“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T.S. Eliot

The average entrepreneur will fail several times before succeeding or simply giving up and moving back into the corporate world. Contrary to popular belief, modern day starlets like Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), did not strike it rich on their first attempt. In fact Facebook was Zuckerberg’s sixth attempt at creating a business on the web. Zuckerberg had the gut, and the time (he was still in university) to explore his ideas and business models. Unfortunately, most “entrepreneurs” do not have the gut, time, and money to wait and wait and wait until they hit it big. But, here is the thing, the luxury of time, experience, and knowledge of running a business is essential to success. There is no “Cliff’s Notes” (abbreviated readings of a novel) that can give you the tools you need from day one.

As one of the co-founders of NextStep I get an interesting perspective on the entrepreneurial drive of expatriates and a growing number of Chinese in Shanghai. There is something about China, and Shanghai in particular that drives many individuals into seeking out what it means, and more importantly what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

You can learn how to open a business, manage a business, and even keep great books for a business, but the most basic skills that come along with being an entrepreneur are instinctual. There are one million great ideas conjured up every second, but 999,999 will most likely never make it to market, or will simply fail. The entrepreneur in the most pure sense has a gut instinct for what will and won’t work. Entrepreneurs are the drivers of change. Entrepreneurs cannot predict the future, but they help shape it. But, because we as entrepreneurs, and more broadly as human beings, cannot see into future, and if we are cognizant of the fact that the past is not a predictor of the future, than why do some entrepreneurs win, and some lose? Could it be luck?

Sometimes people do get lucky, and entrepreneurs get lucky too. Before counting on luck, a sound business must be created — the right team, business model, and market analysis needs to be made. Yet, even when the most diligent of efforts are made to capture a market, create a team, and build a go-to-market strategy are planned companies have, still do, and will continue to fail. This is where luck may be coming into play.

When I speak of luck, I am using it in a specific context, “a combination of circumstances and events operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person”. This is where we as human beings, unable to predict the future, are left unable to control what happens around us as business owners. Circumstances that are out of our control have a huge effect on what will happen to us and our businesses. It is absolutely necessary to be aware of what we don’t know, and what may or may not happen in the future. This may come across as being vague, but it is meant to be, because there is no clear cut answer.

What divides a successful entrepreneur from a failed one is his/her ability to make the right decision at the right time. Making the right decision comes from both careful analysis, and equally important, a “gut” call to implement a plan or strategy. The right timing also comes down to careful planning, but also relies heavily on chance. The question you must ask yourself is, do you have what it takes? Do you honestly believe you have the instincts and the skills to be a successful entrepreneur? If you do, welcome to the game. If you don’t, then it may be best to walk away while you are still ahead. Recall what I said at the beginning, it is only those who risk going beyond what others are willing to do that they gain the potential to see what may await them.

There will be no conclusions made here, this was simply designed to encourage discussion, please comment.

It was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to crack down on Facebook. Finally they have also become tired of the never ending event notifications, status updates discussing your “friend’s” decision to go to M1NT or Bar Rouge this weekend, and the random friend requests. In all seriousness the authorities control over the “web waves” is a cause for concern. But, let’s be honest, it is more of an annoyance than anything. Stack it on top of the typical day of blazing internet speeds, and it is sure to upset expat web users.

This is not meant to be a political post, as an outsider I do not want to delve into the internal political decisions of a soveriegn nation.

I use Facebook and Twitter everyday for both work and personal use. I try not to be “spammy” on either. Some friends take me aside and ask me not to post so much, but honestly I tell them I am posting interesting current events and business articles they should be looking at. Granted most of the people that are taking me aside, don’t really understand how to use Facebook and Twitter to effectively “share” information, but they are coming around.

Yes I do post NextStep event information, but they are good informational events, not another party on the Bund. The majority of my postings point people to great current events like this article, this article and this article (oh, wait I cannot pull the links from my Facebook profile to share with you right now…I need to start bookmarking them again on my Webdexer.com)

If you want to find out more about me, you can click here to view my NextStepDirectory.com profile.  From there you can check out my Linkedin and Twitter (once it is running again).

On March 10th, NextStep Shanghai was at Latitude Longitude on Yueyang Rd near Dongping Rd. Over 100 ppl came to enjoy the French venue, but also to listen to the Shanghai Young Bakers (SYB).

Celine Le Cotonnec, SYB Project Coordinator, gave a terrific presentation explaining all the legal issues that they faced and are still facing while bringing this project together.

After the event we received a very good feedback of their presentation, but what was most important to us was to know that we brought something to the Shanghai Young Bakers who had a dozen of interesting leads.

Here is what they said about the event :

“NEXTSTEP – Tuesday March 10, 2009

One month after the start of their training program in traditional French bakery for under-privileged Chinese young adults; Shanghai Young Bakers charity project was offered the opportunity to showcase at NEXTSTEP’s last event the hard work the team of 12 French volunteers has accomplished in the past 18 months to make this dream come true.

Shanghai Young Bakers is one of the 6 projects of the French Junior Economic Chamber in Shanghai (JCEF) and has been ongoing for nearly 2 years.

The number of difficulties you will have to go through and the time and energy you will have to spend when considering setting up a charity program in China as a foreign organization, especially when it comes to education matters are totally unforeseeable and countless. You can get a rough idea yes, but still whatever you enterprise you always have this feeling to progress in a grey area.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are very proud that M1NT Shanghai decided to write a quick notes about our NextStep Event on Nov 18th.

Here is what they said :

“NextStep provides a forum for like-minded entrepreneurs to collaborate in building new businesses and also helping one another navigate the many pitfalls of conducting business in China. NextStep every second Tuesday holds net working event at various venues around Shanghai. The event is designed to keep conversation casual, and the bonus is that a majority of the people attending are like-minded entrepreneurs.

On November 18th, NextStep held the regular net working event in M1NT Shanghai; give their members an exclusive look at this members only club to dream big with like-minded entrepreneurs. The founder of M1NT Alistair Paton has brought a unique concept to partying for the fabulously wealthy; party-goers are making money as they party as shareholders in the club.

More information about the event, please check
http://www.nextstepshanghai.com/”

More on http://www.m1ntnews.com

Thanks to M1NT Shanghai for the great event, and thanks to the 260+ people who joined us that night.

As an entrepreneur, finding an adapted solution concerning your office issue is vital. All the people that have been in China for a certain time know it: the simplest thing can become a nightmare here, it’s all the more true for Real Estate! The commercial Real Estate market is much more organized and professional than the residential market but only top Grade A and Premium buildings have an international professional management. Most of the buildings in Shanghai are managed by local landlords.

As an entrepreneur, you have to face a lot of questions concerning your office: where? How much? Under which conditions, what can I get from my landlord? For how long? Do I really need a Grade A building to register my Rep. Office? … NextStep Answers can help you.

Market presentation:

In Shanghai, you have 3 major central business districts (CBDs):

-The first on in Jing’An, around Jing’An temple and Nanjing West Road with major developments like Plaza 66 Tower I and II, CITIC Square or Parkplace.

-The second in Huai Hai Middle Road and Xin Tian Di.

-The third one in Lujiazui, the financial district with famous buildings like Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the World Trade Financial Center…

You also have two sub-CBDs:

-The first one in Hongqiao. It was the first CBD in Shanghai to develop but it was soon caught up by the 3 areas below.

-The second one in Xujiahui. The retail activity is very important here and the office leasing has also well developed.

Shanghai counts more than 5,000 buildings; you can find every range of prices.

Market Figures:

The average rent in Shanghai for Grade A is currently estimated at RMB8.4/sqm/day, the two most expensive districts being Jing’An (average asking rental of RMB9.15/sqm/day) and Pudong (RMB8.2/sqm/day).

The average vacancy rate is below 6% for Grade A buildings. The lowest vacancy rate in Puxi are in Luwan (1.4%) and in Xuhui (1.2%) , that’s why the landlords have more and more leverage during the negotiations: we were before in a tenant-oriented market but the trend is now changing. Every year, the rental increase by 10% to 15%, that’s why the landlords are usually reluctant to sign more-than-3-year lease agreements.

More and more MNCs choose to relocate to decentralized locations, especially in business parks, because of the continual rental raise. Nokia, Microsoft or Unilever for instance have already or are about to move out in sub-centers, less expensive and easier to access now thanks to the municipality’s relentless effort to develop transportation infrastructures. For instance, Da Ning district offers very good quality buildings at a much lower rate than downtown.

You can find all the companies who could help you with those on http://www.nextstepdirectory.com/real-estate

(Contributed by Yves Roulleau yvesroulleau@gmail.com)

I just signed onto a very popular Shanghai blog and here are the first three ads through google adsense, “Tantric massage Shanghai”, “Ecstasy Massage” and “Massage Shanghai”. All three offer outcall service and of course all three list mobile phone numbers. Now it seems like this is quite a very common occurrence these days. These massage girls are obviously bidding very high for google adwords because I see it on almost very Shanghai centered site, including the NextStep Directory (Although its pretty nominal on our website). On the flip side, it also means that not only are people clicking on the links, but they are utilizing the services. Why else would the massage services continue to pay so much money per click. Anyway, what it comes down to is the fact that all these websites are acting as pimps.

On another note, I’ve read a couple articles recently that talk about how there are several cities/towns in the US called Shanghai, such as Shanghai, Virginia. Since the keyword Shanghai is bid at such a high rate, these massage ads are appearing in these towns throughout the US.

Lastly, just to give this post an ounce of respectability, the consistency of these massage ads on Shanghai related websites says something about google’s adsense/adwords business model. After all, it was just announced they had missed their projected earnings and that click through rates for adsense were going down on a global scale. This seems fairly obvious when you think about it. If you see the same ads on every site you go to, how many times are you really going to click on them? So it seems all these sites have started to cannibalize each other. My recommendation, and what we will probably do for the NextStep Directory, is using a different service for delivering ads to your site. This way, you are distinguished from the rest of the sites and might actually offer something unique.

If you want to find out more about the Green Business Forum you can click here to listen to my interview on the ChinaBusinessNetwork with Christine Lu. Mind you it was 1am Shanghai time when I was answering these questions.

The Green Business Forum is an important event for me, as it is my first attempt to get a large community behind a movement–a movement that matters. If you are reading this blog now, we are only three days away from the first Green Business Forum in Shanghai. I want to get people thinking, I want to get people active, and I want people to actually care about how they are conducting their businesses. What we are trying to achieve with the forum is simple, get you active and give you the tools to make a difference. Roots & Shoots, Greennovate, 350.org and JUCCCE are all excellent companies and organizations that will be able to help you as an individual, as a manager, as a business owner to really make a difference.

If you want more information about the Green Business Forum click here.

The Forum is on Saturday, July 12th from 2 til 6pm at the Grand Hyatt in Pudong

How bad does it have to get, before we decide as a collective whole that the way we live, build our businesses, and plan for the future is flawed? I am not saying we are at a doomsday moment, but why wait until we get there before making change? Changing now will be less painful and less costly.

It is time for all of us to get active and make a difference. The NextStep Green Business Forum is going to do just that. I was inspired by the efforts of several individuals living here in Shanghai and their desire to bring about environmental change. I coupled that with a recent viewing of the award winning documentary The 11th Hour, and I decided that I could make a personal effort to enact change. The Green Business Forum is my personal call to action to give business owners, managers, and everyone else the tools and know-how to make simple changes in our daily business practices that can ultimately have enormous effect on the greater community.

The Green Business Forum will be held on Saturday, July 12th from 2-6pm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (JinMao Tower) in Pudong. Entry fee is 250 RMB, 25% of which will be donated to Roots & Shoots and Greennovate.

You can reserve a seat by emailing us at RSVP@nextstepshanghai.com

Find out more event information by clicking here  or you can check out the July 3rd issue of CityWeekend to read an interview of me and Peggy Liu of JUCCCE.