Living in Bali is truly a dream come true. However, doing business in Bali can at times turn the dream into a nightmare. There are no large warehouse distributors where you can walk in and order small amounts of product let alone large amounts. All handicrafts in Bali are handmade by individual families in their respective villages. There is no stock of items on hand - when they receive an order, they make the order special for you.

Making an order can be a long process. The wood is first carved, dried in the sun or a make-shift oven drying room, then sanded and painted or stained. This all takes time. Then just when you think all is going well, there will be a ceremony of some sort and all the villagers will stop working to attend to their duties at the Banjar (local community centre).

One of the most impressive and alluring things about Bali is the spirituality and sense of family and community support. This can also be one of the most frustrating when doing business. It is essential to understand & follow the Balinese Calendar when planning your shipments. If you are planning to have orders finished & shipped shortly after Galungan (Balinese holiday that happens every 210 days) you will be guaranteed to have delays. On the other hand, if your orders are scheduled to be finished the week before Galungan, be certain to have the money here because your orders will most certainly be finished & the family is counting on that money to help prepare for the ceremony. Quality checking is especially important during these times to be certain they haven’t rushed along an order just to have it finished before a ceremony. The Balinese are all basically honest people – from all the years doing business here I have never once experienced anyone trying to outright cheat me. However, when it comes to the quality of product, some may try to pass off inferior quality if there isn’t a sharp eye there to inspect each piece – everytime.

At Exotic Exports quality is the number one priority, but the customer must remember that everything is handmade, so variations in size and colours are inevitable. We run our business with a social conscious – we do not grind a desperate family down on price just to see how low we can get it. During hard economic times (and believe me, Bali has seen a few in the past years) I’ve heard stories of people getting “great deals” because the family had wood but no orders. At Exotic Exports we don’t do business that way. We are in business for the long haul – we create business relationships and friendships with these people – it must be fair for everyone – we all have to eat.

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