How Better Basics co-founder Samantha Rayner is fighting to save her business

In just under four years, Samantha Rayner has been through a lot as an entrepreneur. When she hit her breaking point, she knew she had to do something about it.

Rayner co-founded Vancouver-based personal care company Better Basics at the start of 2020. She stickhandled the company—which puts an emphasis on using natural ingredients and reducing plastic—through COVID and built up a strong customer base, particularly in B.C. where some 40 stores carried its products like its Bliss Wash Hand Soap Refill.

Eventually, though, some of the same economic headwinds that have been wreaking havoc on small businesses across the country started blowing toward Better Basics, as did a change in how social media advertising worked.

“We had a really good first year out of the gate,” says Rayner. “One of the factors was, how do you build awareness for your brand? Everyone was on social and Meta Advertising was pumping back then.”

Then, in year two, Rayner says there was a shift away from those channels as algorithms changed and customers began to get fatigued with social media. Rayner and her team took to in-person retail and community events. The company moved its products to stores like Well.ca, Blush Lane and Simons.

A few years later, the weight of a downturn in the economy has started to crush Better Basics. “The cost to reach anyone has gone up and consumer spend has gone down,” says Rayner. “A lot of our partners aren’t operational any more or are winding down. We’re not priced at luxury, but we are premium. And against the Amazons of the world we don’t have that distribution network and those efficiencies. We’re getting pinched both ways.”

Earlier this year, Rayner, who has worked in the marketing and brand departments for companies like Lululemon and Saje Wellness, jumped into action with social media messages and a video that makes a plea for customers to help save her business. In the video, she asks for help selling the rest of the company’s inventory—over 4,700 products—in the next 30 days.

With some six days left in the campaign, Rayner was down to a few hundred products. “The campaign was SOS, last resort,” she says. “It’s helped, immensely. These are actually customers who care and are shopping. And I’ve gotten tons and tons of messaging, it’s built an awareness we hadn’t seen before.”

Rayner, who has two young children at home, still hadn’t made a firm decision on whether she was going to purchase more products and try and keep Better Basics going, even though she’s convinced that there is a market out there.

 “I think we’ve heard now that there’s a community that is into the idea—they like the products and concepts, so that’s great,” Rayner says. “What products do they really want is going to be the second phase. I have to streamline significantly, I think. Do one thing better and try and get more volume, bring in more retail partners to get volume. Or we need an investor to come in who can help us pump up the marketing on our B2C business.”

The plan for now, she says, is to come back in the New Year with some products available for pre-sale. “I still need to do all the analysis and make sure that’s possible,” says Rayner. “We’re so bootstrapped, we don’t have the capital to invest in more inventory. If I do it, it would need to leverage our community and pre-sell it and that would tell me that people do want this and are willing to wait to get it.”