Happy Thursday!

For the first time in nearly a decade, I’m heading into Black Friday without a Shopify dashboard open or a pounding headache from a 3PL on standby.

It feels weird, but in the best way.

Selling CROSSNET earlier this year gave me a different vantage point. I’ve spent the last few BFCMs in the trenches, late nights, Slack channels firing nonstop, spreadsheets and projections open on three monitors, praying to God that shipping carriers wouldn’t implode.

This year, I get to breathe and finally step back. And it’s giving me clarity I didn’t have before.

Instead of stressing about sell-through rates or contribution margins, I’ve been reflecting on what I’d want to tell the obsessed version of me three or four years ago that was staring down Q4 with all the pressure in the world, making some mistakes that cost us tens of thousands, and occasionally getting it right enough to drive $9M+ in sales.

Consider this my word from the wise to anyone gearing up for BFCM. Everything useful that I wish somebody had pulled me aside and told me before I learned the hard way.

BFCM Exposes those That Didn’t Prepare

Too many founders treat BFCM like a lottery ticket. 

“If we just hit these numbers in November, we’ll be fine.”

Black Friday exposes weak businesses more than it acts like a Hail Mary for their year of disappointment. When you’re not profitable the other 11 months of the year, you can’t count on one weekend to fix it. Discounts only amplify the holes in your system, like bad margins, weak supply chain, sloppy email flows, or an underfunded ad account.

I learned this at CROSSNET the hard way. One year, we underpriced shipping to Western Australia by mistake. By the end of the month, we were losing $100+ per order there. It wiped out a huge chunk of margin. All because we didn’t stress-test our numbers in advance.

My advice: audit your business like a hawk before you press “go.” Look at every SKU, every region, every campaign. Make sure you’re making money at every stage. Otherwise, BFCM just scales your losses faster.

Data is Your Best Friend

Founders love chasing shiny objects. 

New channels, new ads, new SKUs. But when you’re heading into Q4, the smartest play is usually staring you in the face.

Almost 95% of our Australian revenue one year came from Q4. Nearly two-thirds of sales came from one SKU, SmashNet. And our best-performing ads from the year before worked again, often at 2-3x better CPC than anything new we tried.

The lesson: don’t reinvent the wheel. Refresh it, polish it, and put it back in play. If you had winning campaigns last year, double down. If a market overperformed, feed it again. That’s how you stack wins, not by gambling on something brand new under holiday pressure.

Kintsugi

The biggest thing that used to keep me up is sales tax. It’s annoying, frustrating, and honestly a never ending nightmare. Tax compliance can derail momentum and there’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve been compliant and getting a random bill for $8000 from the state of Michigan… Yes I’ve been there and may or may not still be getting letters in the mail. That’s where Kintsugi steps in and I wish I found it sooner.

The founder Pujun joined the Founders Club a few months ago after meeting at an event in Miami. He told me he could save all of my DTC friends a massive headache and he was so damn right.

In short, they cut sales tax work from 40 hours to 10 minutes a month across 11,000 U.S. jurisdictions, Canada, and the EU. They even have real-time liability tracking, automatic mapping when you add SKUs or markets, and hands-free filing when it’s time to report.

Most brands that switch save between 50 to 70% on compliance costs (talking a few thousands a month), with no long-term contracts. Onboarding takes under 30 minutes with Shopify, Amazon, QuickBooks, and more. During BFCM, the last thing you want is a tax surprise. Kintsugi clears the path so you can focus on growth.

If you’re looking for smarter, faster, more affordable tax compliance, check them out here.

Or hit up my personal contact there Kelby - [email protected]

Protect Margin Like it’s Your Job (It IS!)

Every founder’s temptation is the same: slash prices, drive volume, brag about topline revenue on Twitter.

But the best founders know margin is what keeps the lights on in January. One of the smartest moves I ever saw came from Aaron with HUSH. Instead of discounting his bestsellers, his team built bundles that made consumers feel like they were winning, all while protecting contribution margin.

That strategy saved them millions. If you can find creative ways to preserve margin, like bundling, gift cards, free add-ons, you’ll come out of BFCM not just alive, but stronger than you entered in.

You Should Absolutely Sweat the Small Stuff

The unsexy parts of your funnel matter more in Q4 than any clever ad.

Website copy: Clear, urgent, credible.

Pop-ups: Offers that actually convert. Timing matters.

Email cadence: Daily is not too much in BFCM week. Trust me.

Welcome flows: Feature your top seller(s), don’t overcomplicate it.

Shipping details: Be upfront. Overcommunicate and don’t let surprises kill conversion.

The boring basics are what keep orders flowing. If you ignore them, no amount of creative ads will save you.

Content Helps You Cross the Finish Line

One of my biggest regrets as a founder was not investing in creative earlier. I could spend $50K on Facebook ads in a heartbeat, but I’d drag my feet to spend $5K on content.

That was backwards.

The brands that win in Q4 are the ones that overinvest in content. A machine of variations, be it statics, UGC, founder-led talking heads, product-focused explainers, will get you to where you want to be. You need dozens of creative assets on deck so Meta can optimize.

If you’re still debating whether to film those extra statics or TikToks, stop debating. Hit record.

Nothing Beats Relationships

This one took me years to appreciate. In the middle of Q4 chaos, it’s easy to think your only relationships that matter are with Meta reps or 3PLs. But the founders who thrive year after year are the ones who build real peer networks.

During one brutal Q4, the only thing that kept me sane was a group chat with three other founders walking the same path. We shared numbers, creatives, wins, and losses as they were happening. That kind of connection is what The Founders Club is all about now.

BFCM tests your endurance as a founder and it’s hard to pass that test alone.

Celebrate, Then Get Back to Work

I’ll close with this. There’s a quote I love: “The difference between winners and losers is how they react to wins.”

Losers think the job is done. Winners take a breath, enjoy the moment, and then get back to climbing. After CROSSNET had its first million-dollar month, I thought we’d “made it.” We coasted for a bit. Bad idea. Momentum is fragile.

If you crush this BFCM, don’t get high on your own supply. Celebrate, then wake up Monday ready to keep building.

Landing the Plane

I’m watching this BFCM from the ecom sidelines for the first time in years. But my respect for those in the trenches has never been higher. If you’re gearing up for the chaos: protect your margins, trust your data, double down on content, and don’t lose sight of the basics.

And when you win, enjoy it, then go find the next mountain to climb.

You’ve got this.

Cheers,
Chris