Have you ever had a friend look at a business and randomly throw out numbers that made it seem like that business owner must be making serious bank? We’ve experienced that many times, and know from conversations with operators and owners in those industries that their real profitability is often far, far less. The reason is often that there are unique challenges to profitability in almost every industry and so we wanted to create a space for entrepreneurs from across industries and markets to discuss the challenges to profitability in their industries.

Katorra Enoch-Longshore

Having gone through and still going through the volatility of a unpredictable market when it comes to being an influencer ,understanding what customers and companies want from you and also holding true to your core values has been challenging. The one thing that I have done consistently, is to honor what I feel is my value, without compromise. Read more>>

Ana Jaffar

As an Artist, I believe that so many will retook at your art when you tell them your prices. They don’t always consider the time, quality, money and materials that it takes to do what we do! Sometimes people would rather go gives hundreds or even thousands to brands like Gucci or Prada, but have a problem with the prices their friends have. Read more>>

Christon Bush

Engaging with the right audience. often we find ourselves – the people in the music industry – spending their efforts just to reach ears of someone who isn’t interested in the beginning about our services. Read more>>

Jody Vitali

Running a multi-layered business, one in which we provide resources for parents as well as advertising for local businesses, can be challenging because some people or businesses may automatically think “mom blog” and not realize or understand the true nature of what our business, and other ones like it, actually do. This general lack of understanding can lead to undermining the time and energy a business such as ours puts into our work and as a result, challenges profitability. Read more>>

Isabella Bonello

The food and beverage industry has historically faced challenges in profitability, but it’s become even more challenging since covid. Not only have cost of goods skyrocketed, but there has been a huge cultural shift to higher industry wages. Higher industry wages is something I have always supported, and knew I wanted to make part of my business model from the beginning. However, it absolutely does affect your bottom line. On top of all this, people are so hesitant to pay what food actually costs to make. Read more>>

Seiji Inouye

The biggest challenge to profitability in the creative service industry- especially photo and video- is the cost of doing business. There’s an expectation that everything be handled in-house, and a lot of unseen work. I’d like to think I have a fairly modest but respectable industry-standard camera kit, but between two cameras, a handful of lenses, lighting, and the computer/hard drives needed for back end, I’m in well over $10,000. Read more>>

Janice Parrott

I believe the biggest challenge facing many artists and myself in particular is people not realizing what is involved with making art. I am not just speaking of costs. My costs are fairly minimal as far as materials. If I create a 4″ ornament say, the cost of the felt, threads and perhaps some tiny beads is pennies. However, my time that it takes to create this ornament is substantial. My ornaments usually range from $14-30 per ornament depending on the work and details involved. Read more>>