Life at Forcome

During the product video shoot

Work Work Work!I have been keeping very busy in the office. I am finishing up one big project which included a business proposal with Masterbuilt and Sporting Good Stores in the U.S. Their CEO John McLemore was in China for the week and was visiting our company to see the new product line. I made a lot of product spreadsheets comparing our products, prepared catalog and packaging descriptions for the products, and helped set up the showroom for display. This week, John came and proposed that we recorded a video to pitch our line to potential buyers so we got that ready and started shooting today. I am thankful that I took a media aesthetics class last semester because I am able to help alot with the shot types and storyboard for the video. This has been a very exciting and rewarding project.

held the script just right!

My next big project is preparing for the Northern Tool National Vendor Conference that will be held in Minnesota. I will be flying home and attending the fair with David Wang, the president and Grace Lee, the senior sales manager the second week in August.  Me and Grace are responsible for preparing our booth layout, products that we will be displaying there including cargo carriers and LED work lights as well as prepare all of the promotional pieces such as banners, gifts, and flyers. I have been sending many e-mails back to the U.S. contacting people for registration and preparing our booth setup. We have a long to do list but everything is ahead of schedule and running smoothly. I am excited for the conference to be able to  pitch our products to the buyers.

When I am not working on those products there is always other work to be doing like contract reviews, catalog edits, website editing, promotional flyers for new products, translation, my e-commerce proposal and I will also be teaching the sales department more about social media and giving them some grammar refreshers! I am really gaining experience in all departments and more and more about international trading and manufacturing. Everything from logistics to marketing to product development, I have been able to help with it all.  I love all of the people at my company, even though some of them can't speak English, they all make me laugh. I especially enjoy playing Foosball after lunch, they are REALLY good. They really enjoy hearing all my American slang words when I'm playing like "Shoot!" or "Oh man!".


Company Dinner

On June 29th, our entire company along with the factory managers when out to dinner to celebrate the half year report, which was good. A traditional Chinese business consists of a private reserved room with big round tables holding a large lazy susan that spins all the dishes around. Laura and Ada went to order all the delicious food. The weirdest thing I ate was pork tail and I ate a pea size. Honestly, the only reason I ate that much is because everyone was watching me and wanted me to eat it! My favorite was the spicy noodles and eggplant. My Boss David and Vincent told me at the beginning of the dinner there was only one rule "No drunk, no go home". That is what the Chinese businesspeople do. You have to "cheers" with everyone at the table and they have to cheers you back. The factory managers made sure to "cheers" more than once with me. It was a fun night hanging out with everyone and there was a lot of delicious food. At the end of dinner, Vincent told me we were going to go get foot massages with his wife. I can't say no to that. It was a very nice place and the foot massage that included a back massage lasted 2 hours. It was amazing. I hope to go to one more of those before I leave here. My feet were happy campers in the morning, you walk a lot in China.

The fancy dinnerware

ONE of the delicious dishes of food

The whole gang!

My feet's favorite place in Shanghai

In the month I have been here, I have so many stories and experiences already! I am a lucky girl. Stay tuned in a couple days to see pictures from work!I think a day trip is in order for the weekend, not sure where.