Sometimes at the beginning of 2011 I met Helen Liu, the founder and principle of Wall Street Chinese, a small firm specializing in consulting businesses of all sizes when they attempt to do business in China. From the beginning I thought Helen has an amazing business at hand. Who wouldn’t love to do business in China? China business has come a long way over the years and still has a lot of growth potential. As a matter of fact, the most has still to come! Businesses, mostly the bigger ones, know that and want to be involved. Think about it, if you have a product to sell, wouldn’t you like a market like the Chinese?

Since our first meeting in 2011, Helen and Wall Street Chinese have helped corporations in many industries to set foot and get settled in China. The financial industry, hospitality and real estate are just a few that took advantage of Helen’s wealth of experience and know how. Some, that have already established presences in China, send their employees that are involved or about to get involved, to the Wall Street Chinese to learn about the new business culture they are about to face.

In a recent meeting I asked Helen about small and medium sized businesses and their efforts to get involved in China business. Helen stated that there is, at this time, not a lot of interest in that community. While it kind of surprises me, it goes hand in hand with my experience in that business community. Helping businesses with marketing and business development, I often get the message that small and medium sized businesses hesitate to take the steps to do business in China. While everyone sees the market and business potential, the most common “excuse” for not tackling the market is “the Chinese copy and steal everything”. While there is something to it, and you would learn in Helen’s class why that is, it is not as bad as most describe it. And by the way, I run a small photo business as well, and the copyright issues I deal with are not coming from China, if you know what I mean. I do agree that China seems far away for the most of us in the Western hemisphere, but don’t let that blindfold you and miss out on a great opportunity to grow your business.

Doing business in China is open for all businesses, not only “big business”. There is plenty of information available with the various Chambers of Commerce and other organizations to master formalities, and there is a great opportunity to learn about doing business in China with the Wall Street Chinese, Helen Liu and others.

For more information on how to do business in China, contact Wall Street Chinese or Helen Liu here.

This article appeared on The Main Street Analyst on March 31st, 2014