Finding the Right International Partner

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hi this is Anita hmel the global trade
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gal I have spent over 30 years living
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and working in Asia as part of the
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global supply chain I've learned a lot
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of things through some very hard lessons
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so if you're looking for Insider tips
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experiences and other information then
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you're in the right
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place this is Anita the global trade gal
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with episode 6 today I want to talk a
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little bit about finding the right
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international business partner and this
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of course is an extreme extremely
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difficult thing to do I remember years
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ago I was talking to a friend of mine
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about this who did a lot of financing
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for businesses and I asked him about
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bringing in a partner and he said to me
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he said Anita getting rid of the wrong
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partner is more messy and more
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complicated than a divorce and it really
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made me think a bit I sort of thought
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really are you sure and he says oh
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absolutely he said you know if you have
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the wrong business partner you're you're
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going to be so miserable and at the same
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time getting rid of them and buying them
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out or getting them out of the company
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can be a lot more messy than if you were
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going to have a
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divorce and this is especially true if
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you're going to bring somebody into your
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company or you're going to do a joint
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venture with them or you're going to
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give them money for a factory overseas
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and then you're going to sort of trust
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them and walk away and this is where
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things can get very complicated and
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extremely messy especially in Asia where
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your partner may not look at things the
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same way as you do so here's a couple
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things to remember is first of all
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nothing beats knowledge you know if
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you're going to partner with somebody
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and you're going to give them money and
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you trust them you maybe worked with
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them before and you know that they
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really have the knowledge that you need
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that you don't have and that they can
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make something happen that you could not
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make happen then that's probably a
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really good sign of it you know but then
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a lot of times there's a lot of people
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here who will lie or just tell you
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things I always I always love it like
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when you go into a factory and and the
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you ask I'll always ask the factory this
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question how many containers do you ship
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a month and they'll say like oh we ship
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a thousand and I don't see one container
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at the factory I think there's
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absolutely
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positively no way they're shipping a
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th000 containers that means if you're
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shipping a th000 containers a month just
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just do the math here for a minute that
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means you have to load 250 containers
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per week which means on average each day
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your factory should be loading 35
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containers so if you're loading 35
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containers a day there should at least
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be a couple containers waiting to be
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loaded that day you know so that would
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be 35 containers if you're working
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working seven days a week but if you're
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working um 6 days a week that would be
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42 containers a day so that means that
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you know your your packing room your
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Warehouse everything needs to be able to
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have enough Goods going through it where
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you could see like there's about 42
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containers a day going to be loaded and
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shipped out here even if they pack them
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up at night but you should be able to
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see that you know because there's no
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Factory that can realistically load
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manufacture and ship a thousand
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containers in one week and then they sit
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for the other 3 weeks that's just not
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the way an efficient factories run so
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you know that's why it's important that
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you find somebody who kind of you know
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has the knowledge that you can trust
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somebody who's not going to you know
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give you a bunch of stories or or you
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know that is not going to really quite
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tell you the truth you want someone
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who's going to really have the knowledge
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and tell you the truth the next thing
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and this is a problem where a lot of
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people have problems is they just don't
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do their due diligence I get really
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surprised here at a lot of times and and
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maybe this is just me where I've been in
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Asia maybe a bit too long and I've been
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doing this like really way too long
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because it becomes where maybe I don't
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really quite trust anybody but I've
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sometimes have worked with companies and
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they'll say Okay work with my China
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office or work with my Vietnam office or
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work with whatever and sometimes I just
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smell a rat and I can't quite put my
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finger on it but my staff and I are just
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kind of like there's just something
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going on here we don't know what and
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usually it's it's because the office has
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been sort of left alone they don't have
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much oversight and you just sort of have
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the feeling that there really could be
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some kind of corruption or something
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else going on here and you just you know
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you can't quite put your finger on it
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but you just know that there's something
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going on by the way they act and what
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they do and how they do it and so this
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is where I think many people get caught
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up and they sort of you know get caught
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up in this they don't really do the due
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diligence it's you know somebody takes
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them out to drink and oh I like you and
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you seem to like me and you've got a
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nice family and let's do business
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together because we all feel happy and
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you know that's not the way to find
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yourself really a business partner you
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need to really do your um due diligence
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you know you need to really understand
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you know the importance of really
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knowing who the person is that you work
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with you know and you can find out a lot
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if you start working with them ahead of
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time before you go into any kind of
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partnership with them and and you know
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again mate the risk like work with them
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first and then see how it goes and you
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know always always always keep your eyes
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open because one of the great things
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here that I've seen at least in Asia is
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there's some people here that are able
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to talk a great talk but they really
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don't walk the walk I guess you would
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say that they are really kind of like
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sweet talk ERS and they will kind of
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tell the foreigners exactly what they
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want to hear and you know unless you
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really have the experience to be able to
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see it most foreigners kind of get
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caught up in all that and I know that
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many times in the past you know I have
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too though the longer I've been here and
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I've been burned so many times that you
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after a while just by being burned and
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your experience you sort of begin to
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learn and begin to understand like I
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don't think this person's quite telling
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me everything you just kind of get a
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sick sense about it
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I remember one two years ago I was with
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one of my um Chinese managers who was
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actually pretty good about reading
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people and we were um went out to dinner
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with this guy that we were working with
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and he you know he was great I mean it
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was one of these dinners where I was
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just like I just LED talking to him so
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much and we had so much to talk about
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and after we got done I asked her I said
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what do you think she goes okay I mean
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she wasn't really impressed because she
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felt like he was kind of sweet talking
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me to get exactly what he wanted where
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he wasn't really able to deliver and
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there again where it becomes with the
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next point is to be able to trust local
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knowledge and you know there's no easy
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or quick way to be able to get the right
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local knowledge you know I mean yeah
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some people do it because they might
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marry into it and that's certainly one
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way to do it but another way is you know
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you have to be able to to find the right
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people to work for you and it's not
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always easy there was one time in
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Vietnam where I have fired all almost my
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entire office for corruption and I was
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absolutely shocked I I never thought
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that they would do it to me and everyone
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was so sweet talking and great and the
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manager at the time was just I thought
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he was just a wonderful guy and I
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discovered that he was probably stealing
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to me on the tune about $4 or $5,000 a
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month and almost everyone else there
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knew about it and were kind of um
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complacent in the whole thing and this
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was a really hard lesson for me to for
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me to learn and it's one another ones
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where I really got my fingers burned
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with all of this and you know it's just
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because sometimes you know again people
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will tell you what they want to hear
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when they're covering up this really
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other Sinister side so really finding
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the good local knowledge of somebody you
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can really trust takes time it takes a
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lot of work it takes a lot of effort you
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know that's why a lot of times when you
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have this you know I will that's why
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sometimes just my red flags or my red
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radar goes up like something's just not
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right here and I don't know what and
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then if I start talking to my local
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staff they'll say yes it's because of
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blah blah blah blah you know so you
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really really need to be able to find
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that if you're going to be working
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overseas so I think that's why it's very
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important for you to find somebody you
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can trust when you are working overseas
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and it's important for you to understand
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these things that somebody might be just
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telling you something because they think
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it is exactly what you want to hear so
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finding the right international business
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partner is not easy but finding the
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right partner is not easy finding the
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right spouse is not easy it's just not
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something that's easy it takes time work
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it takes getting to know the person and
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it takes you really reading your gut a
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lot and understanding and then it also
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takes you to be able to find somebody
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that you can work together with someone
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who isn't going to maybe drive you nuts
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or somebody that you find that you can
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actually work together with and to be
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able to get get the products out that
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you
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need this podcast is sponsored by
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manduro we create develop and
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manufacture home decor and Home
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Furnishing products in Asia with a
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thank you again for
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listening

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Finding the Right International Partner

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Finding the Right International Partner

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