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.

John Dennis

The biggest challenge to having higher profit is having time to do jobs effectively. You need to have time at all hours to go quote, work and pickup jobs that just come up. Many times when your on a property working neighbors will approach and want work completed same day. I have found if you aren’t able to do work same day then your ability to close on that job falls significantly. Picking up spur of the moment jobs is a huge win to drive profits up, along with good route density. Read more>>

Betsy Botsford

Landscape photography is hard. There is nothing else to say except it is very hard. There are so many factors that make it so challenging. The quality of an image is heavily dependent upon weather, and not good weather by the way. The stormier the better for an image that “beats the competition.” That being said it can’t be so stormy you can’t withstand the wind, the rain, the hail, the cold. Mother Nature is a dangerous woman when she’s storming. Read more>>

Harriet Despina

Generally speaking, as an artist, it is difficult for people to value your craft. I believe that they just see the “bigger picture” and they do not realize the effort that it takes to get to the point. As a business owner, there is so much that clients do not see. The endless hours, sleepless nights, long lead times, customer service issues, fluctuating income, wondering when our next client will come, etc. We do NOT get to close our laptops on Friday’s at 5pm. Read more>>

Rebecca Greenlee

YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, to name a few, offer pretty much any video to teach you how to do whatever you want to learn, including hair and makeup! Just a guess, but I’d say at least half of the influencers on these networks aren’t even licensed or formally trained in this industry at all. They have brands giving them products and paychecks for the videos they post that don’t even have to be accurate information or trained techniques. Read more>>

Lee Levy

The Web Design industry has undergone MANY changes over the last 10 years, and its constantly evolving. Just to give a little background and insight on this, it began many years ago, when all of a sudden, people could build their own websites with simple software like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, and you didnt have to hire a designer to build or code a website from scratch. We were all afraid our industry would be shut down. Read more>>

Frank Bauknight

Probability in the music industry is almost fairytale-like. Many people expect artists to create music, release music, perform and be vulnerable. Completely for free. In reality 99% of independent artist spend money and receive nothing back. A lot of money goes toward studio time, purchase of instrumentals/beats, travel, etc. and earn a fraction of a penny for one stream after releasing the song on a platform we paid for, to distribute the song to all platforms. Read more>>

Will Katcher

In our industry, the job of producing animals often times in mass, can be quite the challenging task, especially when it comes to having to factor in the need to be a profitable business. When it comes to my operation in particular, this has often times been an issue I have struggled with, Read more>>

Candice Brooks

The biggest challenge for my business to be profitable is networking, advertising, supplies and financial gain. In a small business it seemed as though you have to be in the right environment, know the right people, and know about how to obtain Financial stability such as grants and or loans to make your business profitable. Read more>>