Anyone quoting a single figure for « entering China » is selling something. The cost depends on your product, your channel and how much you do yourself. What is predictable is the shape of the budget — and which lines are systematically left out of a first plan.
The four buckets
- Protection and compliance. Trademark filing, product certification, any licence your category needs. Small amounts, and the only ones that get dramatically more expensive if postponed.
- Presence. Travel, a representative or a first hire, translation and localisation of what buyers will actually read. This is where the money quietly goes.
- Market-making. Samples, a trade show, product adaptation, the first stock sitting somewhere before it sells.
- Structure, if and when you need it. A legal entity has a setup cost and, more importantly, a recurring administrative cost that does not stop.
The three lines people forget
- Time before revenue. The single largest cost, and it rarely appears in a budget. Decision cycles are long; plan to fund a gap, not a ramp.
- The second trip. Everyone budgets the first. The second — the one that turns interest into a contract — is the one that converts.
- Maintaining the presence. A WeChat account, a site, a catalogue in Chinese: creating them is a project, keeping them alive is a subscription.
A more useful question than « how much »
« How long can we fund this before it has to work? » A company with eighteen months of runway behaves differently from one with six, and should choose a different entry route. The budget follows from that answer, not the other way round.