The Truth About Black Friday, Small Business… and Why I’m Grateful You’re Here
I’ve been thinking a lot about what this Black Friday has meant for us — not just in terms of sales or numbers, but in terms of who we are as a tiny business and how we’ve evolved over the last couple of years.
And honestly? I feel a mix of pride, relief, exhaustion, and gratitude all at once.
Let’s start with the good news:
Our Soap Lover’s Advent Calendar sold out in five days.
Five. Days.
For a small team like ours — making everything slowly, in-house, with our own hands — that kind of response means the world. It tells me that our community gets us. It tells me you’re excited about the things we pour our hearts into (even when we’re sitting on the warehouse floor surrounded by tins, soaps, labels, and cardboard and whispering, “Is this too many? Is this not enough? Who knows…”)
But I also want to share what it’s really like behind the scenes, because small business is never as neat as the glossy marketing you see on Instagram.
We don’t order thousands of units. We can’t.
Every new product is a risk.
Every drop feels like a little leap of faith.
We’re not a big beauty brand who can spend a small fortune on stock that may or may not sell. We have to guess — carefully — and sometimes we get it right, like with the Advent Calendar… and sometimes we don’t.
Which brings me to Halloween.
We got a bit of flack for our Halloween promotion. And look, I’ll be the first to say it probably wasn’t our strongest product launch. But here’s the thing: if we don’t take risks, if we don’t experiment, we stop growing. We stop creating. We stop learning what you want and how you want it.
And as a tiny business, we learn quickly.
Sometimes painfully quickly.
The surprising truth: I’ve become a marketer.
When we transitioned heavily into e-commerce after the pandemic, I realised something confronting:
I wasn’t just a soap maker anymore.
I had become a marketer.
I spend my days telling stories, testing ideas, analysing data, crafting messages, trying to meet the algorithm halfway… all while making sure the product remains honest, ethical, Australian, and genuinely good for your skin.
And here’s the truth I don’t hear many people say out loud:
marketing often sits uncomfortably with me.
The whole idea of convincing people they’re not enough without a certain product… the pushiness… the pressure… the manipulation baked into so much advertising…
It doesn’t align with who I am, or the world I want my daughter to grow up in.
We don’t operate like that.
We can’t.
We won’t.
What I am willing to do — and what I’ve had to learn to do — is show up honestly.
Tell the truth about what we make, why we make it, and what makes it different.
Then let you decide.
Because here’s what I’ve realised:
In a world built on marketing, everyone should understand how it works.
We are marketed to constantly.
In every moment. On every platform. From every angle.
And so much of it is designed to create a feeling of lack.
“You need this to be more you.”
“You need this to be complete.”
“You need this to fix you.”
But the most “you” thing you can ever do… is to make your own decisions based on what you value — not what a brand tells you to value.
If I have one piece of advice after spending two years knee-deep in digital marketing, it’s this:
Learn how marketing works, not to become a marketer, but to protect yourself from the marketing.
When you understand the mechanics, you see the persuasion for what it is — not a truth, but a technique.
And then you get to choose freely.
And that’s why your support means everything this Black Friday.
Because you’re not here out of pressure, or hype, or some artificial urgency.
You’re here because you care — about what goes on your skin, what goes down your drain, what gets made in Australia, and what you support with your money.
You’re here because you like real soap.
Made by real people.
In a real warehouse.
With real imperfections and real heart.
And that’s the kind of marketing I can live with.
Thanks for being here — truly.
Soapy hugs,
Emma xx
