Empower Hour: Scratch Goods

Scratch Goods: Business Summary

Company and Origin

Scratch Goods was founded by longtime friends Maureen McClure and Elizabeth Leipold. Around 2011, they began making soap, inspired by their community-gardening work and a desire for simpler, higher-quality personal-care products.

The founders saw a gap between inexpensive mass-market products they disliked and premium skincare they found unaffordable. They started with handmade soap, then added products such as clay masks and sugar scrubs. The business grew gradually alongside their full-time jobs: they first sold informally, then online, and opened a small Roscoe Village storefront in 2015. They moved to full-time work on Scratch Goods around 2017.

The name “Scratch Goods” reflected the handmade, made-from-scratch approach while leaving room to expand beyond soap.

Strategy, Frameworks, and Playbooks

• Lean Startup and minimum viable products: Elizabeth recommended The Lean Startup. Rather than endlessly refining products, the founders release them once they are good enough, then learn from customer response and make adjustments.
• Product portfolio management: They discontinued roughly a dozen SKUs that were too niche or did not sell enough to justify continued production. They retain products with sustained demand and add new categories selectively.
• Preserve what works; improve when there is a clear reason: The founders avoid changing products that are working well, but will reformulate when they believe a change materially improves them. They explain updates to customers and have found reactions less severe than expected.
• Values-led growth: They prioritize a sustainable, locally rooted business they can continue operating and employing people through, rather than pursuing rapid scale, a sale, or a big-box retail strategy.
• Founder-market fit: Product ideas came from problems the founders personally experienced and wanted to solve. They advise building around work the founders genuinely enjoy and choosing a trusted business partner carefully.
• Partnership norms: As friends and co-owners, they agreed early on that either could leave if the business stopped being enjoyable or worthwhile. They credit candid communication and complementary roles with helping the partnership work.

Products and Operations

Cleansing oil has remained a bestseller for years. Scratch Goods makes it in small, fresh batches of about 12–15 liters and sells it in three sizes.

Products are made and filled by hand in a Chicago production space. Staff help with filling, capping, labeling, and inventory, and the company has not automated production. Scratch Goods also offers an in-store cleansing-oil refill station, giving customers a discounted refill while reducing packaging waste and helping meet demand.

The founders use simple, food-grade ingredients where possible. They buy some supplies locally, including sugar from a restaurant supplier, coffee from Chicago roaster Dark Matter Coffee, and oats from an Illinois farm. Other ingredients come from suppliers across the U.S. or from importers when necessary.

Mask Bar

Customers book an approximately one-hour guided, social skincare session. Guests choose among a clay mask, sheet mask, or botanical facial steam, and receive instruction on cleansing, moisturizing, product application, facial massage, and removal.

The experience is designed to be interactive and group-friendly rather than like a traditional, quiet facial. The space combines product sales with booked experiences, which helps bring customers to a second-floor location that does not depend on street-level walk-in traffic.

Marketing, Sales, and Customer Retention

Instagram and TikTok help customers discover the business, alongside a large newsletter list. Since launching the Mask Bar, the founders have hosted influencers, generally offering an experience without requiring a post or paying for promotion.

They said they do not pay for social-platform ads and found paid PR too expensive to justify for a business of their size, citing limited measurable return. They are returning to tactics such as printed flyers and neighborhood promotion, choosing channels that fit their brand, budget, and capacity.

Their “Self-Care for the Revolution” series brings together local artists, organizers, nonprofit leaders, and other community figures. The founders view these events as both community-building and a source of meaningful word of mouth.

They also emphasize personal customer relationships, repeat visits, and the value of customers growing alongside the business. The Mask Bar encourages customers to try products and learn how to use them.

Scratch Goods has collaborated with nearby independent businesses on a neighborhood shopping event that included promotions and complimentary offerings. The founders also maintain an Instagram chat with local small-business owners to coordinate support.

Location and Resilience

Scratch Goods began in Roscoe Village, moved to Fulton Market in 2017, and later relocated to Randolph in the West Loop. The founders chose the West Loop partly for its central transit access, neighborhood development, historic buildings, and proximity to restaurants that can complement a Mask Bar visit.

They described the economy and COVID-era conditions as difficult and said they have made repeated pivots, including downsizing into a smaller space and taking on more in-store work themselves.

The business is bootstrapped, with no investors or board. The founders said appointment-based experiences help make a second-floor location viable despite limited street visibility and the high cost of street-level retail.

Wholesale and Distribution

Scratch Goods sells through a small number of independent retailers and boutiques. Examples include wholesale orders from Dark Matter Coffee and past placement of its baby line at a baby spa.

The founders are open to additional small-retailer partnerships but have ruled out big-box chains for now. They cited the investment, slotting fees, pricing constraints, and risk of committing heavily to a retailer before demand is proven.

Key Metrics and Timeline

• 2011: Began the handmade-products venture and online selling.
• 2015: Opened the first small storefront in Roscoe Village.
• 2017: Moved to the West Loop and transitioned to working on the business full-time.
• About 15 years: Approximate duration of the founders’ work together on Scratch Goods at the time of the webinar.
• About one hour: Duration of each Mask Bar experience.
• 12–15 liters: Typical cleansing-oil batch size.
• Three sizes: Current cleansing-oil size options.
• Roughly a dozen SKUs: Products discontinued over time because demand did not warrant continued production.

No revenue, margin, customer-acquisition cost, or growth-rate figures were provided.

Actionable Recommendations

• Launch a minimum viable product rather than waiting for a perfect version, and use customer feedback to guide changes.
• Track product-level demand and discontinue items that do not justify their production and inventory costs.
• Keep proven bestsellers consistent unless there is a clear improvement to make.
• Match marketing channels to the business’s values, audience, budget, and capacity; community activity can be a practical alternative to costly advertising.
• Build local partnerships directly when formal organizations do not meet the business’s needs.
• Consider appointment-based services or events to generate foot traffic when a prime street-level location is unaffordable.
• Choose a business partner carefully and establish candid communication and clear expectations early.

Presenters and Source

Lotika Pai, Chief Small Business Officer at the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP), hosted the discussion with Maureen McClure and Elizabeth Leipold, co-owners of Scratch Goods. Stella assisted with audience questions.

Source: Chicago BACP’s Empower Hour: Scratch Goods.