How to navigate Black Friday as a Small Business Owner.
As a small business owner, Black Friday can be a really tricky one to navigate (especially if you make handmade products)! On one hand it can be a really great opportunity to increase sales & engage your community with any collections, products or bundles you may be offering for Christmas.
…but on the other hand, it can make you feel a bit “salesy” and can also put pressure on small businesses to drop their prices beyond what they would usually feel comfortable with.
With this in mind, here are some do’s ✅ & don’t’s ❌ to consider when figuring out whether to put on a Black Friday event as well as some tips & advice on some Black Friday alternatives that have worked well for me in the past.
Black Friday for Small Businesses - Do’s & Don’ts
❌ Don’t feel like you have to take part (remember, you make the rules in your business & if having a sale is going to mean you’re not making enough profit or put you under additional stress it’s simply not worth it!)
❌ Don’t feel the pressure to drastically reduce your prices or offer the same offers as larger brands (there is a reason why these brands can reduce their prices so dramatically & usually there’s some source of unethical practice behind this!)
❌ Don’t feel pressured by market place sites (Etsy) to participate in sales. I know they are always asking you to discount your prices beyond what you’re comfortable with in order to show up on their sales pages…however, don’t be pressured by this if it means you’ll make a measly profit once the discount & deductions are taken!
✅ Do your maths! it sounds silly, but make sure you run a really detailed check on your numbers before deciding on any discounts (there is nothing worse then having to work really hard to send out orders only to find out that you barely made any money as a result!)
✅ Do consider alternatives to shop wide sales - If you can’t reduce your prices there are still ways you can participate such as sample sales, product bundles or adding freebies/ gifts to orders placed within a certain timeframe.
Black Friday Alternatives For Small Businesses 🌈
The idea of Black Friday alternatives usually includes the same tactics used for a traditional sale…only with a different name eg. “Small Business Saturday” or “Rainbow Weekend”.
Whilst of course, you can choose to refer to your Black Friday event in whatever you feel aligns with your values & brand messaging, you can also go for a different route when putting together your Black Friday package…
Offering free gifts with each order instead of discounts 🎁- this is a great way to take part in Black Friday as a small business owner, without the impact it can have on your profit margins. In the past I have created one-off products that were quick & easy to make from offcuts of materials from my core product range. This was a great way to re-cycled would-be waste offcuts whilst also ensuring that I didn’t have to cut my prices in order to take part in Black Friday Sales.
Donating a percentage of sales to charity for the Black Friday weekend - This is probably my favourite Black Friday alternative that I did as a small business owner as it both took the pressure off of feeling like I was just another voice bombarding people with discounts & instead gave me something to focus on & feel good about when talking about my Black Friday event.
It’s a great opportunity to spread the word about what’s important to you as a brand & capture the attention of people within your online community that care about the same issues as you.
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Should You Boycott Black Friday as a Small Business Owner? 🙅♀️
Many Small Business owners opt out of Black Friday events all together & this can be a really great decision depending on your personal viewpoint around big sales events.
If Black Friday sales don't align with your brand values or something about it just gives you the ick… boycotting Black Friday can also be a really great opportunity to voice some of your values & opinions with your online community.
👉 Here are some talking points to get you thinking;
The impact Black Friday deals has on the environment
The impact Black Friday has on small businesses who aren’t able to afford large reductions
How Black Friday deals encourage impulse buying & over-spending
I hope that helped you to get thinking about how to navigate Black Friday in your own business & remember, what's right for others isn't necessarily what's right for you and that's ok! Whatever you decide to do (or don’t do) for Black Friday it’s 100% up to you, so go with what feels right & makes the most sense for you & your business.