Your inbox is about to become a war zone. Starting tomorrow, every business you’ve ever bought from is going to email you multiple times with the same subject line: 24 hours only, last chance, this will never happen again. Until next year, when it happens again.
Countdown timers. Fake scarcity. “Only three spots left,” when there were never only three spots. The urgency is manufactured, the FOMO is intentional, and it’s exhausting.
So here’s the real question underneath all of it: is Black Friday for service businesses actually worth doing, or is it just the thing everyone does because everyone else is doing it?
This post walks through why I sit it out, who actually shows up for these sales, and how to run a promotion on your own terms if you decide you still want one.
Is Black Friday Worth It for a Service Business?
Usually not. When you sell your time, a discount trains buyers to expect a lower price, and Black Friday mostly attracts people shopping on price instead of value.
I’m not here to tell you Black Friday sales are evil, or that you’re wrong if you run one. I’m really not. But for most service-based creative entrepreneurs, it’s the wrong strategy at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.
Start with the noise. When everyone is running a sale, when everyone is shouting at the same volume, you’re not standing out. You’re just adding to it. Your email becomes one of 47 in someone’s inbox that day. Your post lands in a feed full of discount codes. Your carefully built offer competes with everyone else’s carefully built offer, at the same volume.
Unless you’ve got a massive audience or you’re selling something truly unique, you’re screaming into a hurricane and hoping someone hears you.
Who Actually Buys on Black Friday?
Mostly bargain hunters. They’re price shopping, not value seeking, and in my experience they rarely stick around or refer anyone at full price.
I love a good deal, and I’m not judging anyone for wanting one. The question is whether those people are the clients you actually want long term.
Here’s what I’ve seen happen. You run the sale, a bunch of people sign up because it’s cheap, and then they’re gone. No raving fans. No referrals at full price. They wanted the discount, and when it ended, so did the relationship.
Service-based businesses aren’t products. You can’t add inventory when there’s a sale. You’re selling your time, your expertise, your energy, and when you discount that, you’re not just lowering the price. You’re training people that your work isn’t worth full price.
If someone’s first interaction with you is at 40% off, what does that tell them about what they should expect to pay next time? You end up attracting people who are shopping on price, not people investing in the transformation only you can deliver, and chances are those aren’t the clients you want to work with long term.
How Do You Know If a Black Friday Sale Is Strategy or Just FOMO?
Run it through five questions: is it a product or a service, what’s the actual goal, do you have the energy, can you deliver if it works, and what happens after. If you can’t answer clearly, it’s FOMO.
“I should probably do something for Black Friday” isn’t a strategy. It’s FOMO dressed up as a business decision. Here’s the framework I use to tell the difference.
Is what you sell a product or a service?
Products scale in a way services don’t. You can sell to a hundred people or a thousand without it costing you more time.
What that looks like:
- If you sell digital products, courses, or physical goods, a sale can genuinely make sense
- If you’re trading your time and expertise, think carefully before you run one
Do you have a goal beyond “I should probably do something”?
Without a real goal, you can’t tell afterward whether the sale worked.
What that looks like:
- Name what you’re actually trying to accomplish: new clients, cash flow, list growth
- Decide what happens after the sale ends before you launch it
Are you prepared for the energy it takes to run it?
It’s not just sending a few emails. It’s creating content, managing questions, handling objections, processing payments, onboarding people, and delivering what you sold.
What that looks like:
- List out what running the sale actually requires, start to finish
- Be honest about your energy, especially right after a week you were supposed to spend resting
Can you actually handle it if it works?
Success is the risky outcome, because every yes costs you hours.
What that looks like:
- Decide how many yeses you can deliver before you announce anything
- Ask what happens if 50 people say yes at once
Overcommit in November and you’re burned out by January.
What happens when the sale ends?
The people who didn’t buy are the most important part of the sale, and they’re the easiest to forget.
What that looks like:
- Have a plan for staying connected with the people who didn’t buy
- Build that follow-up before the sale starts, not after
If you can’t answer these clearly, you don’t have a strategy. You have a reactive response to what everyone else is doing.
What Can You Do Instead of Black Friday?
Pick your own moment to promote, one that means something to your business, when the inbox is quiet instead of the loudest week of the year.
I run my annual promotion in February, for my birthday, a week after Valentine’s Day. That’s kind of the point. Everyone’s already done with their Valentine’s Day marketing, the inbox is quiet again, and people are paying attention because nobody else is demanding it.
I own that time. It’s mine. The people who show up aren’t looking for the cheapest option. They’re showing up because they’ve been paying attention and they see the value. No countdown timers. No fake urgency. No “this will never happen again.” Just a genuine invitation at a time that works for my business and my life.
You can do the same. Pick your own moment:
- Your business anniversary
- Your launch birthday
- A random Tuesday in March
- The summer solstice
Create your own occasion instead of fighting for scraps of attention in the chaos of Black Friday. Make it meaningful, not urgent. Attract the right people, not just anyone with a credit card.
And if you’re worried about missing out on all that Black Friday money, ask the other question. What if you’re not missing out? What if you’re just opting out of a strategy that doesn’t serve you, and you attract better clients, make the same or more money, without competing with 10,000 other businesses for attention?
What If You Still Want to Run a Black Friday Sale?
Then do it strategically. Know why you’re doing it, who you’re trying to attract, and what happens after, instead of running one because everyone else is.
If you’ve thought through all of this and it genuinely makes sense for your business, do it. Just be strategic about it. Your business, your rules, and one of those rules can absolutely be “I don’t participate in Black Friday,” or “I run promotions on my own timeline,” or “I don’t discount my work at all.” All of those are valid strategies. Pick the one that actually serves you.
Because the goal was never to do what everyone else is doing. The goal is to build a business that works for your life, attracts the right people, and lets you show up the way you want to, not the way the internet tells you you’re supposed to.
Try This Prompt
If you’re weighing a Black Friday promotion right now, this runs your plan through the five questions above before you send a single email.
“I run a [type of service business] for [who you serve]. Here is the Black Friday promotion I’m considering and why: [describe the offer and your goal]. Pressure-test it against five questions: is this a product or a service, is my goal clear beyond doing something because everyone else is, do I have the energy to run it end to end, can I deliver if 50 people say yes, and what happens with the people who don’t buy. Then suggest one alternative time later in my year when my industry’s inbox tends to be quieter. Give me a short table with each question, my honest answer, and a yes, no, or unsure.”
It sorts the plan and argues with it. You still decide whether to run the sale.
You Don’t Have to Do What Everyone Else Is Doing
Tomorrow, I’ll be mostly offline. Eating leftovers, playing Cards Against Humanity with my kids, decorating the Christmas tree. I won’t feel guilty about it, not even a little, because I’m not leaving money on the table. I’m making a strategic choice about how and when I show up for my business.
You can too. If your offer isn’t pulling its weight even at full price, a discount only makes that miss cheaper. Fix what’s actually not selling before you decide whether a sale is even the right lever.
You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the inbox. You just have to be the one they were already listening to.
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More From Your Community Strategist
Not every episode has a video version, but the channel is where the walkthroughs live: Circle builds, settings, and setups on screen instead of described out loud. New videos every Thursday.
More Like This
Listen: Why Your Offer Isn’t Selling (And How to Fix It). A discount can’t fix an offer that was never solving the right problem.
Listen: How to Price a Membership Community: Why Cheap Backfires. The same case against discounting, applied to what you charge every month instead of what you charge for one week.
Watch: The TikTok Ban Wake-Up Call: Stop Renting Your Audience. What to build so one loud week on one platform doesn’t run your business.
Watch: How to Build an Email List for Your Online Community. The on-screen version of giving the people who didn’t buy somewhere to land.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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