Liu Minxia

FOR most people, setting up one company is difficult enough. However, Australian Marcus Maher pursues a career in building companies from scratch and then selling them.

Maher is currently busy selling his stake in ChipChecker, a semi-conductor assessing company he started in Shenzhen in 2001. At the same time, he is also preparing to open his next: A wine-selling company called Aulon Wine Ltd.

Last year he sold his stake in Southern Cross Consultants Ltd., a Thai company which buys, renovates and then rents or sells apartments. He is presently also runs Carbon Market Consultants Pty Ltd., an Australian company dealing in carbon credits. And these are only a few examples of the assortment of companies he has formed and operated.

Maher, who first came to Shenzhen in 1998, said building a company from scratch and then identifying the right buyer is not easy at all. The selling process normally takes about six months.

"The secret to doing this successfully is to be absolutely honest about every facet of the business, as the greatest threat to the transaction being unsuccessful is the buyer having concerns that there are some, as yet unidentified hidden liability," Maher said.

When establishing a company, Maher prefers to do it with two partners.

"The two other partners need to have skills where I am deficient and I need to have skills where they are weak. Our skills must compliment each other," Maher said. "They must have integrity and be hard working. It is also important that they be a little bit tough as well, as doing business is not for crybabies."

Many people have asked Maher the same question: Why does he sell perfectly good companies after working so hard to set them up?

"The answer is simple, 90 percent of companies don't last five years and 99 percent don't last 10 years," Maher said. "I build the companies to a stage where I have no more value to add, then sell them to people that believe they can take the companies to another level."

Additionally, he says, the money put into start-ups is small compared to the sale price, making it quite profitable for him. Maher then invests his profits in property, stock in Hong Kong and Thailand-listed companies and commodities such as gold and silver, which he thinks will appreciate rapidly as the U.S. dollar continues to devalue.

Maher's first business venture involved writing a book called "Interview Preparation Questions for Canada," aimed at Taiwan residents planning to immigrate to Canada.

He and his business partner sold 3,000 copies of the book, which was packaged with an audio cassette, to consultancies in Taiwan for 10 to 50 Australian dollars (US$8.82-US$44.09) per set.

"This may not seem like a lot of money but 75,000 Australian dollars split between the two of us in 1996 for just six-month work was lots of money to us," Maher said. "And the lessons I learned doing this were invaluable."

Maher's next venture in Taiwan was setting up a partnership called Christensen Maher to write business proposals for Taiwanese businesspeople intending to invest in Australia.

When he first came to the mainland in 1998, Maher found that the business environment here was different. But he has certain rules which can be applied to doing business anywhere in the world.

His first rule is to assume nothing. "Too many foreigners look at situations through their own eyes when they should be trying to look at situations through the eyes of the locals," Maher said. "This causes them to make the wrong assumptions. Wrong assumptions cause everything to go pear-shaped pretty quick."

Maher also thinks that if a person's lips are moving, he or she might be lying. He said its best to assume that everyone is attempting to lie to you, cheat you or manipulate you when do business or travel overseas. "Thinking this way, the telltale signs of deception are more easily identifiable," he said. "Identifying problems as soon as they arise allows you to proactively deal with them when they are small."

"My third rule is: Don't pick up the bar of soap," he said. "This refers to not being distracted by a small gain and allowing yourself to lose much more in the process. The image that best represents this is, of communal shower time in prison."

Maher speaks a little bit of many languages as he's traveled to about 90 countries. But he doesn't think that his inability to speak fluent Chinese hinders the communication between him and his Chinese staff.

"Many expats try to speak Chinese fluently, but I believe it is more important to understand how Chinese people think and react and why they think and react as they do," Maher said. "It's also a great excuse for why my Chinese is far from fluent."

The secret behind Maher having an excellent relationship with his Chinese staff is to hire what he calls "blank pieces of paper."

"I prefer to hire recent graduates as they have not learned any bad habits yet, their minds are receptive to new ideas and they are also hungrier as they have just left university," he said.

Maher also has his way of retaining talent. "The best bonus we provided to a Chinese manager was paying the deposit on an apartment for him with the deposit to be subtracted his from future bonuses," he said. "After a year and a half the loan had been repaid and the apartment had gone up in value quite a bit. It is important to have the bulk of Chinese associates remuneration performance related. The more they contribute, the more they get. It's important that every time they make the company a dollar they also get to share in the profits."

Having visiting many Chinese cities, Maher say Shenzhen is by far the best city in China. He feels that Shenzhen attracts the best, brightest and most adventurous people, whether they are from Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Northeast China, Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom.

"Foreigners that go to Shanghai are normally 'the dreamer type,' with 'the talker type' ending up in Beijing, while foreigners that are attracted to Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta are more often than not 'the doer type,'" he said. "In time Shenzhen will be known along with New York, London, Sydney, Paris etc."

Maher purchased an apartment in Shenzhen five years ago and he said he will not be selling it. "Shenzhen provides a perfect Asian base for me as it is located in the heart of the Pearl River Delta, which is a metropolis of about 60-70 million people," he said. "The Pearl River Delta will have about 100 million people in a decade or so, if migrant and natural population growth continues at a similar rate. Most people don't realize that when the Pearl River Delta's population reaches 100 million people, all of which are located in an area twice the size of Sydney. It will be by far the largest city the world has ever seen."

Maher is also tough when it comes to his hobby: Sports. He is an avid cricket player, turning out for the Shenzhen Commonwealth Cricket Club, the city's first cricket team. He also sails in Thailand whenever he has free time. In 2005, his team won the Phuket King's Cup Regatta, which is Asia's most prestigious yacht race in the sports boat class. In 2006, the participated in a different class and accidentally the boat into a Thai navy vessel.

"The collision caused extensive damage to the boat and we had to retire after just one hour of sailing on day one of the weeklong regatta. That was a low point," Maher said. "Doing business in China is a bit of an emotional roller coaster too. Sometimes it takes you on incredible highs then the next moment you are at a low point. It is important to maintain firm control over your emotions."

"Doing business in China is a bit of an emotional roller coaster too. Sometimes it takes you on incredible highs then the next moment you are at a low point. It is important to maintain firm control over your emotions."Marcus Maher