Why decorating a new home in China is the same as importing from China!

If you ever bought a new home in China then you know that most are sold bare - absolutely empty with concrete walls and floors. There is no insulation, no flooring, no paint, no pipes, no appliances, essentially nothing. This is the normal standard in China and there is a huge home decorating and remodeling industry that has been created by the need of homeowners wanting to decorate their homes before moving in because they don’t want to move into an empty shell.

So where it gets interesting is when you spend a considerable amount of time doing your design of how the home should look to what types of materials - here below is just a short list of the things you must consider.

Kitchen - You will have to consider everything from the floor to the cabinets and appliances and even the wiring for the electricity and the sockets in the walls. Vents, counter tops, faucets, pipes, and the list goes on.
Rooms - You will have to consider everything from the floor to the ceilings and walls to where you can plug your computer or lights into. Lighting, decorative fixtures, paint, and the list goes on.
Main Areas - You will have to consider everything from the floor to the ceilings and paint to electrical outlets and insulation to, if you desire, under the floor heating systems.
Outside Areas - You will have to consider everything from what is available (like electrical outlets, lighting) to what is on the ground.
Bathrooms - You will have to consider everything from the floor to the wash bin to the tub or shower and all the materials involved as well as the plumbing to how hot water will get into the bathrooms.
Storage Areas - Just like the above, you will need to consider everything.
Walls to Doors - Putting up extra walls for a storage area to picking out doors for every room to the front door made of steel (in China the main door to the home is considered critical and often times it can be a metal door with another metal cage like protecting door before it).
Wiring and Plumbing - It is even critical to ensure you think about this for the entire house and where it will be put and how it will be insulated and accessed for repair in the future.

Now, think about doing this for the first time and not having anybody other than a friend or a relative help you do all of this - designing the home, identifying the materials, and outlining all the rules and guidelines to ensure the home decorating company gives you the home you wanted in a few months after construction is all complete. Sounds difficult? Yes it is and that is only the beginning. If you really want your home, in China (and possibly many other places in the world), to look like what you designed and have the materials you wanted while being developed the way you outlined in the rules and guidelines with proper care and attention – you have two options.

You have to personally monitor all of this and hope you have enough knowledge (and if you do then that’s great) to know, monitor, and audit the decorating company you hired so as to make sure they are absolutely following the design you gave them, buying and using the materials you requested, and following the rules and guidelines you outlined. Most likely you will not have the time since it is a full time job and most likely you will not have the knowledge since you don’t own such a decorating company. Let’s be honest – can you even begin to imagine what is truly necessary here? If it’s not your full time job then let’s just say the answer is absolutely no.
Hire someone who knows this and can be trusted! In China, trust is an important asset as it is in any other country. Finding a trusted project manager or quality manager to be fully aware of your needs and desires and work each day with the decorating company is critical if you want your home to be what you designed with the materials you picked following the rules and guidelines you outlined. Many Chinese families have found, after a few months or a few years, when problems start showing up in their homes that they should have used such a person or company. The problems span all over the place - flooring starts coming up and out, tiles are breaking apart, pipes are causing condensation and creating molds, kitchen cabinets are breaking or no longer working, paint is cracking, ceiling fixtures are coming apart, and even the power outlets are not working. Many times, the problems are from the decorating company trying to earn extra money by not buying the materials you requested but substituting with something cheaper or far cheaper. Additionally, the problems rise from the decorating companies just trying to finish your home as soon as they can and not following the rules and guidelines you requested – that is why you end up with faulty wiring, bad paint finishes, poor tile and floor work, and a variety of other issues.

So SourceJuice, what does all this have to do with importing from China? Well, if you look above at the two options you may find some exact similarities to sourcing and importing from China. Quality happens when you either put in the time or have someone else do that for you. There are many Chinese companies and suppliers that adhere to giving you the best product for the money you are providing them, but alas there are (like anywhere in the world) far more who just see you or your company as a one time deal – get your order, build it quick (possibly ignoring your material requirements and guidelines or standards) and ship it out to collect the funds as quickly as possible in the fastest amount of time. This is reality and it doesn’t stop just because a company is verified or a trusted supplier or even if it’s someone you have done business with for some time.

Take another look at the SourceJuice article Beware the Middleman and Seek the Intermediary for a real life example where it was a little late to bring in a third party (the trusted partner) and in hindsight the lesson learned was one of investing the time or investing the money to make sure you are not surprised by bad news but rather get what you expect. Even the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world face this lesson – review this post on the Heparin scandal for yet another example. If you followed the news on the Heparin sourcing issue, you will find that it seems to be a matter of substituting ingredients to make a larger profit.

Many of you will say the analogy of the home and importing from China can come from anywhere in the world. That in fact, this happens even in America as well as London to Russia and Brazil. Yes it does, it isn’t just a China challenge, it is your challenge when you invest in a product and find a supplier to generate your orders into shipments. It is your opportunity to work with such a supplier to generate the profits you so desire at the margins that led you to come from all over the world to China. It is your due diligence that will either make you vastly successful or vastly in debt if not wondering how you ever got into the situation you did.

The smart and successful companies and people that import from China know (like the Chinese home buyer who is investing either their time or their money on a trusted partner) that everything needs to be managed and that means everything. Yes there is a cost to managing everything in time and expense, but in the end the time and money you save by not having to deal with crisis situations to substitute materials will far outweigh the time and money you invested!

And in case you’re wondering what the final apartment looks like…

Last 5 posts by The SourceJuice Team

One Man's Challenge is Another Man's Treasure - Home Building Materials, part 4 - August 25th, 2008
Export to China – Selling, rather than Buying, from China - August 19th, 2008
Supply Chain Insurance May Help Manage Supply Chain Risk - July 27th, 2008
VAT Rebates Coming Back for Textiles and Garments - July 10th, 2008
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Comments

5 Responses to “Why decorating a new home in China is the same as importing from China!”

bf-china-factory.com on May 11th, 2008 8:26 am

It is normal here, everybody want a warm home made by themselves
home staging business on May 22nd, 2008 10:13 pm

Home stagers, listen to this! If this is the way a house is being sold in China, for sure, there’ll be lots of opportunities waiting for us home stagers, right? There’ll be a bigger chance that you can do your home staging business with gusto! It’s up to you how you decorate a home to make it sell! surely, there is no law that prevents us home stagers from decorating a house before it isbeing sold! How I wish this is also the same back here!
Home Decorating on June 5th, 2008 4:10 am

Your main goal should be to make your room or home as comfortable and attractive to your taste as you can. The creation of theme groups of art images is a great way to decorate your walls and your home decorating. These theme groups can be done with any combination of sizes and subjects as long as they match or contrast nicely with your wall and environment colors. http://decoration-ideas.blogspot.com .
Fall Flags on July 28th, 2008 2:25 pm

Great news man ! ! ! keep up the good work . . and i have just subscribed
Erica on August 15th, 2008 10:37 am

Thats pretty interesting about China. Its not surprising how big their home improvement industry is.