Kristy Withers

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Kristy Withers Entrepreneur, mentor & maker of beautiful things — building brands, guiding founders & bringing big ideas to life.

09/10/2026

I stayed with the wrong factory for far too long.

Not because I didn’t see the problems.

I saw the price increases.
The missed deadlines.
The changes to materials and packaging that we hadn’t approved.
The requests that never made it into production.

But I’d been told changing factories was incredibly difficult, so I convinced myself staying was easier.

Sound familiar?

After 16 years in manufacturing, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that loyalty to a supplier shouldn’t come at the expense of your business.

The factory that helped you start isn’t necessarily the factory that will help you grow.

And sometimes the most expensive decision is the one you keep putting off.

If you’re wondering whether you’ve outgrown your manufacturer, DM me SOURCE. This is exactly what we help businesses navigate at Source Haus.

07/10/2026

The funny thing about experience is that it teaches you how much you don’t know.

I’ve been manufacturing products for more than 16 years.

I’ve built products across multiple countries, worked with hundreds of factories and suppliers, and today I have teams on the ground in China and India.

Technology has made sourcing infinitely easier than when I started.

But I still get on the plane.

Not because I need to physically find a factory anymore. That’s actually the easy part.

I go because you can’t Google something you don’t know exists.

You can’t ask a factory about a production method you’ve never seen.

You can’t search for a material you don’t know the name of.

And it’s very hard to replicate the conversations, observations and tiny pieces of information you collect when you’re actually there.

That’s where some of my best product and business ideas have come from.

In a couple of weeks I’m heading back to China for Canton Fair, factory visits, supplier meetings and a whole lot of walking.

And this time, I’m going to show you much more of what I’m actually looking at and thinking about while I’m there.

Running a product business in Australia is hard right now.I spent the weekend with three other business owners and, desp...
06/10/2026

Running a product business in Australia is hard right now.

I spent the weekend with three other business owners and, despite running completely different businesses, we all ended up having the same conversation.

Costs are up. Customers are cautious. And there’s less room for error.

When that happens, it’s very easy to decide the answer is simply more sales.

Sometimes it is.

But if you sell physical products, I’d also be looking very closely at what it’s costing you to make them.

When was the last time you properly reviewed your manufacturing?

Not just asking your existing factory for a discount.

Looking at your pricing, terms, MOQs, materials, packaging, production methods, freight, lead times and quality to see where there may be opportunities to improve.

You don’t necessarily need a new factory.

And cheaper definitely doesn’t automatically mean better.

But you do need to know whether the manufacturing setup you agreed to two, three or five years ago is still the right one for your business today.

At Source Haus, this is exactly what we help established product businesses do.

If you haven’t reviewed your manufacturing in the past 12 months, book a call with us.

We’ll have a chat about what you’re currently doing and tell you whether we think there’s an opportunity to save.

No hard sell. Just a conversation about the numbers.

30/09/2026

When was the last time you actually questioned whether your factory was still the right factory for your business?

Not just their pricing.

The price increases. The delays. The MOQs. The payment terms. The quality issues you’ve slowly started accepting as “normal”.

In the last 12 months, we’ve worked with 32 businesses and there hasn’t been one where we haven’t been able to negotiate better pricing, better terms or both, while maintaining quality.

And with margins tighter than ever, those things matter.

We’re heading to Canton Fair in three weeks 🇨🇳

Come with us, or let us do it for you.

Either way, the goal is better suppliers, better terms and more margin back in your business.

Comment CANTON and I’ll send you a link to book a call with me.

26/09/2026

This week got away from me a little…

I was supposed to finalise our Jaipur numbers on Thursday and somewhere amongst everything happening this week, that didn’t quite happen.

So I’ve asked our gorgeous hotel to give me until Monday for the four rooms we have left. 🤞🏼

And considering how many of you have messaged me about Jaipur, I’m giving you the weekend to decide.

And remember, you do NOT need something to source to come to Jaipur.

Come to shop. Come for the food, fashion, jewellery, textiles and design. Come for inspiration. Or come because you watched the last trip and thought, “That looks ridiculously fun and I want to go.” 😂🇮🇳

If you do want to seriously source, you can continue with me to Delhi afterwards for IHGF.

Do Jaipur. Do Delhi. Or do both.

Four Jaipur rooms left.

Comment INDIA and I’ll send you all the details. 🇮🇳💕

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Millthorpe, NSW

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