We chat to Avni, Emily and Lucy, founders of The Soko Edit

The Soko Edit is a website dedicated to showcasing and selling products from female founded brands. For those of you that are wondering, the word ‘soko’ is the Swahili word for marketplace, which only serves to reinforce the brand and its purpose. With the lead up to Christmas in December 2020 especially taking a stance on supporting small and local businesses, now is the time more than ever to be focusing on and really thinking about who you buy from. Are they environmentally friendly? Are they diverse as a company? Are they giving back or supporting charities they believe in? These questions are becoming more and more to the forefront of a prospective purchasers mind at the point of sale. It’s fantastic timing, then to talk to the girls Emily, Avni and Lucy who started The Soko Edit, as they take all of these into account, and much more.

Can you describe to our readers what The Soko Edit is?

The Soko Edit is an online marketplace and community platform that supports female-owned small businesses around the world by selling their products, sharing their stories and offering resources and tools to up-skill them.

What kinds of small businesses do you work with? How can small businesses get in touch with you to be part of the Soko Community?

We like working with small businesses that bring something different to the table be it through their product design aesthetic, their story, sustainability initiatives or through to the charity they support. You can read more about some of the women we find inspiring on our website.

On our e-commerce platform, we want to encourage customers to shop people first, rather than product first to get to know the story behind the brand they might be buying from. Consumers are more conscious about their spending and we think it’s important for them to know that their dollar is going towards supporting a specific founder.

If you are interested in being featured or partnering with us for an event, please reach out to hello@thesokoedit.com. 

As female entrepreneurs, what have been your high's and lows since launching The Soko Edit?

Highs have to be… getting our logo developed, registering our business, our first online order, and our events with our female founder community. Our events have been our highest highs - they remind us why we wanted to start The Soko Edit in the first place and that there is such power in bringing a group of women together regardless of location, age, background or ethnicity. 

Lows have to be… not being able to stock all the brands we love on our site, figuring out what to do with our inventory and realising we don’t have the budget for a lifestyle shoot. Even in our lowest periods we are able to get together and try to talk through a solution, sometimes it's a 4 hour brainstorm on a Saturday but we manage to generate ideas. The great thing about starting an online business is that you have the opportunity to pivot based on your learnings!

What's the best piece of advice you would give to women looking to start their own business?

There are many pieces of advice we can impart from our own experiences and also from those of the female founders we have interviewed on our website. The one that stands out most is building a strong community. We’ve learned it’s important to surround yourself with a support network filled with family, friends, peers, and fellow entrepreneurs. These are the people who will help give you feedback along the way and lift you up when things get challenging. 

On that note, please reach out to us if you’d like to attend our next webinar. We’d love to have you!

Tell us a bit about your charity partner, The Pad Project. Why did you choose them?

Women’s health is something that is important to all of us. It’s mind-blowing how expensive sanitary products are, and that there is still such a stigma around having a period. The conversation has definitely become more open but there are still leaps and bounds to go. We love that The Pad Project is devoted to giving more women access to sanitary products and educating them on menstrual health, as well as providing employment opportunities in the process. 

What other women do you take inspiration from/admire?

The women in our community are incredible. They all inspire us for different reasons. Some are passionately committed to keeping alive traditional artisanal techniques in India or Colombia, some have spotted an incredible niche in the market and created a fantastic proposition to fit it, and some are incredibly supportive and motivating to be around.

A random one, what is the first thing you all do in the mornings?

Avni: stretch!

Emily: move. Whether it’s cycling, HIIT training or crazy dancing around my living room, there is no other way I start the day.

Lucy: hot water and lemon or I can’t function!

What does 2021 hold for The Soko Edit? Anything we need to look out for?

Our 2021 word is ‘partnerships’. Now that we've launched we are looking to raise more awareness on our platform to in turn, give back to the female founded businesses we want to support. We also hope to expand our e-commerce platform and stock some more brands. Watch this space!