Gerry Ball has make it is business to capitalise on Hong Kong’s endless investment opportunities

Englishman Gerry Ball has found Hong Kong the perfect platform to launch his own companies and for investing actively and silently in seed companies that seem to have growth potential. Through Expand Asia, a business consultancy he has run since 2000, Mr Ball has had the opportunity to advise a wide range of businesses, offering himself as a partner in some cases. Mr Ball set up non-profit organisation The Entrepreneurs Club, recently, a forum at which business operators gather to exchange ideas and practical information.

"I came here as a stock trader in 1992, having been a broker in London in the late 1980s. Although a lot of fortunes were made all over the world at that time - and Hong Kong was a good case in point - it's one of the most over-glorified jobs around. Buying stocks can be a bit like gambling, you've got about a 50 per cent chance of backing a winner, however much research you do on a company.

I soon found that if you invest directly in a company, making sure you really know its working structure, you stand to make a much higher return on capital than in the stock market or other forms of investment.

Hong Kong is ideal for such ventures. It's known to be a place where people act on ideas and opportunities, and take the plunge with small business ideas. But typically, the problem is funding. Banks and other institutions can be unwilling to risk lending to a start-up operation, particularly if it falls short of a minimum loan amount - and venture capital companies have very high minimum amounts, often around HK$39 million (US$5 million). Expand Asia considers investments in the region of HK$390,000 - HK$2 million (US$50,000-257,000).

I founded the company on the basis that getting funding is difficult and I stand to benefit from helping a seed company bloom - as an 'angel' investor. I have quite strict criteria that needs to be met before becoming involved, though.

Fast, easy to get started

Quite seriously, there is no better place to be based than Hong Kong. It's fast and easy to set up a business, all business dealings are completely transparent, the level of corruption is virtually non-existent and everything runs smoothly.

When I land at airports at some other cities in the region, it's a nightmare just trying to get a taxi to my hotel without getting scammed - and this kind of first impression puts people off doing business in a place. There is no such danger here - Hong Kong is incredibly safe.

As well as investing in other companies, I have just launched another of my own - Mind Your Language, a communications improvement service. We provide English-language editing and staff training services, much of it is online. We currently have 32 staff at Mind Your Language - 28 of them teaching and editing professionals, based in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. The service has proved so popular in Hong Kong that I'm planning to launch it elsewhere in Asia soon.

I've gained so much from being in Hong Kong that I wanted to give something back so I set up The Entrepreneurs Club. It's a non-profit forum where entrepreneurs can exchange ideas and practical information. So far, speakers have included David Tang [founder of Shanghai Tang] and prominent ex-legislator Christine Loh.

We're working on a very helpful project at the moment, in conjunction with Price Waterhouse Coopers: 10 members of the club are to be drawn to receive a start-up assistance programme to examine their new business feasibility and recommend courses of action, if feasible."

Related link:
Expand Asia www.expandasia.com