Can I tell you a secret about 2026?

I’m going to be super vulnerable and open and let you see behind the curtain. When people ask me if my business is successful, I can honestly answer yes. Sales are good, reorders solid, reviews excellent. Yet I haven’t paid myself a single penny in three years.

Why?

Because every dollar needs to go back into the business. And my dollars now are all going towards the monumental and insanely complicated and expensive lift that is getting just 2 of my products, Face Food and Hair Food, listed for sale on Amazon.

I know. The evil empire. Why would I do that? Because a small business website, no matter how beautiful and carefully designed, can only reach so far. Google throttles me on searches. Go ahead, try googling Flower Pot Holistic and Face Food. See if you can even find me. (and yes, I know about SEO)

Amazon is the global market square, and the non-negotiable gateway to millions of potential customers. The irony is that the moment I try to step onto that platform, the entire system slams the door in my face with a mountain of requirements that only corporate giants can easily afford.

They call it “Safety” but it’s really BS
The hurdles involved in listing a topical oil blend are staggering. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve been researching this for a year.

I won’t go into everything involved, but I’ll give you a taste of what a small business faces when they try to do something as seemingly simple as sell a product on Amazon.

I have to spend hundreds of dollars per formula just to prove my oil blend isn’t a fire hazard, sending it off for Flash Point testing. Did you know that was even a thing? I have to pay specialized regulatory experts hundreds more to author a Safety Data Sheet (SDS)—a chemical passport that is mandatory for my product’s classification, even though I’m shipping it myself. I will spend thousands more for Certificate of Analysis (COA) lab testing.

Then we get into the tracking. I have to collect a COA and SDS on every ingredient and then connect that to each batch that I make. Every single bottle must have a perfectly legible Lot Number, connecting it back to my internal records. Every small batch, every bottle.

These are not trivial costs or time. All of the profits from 2025 will need to fund this attempt and it will take all of 2026 to (hopefully) complete it. It’s not a sure thing.

Barrier to Entry
These rules, while championed under the guise of “consumer safety” and “Good Manufacturing Practices,” serve a much deeper purpose: market control.

The major corporations—the ones that already dominate the Beauty category—have entire departments dedicated to regulatory affairs, in-house labs, and legal teams that churn out SDSs and Certificates of Analysis (COAs) as a matter of routine payroll. For them, this is super easy.

For me, it’s a massive, knowledge-intensive capital expenditure that slows my growth and consumes precious operating capital. These complex documentation requirements function less as safety precautions and more as an economic moat, ensuring that small, innovative brands like mine stay locked out of the biggest marketplace in the world. They force me to choose between expanding my reach and simply surviving.

My goal for 2026 isn’t just to sell on Amazon. My goal is to navigate this treacherous compliance minefield, prove that a small, independent manufacturer can meet (and exceed) the arbitrary standards of the world’s largest retailer, and successfully break through that corporate wall.

I’m proud of the amazing products I craft and I want more people to have access to them. I will get those Face Food and Hair Food serums approved. Watch this space.