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.

Julie Hamlin

One of the biggest challenges to profitability in the family/portrait photography industry is finding the clients who want to invest in a photographer who has the skillset and level of expertise to produce high quality images over what many think they can just capture with their cell phones these days. Read more>>

Oyuki Segura

Being in the custom gifts + event favors industry profitability sometimes is hard because it often feels like “so many people are doing the same thing.” Especially with social media trends you have to set yourself apart as a business. Show your customer how you can bring their vision to life like no one else can, which is what we do at Millys Custom. Read more>>

Rikki Tea

Being in the Pro Makeup Artist Industry is not for the faint of heart, you have months where you will have a massive amount of success and you feel like your dreams are being heard and met with good fortune. Then other months were you have little to no work and you feel like your failing at life. Read more>>

Camille Thompson

As with most extra curricular activities, it costs money to participate in dance. No matter the degree of commitment, costs will be incurred to pursue that passion. Many dance studio directors and owners are plagued with having to balance profit and charity throughout the year. Read more>>

Paige Turncliff

The Arts is something that we respect subconsciously, but only artists have a conscious appreciation of what goes into their work, how much time it takes, and the level of sacrifice it requires, even at a social level, to choose art as a career.  Read more>>

Jessica Norwood

Post Covid and now inflation has been a challenge to a small business like myself. As the vendors I use for my candles, have all increased their prices for supplies. So now as a business you have to redo your numbers, that were previously based on old costs. Read more>>

Tara Boyce

I never actually intended to start this type of business, but once I started I was in love! That love quickly turned to fear once I realized just how many other small businesses offered the same products and services. And please believe there are a LOT! Read more>>

Peter Kunasz

As a scenic landscape photographer, in my opinion the biggest challenge to profitability is the quantity of images now available on commercial sites like Shutterstock. This has severely reduced the price of stock images and because there are so many artists posting to these sites, it is hard to stand out from the crowd. Read more>>