How to be prepared for BFCM 2026 as early as 1st Quarter

BFCM 2026 starts now.

This is not a typo!

Building a TikTok Shop that succeeds in 2026 starts much earlier than you think.

You’ve read the deep dives we’ve published here, week after week — from King Lou Pets to Twinkled T, Canvas Beauty, Tarte Cosmetics, Shark, Ninja Kitchen and Nathan & Sons.

Small teams, large teams… the pattern is always the same:

The shops that break out spent months iterating and scaling their content + affiliate system long before they ever harvested the millions hidden in social selling.

Content + Affiliate is the single system that changes their trajectory.

Don’t get me wrong:
Fulfillment, listings, and store management are important — they’re foundational.
But they’re not what gets you to millions.

The shops that win are the ones that build a system to find the creator + content + product fit that TikTok’s algorithm recognizes and rewards with organic sales and better ad performance.

And this is exactly why four out of five shops never survive the cold start:
They follow Amazon PPC or Shopify + Meta playbooks.
They focus on ads instead of content and affiliates — and it’s simply not how momentum is built on TikTok Shop.

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Why starting in January matters

It usually takes:

• 1–2 months to set up your shop, listings, compliance, early credibility, and seed your first affiliates
​• 3+ months to recruit affiliates, test content angles, and find what actually drives sales
​• 5+ months to scale creators, content, and ads to a level TikTok treats as “signal”

If your goal is to hit 7–8 figures in 2026 — especially next BFCM — January is the moment to begin.
​Do the math!

Start later, and your shop simply won’t have the maturity required to explode when it counts.

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Why I care (and why I’m preparing something new)

Some of you know my background:

I started as an engineer.
Then I helped creators and sellers scale on Etsy and Pinterest long before TikTok Shop existed.
I’ve run my own shops.
I’ve worked with creators.
And I’ve spent years building systems that turn content into revenue flywheels.

After a year and a half working directly with TikTok Shop brands, I’m convinced:

Most founders fail because they never build the content + affiliate machine they need to win.

And this is where I want to help more intentionally in 2026.

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A gentle heads-up for January

For the new year, I’m preparing something I’ve never offered before — and may never offer again.

A five-week live bootcamp focused only on what actually moves the needle:

• your content engine
• your affiliate engine
• the systems that make TikTok Shop predictable

It will be small, hands-on, and more interactive than anything I’ve done.
I’ll teach it live. We’ll workshop together. You’ll get feedback, plus a private community for support and accountability.

I’ll share all the details in early January, but if you already know you want to join:

→ Get on the waitlist here​

Folks on the waitlist will have first priority.

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