WHEN CHEAP HAS A PRICE
Big Ass Fans founder Carey Smith led the fan and light maker from $0 to its $500 million sale. He started working at age 9 and has never stopped. His “secret” to success is common sense, and he’s happy to share it. His firm, Unorthodox Ventures, focuses on finding small companies with big potential.
A wise man once said, “’Tis better to distribute your eggs into several baskets than to put them all in one”-or something to that effect. And that’s especially true if your only basket is 7,000 miles away in a country that could quite fairly be described as hard-line.
You’d think it would be obvious that sourcing your product, or major components of it, in China would eventually lead to trouble. Yet a lot of businesses continue to rely on contract manufacturers in far-flung lands to churn out and ship parts
