“How can you get the lion cub without entering the lion’s den?” asks Margaret Keng, a former teacher of gifted students in Cobb County’s school system turned international entrepreneur, to explain her decision to return to China Wednesday, July 19 for several weeks even though relations with the U.S. are increasingly strained.
Despite the tensions, Ms. Keng feels that as an entrepreneur and an investor she will be well received, especially because she sticks to business and does not concern herself with politics.
Last year, Ms. Keng developed a distribution network in Beijing for “Physician’s Formula,” a Pierre Fabre skin care product, but she feels that she now must return to rekindle the network’s marketing efforts and to develop other projects on behalf of Atlanta-based companies for which she acts as a consultant.
“My skin care product is selling in seven different department stores and we are surviving, which everyone thinks is really remarkable,” she added. “But I have to go back and reorganize the marketing of the product so we can do better.”
Establishing the network took her some six months last year — not including the many months that it took her to receive the many national and local permits necessary to start her business. “I didn’t realize how complicated importing could be,” she said.
Before going to Beijing, Mrs. Keng will visit Hong Kong and Guangzhou where she will seek out individuals who would be interested in renting houses in Atlanta during the Olympics. She also plans to travel to Shantung and Hunan provinces before returning home in August.
Ms. Keng, executive vice president of Transnational Business Services Inc, may be reached by calling (404) 436-1388; fax, (404) 256-4763.