Start a recruitment agency for China?

[nickr91]

I'm going to China for a year working as an English language teacher, my plan after that is to open up a recruitment agency specialising in connecting recent university graduates from the U.K. with primary, secondary and specialist English language schools in as many cities/ towns as I can get connections and gain access to.
 

Just wondering if anyone could help me out with what legal requirements I'll meet out there, any red tape, and how saturated the market is/ what the demand from Chinese schools to contact native English speakers is.

Of course anything to do with financial requirements to.

Any other advice anyone deems necessary/ relevant will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

   

*I get it's quite vague I'm just trying to gauge the general reaction of people and get a look into how the business/ country works before I start making concrete business plans.

 

[Matty]

I think a recruitment agency requires 1,000,000 RMB (100万元) minimum investment, either that or foreigners aren't allowed to open one.

It was one of my earlier plans, but the as you call "red tape" got me.

 

All the good ideas with high profits and low investments seem to be expensive to start - if possible at all.

 

Perhaps you could start a company overseas and run it as an overseas business, but then you'll have visa issues and such.

I've considered the option of buying an aged (3 years old or more IIRC) company overseas and opening a representative office in China.

 

Honestly the legalities are a little beyond my current knowledge, but that's roughly what I recall and some options I didn't choose to try.

 

Maybe some can help.

[hedwards]

Even after you start a business in China, you tend to have to have somebody that knows how to work with the local officials. I got the distinct feeling that sometimes the only solution to a problem was "drinking money" and for me as an American, I'd have to worry about not just the Chinese government finding out, but the US government as well as they can and do prosecute individuals for bribing foreign officials.

 

Presumably the central government is cracking down on it, but you can get stuck between a rock and a hard place if an official wants a bit of off the books income. For the most part once something has an official stamp on it, it doesn't seem to get much scrutiny as to how that stamp got on there. Presumably that's something that's being addressed, but that's how one of my coworkers became Canadian, the official must have made a minor error, but after that her official papers said Canadian even though she was using a US passport. I can't help but think that this is generally a problem with the bureaucracy.

 

Obviously those are just my impressions, but I tried to stay as ignorant as possible about what the recruiter was doing behind the scenes, this is just the stuff I observed that I couldn't miss.

[Matty]

I've had no trouble at all with any type of corruption limiting me here in Nanning, in fact I've had some really amazing service.

I've found them to be really patient and explain to us step by step how to do everything, giving us the proper paperwork, document templates, and samples.

 

I've had so many troubles with government related things before (in many countries), but I have to say I'm really impressed with the ease of the process I'm going through so far.

[msittig]

These guys/gals seem to be doing this in Shanghai and may have some experience/advice:

 

http://www.teachingnomad.com/

[hedwards]

@Matty, it's worth noting that things like this tend to vary depending upon the local authorities. Some regions are just more interested in maintaining a clean house than others are. But, you're pretty much always going to have the local officials involved with any business that you're running, as far as I can tell.

[imron]

It depends what you mean by involved, but not really.  I have friends that run businesses in Beijing and they have little to no contact with local officials beyond payment of taxes and dropping off/collecting official receipts, and there is no need for any sort of illegal or under the table payments.

[Tianjin42]

Hi nickr91,

 

I am involved with a recruitment group that hires only foreign candidates for roles in China (and some with Chinese groups expanding beyond China). The group is Foreign HR (www.foreignhr.com) and I will actually write up a full post introducing them to the forum soon because there will be people who find it useful. We are one of the main recruiters of foreign professionals in China now.

 

To be honest I originally got involved in a temporary manner and felt it would be a really interesting way to deepen my understanding of Chinese culture before returning to the UK to pursue a Ph.D. It was very interesting and I stayed longer than intended; now I am essentially a partner in the group.

 

It is difficult to start something like this yourself and I would strongly suggest going with a Chinese partner if possible. There are ways to start a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise but despite some relaxation of conditions, you would still need quite a lot of money and some guidance. Registering in HK would also be an option.

 

Feel free to message if you need and my advice to you at this stage (and to any budding entrepreneurs) would be to check information provided by your embassy/ Chamber of Commerce. There is usually a lot of great information (eg. For the UK see http://www.britishchamber.cn/). Also there are some great private resources for example StartUp Noodle in Beijing: http://www.startupnoodle.com/#axzz35QWGXYQq

 

At first sight I would urge you to think about the rules for visas when working with grads. Officially there a candidate should have two years clear working experience to obtain a Z visa (working visa). Of course there is scope but if the candidate has only recently graduated then it can be tough.

 

Also there can be some very difficult issues bridging that gap. We try to follow the British REC guidelines for ethical recruitment however for teaching roles, domestic clients will often state which race they want or don’t want. We have our own “Race Positive” policy to combat this (and as a result many of those clients have hired “non-white” candidates) but still this particular aspect is difficult to navigate. This clients aren’t vindictive and many do go on to revise their views if handled sensitively.

 

For your first year just get to grips with the culture and language.

 

Enjoy!