You have a quote, maybe a sample, and a deposit invoice waiting. Before that money moves, an independent second opinion checks the full plan: true landed cost, supplier legitimacy, component timing, and the risks a factory quote never shows you.
Tooling, decoration, freight, duty, and yield routinely sit outside the headline number. The company quoting you may be a trading company, not the manufacturer. Packaging and components carry their own MOQs and lead times that have to land in sync with production. None of this shows up until it's expensive to fix.
Tooling, packaging, freight, duty, QC, and yield may sit outside the quote you were given.
The company quoting you may be an intermediary, or not the right fit for your volume and quality bar.
Component suppliers, manufacturer, freight, customs, and warehouse all need to connect without gaps.
Illustrative example only: 5,000 units quoted at $6.00 each — a $30,000 first order.
| What was missed or misunderstood | Potential added cost |
|---|---|
| $15,000 tooling charge spread over 5,000 units instead of the assumed 30,000 | +$12,500 |
| 5-25% intermediary markup embedded in supplier pricing | +$1,500-7,500 |
| Decoration omitted from quote at $0.60/unit | +$3,000 |
| Air freight required to protect launch timing at $1.50/unit | +$7,500 |
| Sellable yield 10% below estimate: 4,500 good units instead of 5,000 | ~+$3,000 |
| Illustrative exposure if all five occur | ~$30,500 |
A product you believe in. A supplier you can't fully verify. A deposit invoice with a deadline on it. We built a physical product from scratch ourselves, the same way you're doing now, and paid for the same mistakes this audit is designed to catch: a supplier who wasn't quite who they claimed to be, real costs that never showed up in the quote, a timeline that slipped past every promise we were given. That's not a case study we read about. That's the exact moment you're standing in right now.
Read the full story →The audit is the starting point for almost everyone. These are the options if you need more.
The Production Audit
Fixed fee, 2 weeks, nothing further required
Sourcing & Production Partner
Duration depends on product complexity and stage
First Run, Delivered
Duration depends on product complexity and stage
The checks worth doing yourself, and where they stop being enough.
The tells that separate a real factory from a well-dressed middleman.
What routinely sits outside the headline quote, and what it costs.
If your product is ready to quote or sample and you want a second, independent look before the money moves, this is built for exactly that moment.
See how the audit works →