Me Find Supplier. Me Hope. 🤭
It’s Week 18.
The weekly content hamster wheel keeps turning.
I was sitting at a coffee shop yesterday, looking out the window, contemplating the universe’s great mysteries, like why people believe everything they see on the internet when it comes to Chinese suppliers and products.
A friend of mine, a real go-getter who somehow manages to run three businesses without a nervous breakdown, looks at me and says, “You’ve written all these things in your newsletter, but you’ve never talked about your other business, the sourcing products from China one.”
He was right. I’ve pontificated about cognitive biases and human irrationality. I’ve talked about the illusion of control and the joy of not being a loser. But I’ve never applied any of that to the one thing that encapsulates all those concepts: sourcing products from China.
Maybe it’s because it’s a topic so steeped in human folly that it almost seems too obvious to point out. Everyone thinks they’re a sourcing pro until their container gets seized by customs because they ignored the importance of certifications. Everyone believes everything a supplier with a well-crafted profile tells them.
It’s a classic case of “I’ll worry about that later” that turns into “I just lost my entire investment.”
So, let’s talk about it.
Not about my business, but about the cold, hard, logical benefits of working with a great one. Whether it’s me or someone else, the rules of the game don’t change.
I have a framework made of 7 steps that I believe are the most important when it comes to sourcing your products from China.
We apply the same strategy whether we try to find viral products for a dropshipping giant or when we expand product lines for a retailer or Amazon seller.
These seven steps aren’t just a process; they’re a series of lessons in how to avoid being a sucker in a system designed to make you one.
The goal isn’t just to save money. That’s a side effect. The real goal is to get better control, save time, and have less headaches. You could try to do it all yourself, and you might even succeed. But the rest of us will be watching from the sidelines, popcorn in hand, because we know the odds.
You think your biggest business risk is a TikTok ban.
It’s not.
It’s your supplier.
Specifically: the one you trust the most.
Let me explain.
Most founders are rational. Until they’re not.
They’ll obsess over ad ROAS like it’s their newborn’s oxygen level, but never question the vague “EXW” number their Alibaba contact sent via broken English and Word doc.
They’ll buy 3 A/B tools, do 17 split-tests in a week, and run a 40-slide LTV cohort analysis.
But when it comes to sourcing? They go full caveman.
“Me find supplier. Me wire $50K. Me hope.” 🤦🤦🤦
The dumbest mistake smart founders make is assuming sourcing is plug-and-play.
It isn’t.
Sourcing is not just a procurement task. It’s a leverage machine. Or a financial landmine.
The Sourcing Illusion
People think:
Cheap supplier = great margin.
Reality:
Cheap supplier = you’re about to pay for it later.
In returns. In bad reviews. In freight premiums because the cartons are oversized by 11%. In customs fees because your products failed testing.
If you don’t audit your sourcing, your sourcing will audit you.
7 Ways Sourcing Screws Founders (and How to Fix It)
1. Fake Supplier Confidence
If your only vetting method is “had good reviews on Alibaba,” you deserve what’s coming.
Real vetting means checking if the factory has:
- Lawsuits pending
- Valid business license
- Insurance scores
- Export history
This takes work. We’ve built a 2,000+ factory database to speed this up. You can build your own, or use ours. But skipping this step is like hiring someone because they smiled on Zoom.
2. Certifications
Most founders learn about product certification the same day their goods get blocked at customs.
Or when the supermarket chain buyer asks for REACH/ECHA docs, and your supplier sends you a sticker saying “eco friendly.”
The truth: no cert = no entry. No cert = no sale.
3. Protection of Payment
Let’s play a game. You pay 30% deposit. Then 70% on completion. The goods arrive and the color is off, the cable fails, or the magnet doesn’t stick.
Now what?
Most suppliers disappear faster than your Shopify conversions during a 404 error.
In our model, we don’t release final payment until post-production QC is passed, and you get a full photo + video report.
If you do nothing else, steal this step.
4. Fast samples = fast decisions
Waiting 14 days for a sample to arrive = 14 days of indecision.
We centralized all samples to our office in Shenzhen.
We hop on a live call with you.
You get to see them as fast as humanly possible.
5. Freight Fails
Most founders overpay 10-25% on shipping. Why? Because they accept the factory’s quote without question.
We optimize packaging CBM, consolidate containers, and ship DDP (meaning it clears customs, with full insurance, and no surprises).
6. The Innovation Black Hole
Factories test new products all the time. You won’t see them. Unless you’re on the factory’s A-list.
We spend all year walking hundreds of booths at Canton, Yiwu, and innovation fairs.
Our clients get early access.
Some of those SKUs became bestsellers.
Months before Temu even heard about them.
7. People Burnout on China Management
Most companies hire a “China person” and overload them with:
- QC
- Sample requests
- Freight
- Supplier hunting
- WeChat spam control
They quit. Or worse, they FAKE control.
You need a system. Or a partner with one. We have a team of 20+ who only do this.
All day. Every day.
This can’t be done by your employee….he has no control over things and once things get hard, or he makes a mistake, guess what? He’ll quit ….
And there you find yourself having to hire, train and manage another employee who can do exactly the same to you months later..
The Hidden ROI of Sourcing Done Right
- One client saved $218K/year by consolidating 4 components into one supplier.
- Another cut lead times from 63 days to 42, which let them run 2 more promos per year.
- Another avoided a 21K customs fine because we flagged the fake CE certification in time.
It doesn’t show up on Facebook Ads Manager. But sourcing edge compounds. Quietly. Like interest.
Sourcing Is the Last True Advantage
You can copy ads. You can copy landing pages. You can even copy price.
You can’t copy sourcing.
Because you’re not in the room when we sit with the factory boss in Dongguan and say:
“We want x% off, 45-day terms, and priority production. Here’s why you’ll say yes.”
Good sourcing is a closed room. A different language. A compounding edge.
Use it. Or lose to someone who will. If you want to work with us (sorry for the plug), you can send me a message at [email protected] or fill out the form on the website: asiasourcingpros.com
(just tell me you read the newsletter and this led you to write the email, )
The least you can do though, is to STEAL the checklist above.
Either way, do sourcing right.
It’s not a task.
It’s the game.