Inspiring women:
 Lindy Chen – Founder and Managing Director of ChinaDirect Sourcing Services
“A leader is a champion who coaches champions. Leadership is about empowering people around you, who become leaders in their own life.”
Starting with little more than a USB memory stick in an internet café, China-born Lindy Chen turned a one-person business into a million-dollar company in five years. Hers is a truly inspiring story.
Eight years ago, Lindy Chen arrived in Australia with little more than a few dollars, broken English and a resume that spoke of senior management roles back in China.
After taking on volunteer roles with the local council in Brisbane, her big break came with a job selling movie tickets door-to-door. After three weeks she’d made $100 and wore out two pairs of runners. But she learnt how to read a map and gained the confidence to talk English.
In the coming months she studied English and started teaching Business Administration and International Trade.
Friends started asking her to source products for them from China, for which she found a natural talent.
From there, ChinaDirect Sourcing was born – a business that helps businesses of all sizes to successfully deal direct with Chinese manufacturers.
For a company that deals in importing goods, Lindy didn’t start with many assets. Initially she was working off little more than a $49 USB in an internet café. Getting the business off the ground took a lot of hard work.
“In terms of struggles I have had in my career, often it centres around identifying my strengths and listening to my intuition,” Lindy recently told Women and Leadership Australia.
The struggle paid off. In five years she turned the company into a million dollar business.
In 2008, ChinaDirect Sourcing was honoured by winning the Business Services category of the Australian Small Business Champion Awards for Queensland, and in 2007, won the Australian Home-Based Business Awards.
“Personally, my greatest achievement to date was the publication of my first book, Import From China…How To Make a Million and Not Get Burnt,” Lindy reflects.
“As a migrant with limited English, that fact that I had become capable of writing a book in my second language is an achievement I will remember for the rest of my life.”
In the past eight years, she’s worked hard to give something back. She recently held a fundraising party at Dreamworld supporting the Australian Red Cross to raise $100,000 for earthquake victims.
“Education was my access out of a poor background, so my personal goal is to provide education scholarships to 1,000 underprivileged children in China by 2011,” she says.
Indeed, Lindy is no stranger to a disadvantaged life.
Born and raised on a military base known only as ‘143’ in remote China, her father earned $1.34 per week to raise a family of six when she was growing up. He has since retired and now receives a $17 weekly pension.
At one time, her father was imprisoned for three weeks when her sister stepped on a Chairman Mao chalk drawing on the footpath.
Her unique life story is something that Lindy draws strength from. She strongly believes that women can gain a lot from listening each other’s inspirational stories.
“Recently I set up a woman’s group to share life moments. Named ‘Calling in the One’, it proved to be a great vessel for encouraging each other to look at the bright side of life.”
For now, Lindy’s big challenge lies in expanding ChinaDirect into the UK market. To this end, she is working on the daily challenge of finding the right team members for the growing business.
“Leadership starts from within,” she believes. “I relate a leader as a champion coaching champions. Leadership is about empowering people around you, who become leaders in their own life.”
Learn more about ChinaDirect Sourcing Services here.
Liesl Capper-Beilby will be speaking at the Fourth Annual Womens Leadership Symposium in Brisbane, 24th & 25th August. For more information, including registration details, click here.
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