Founder: Want to move to China?

YiYiEnglish
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

Martin dropped this bomb on me sometime in July after I had come back from a peaceful trip hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I spent a bit of time thinking about the trajectory of my career if I accepted his offer, and vice versa.

Honestly, the trip excited me. I tried to view the proposition from the outside looking in, and I concluded that this would be a great opportunity for me professionally and personally. I texted Martin a few days later accepting his offer and we ironed out the details.

___________________________________________________________________

Fast forward a month:

I missed my plane. Either the gods were sending me a message that I made the wrong decision, or they were telling me good things don’t come easy. I opted for the glass half full perspective and quickly booked a new flight the same morning.

I’m sure you’ve experienced sitting in a cramped plane for 14+ hours and pulling up the plane flight details on the little headrest monitor in front of you and counting down the distance and time remaining until you can get out of the flying prison. The whole flight I wrestled with the feelings of excitement and fear. Luckily excitement won.

Martin greeted me at the gate and we got into a cab that would take me to my new home for the next 3–4 months. Things immediately seemed different. We sped through Beijing’s suburbs, and I kept seeing advertisements from our competitors, VIPKID and DaDaABC, everywhere. Buses, bill boards, bench seats, TV screens, fliers, and buildings; nothing was spared. This was the first wake up call for me. Our little start up is a clown-fish compared to the great white sharks of the industry.

Did Marlin panic? A little bit. Did Marlin want to be in this situation? No. But, did Marlin eventually find Nemo? Yes.

I only saw one side of the market in New York (teacher management, recruiting, and business strategy), but coming to Beijing and Changchun gave me insight into sales, teacher onboarding, business development, and office work culture that would have been impossible to see had I stayed in New York.

Here are the two most significant things I learned over the course of a month:

  1. Sales: Changchun is a 2nd tier city in China. Our competitors do not have a presence here since it’s not worthwhile developing a market in this city of 8,000,000. This is a relatively low population in the grand scheme of things, so YiYi has an advantage having nearly 0 competition here. However, the wealth in Changchun is considerably lower compared to the bigger cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Changchun is the Detroit of America where manufacturing used to be the dominant industry, but has now moved to seaport cities like Shanghai. As a result, agriculture drives the local economy. It’s a challenge to produce sales in a city whose primary industry is agriculture and this presents a unique challenge. The average online English lesson in China costs around 250 RMB/hour. Even with our significantly lower price of 125 RMB/hour it is incredibly difficult to produce meaningful sales, and the margins could use improvement. We pay our teachers on average $18/hr so we aren’t netting enough at a quick enough rate to expand to other 2nd tier and 1st tier cities. So this begs the question, “How can we gain parent’s trust to invest a significant portion of their income on a luxury service for their children?” It’s a tough question to answer, and to be honest I’m not too sure what the correct answer is. I’ve been working alongside Martin, the sales team, and the academic team to leverage our new curriculum, high quality teachers, and unparalleled customer service to develop a new sales process that will increase customer acquisition by at least 2 fold. This is the lowest expectation we have.
  2. Work culture: The average salesperson in the Changchun office earns 6,000 RMB/month. The average academic associate earns 5,500 RMB/month. The average graphic designer earns 5,000 RMB/month. Motivation isn’t solely linked to compensation, but it definitely plays a role. I’m leading the academic team of 4 and I’m constantly faced with the challenge of increasing their will power to [a] think for themselves, [b] critically think through a problem, [c] seek solutions independently, and [d] go beyond the minimum expectation. I was so accustomed to the New York office where we had a culture of innovation and improvement where if we saw an inefficiency or problem we would set out to find the cause, develop strategies, implement solutions, and refine the process. It’s not all bad though. I can tell all the employees in the office are hard working and devoted to completing their tasks to perfection. When I teach a process or procedure to my team, they will execute on it to near perfection and are quick learners with new tasks. There’s a chance to elevate their proficiency and output, but that will come with time.

___________________________________________________________________

Overall I’ve really enjoyed my time in China. Beyond work I’ve gotten the chance to explore and experience a world outside my norm. I think exposure to unknown peoples and cultures has forced me to think inwardly on how my own experiences, biases, and stereotypes compare to those around me. It’s also an opportunity for me to become more considerate toward my coworkers across the world once I return to the NY office and to share what I learned with my coworkers in NY.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade