Enrico Berti was born in Bologna, Italy in 1990, little did he know at the time, but he would go on to pave the road for other expats in Tianjin looking to start their own business. How so?

From Present to Past

As of August 12, 2016 Enrico became the proud founder of his very own Wholly Owned Foreign Entity. Any expat with dreams of making it big in business in Tianjin knows this is no small thing. First of all it requires getting here. Then it takes having Chinese skills solid enough to wade the very deep waters of Chinese bureaucracy as one jumps through countless hoops to get their license. Enrico successfully did all this. He is excited to finally have a Tianjin business of his own.

Keep in mind, Enrico’s success is a win for all Tianjin expats. Not only did he successfully start a WOFE but he did so in Heping district. This is one of Tianjin’s top city-center districts. It is especially rich with cultural points like the “Wudadao” (Five Major Roads) and many a financial related firm. Real estate in Heping is some of the most expensive in Tianjin. According to data provided by Lianjia Real Estate, Heping property broke the 40,000 RMB/m² mark in September, 2016. This was nearly a 7% increase over last month! To open a business in Heping is no small thing, with the financial implications simply being one of them.

In years past expats could only dream of getting approval from Heping district for opening a business. Thanks to major policy changes by the Central Government in recent times though, things have begun to change. Enrico’s success in starting his own Italian goods store proves this. His story doesn’t begin here though. It actually traces back to 2010 when he started working for an Italian sports apparel company. As it turns out the company had a production office in Tianjin.

As a young go-getter in his early 20’s Enrico was itching for the opportunity to spread his wings and fly. He felt cramped in Italy and wanted to get out. The Tianjin office seemed like the perfect opportunity. Thus, Enrico pitched his boss on the idea of coming to Tianjin for a 3-month trial. The company had been in Tianjin since 2001, so at first the boss wasn’t completely sold on the idea. Especially seeing that Enrico didn’t speak a word of Chinese! Still, the word quit wasn’t in Enrico’s vocabulary. Having finally persuaded his boss, he was thrilled to arrive in Tianjin, China for the first time in October of 2011. He rented an apartment nearby and jumped head first into learning the ropes of the Chinese operation.

In a blink of the eye, his first 3 months were over. That meant flying home to Italy for a pow-wow with the boss. At the time, he was happy to report he liked Tianjin, and even more importantly felt he could make a big contribution to the company by being the boss’s “eyes” in the Tianjin office. He had already starting learning Chinese and was determined to master the language so as to eliminate linguistic barriers and communication confusion between the Italian headquarters and the Tianjin branch. Having made a success of the 3 month beta, the boss gave the green light. Thus Enrico began the next 4 years of living two lives! This was because he would spend 6 months in Italy where design was and 6 months in Tianjin where production. While his dream of breaking out of Bologna had been realized, he soon found being a road warrior wasn’t the life he was looking for, this being something he didn’t see eye to eye with his boss on. A big reason for the inner struggle was that he had found not just a job in Tianjin but a home. He enjoyed his life here and had a local girlfriend. This made the 6 months away in Italy tough. Thus in August 2015 he made the next big life decision, by quitting his job and moving to Tianjin fulltime.