We can help you build a strong, reliable distributor network to maximize your sales in Asia.
Finding the right medical distributors in Asia can be a difficult
process. Knowing the right questions to ask and performing extensive due
diligence are crucial to finding the most qualified and trustworthy
Asian distributors.
With our deep industry knowledge and strong on-the-ground presence
through our four Asia offices and affiliates located throughout the
continent, Pacific Bridge Medical can assist you in your distributor
search by identifying and qualifying the best distributors for your
medical company’s products.
You should not sign contracts with medical device distributors in
Asia until you have conducted a thorough analysis of the success rate of
their past medical sales. In order to find the most suitable
distributors in each specific Asian market, targeted questions are
necessary, such as the following:
Does the potential distributor sell synergistic products?
Does the distributor have strong sales and marketing personnel?
Do they have a qualified in-house regulatory team to help with product registration?
Can you speak the distributor’s local Asian language or is their English sufficient to communicate?
Does the potential Asian medical distributor understand the notion of “conflict of interest”?
Medical Device Distributor Search Services
Pacific Bridge Medical’s experts can assist you during the distributor search process in the following ways:
Determine the most appropriate distribution strategy for the client
based on a thorough study of the client’s products and needs and a
comprehensive analysis of the market situation and opportunities in each
targeted Asian market;
Contact and correspond with potential distributors, and provide them
with the necessary information and materials from the client as needed;
Conduct rigorous evaluations of potential distributors to assess whether they will be able to meet the client’s needs;
Create a shortlist of the most qualified distributors;
Set up meetings for the client to visit the shortlisted distributors;
Help the client negotiate a distribution agreement;
Manage the distributors locally and assist the client with relevant
issues as needed after the distribution agreement is signed, to ensure
that the distributors continue to perform at a high standard.
Asia Sales Program Option for Small Medical Device Companies
Pacific Bridge Medical understands that small medical device
companies oftentimes do not have the resources or time to develop their
own sales team in each Asian country. Our Asia Sales Program is
specifically tailored to help these smaller companies increase their
sales in Asia on a sales commission basis. Only some small medical
device companies with at least $10 million in global sales may be
eligible for this program depending on their products. Contact us today to find out if you qualify.
Asia Sales Program Advantages
We do not collect additional fees for assisting you with the registration of your medical device products in each Asian country.
We help train the Asian distributors to effectively sell your products.
We manage and motivate your Asian distributors from our four Asia
offices in Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore via quarterly visits,
phone calls, and emails, as well as visits to their exhibit booths at
appropriate trade shows and meetings with key doctors.
We provide the above services to small medical device companies on a
sales commission basis. We are paid only when your company receives
purchase orders from our Asian distributors. There will be no upfront
expenses to our clients for this Asia Sales Program.
Pacific Bridge Medical has been finding and managing the best Asian medical distributors for almost 30 years. Contact us now to learn more details about how we can help you access the Asian markets and increase your sales in Asia.
There isn’t a single entrepreneur out there that can’t benefit from
some extra inspiration and motivation. We can all learn something by
following successful individuals. It sparks inspiration and learning
from their real-life business experiences can help us all on our own
entrepreneurial journeys.
I have put together a list of
eight online entrepreneurs that I personally follow and have worked with
-- individuals that all entrepreneurs can learn something from,
especially those interested in starting or growing an online business.
1. Jeff Taylor
As CEO of DEVISE, Jeff Taylor
has extensive experience building profitable online businesses. What
began as a web design and marketing firm eventually transformed into an
entity that creates, markets, monetizes and then eventually sells
websites. Taylor and his partner Evan Lisabeth have the ability to grow
online businesses at an incredible rate.
I have first hand knowledge of his success, as my company brokered the sale of a seven-figure website Taylor's team created.
Taylor stresses
the importance of taking action immediately, stating, “I’ve had
thousands of ideas, but unless you put action behind them, nothing will
come of the idea. There’s no reason to wait for the perfect time to
start a project. Start working on it today.” Related: 7 Entrepreneurs You Should Start Following Now
2. Tim Seidler
Tim Seidler
is a husband and father of two children that used online
entrepreneurship to completely turn his life around. He was once in a
place that many individuals find themselves -- utilities turned off and
bills he couldn’t pay. He did something that many don’t have the courage
to do -- Seidler quit his job and put 100 percent of his time and
effort into creating an online income, recently selling a portfolio of
websites for six figures!
Through his website, Get Niche Quick,
Seidler blogs about the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial journey.
His transparent approach is beneficial, as entrepreneurs will see that
there are good days and bad days in any business. Seidler shares his
current and future projects and also openly discusses his income --
sharing both his best monthly earnings as well as daily earnings. There
definitely isn’t a lack of inspiration and I highly recommend following
Seidler’s online business journey.
3. Dom Wells
Affiliate
marketing is a huge business, but the truth is that many entrepreneurs
quit because they get discouraged when they don’t see instant results.
It takes time and a well thought out strategy to make sizeable earnings
through affiliate marketing. Dom Wells, a highly successful online marketer, offers guidance to entrepreneurs that want to learn how to make money online.
His website, Human Proof Designs,
offers training through its blog to those who want to learn how to
start a niche website the correct way -- everything from niche research
to monetization is covered. Wells doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks
the walk, constantly creating new niche sites to add to his portfolio
and turning his experiences into case studies for his readers.
4. Steve Rendell
Steve Rendell is the man behind Texfly,
an online resource for entrepreneurs who are interested in creating
profitable niche websites and ranking them high in search results using
the power of private blog networks. Rendell's website stands out because
he isn’t afraid to talk about what really works.
Several SEO
professionals will dance around the topic of private blog networks,
instead just saying that quality content should be the main focus. Well,
private blog networks rank websites and many of the elite SEOs use the
same methods -- they just don’t openly discuss it. The blog and private
blog network blueprint that Rendell makes accessible on Texfly are well
worth the read and something anyone with an online presence will benefit
from greatly.
5. Stuart Walker
An entrepreneur that specializes in online niche marketing, Stuart Walker shares his insight and knowledge on his website, Niche Hacks.
Walker is an under-30 entrepreneur that travels the world and makes
money from a wide variety of online assets. He is living the dream many
aspire to reach through online businesses.
Since so many people
fizzle out and give up before reaching their potential, Walker decided
to start a blog that focuses on niche research and the shortcuts he
personally uses to create a sizeable full-time income while living
location-independent. His best information is free and something that
all online entrepreneurs can find value in -- and his blog posts about
growing traffic and promoting content is something that every business
owner will learn from. Related: What Type of Entrepreneur Are You? (Infographic)
6. Tung Tran
To
be successful online you have to have a strong understanding of how to
rank organically in the search results. This is beneficial to
entrepreneurs that want to start their own online-based businesses as
well as those that want to rank their brick-and-mortar business
websites. Tung Tran is an online entrepreneur that documents his success and strategy on Cloud Living.
Tran discusses
how to start an online business and how to drive traffic using several
strategies. I hear so many people talk about how they would love to earn
a living through an online business but they aren’t sure where to
start. It’s entrepreneurs like Tran that provide the inspiration and
hand-holding that helps numerous people become successful online
business owners.
7. Alistair Gill
With an online presence
being such a crucial part of every business’s marketing and promotional
strategy you can never learn enough about content management systems,
search engine optimization and web analytics and metrics. I follow Alistair Gill to stay current with SEO trends and because I enjoy his in-depth analytical posts on his personal blog.
Gill’s
blog posts are packed of useful information and he likes to put
together pieces of content that feature several months of data and
research. I really like reading case studies and guides with data --
these are the types of blog posts that you can read and take the
findings and apply them to your own business.
8. Melanie Duncan
Melanie Duncan is a true inspiration to entrepreneurs around the world. She cites the following
as a problem many of us have: "If you don’t learn how to effectively
work 'on' your business, instead of 'in' your business, you will never
be able to strategically grow and you’ll sacrifice the quality of life
you deserve."
For those of you still grinding out 80 hours a week, that quote will resonate deeply with you.
Follow
Duncan closely and you'll learn all about growing your online business.
With a weekly newsletter and regular blog posts, there is just the
right amount of content to properly digest and apply before moving
onto the next! While these are my suggested online
entrepreneurs to follow, there are certainly a lot more. Do you have any
to add to this list? I would love to hear your suggestions in the
comments section below.
Jack Bonneau, 10, of
Broomfield, Colo., waits for customers at his cider and hot chocolate
stand at a shopping mall in Littleton, Colo.Credit
Nick Cote for The New York Times
Two
summers ago, Jack Bonneau started a lemonade stand to earn some cash.
Instead of setting it up on a street corner in his Broomfield, Colo.,
neighborhood, he and his father, Steve, came up with a more ambitious
plan. Jack, then 8, would peddle cups of lemonade at the local farmers’
market throughout the summer.
The strategy was a success.
“I
had sales of around $2,000, and my total profit was $900,” Jack said,
adding that the experience increased his confidence in school. He also
enjoyed learning “financial literacy,” by which he meant “adding and
subtracting, and profit and loss, and subtracting expenses from revenue,
and just learning about margins, and all of that stuff.”
By the next spring, the Bonneaus had named the operation Jack’s Stands and
devised an expansion plan. They built a website and additional stands
and began selling lemonade at three more farmers’ markets.
They
used funds from a $5,000 loan that Jack’s Stands secured from Young
Americans Bank, a Denver bank that specializes in loans to children. The
loan was guaranteed by the bank’s companion organization, the nonprofit
Young Americans Center for Financial Education.
Photo
Jack, with his father, Steve Bonneau, says he enjoys learning about margins, profit and loss “and all of that stuff.” Credit
Nick Cote for The New York Times
The
Bonneaus also recruited a sales team. Other children eager to earn a
buck, and whose parents saw this as a good learning opportunity,
volunteered for shifts at Jack’s Stands.
Jack
was excited to teach other children what he had learned. He taught them
how to operate the stand, and at the end of each shift, he showed them
how to count money and calculate profits and losses. The children,
ranging in age from 7 to 11, walked away with tips and a cut of the
profits, usually $30 to $50.
Jack,
now 10, is among thousands of children in the Denver area who have
enrolled in courses at the Young Americans Center for Financial
Education or have taken out loans from Young Americans Bank. The center
teaches financial literacy and personal finance to people ages 6 to 21.
It also runs entrepreneurship programs at 420 schools in Colorado and
runs a summer camp for children in second through sixth grade.
When
he was 6, Jack got his first account at the bank, which offers checking
and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, lines of credit, credit
cards and business loans to people 21 and under. It charges low service
fees.
Earning
money was Jack’s initial motivation for the stand because he longed for
a $400 Lego Star Wars Death Star set that his father insisted he pay
for himself. But there was an important nonfinancial perk to the
project, too: “It was really fun,” Jack said.
From
the start, Steve Bonneau wanted the lemonade stand to be a learning
experience for Jack. Mr. Bonneau is a former nuclear engineer who has
been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years. His current company,
Buybak, buys and resells used consumer goods.
“We
wanted to make sure that Jack wasn’t getting out the Country Time
Lemonade, using cups we already had in our kitchen and ice from the
refrigerator,” Mr. Bonneau said. “And then at the end of the day,
whatever was sold was his profits, without taking out any expenses or
learning the other side of it.”
Early
on, Mr. Bonneau taught his son business basics. Now that Jack is in
fifth grade and studies seventh-grade math, the lessons are more
advanced. Mr. Bonneau said he guided Jack through wholesale pricing,
applying for a sales tax license and establishing business
relationships.
“It’s
a collaborative effort,” Mr. Bonneau said of Jack’s Stands,
acknowledging that his son’s age and the complexity of the business
means there are things Jack is not yet capable of doing. These range
from carrying and assembling the 40-pound wooden lemonade stands to
solving business challenges like finding organic, locally made lemonade
or meeting the requirements of new farmers’ markets they work with.
Photo
Jack counted the proceeds with an 8-year-old colleague after a shift at Bonneau’s cider and hot chocolate stand.Credit
Nick Cote for The New York Times
In
2015, sales for the business were $25,000. This year, it plans to add
several new stands in the Denver metro area, and one in Detroit; this
expansion will be financed by a crowdfunding campaign.
Another successful business affiliated with the Young Americans Center for Financial Education and Young Americans Bank is Sweet Bee Sisters,
a lip balm and lotion company founded in 2009 by Lily, Chloe and Sophie
Warren, now ages 15, 13 and 11. Their products are sold online and in
15 stores in Denver, as well as at farmers’ markets and through
representatives who make sales calls at large companies during the
holidays.
A
priority for the Warrens is to encourage and mentor other children.
“Whether it’s business or sports, or whatever kids want to pursue, they
can totally do it,” Lily Warren said.
So
when Jack approached them a year ago to ask if he could carry their
products at his lemonade stands, they agreed. They felt that his
business ethos was similar to theirs, Ms. Warren said. When he showed or
sold their products to other children, his message was: “‘Hey, I’m not
the only kid out here doing this. You definitely can join this
bandwagon,’ ” she said.
The
bandwagon gained more momentum last winter when Jack set up two new
stands in a crafts marketplace at a Littleton, Colo., shopping mall. One
is a stand that sells apple cider and hot chocolate instead of
lemonade, and the other, called Jack’s Marketplace, features products
made by other children.
Sweet
Bee Sisters and about eight other child-run businesses sold their wares
at the marketplace stand during the holiday season. Two girls who
started out selling apple cider and hot chocolate quickly caught the
entrepreneurial bug and began making their own products — scarves,
headbands and decorated picture frames and magnets — and selling them at
Jack’s Marketplace.
Very
young business owners have the advantage of abundant curiosity and
resilience, traits coveted by older entrepreneurs. They’re also “young,
ambitious, adorable,” said Maura McInerney, program coordinator for the
Young Americans Center for Financial Education. But their youth can be a
liability. “They’re not always taken seriously at first,” she said.
That
hasn’t been a problem for the entrepreneurs at the Jack’s Marketplace
stand in the shopping mall. According to Lisa Roina, who owns the
company that runs the mall’s crafts marketplace, the children not only
appear to have fun selling their products, they are good at it.
On
weekdays and other times when the children aren’t able to work at the
stand, she sends in a rotating cast of adults. But when the children
return to operate the stand themselves, sales quadruple, Ms. Roina said.
“They can sell the heck out of their stuff,” she said.
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Samantha Martin, standing,
owns Media Maison, a 14-person public relations firm in Manhattan: “I’m
forced all the time to think about how to keep key people.”Credit
Nancy Borowick for The New York Times
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Samantha Martin’s small-business nightmare typically stalks her on Gchat.
“It
will be a Wednesday, and an employee messages, ‘Can we talk today?’”
said Ms. Martin, who owns Media Maison, a boutique public relations firm
in Manhattan. “They’ll tell me they weren’t looking, but someone
approached them,” she said. “In this industry, if another company
dangles $5,000 and an opportunity to work on a fashion show, your loyal
employee can be out the door.”
Since
any departure leaves her 14-person team short-handed for weeks, Ms.
Martin tries to be proactive. She meets frequently with individual staff
members, helps new employees pay first and last month’s rent, is
generous with titles and promotions and offers benefits ranging from
educational assistance to a free trip anywhere in the world after three
years of employment. Last year’s recipient went to Paris.
“We
don’t have a 401(k) and can’t always offer a big salary,” she said. “So
I’m forced all the time to think about how to keep key people.”
With
a tightening labor market, more entrepreneurs are facing similar
challenges. A record number of job openings, with worsening skill
shortages and a tendency among young adults toward briefer tenures, is
forcing small-business owners to find increasingly creative ways to hold
onto their best and brightest.
After
rising in recent years, quit rates in private businesses held steady at
just less than prerecession levels in 2015. But survey data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, which looks at job openings and labor
turnover by size of establishment, suggest that the number of employees
voluntarily leaving small companies remains on the rise.
At
businesses with fewer than 10 employees, for example, 1.8 million
people quit in the five months through May, a 34 percent increase from
the same period in 2014, the bureau’s data shows. In companies with 10
to 49 employees, resignations rose by 12 percent year over year, and, in
those with 50 to 249 employees, the increase was 9 percent.
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In a June 2015 survey by the National Federation of Independent Business,
80 percent of employers reported they had difficulty finding, or could
not find, the talent they needed. Even when they do find it, said Holly
Wade, director of research for the organization, “issues come into play
when small businesses can’t afford some of the bells and whistles bigger
employers can.”
Colin Darretta, a former investment banker, knew when he founded WellPath Solutions
in New York last year that he could not compete with a Google or Uber
on pay. So in seeking engineering talent for his company, which makes
customized nutritional products, he bypassed the Ivy League and hired a
local developer from App Academy, in New York.
The
fact that the candidate had taken a less traditional path, he added,
may have made him better suited to a start-up. “Here was a guy who had
developed an interest at a later stage and was willing to take a
personal risk to pursue it,” Mr. Darretta said. “The key is looking
where those big companies aren’t.”
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He
has also made a point of spending one-on-one time with all 10 staff
members and likes to capitalize on their interests. After a recent busy
period, he took a star performer and a newly hired engineer, both big
video game players, to a “League of Legends” event at Spring Studios.
Another
company can still try to steal employees by offering more money, Mr.
Darretta said. But the employee “wouldn’t be getting the flexibility and
the other stuff,” he added. “A lot of the time, the other stuff is what
matters to people, and it doesn’t cost that much.”
Most
people who leave a company do not do so for more money. In a 2015
survey of 11,000 employees by the staffing company Randstad USA, the
main reason cited for quitting was a lack of a career path or growth
opportunities. Nearly half of respondents said work-life balance was the
biggest factor motivating them to stay.
For any incentives to work over the long term, employees must be invested in a company and its mission.
Dr. Amy Baxter, an Atlanta physician who founded MMJ Labs in 2006, has six employees with advanced degrees on a shoestring budget. Her company developed Buzzy,
a hand-held device that uses cold and vibration to relieve pain from
causes as varied as hypodermic needles, carpal tunnel syndrome and
plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the band of tissue that connects
the heel bone to the toes.
“We
didn’t even get F.D.A. clearance until last year, which makes it all
the more amazing that people have stuck with me with no promise of
equity,” Dr. Baxter said.
She
said flexibility and transparency helped. MMJ Labs’ manufacturing
manager spent early years fitting her work hours around an infant
daughter’s heart treatment. If Buzzy loses a customer, everyone is
involved in figuring out what happened and helping to fix it. Outings
like the company’s regular staff dinners and the all-expenses-paid
Caribbean cruise that employees and their families took to celebrate
selling the first 25,000 units do not hurt either.
But
Dr. Baxter says she believes the main reason her original hires are
still with her is their belief in the product and the ethics of the
company, including the fact that the device is reusable and in keeping
with the company’s concern for the environment. “If I made Buzzy
disposable, some employees wouldn’t stay with me,” she said.
Knowing
what really matters to employees, personally and professionally, can be
critical to retention, human resources specialists say, and easy to
learn in a small business.
When Brandon Baker and his wife, Carmela, founded Loveletter Cakeshop
on Fifth Avenue two years ago, they knew they would be making wedding
cakes for a affluent clientele where there is little room for error. So
as soon as they realize they have an exceptional employee, Mr. Baker
sits down with him or her to discuss career aspirations and creative
interests so he can assign responsibilities accordingly.
“Sometimes just the act of asking is enough,” Mr. Baker said. “When you find talent you have to nurture it.”
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This can be challenging as an organization grows. Proxibid,
which bills itself as the largest online marketplace for high-value
items (like tractor-trailers and classic cars), has expanded to 167
employees since its start in 2001. Ryan Downs, the chief executive, also
faces the dual challenge of finding young talent and luring it to
Omaha, where the company is based. To do that, he says he has worked
hard to maintain an open culture that offers opportunities for
advancement.
He
credits this with helping him retain the company’s top engineers when
software developers have never been more in demand, or recruiters more
aggressive. “You’re not going to stop recruiters coming around,” he
said. “But if you give a technical person cutting-edge stuff to work on,
we’ve found you can overcome other companies’ irrational prices.”
Michael
Mulligan, a senior software engineer, who has been at Proxibid four and
a half years, agrees. He says that although he hears from one or two
recruiters every week, it would be difficult to match the opportunities
of his current position, or the voice he has in the direction of the
company. Proxibid, he added, also gets the culture right, with outings,
support and companywide recognition of individual success.
“For
me, that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “At other places, it was like I
was just a number. I know it sounds cheesy, but this is the first
company I’ve come to that truly seems to care if their employees are
happy.”
Unfortunately,
in the rush to serve customers and clients, communication can quickly
fall by the wayside even when small-business owners know better.
David
Niu, a serial entrepreneur, learned this the hard way when he was
running BuddyTV. In 2012, a top employee quit, seemingly out of the
blue. Frustrated and burned out, Mr. Niu took a break from the company.
“It caught me off guard,” he said. “I kept thinking, if I had better
tools maybe I could have prevented it.”
That led Mr. Niu to create Tinypulse to help other employers get a grip on retention issues. Tinypulse, which is based in Seattle, and similar companies like Culture Amp and BlackbookHR
allow managers to solicit anonymous feedback from employees. This often
provides an early warning that workers are unhappy. Today more than 500
companies use Tinypulse alone, the company said.
Other
small-business owners still rely on the old-fashioned way of keeping
tabs. At her public relations firm, Ms. Martin says she talks to her
employees constantly and has them keep her cellphone number on speed
dial. Most recently, she gave the people who have been with her the
longest a share in her business.
“How
many under-30-year-olds get to say they own something?” Ms. Martin
asked. “But when you do find someone who is amazing and treats your
business like their own you want to reward that.”
Her
approach seems to be working. Ross Garner, the senior account executive
she sent on a 10-day vacation to Paris last year, said he still could
not get over the gesture. “Stuff like that,” he said, “makes you want to
work at 110 percent for somebody.”
We do not collect additional fees for assisting you with the registration of your medical device products in each Asian country.
