The first time someone tries to source a product from China, they spend weeks messaging strangers, getting quotes that make no sense, and wondering whether the factory on the other end is a factory at all.
Everyone who has done it once has a short list of contacts they trust. Almost nobody has written that list down in a form other people can use.
The idea: a detailed, filterable database of Chinese factory contacts, sold to people who are new to sourcing. It is one of the 100 business ideas in Google Sheets on my list, and it is one where the value of the sheet goes up every time you add a row.
The idea
Build a database of factory contacts in China. For each one, record the location, contact details, production capabilities, and specialties. Who makes injection-molded plastics. Who does small-run textiles. Who will actually answer an email in English.
The buyer is a business that wants to source products from Chinese factories, especially one that is new to the industry and has limited experience dealing with suppliers there. Those people do not know what questions to ask, and they do not know who to ask them to. A list that answers the second problem is worth paying for.
Add filtering and sorting by location, product type, and production capability. That turns a flat list into a customized supplier search. A buyer looking for a leather goods maker near Guangzhou with a low minimum order should be able to get to that answer in three clicks.
Then add the part nobody else will have: anecdotal information. Your own experience with a factory, or notes gathered from extensive interviews with people who have ordered from them. How responsive they were. Whether the samples matched the production run. Whether they pushed back on a small order. That layer is what makes this kind of Google Sheet insanely valuable, because it cannot be scraped.
The reason this works as a sheet rather than a website is trust and speed. A sheet feels like something a friend would send you. It also lets the buyer add their own columns, their own notes, and their own contacts, which a directory site never does.
How to build it in Google Sheets
- Factories tab. One row per factory. Columns: Factory Name, City, Province, Product Categories, Specialties, Minimum Order Quantity, Typical Lead Time, Certifications, Contact Name, Email, WeChat, Website, Languages Spoken, Last Verified, Rating, Notes.
- Finder tab. A few input cells at the top (Category, Province, Max MOQ) and a results area underneath that filters the Factories tab.
- Notes tab. Longer-form anecdotes, one row per interaction, linked to the factory name. This is where the interview material lives.
- Submissions tab. Fed by a Google Form so buyers can suggest corrections or new factories.
Features that do the heavy lifting:
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FILTER drives the Finder tab. Because a factory can have several product categories in one cell, match on partial text:
=FILTER(Factories!A:P, ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B2, Factories!D:D)))returns every row whose category column contains whatever the user typed in B2. - Data validation dropdowns on Province and Category in both the Factories and Finder tabs, so the text always matches and the filters never miss.
- Checkboxes in a Verified column, plus the Last Verified date. Contacts go stale. Buyers want to know how fresh a row is.
- Conditional formatting that turns a row gray when Last Verified is more than a year old. It tells you what to re-check next.
- Google Forms intake for the Submissions tab. Your buyers become your researchers.
- Protected ranges on the Factories tab in the copy you sell, so the Finder formulas keep working after the buyer starts editing.
Start with 30 to 50 factories you can genuinely vouch for. A short list with real notes beats a long list with none.
Who pays for it, and how to sell it
The buyer is a first-time importer. Someone launching a physical product, an ecommerce seller moving from reselling to private label, a designer who has a prototype and no idea who can make it. Small agencies that help clients source will buy it too, and they will pay more.
They are paying for three things: the contacts themselves, the filtering that saves them a week of searching, and the anecdotes that keep them from wiring a deposit to the wrong place.
Pricing: the anecdotes and the freshness argue for a subscription. Sell a one-time version for buyers who just want the list, and a yearly plan for people who want updates, new factories, and revised notes as you learn more. If you have real sourcing experience, layer a service on top: a paid call where you look at their product and point them at the right three rows.
Gumroad works for the one-time version. For the subscription, OnlySheets lets you sell access to the live Google Sheet and shares it automatically with each paying customer, so everyone sees the updated list without you resending anything.
First 10 customers: go where new importers ask questions. Answer them, with specifics. When someone asks how to find a factory for a particular product, tell them what you know about that category, and mention that your list has the contacts. Ten sales from ten helpful answers is a realistic start.
Related ideas from the list
- Board Game Manufacturing Contact List, the same mechanic narrowed to one product category.
- Wholesaler Resources, for the same buyer once they have a product and need to move it.
- Physical Product Flipping Calculator, which helps that buyer check the numbers before placing an order.
Want the other 99? This is one idea from my list of 100 business ideas you can build in Google Sheets. Get all 100 business ideas as a free Google Sheet.
And if you want to learn how to package and sell spreadsheets, my course Selling Spreadsheets walks through exactly that.
