torch327

A small business side of creator brand deals ☕ Lately I've seen a lot of posts and talk in the creator world about brands, brand deals and commission-only offers. I wanted to share how it looks from the small business side. First off, creators deserve to get paid. Your time, your skills and the audience you built are worth something, and nobody should work for free. I agree with that 100%. But a lot of the advice out there fits brands with marketing budgets in the tens of thousands. For small businesses, it doesn't always work that way. I run a small coffee roastery. There's no marketing department. It's basically me roasting, packing, shipping, answering emails and doing the books. Every dollar already has a job before it hits the account. A flat fee of a few thousand for one video isn't a small "marketing spend" for a shop like mine. It can be a big chunk of what keeps the doors open that month. So when a small business offers commission or product, most of the time it's not because we don't value creators. It's what we can honestly offer without putting the business at risk. It doesn't have to be one-sided, though. Here's how we try to meet creators in the middle: - Ongoing commission, not a one-time post. You earn on every sale, every month, for as long as the partnership is going. It's not one check and done. - A small paid deal plus commission. When there's room in the budget, even a little, we'd rather put it toward the creator and let commission be the upside. - Start small and grow together. If it's working for both of us, the deal grows with it. - Your own product, earned together. Creators who hit certain goals and numbers with us can earn their own creator coffee, with a royalty on every bag. That's income that keeps coming long after the video is up, and it's built on real results for both of us. And to anyone thinking "then small businesses shouldn't work with creators until they can afford it," I get it. But that's like telling a new creator not to post until they have a million followers. Everybody starts somewhere. A lot of brands and creators get built by growing together. Nobody's forcing anyone to say yes. It's an offer, and "no thanks" is always a fair answer. Creators, know your worth. Just know that not every brand reaching out with a commission offer is trying to take advantage of you. Some of us are just small, building and looking for people who want to grow with us. The best partnerships aren't about who takes the most risk. They're about both sides wanting the other to win.