These past few days, because of the public holiday in China and handling some client order issues, I haven’t been out for factory visits in several days. Today, let’s talk about why I prefer partner with small and medium-sized factories. As you can see on my website, many factories I visited belong to small and medium-sized factories, not the kind that look very dazzling. This is inspired by my long-term dealing with the factories around my home.
Many factory owners are also the direct victims of the economic downturn in recent years. Labor costs are high, profit margins are low, and material and rent costs remain high. This causes many factories to be forced to close down or lay off employees to survive. As for the underwear factories around my home, I have seen the wave of bankruptcy and relocation with my own eyes in these years. In the past, our Yanbu was very famous in China as the “Underwear Capital”, but now, it is very, very rare to directly find a factory whose R&D and production are all in Yanbu. In the past, underwear factories were everywhere. When it was off-duty time, the roads were crowded with workers walking around.
Small and medium factories are all trying to find ways to survive. They desire orders much more than general large factories. Therefore, I choose to cooperate with small and medium enterprises, mainly for the following reasons:
- 1. Because small and medium factories are seeking survival, they will be more willing to cooperate with me to serve overseas clients. This makes the communication cost much lower during my connecting process.
- 2. I clearly tell them that I will not take any kickbacks from their factories. This will not hurt the factory’s interests. Correspondingly, they will give me more favorable cooperation conditions, such as lower MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity).
- 3. For the connection with small and medium factories, I usually directly connect with the factory boss, not the salespeople. If there is any requirement, my contact person can make decisions on the spot, no need to ask for instructions from others.
Small and medium factories do not have all advantages; they also have disadvantages. For example, maybe they have never directly connected with overseas distributors before, and they do not understand many processes very well. However, the existence of me as a sourcing agent can just solve this pain point. I will coordinate in the middle with the factory to handle all problems occurring in the steps of ordering, production, quality inspection, and shipping.
There seem to be not many sourcing agents who dare to clarify no kickbacks and clarify service fees like me. I also don’t know how many people I will offend, but I will persist.
📝 A Personal Note from Tan:
Thank you for reading my factory field report. I spent hours on-site at this facility to bring you the unfiltered truth, because I believe overseas buyers deserve absolute transparency.
I am not a giant, cold sourcing corporate. I am an independent, on-demand boots-on-the-ground sourcing agent based right here in Guangdong. I am actively looking for long-term procurement partnerships, and frankly, I need and value this work.
My service fee is highly competitive because I keep my overhead low and refuse any hidden factory kickbacks—I fight 100% for your profit margins and quality protection. If you need someone honest to audit factories, negotiate bottom prices, or oversee production deadlines in China, please read my story on my [ABOUT ME] page or drop me a line directly. Let’s build something real together.