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.

Justin Plummer

They say to make a million bucks in professional wrestling, you have to start with two million. The biggest challenge to profitability is high costs to host each wrestling event, while keeping tickets affordable to all families. Travel costs have sky-rocketed since Covid, which makes bringing in the top talent from across the country has become a major challenge. There has also been a sharp increase in rental prices for venues. In addition to all of this, the state taxes you on ticket revenue, not profit, so even when margins are thin, the tax burden can be high. Throw on top of that the cost of being a licensed promoter, insurance, and bond requirements, and it’s easy to see how many companies end up being unsuccessful in this niche industry. Read more>>

Marifer Gomez

The biggest challenge to profitability with crochet is being able to find customers that want to invest and plan for a custom order. In an era where you can get a multitude of outfits for under $20 delivered directly to your door, it can be difficult to find people that not only want to plan months in advance at times and invest more in one single piece. That is why I focused more on making smaller items and selling them in person at local events. Read more>>

Christine Mcgarry

Before I decided to make the leap from corporate sales life to a Dog Trainer and business owner, I wrote a 3 month business plan. I had a pretty good idea of what it would take to run the business since I had been apprenticing for 7 months at a large training facility. My mentor had also shared with me a valuable lesson about the challenges of making a profit in this industry: If you want to have a staff and scale your business, you are eventually going to run into a quality issues. Dog training needs dog trainers and how to you bring in something with experience who is going to do everything you want while representing your brand without constantly looking over your shoulder? Read more>>

James & Kelly Raber

The biggest challenge to profitability in the content creation industry, especially in the RV and travel niche, is the persistent undervaluation of creators’ work. Many people look at influencers or creators and assume it’s a highly profitable industry because they see us traveling to incredible places or working with well-known brands. However, what they don’t see is the behind-the-scenes struggle to monetize our efforts. A staggering 83% of creators are still willing to work with brands for free or in exchange for products. This willingness drives down the perceived value of what creators offer, making it harder for those of us treating this as a true business to secure fair compensation. Read more>>

C.d. Bennett

I believe an author’s biggest challenge to profitability is letting people know you exist. Today, the industry is flooded with new writers and new material. Self-publishing is huge and there is so much for readers to choose from. Unless you are already famous or have a large, previously established audience from some other endeavor to tap into, getting heard in the vast crowd of voices is a real struggle. Read more>>