Profits differ from net income, and no where is there clearer than for small business owner-operators, artists, and creatives. Just because you have a certain amount of money left over after covering expenses doesn’t mean you’ve made profits. Why? Because you have to factor in the cost of your labor and the risk you took and so after factoring that in, millions of small businesses and artists and creatives are operating with little to no profit. However, it doesn’t have to be this way and so we wanted to create a space where sharp entrepreneurs and creatives could come together and discuss the challenges to profitability and potential solutions. If you have something valuable to add to this conversation that can help others achieve profitability, please reach out to us as we want to get your ideas in front of our readers.

Emma Freeberg

I’ve only been baking for about four years but as soon as I started looking into selling my goods there was one thing in particular that immediately popped up in every blog I read on the subject: Under Charging. Home bakeries are often just one person, which on the surface sounds like would keep labor costs low, but in reality it means that the one baker is doing literally everything it takes to run that business and they’re not factoring that effort into the final price of the product. Read more>>

Jessica Todd

I’m not sure if these challenges have always been the same challenge or are just major challenges right now, so I will talk about what I know….right now. The biggest challenge to owning a meal-prep company and showing profit is multi-faceted. First, Help. Finding qualified, dependable help is a challenge. As a small business, I cannot provide a benefit package or even full time work for everyone which results in a revolving door of staff members, plus I am finding more and more that people just don’t want to work! Second, food and supply costs continue to increase post COVID. Read more>>

Alli Steele

Not enough people put a price on digitals as a product and charging separate for service and products. Purchasing a camera is more available to people so creating a value to hire someone is harder to sell people on. Read more>>

Yelena Rymbayeva

Our startup works in the field of film and video. The biggest problem is resistance to change. The film industry is quite closed and conservative. The latter surprised us the most. It seems that everyone understands that digitalization is inevitable, but in practice, industry representatives are not ready to change their habits, even if they are the cause of stagnation in many processes. Read more>>

Chris Starkus

There are many ways to have and run a bee business from large operations that are moveable and where their main profit center is pollination famously starting with the mono crop of almonds in California. To small and medium sized local outfits that sell equipment, rear mated queens, sell splits or Nuc’s to new and seasoned beekeepers alike. With that said if you are apart from the beekeeping culture, you like most people know honeybees make honey, this is were the issue lies. Read more>>

Amy Diep

I think most artists struggle with finding a stable footing in the industry especially when first starting out. It definitely can be scary investing all this time and money into yourself buying gear and equipment because it is intimidating for sure. I think one of the biggest challenges with profitability is seeing this as a long term investment. In the end, it is an investment into your career so it’s a matter of shifting that mindset from “how much does this cost me” to “how much can this make me?” Most people quit before realizing this. Read more>>

Candace Stevens

The biggest challenge to profitability in the baking industry, I believe, is myself. I am the biggest challenge. Charging for the groceries spent to make a cake was easy for me. Charging for my time to go to plan the cake, communicate with the customer, go the grocery store, measure the ingredients, bake, and decorate their cake was not easy for me. In the beginning I was only charging for the materials. Read more>>

Pam Fitzgerald

The continued rising food costs had been a huge challenge for me as the owner of a catering company. When I look back to what I was paying for goods a couple years ago and what I am paying now it is mind blowing. Couples reach out to us a year sometimes two in advance and quoting food has been a huge challenge along with labor, gas and all other utilities. We want to give the best price and service as possible but we also need to remain profitable to stay in business. It has been and continues to be one of the biggest challenges we have faced. Read more>>

Amanda Ghobadi

Team-building is incredibly challenging in the photo & video industry, which leads to a lack of scalability and profitability for many of our most talented creatives. Although mostly perpetuated by artists who fear compromising their eye by sharing responsibility with others, I see a lot of gatekeeping when it comes to sharing both business and technical advice too, which makes the industry hard to break into. And if it’s hard to break into, where do we find quality team members? Read more>>