Rose moved to Shenzhen, China from New York City in 2009. She teaches Business English at Shenzhen Polytechnic College and runs Love, Shenzhen, a company that makes maps and runs tours and events in Shenzhen, along with a really cool website. In this episode, she shares with us how organically businesses can grow in China and how to succeed in your own niche market.

A little bit of success is motivation to go after more.

Show Notes

How she got to China

Rose followed her husband here with his work in 2009.

Her current project

Love, Shenzhen developed organically as Rose took on more and more city tours for new ‘tai tais’ (wives) in the area. She took the opportunity to do some quality market research with this particular niche by charging at-cost prices, and gleaned fantastic insights on what that particular market would be looking for in a more localized Shenzhen resource site. Love, Shenzhen also focuses on producing fantastic neighborhood maps as well as runs events in Shenzhen.

Failure moment

After experiencing an incredible summer in Harbin learning Mandarin, she and her friend crafted the most brilliant plan in the world – to offer a Mandarin camp to other foreign adults there the next summer. The problem: parents wanted to send their kids – not themselves – and Rose wasn’t up for wrangling young ones for a month. Tune in to find out the pertinent lessons she learned from that experience.

Advice for would-be entrepreneurs

“Just do it! What are you waiting for?” Rose questions. She is quick to point out how much time we spend dreaming and talking about a great idea without actually giving it a go. Additionally, Rose suggests having a fall back, like a day job, until your business takes off (although, she says she’ll keep her teaching job regardless because it’s ‘perfect’!)

What’s next?

So much! Rose is working on four new neighborhood maps, which brings boatloads of sponsorship opportunities for local businesses (and lots of beating the streets to get that business through her doors)!

Episode Links

That’s PRD (Pearl River Delta) (definitely the right link, but it was broken when I put it here so you may have to search for info!)
Seeed Studios
Haxlr8r
ChaiHuo
Dangerous Prototypes
Michael Michelini
Two Americans in China
China Elevator Stories
Brianau.net
CanvaBufferApp
FiverrAstrill
WeChat

Connect to Rose

Love, Shenzhen is everywhere: lovesz.net
Pinterest  |   Tumblr   |   Facebook   |   Twitter
And you can pick up a free map in cafes, restaurants, and hotels in Shekou, Shenzhen.