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.

Zach Johnson

The biggest challenge to profitability as a videographer is that there are always big challenges financially as you progress through your career. For instance, the toughest part at first is starting out with limited skills, limited experience and limited connections. The way I started out like many others was doing work for very cheap and often times even free. I took any opportunity that I could. Often times that money was going towards gear, which can be extremely expensive. Read more>>

Halston Shannon

When it comes to my the graphic design industry, there’s definitely two primary culprits that make profitability a challenge and both of them honestly intertwine. The first of which is definitely how there is a large sector of people who devalue the design field and misconstrue how valuable our services are. For whatever reason, many don’t associate design / creativity / branding with 4-5 figure price quotes. I could personally go on all day about how many times I’ve been told in the past that the value I place on my work is “ridiculous”.  Read more>>

Denise Anderson

I have to be honest in saying I didn’t realize how saturated the beauty business here in Tampa is. I remember after graduating beauty school a few months ago I couldn’t wait to apply for my LLC ,and list my business on Google. I was immediately disappointed when I went to search for my business, and realized how far down the list I was. Read more>>

Julie Lincoln

Margins in the packaged food business are always tight, and when you’re a startup, they’re even tighter because you’re buying and manufacturing in low volume at the highest prices. When you’re bootstrapping like we are, resources are limited, so you have to be careful about spending money wisely because you don’t have an endless runway. On the other hand, if you’re too careful, Read more>>

JP Dewberry

I think the biggest challenges now are visibility and percieved value/savings. When I first started shooting on my own (without a photographer affiliate), social media was simple in that is you had 500 followers and you posted content, all 500 would see it-or at least the majority. Cell phones were still in their lane of being mostly phones. People went to photographers because they provided a clear level of differentiation from what people could do on their own. Read more>>

Chelsea Burnett

Being a storm chaser isn’t for the lighthearted! There is no true storm chasing position that brings full-time consistent income for anyone. I have a full-time remote salary-based job that allows me the flexibility to storm chase and give weather presentations. So many people assume I make great money because of the publicity storm chasers receive. There’s also a misconception that because our chase content was on the news, that we made profits from it. Read more>>

Shantil Piper

The current biggest challenge is costs. As inflation rises, the cost of ingredients are high. With that being said, us bakers have 2 choices; raise prices in our products or cut costs and go with cheaper ingredients. I choose to increase my prices. I use specific ingredients and will stick to them. Its Quality for me. Read more>>

Amber Moss

The biggest challenge to profitability in my industry is really just getting people to read. People read less nowadays and it’s even more difficult to get people to read poetry. If you’re not published under a huge publisher, your work just does not get seen. Read more>>

John Cobb

The biggest challenge in the line of work I do is consistently finding new customers who are looking for custom metal work, whether it’s art pieces, one off furniture or more. Finding the customers that are looking for someone like me and what I can offer has been inconsistent and sometimes difficult, I don’t do a great job of marketing myself and I think some of the problems lie here. I get so busy running a business and working on projects it’s sometimes hard to actively promote and seek more business before it’s needed. Read more>>

Darcie Farrington

The biggest challenge is learning how to price handmade crochet or needle felted items. To get to the desired end product, it can take me an hour or two months to finish something depending on the materials and time needed. Starting with an hourly rate, plus materials and profit percentage is the best way to price handmade items; however, if starting a custom order that hasn’t been done before, it can be rather difficult to give a quote. Read more>>

JONATHAN BAKER

A big hurdle about making (especially sewing) products is folks have a misconception about how much talent and time it takes to produce a sewn good. And the products we do receive that are sewn have artificially low prices because, let’s be honest, we take advantage of others’ economic situations, even looking past their political systems in order to manufacture products “cheap enough ” for the American consumer. Read more>>