Over the past few weeks we've received a number of direct messages and emails, from "influencers", other general people on Instagram that are asking for either free products, to be paid to advertise us or to become an affiliate partner. We're been trying to decide how to manage this process that will no doubt come up again and again.
Firstly, to those offering to become affiliate partners, thank you. I am really flattered that you think we would be a good team and that you're proud to essentially work for us and the products we sell. The equal partnership suggestion is lovely. However, we have made the decision that at the moment we don't think affiliate partners will work for us. We run not for profit but at the moment, without profit! We are a start up working ethically and website development as well as the many start up costs, we are not in profit at the moment. We don't even pay our selves any wage. Also, some of products we run at no profit. This is to allow accessibility to certain products to the wider public.
Instagram is a bit of a monster. Products are being sold left right and centre and it can be really hard to find space that you're actually NOT being sold something. Anybody can make money, advertising to buy more & more.
We don't really want to contribute to that. We need to raise money for our work, but we also want to work ethically. And that means pushing back against extreme consumerism on social media. We struggle with not promoting heavy consumption ourselves and we're currently trying to find a balance. Out sourcing our selling removes that ethical edge we are trying to maintain.
For those asking for free products outright, I understand that it might be a completely innocent desire to promote our work, and that works for you by gaining free products to showcase. But again, we are trying to support ethical small businesses and sometimes that means a tiny, to no profit margin. With any profit that we do make, we plan to fund conservation work. Taking away from our profits it taking away from school visits, awareness etc.
Would you walk into a shop and ask for what you need for free? I hope you respect our boundaries and understand that we both want to support ethical social media use whilst running a small CIC. This may change in the future! And watch out for other opportunities to try our epic products, with competitions on our social media feeds.
If you'd like to support us and our work, there is a few ways you can!
- Share our page, our work and our message. Share a blog of ours that you love.
- Buying things you need through us, does support us!