand though). It was so amazing and unexpected that I felt like crying. He was very mentally sharp -- remembered where I was going for my business trip, remarked that he felt much more alert, asked for specific foods (complained about the boring porridge), and waved to a little boy in the elevator when he was going to get his CT scan. The CT scan confirmed the stroke, but the doctors were quite happy and were hopeful for a recovery.

At this point, I left WG in the uncles' hands. They got him to Taiwan, where WG was diagnosed with a minor infection (perhaps pneumonia) in his lungs, edema in his feet. He now had better nursing, though it is not certain that the medical advice or diagnosis was necessarily better. He was taking his PT seriously and was able to increase the strength in his left leg significantly (though not much improvement in his left hand still).

He complained of neck ache and still had slight fevers, and then the doctors prescribed colchichine, some drug, which seemed to relieve all of these symptoms. So, other than his left hand, WG has made all in all, a remarkable recovery. With all these ups and downs, it has been a lot of trials and tribulations for the family, but everyone has found a way to pitch in, whether from Mom managing a running tab of expenses, to Uncles Steve and Larry putting their very busy work lives on hold to come to take him to Taiwan and take care of him there, to Uncle Ark and Aunt Agnes scheduled to watch him for the next several weeks. One other person, who I had never met before, Yu Shi Hua ("Yu Jiu Ma") has been amazing. She is 78, but is incredibly energetic and caring. She was helping me arrange the whole family visit to Shanghai, but stepped up big in the crisis and has consistently shown up in a low-key way to help out. I'm really glad I met her and hope to become closer to their family. The family in Yangzhou, Uncle Zhong Bo, his wife, and Uncle Zhong Ning, have been tireless in their efforts, and of course Dr. Dong...to this day, i don't know what kind of medical system allows him to spend so much time at the bedside of a family member. I often wondered what happened to his own patients!

So, WG will remain in Taiwan for the next several months recuperating and doing physical therapy. I can only hope that he continues to surprise us in the way he has been.

Bank of China sucks!

So, like many Chinese banks that are threatened with foreign banks entering the market (or just want to tap expat customers), my local bank, Bank of China, has set up an English language website for online banking.  It sucks in so many ways.  The cursor not changing to a different icon when you hover over something clickable, the fact that passwords using capital letters mysteriously freeze the system, the bad English translation, etc.

The last time I was on, I noticed that some hacker had apparently felt the same way as me and took out his frustration by adding a little bit of editorial comment to the landing page after log-in.  I had a good laugh and then forgot about it.  Tonight, about 2 months after seeing that, I logged in again and IT'S STILL UP THERE!  The funniest thing about this is that someone's job is to watch this site or maintain it.

Oh well, here's the screen shot for sh*ts and giggles.

Some of the worst offenders of being "not global"

Are "multinational" banks headquartered in the US.  No joke.  You would think that Citibank and Chase Manhattan, multibillion dollar financial institutions, could get their act together and support customers that don't live in the US.  Nope.  It's taken 5 calls and 3 months to get a replacement card and I still don't have one yet.  For Chase, I've been trying to get a replacement refund check since they sent one to me while I was deployed last year.  

The problems?  

1. Legacy computer systems that don't allow you to update with addresses that have a foreign country (no foreign country dropdown box) and make you call in

2. In-house database systems that don't have sufficient fields.  With both systems, they kept running out of space or told me that if I wanted a zipcode, I could only use one street address line

3. Call center people who don't know where or what Shanghai is and how to take dictation when a romanized Chinese street name is spelled to them.  I swear, I was so hoping that an Indian call center guy would answer my call

4. Stupid fraud detection process that automatically flags and freezes your card when you make online purchases.  This happens regularly no matter how many times I call them and tell them that I am living in China and frequently traveling in Asia.  Their systems are set up against the average American who never leaves the country.

4. Ok, this one's not their fault.  Either the US or China postal system sucks when it comes to receiving foreign mail.  1 month is average, and success rate of arrival is about 50%

So, these "multinationals" actually are only global in the sense that they have presence in multiple locations.  If you're looking for consistent service or portability of your account, etc.  they suck.  Sorry, America, but you're really not helping yourself out here -- I think the international banks (HK, UK, etc) are much better at dealing with customers that actually move around the world.

Thanks for listening to my Monday suck.

Kitty is loud

The new kitten went through 4 days of being called "kitty" until we settled on "Chloe".  She's really skittish, not as playful as kittens usually seem to be, has this soulful look about her, and meows loudly at nothing all the time.  Based on that, she didn't really fit any of these other candidate names: Anya, Bella, Kasia, Makita, Rina, Sloggi, Sydney.

Although I still like Sloggi.

Danger of pet stores

It's a well-known rule that you never go grocery shopping when hungry.  Well, there is a similar rule that I should have known about.  Never go shopping at a pet store with a wife or girlfriend.  My goldfish started going tits up, so I went to the pet store to find out what I needed to do and buy some replacements for the floaters.  While I was discussing pH levels, air filters, and aquarium vs. household salt, Sarah wandered off and I find her minutes later with a grey hairball with huge eyes.  Price is 4500rmb, which is pretty high, but then when you compare to prices in the states, is not actually ridiculously high.  This is actually quite a good pet store with employees who really know their stuff and actually seem to care and enjoy their jobs and helping customers, which is really hard to find in retail in China.

The next day we're back in the pet store to buy some other fish stuff (having already dropped over $100 the prior day on 6 fish).  I make an offer on the kitty.  The store seems to give its employees significant control over pricing, and the 4500 rmb drops to 3500.  I counter with 3200rmb, feeling a bit guilty because this isn't an air filter we're talking about, but after all, it is China.  He thinks about it, then, says ok because he wants to see the kitty go to a good home.  I'm a bit jaded, but then I see him go over to the kitty later and seem to say goodbye to it and he seems a bit sad.  The kitten had been in the store for about 2 months (it's almost 5 months old), so I guess he did get attached to it.  The store only had a couple kittens and puppies for sale at a time.

The good ones always die young

It's possible to find almost everything you might want in Shanghai, from western food, to Skippy peanut butter, to Marmite to El Paso Taco Shells.  Strangely though, good Vietnamese food, namely a decent bowl of pho, is nearly non-existent in Beijing or Shanghai.  Start a conversation with a foodie in either of these two cities and inevitably  the topic will turn to Vietnamese and the lack of genuine places.  

In the past, there have been a couple okay places -- Pho 54 in Beijing, Bamboo in Shanghai, but nowhere really good, even at inflated prices.

About a year ago, we stumbled across Pho King, a little place that we found through ShBite.com, a local food delivery company.  Aside from having a kickass name, they had great pho -- good amounts of thin sliced rare beef, tasty broth, and plenty of the fixins -- lemon, bean sprouts, Thai basil...

Nothing good lasts.  I just found out that Pho King closed down, victim of some landlord lease dispute.  There are plenty of bad restaurants in this city, why this one???  Looking for new suggestions

On the Iraqi elections and a China Taxi scam

I've been back to China for a few months now -- actually, close to 6 months! Amazing how time flies. By now, the 34ID has redeployed back to Minnesota and a much smaller contingent from the 1ID has fallen in on the old battlespace. I've been following the Iraqi elections with interest. How the elections went were really the acid test of success for the military and civilian reconstruction strategy. When all was said and done, 38 Iraqis lost their lives in expected voting violence, but a full 63% of eligible voters turned out and there was no landslide victory (unlike in the staged Afghan elections), which indicates that there was some amount of true democracy going on. In other words, things worked out better than expected.

I think it's a great result, but I'm no longer there and so I sent a note out to one of my friends, an Iraqi Air Force captain, with whom I spent a lot of time when I was there. I'll share his thoughts when he gets back to me.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share a lesson I learned recently. Here in Shanghai, you have these RFID commuter cards that store value. They can be charged up with cash, etc. and used for convenience in taxis, subways, buses, etc. I had recently charged mine up to over 700rmb (~USD 100+). One day, I was getting out of a cab and gave my card to be swiped. The taxi driver said that there was no value left. I thought, "WTH? I just charged and used it this morning!" He swiped it a few more times and each time, it came up empty. I assumed that there was a technology issue -- his card swiper or my card might have lost charge, so I just paid with cash. Fortunately, I was able to find a receipt from the last time I successfully used it that showed it still had a lot of stored value. Yesterday, I went to the customer service station to investigate. They told me that the card did in fact have no value on it and that the number didn't even match the receipt print out. The guy asked me if I had carefully watched the driver. I honestly don't recall. Turns out that what likely happened is that the driver saw that I had so much value on mine and pulled a switcheroo on me, giving me an empty value one and holding onto my own. Really sucks, but there is no real way that I can prove anything. The receipt means nothing because he could easily say that he gave it back to me and I lost the cards or confused them later.

Lesson learned, keep an eagle eye on the card to make sure you get it back. Even better -- mark the card with something indelible, like a sticker or some writing, so you can identify it easily when it comes back to you and also to prevent someone from even trying.