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.

Trish Zornio

As a freelance journalist and writer, perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of profitability today is that people want written content for free. This includes free access to newspapers, journals, social media and magazines that ultimately reduce the scope and depth of content produced due to financial constraints. Of course, compacting societal discussions leads to larger gaps in the conversation, and can even shift political and cultural discourse by excluding relevant perspectives. On the other hand, it makes those of us with a unique voice more able to stand out, so as always there are pros and cons. Read more>>

Seth Grey

The biggest challenge is mindset. Being able to cultivate a mindset that is focused and consistent. In the trading world you are dealing with emotions and they can lead you to make wrong decisions, being able to stay balanced with in your emotions is the key. Read more>>

Andrew Simmons, Russell Simmons

Every business, especially starting out, will find issues with profitability- the creative industry more-so than others because there’s so many different avenues businesses can take their marketing. We feel Louisiana, when it comes to high production video, is a bit lagging. So while they see value in other methods of advertising and creative marketing, the masses haven’t seen the value (yet) in high production video. However, throughout the years, the people that work with and take a chance on us can see a clear difference in their audience’s engagement and response. Read more>>

Scott DeHuff

I’d say the oversaturated media market tends to stifle success with sales. With me being reliant on businesses wanting and needing a good platform for advertising, they can sometimes be turned off due to similar companies as mine that underperforme. The majority of podcasts out there only seem to last a few months, then people realize it takes work to get people to listen. So people give up on it, but not before adding to the massive pool of podcasts and influencing the thought of, “oh, great, another podcast”. Read more>>