Global Expansions: A Cantonese-speaking consultant was key to bodywear firm's growth

Many a small-business owner has thought going global should be easy. Talk of the "global economy" has been going on for decades, so finding a manufacturer in a far-flung country should involve a Web search and copying a few email addresses, right? "People that we talked to in the industry kept saying that," said Carrie Charlick, who co-owns Essential Bodywear LLC with Marcia Cubitt. "If someone says 'no-brainer' to me one more time ... ." Their Commerce Township-based business sells bras and other lingerie through Tupperware-style home parties. The women were interested in starting their own private label line, and they assumed it would be easy to find a manufacturer. They went online and found an industry website that listed overseas manufacturers and contact information for their sales offices. They contacted manufacturers in China and the Philippines. Most didn't respond. The ones that did had no interest in the small product runs Essential Bodywear needed. Manufacturers' unit minimums usually ran into the tens of thousands; Charlick and Cubitt needed maybe a few thousand. "They wanted the Targets and Wal-Marts of the world," Charlick said. It went on that way for a year. But then "out of the blue," the New York City sales office of a Chinese manufacturer cold-called Essential Bodywear. The manufacturer could do a private label deal, from design to production. "The minimums were still high, but at least they were still willing to work with us," Charlick said. "Others weren't." It took several meetings to complete the deal and designs. But the trips were to New York, not Shanghai, so it wasn't a major hurdle. For four years, that relationship worked out. But in 2010, Charlick and Cubitt overhauled their bra designs and decided to find a new manufacturer with more forgiving minimums. They had thought about making trips to industry shows in Shanghai and Hong Kong, but it seemed overwhelming. "We didn't even know what to ask," Charlick said. This time, they hired someone else to do the work. Through a long chain of connections — a friend of a friend of a sister — they connected with an American man living in Mexico who ran a panty factory there. They met for drinks, and he recommended they speak with a consultant in the Boston area who speaks Mandarin. They did, and the consultant found a manufacturer, saving Charlick and Cubitt headaches. If they had to do it all over again, they would have hired a consultant right from the start, Charlick said. "She got us where we're at today," she said. "It was the best money we ever spent." This story first appeared in Crain's Detroit Business