The product and the spec
A spec sheet, a drawing or a photo. If you only have a reference link to something similar, send that — I will work out what to ask the factory.
Sourcing
Tell me what you need made. I find the factory — and check it before you pay.
Finding factories is not the hard part; there are thousands of them. Knowing which ones are worth paying is the hard part. So the searching and the checking are one job here, not two.
Start here
What I need from you
One message is enough to start. The more of these four you can answer, the faster the first shortlist is useful.
Quantity
First order and the annual volume, if you know it. This decides which factories will even quote you, and it drives the unit price more than anything else.
Target price
Give me one if you have it. If the number is not realistic for the spec, I will say so rather than spend two weeks collecting quotes that were never going to work.
Which market it sells into
The EU and the US ask for different documents, and the market decides what the factory has to hold before it can supply you at all.
And one more thing, if you have it
Tell me whether you already have a sample, a supplier, or a factory you are unhappy with. Starting from something real is faster than starting from a category — and if you already have a supplier, the first thing worth doing is checking that one.
The method
How I find a factory, in order
Eight steps. The first seven produce a shortlist; the last one is the step that protects your money.
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01Clarify the spec
I turn your requirement into a Chinese-language specification a factory can quote against: material, dimensions, tolerances, printing, packing, certification. A lot of enquiries fail at this step — the factory quotes something, the buyer assumes something else, and both sides only find out at the sample.
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02Screen the platform
1688 and Guangdong factory networks first, screened on repeat-buyer rate, transaction history, price bracket and how closely the product matches yours. This is a desk screen — it removes the obvious mismatches, it does not yet tell you who to trust.
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03Verify the entity
Registered name, legal representative, business scope, whether a production address is registered at all, employee social-insurance headcount, and the environmental permit. A trading company can look identical to a factory on a listing page and completely different here.
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04Contact and quote
I ask the factory directly, in Chinese, against the spec from step 01 — for the real price, MOQ, lead time, tooling and plate fees, and payment terms. Not the price on a listing page, and not a range that quietly excludes the tooling.
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05Compare like for like
Every quotation goes onto one table with the same line items: material, thickness, print colours, packing, MOQ, lead time, tooling, payment terms, validity. A large share of "cheaper" quotes are cheaper because something in the spec was quietly dropped.
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06Sample and verify
Get the sample, and check it against the spec — not against the factory's opinion of it. A sample that passes is not a promise that the production run passes, so the acceptance criteria are agreed in writing at this step rather than argued about later.
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07Visit if it matters
I am in Guangdong, so for an order where the stakes justify it I can go and look at the factory: the production floor, whether the machines are running, the incoming material area, the records on hand.
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08Tie the balance to QC
Deposit against the proforma invoice; balance released when the agreed inspection passes. No pass, no balance. Of everything on this page, this is the term that is worth the most to you — and a lot of buyers do not know it is negotiable. It usually is.
The difference
Who pays me, and what that changes
A sourcing agent paid by the factory has a reason to steer you toward one factory. It is not a character question; it is an incentive question.
| The question | A typical sourcing agent | What I do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays | Paid a commission by the factory, so there is a reason to push the expensive one | Paid by you. No factory pays me, so no factory has my ear |
| What you receive | Sends you a list of contacts and lets you work out which one to trust | Sends you a shortlist, with what I found about each one — the contacts come once you have chosen |
| How deep the check goes | Compares quotations | Checks the business registration, the certificate scope, the social-insurance headcount, the environmental permit |
| The negotiation | Helps you negotiate the price | Helps you tie the balance payment to QC passing |
| The closing argument | "Trust me, this factory is good" | "Here is what I could verify and what I could not." |
Most agents hand you a list of contacts. I hand you a shortlist — a judgement about which ones are worth your time, and the contacts themselves once you have chosen. Which is only worth something because the factory never pays me.
Honestly
Where I am strong, and where I am only useful
You should know this before you send me a spec, not after. A middleman who is good at everything is the one thing worth avoiding.
Where I am strongest
Three years on the manufacturing side of plastic film, flexible packaging, food-contact materials and medical device packaging. If your product sits in that world, I know what the factory floor should look like, and what the certificates should say.
- I have audited suppliers on site, at four core suppliers, on the factory side of the table.
- I have built ISO 9001, 13485, 14001 and 45001 systems from zero, so I know what a real one costs a factory.
- I have supported FDA product certification and customs paperwork, so I know which documents actually exist and which are being promised.
- I know which questions a factory will answer honestly and which ones it will answer with a brochure.
Where I am still useful, but you should weigh it
For other categories I am applying a method, not industry contacts. The method works — registration checks, document cross-checks, quotations compared like for like — but if you need someone who has bought your exact product for ten years, I am not that person yet, and I will tell you so.
- I will not pretend to know your technical process better than your own engineer.
- I will not pretend to have a factory contact for a product I have never sourced.
- I will not quote you a price I have not received in writing.
- I will not tell you a factory is fine in order to close the job.
The same boundary is written out on the about page and answered directly in the FAQ: you do not know my product, so how can you judge a supplier for it.
Fees
Two ways to start
Either you buy a report about a supplier you already have in mind, or you hire me to run the search and the order. No hourly billing — you know the cost before we start.
Commission
Sourcing and order follow-up
5–8% of the order value
- Fixed in writing before we start, and it does not change depending on which factory you choose
- Charged after the order is placed with the factory, not before
- You pay the factory directly, on their own proforma invoice, to their own account
- No markup on the factory price, no deposit, no balance, no shipping money held by me
- No fee from the factory, ever — I am not a middleman on their side
Fixed price
Start with a written report
If you already have candidate factories, this is usually the cheaper first move. Scope and price are agreed up front, and the fee is invoiced on delivery.
- $49 — supplier verification, one supplier: is this a real manufacturer, and does the evidence match what they said
- $99 — compliance gap check, one supplier and one market: what they hold, what your market requires, what is missing
- $179 — multi-supplier comparison: the same verification across several suppliers, plus one comparison table
Full scope and exclusions: services and pricing · sample reports · how payment works.
If I do not find a factory worth ordering from, you owe me nothing
No order, no commission. That is not generosity — it is the only honest way to sell a search. I would rather earn your second order than bill you for a first one that should not have happened.
Timing
How long this actually takes
Typical figures. Your product changes them, and the two stages buyers most often underestimate are sampling and shipping.
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Requirement clarification | 1–2 days |
| Factory search & shortlist | 3–10 days |
| Quotation comparison | 2–5 days |
| Sampling & confirmation | 2–8 weeks |
| Production | 4–12 weeks |
| QC & shipping | 2–8 weeks |
The part buyers get wrong
- Sampling is measured in weeks, not days. Tooling, plate making, material lead time and one revision are normal.
- The first sample rarely passes first time. If a schedule assumes it will, the schedule is wrong, not the factory.
- Shipping is not instant either, and a rework moves everything behind it.
Start here
Send me the spec.
Tell me what you need made, the quantity and the market you are selling into. I will tell you what is realistic, and whether the search is worth your money — before you spend anything.
In short
- 5–8% — commission, charged after the order is placed
- $49 / $99 / $179 — fixed-price written reports, if you already have candidates
- Nothing — if I do not find a factory worth ordering from
- You pay the factory directly — I never hold your goods money