Your Business: Immigrant entrepreneurs - Zheng Li, Zing Design

Zheng Li, founder and CEO of Zing Design.

Zheng Li founded Zing Design, a Wellington-based digital creative agency, in 2012. In 2013 she was named as an emerging leader by NZ Asian Leaders and this year became one of the youngest certified members of the Institute of Directors.

Can you tell me a bit about your background?

I was born in Kunming, in southwest China. In 1996, my family and I moved to Melbourne when I was 11 years old, where my father studied for his PhD. After his study, due to better job prospects in New Zealand, the family moved to Auckland in 2000.

What prompted you to set up your own business?

I've always had an interest in business, having started investing in companies on the stock exchange since I was in my 20s, but for a long time I didn't know where to start and lacked the self confidence to take the leap of faith. After having worked for blue chip companies like Trade Me and Rabobank, I went contracting, and it was then that the opportunity became obvious. Three of my largest clients ended up coming to me at the same time while I was contracting and asked me to consider working for them full time.

I floated the idea of starting my own business to them, as it enabled me to expand the variety of services I was able to provide. They all agreed to jumped on board to support this idea and in 2012, Zing Design was born.

The business has grown rapidly in the last two-and-a-half years and we now have five employees and are exporting to the US and Australia.

What are some of the challenges you've faced as an immigrant entrepreneur?

The biggest challenge so far has been overcoming my perception about business from my own cultural upbringing. In China, due to the competitive nature of the workplace, if you didn't have at least a Masters degree, you couldn't expect to find a job, so essentially higher degrees equalled more job opportunities. Starting your own business was seen as extremely risky, because unlike State-owned enterprises, privately held businesses had no pension, no health cover and are exposed to international market conditions.

Interestingly, my mother's family has always defied tradition and is full of entrepreneurs, doing everything from motorcycle manufacturing to being restaurateurs. However, because of my father's academic leaning, my parents always encouraged me to follow in his academic footsteps.

But has your dad come round now?

Yes, nowadays he's very supportive of my business and enjoys hearing my stories from work. I'm incredibly lucky because he teaches international business and he has been instrumental in our exporting efforts into other countries, in particular China.

What are some of the advantages you've found being an immigrant entrepreneur?

The first is having a resilient character. Our family had a total of US$1,000 when we first arrived in Australia and because finances were so tight, we ended up living in a small garage for years and accumulated furniture from weekend garage sales. I found that experience incredibly humbling, rewarding and character building. Nowadays, it doesn't matter how hard things get, I can always draw on the strength of this experience, because if we overcame that, we can overcome anything.

The second is being comfortable talking about money from a very young age. Asian parents like mine are very money conscious, very frugal and we always talked about money at the dinner table. I always knew how much seasonable vegetables cost, what our incomings and outgoings were and how money was managed within the family.

So even though I've always had a creative background, I was always encouraged to study maths and accounting to ensure I had a strong financial understanding. This has definitely helped me in managing Zing Design, so much so that our accountant frequently commented on how well managed our company accounts were.

The other advantage is in having a large network within China. My business connections both in the government and private sectors and my understanding of how to do business in China meant we have a distinctive advantage when it comes to exporting into the country because we have the right connections.

So you're looking to expand into China yourself?

Yes, we are currently exploring opportunities to partner up with our connections in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen where digital experiences and their increasing values to brands are starting to pick up momentum. I'll be heading to China later in the year to help set up these relationships.

What advice would you have for other immigrant entrepreneurs?

I have two main pieces of advice. The first is to have a good understanding of how business is done in New Zealand and the values that Kiwis are most looking for. This involves doing detailed market and user research and validating your ideas before launching your business here.

The second is to seek support and advice from other successful entrepreneurs as early as possible because there are certain blind spots in business that others can help you identify and they can also help you in avoiding some of the pitfalls.

Coming up in Your Business: I've been hearing about a few interesting local jewellery brands lately and it's got me thinking, what does it take to build a small business in this area, particularly if you're taking your brand offshore? If you've got a story to tell, drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com.