The Biggest Challenges of Running a Small Creative Business

Running a small business is often romanticised, especially on social media: the freedom, the creativity, the joy of building something that’s truly yours. A TikTok video showing someone sat in their gorgeous big office space surrounded by packed orders, a Reel showing a store selling out of a new collection in minutes, or a YouTube video about an artist making five figures at a comic-con. And yes, those folks exist -  and it's so amazing that they've had that success! But there is so much that happens behind the scenes. The long nights, the real life sacrifices, the hours of travel, the unexpected costs, the algorithms that make you question your life choices…

At Hyper Japan, a huge event in the capital city where I thought my fandom products would do really well, I lost £1000 having made a 6 hour round trip and after working 3 long days.

 

I started Lunamise because I love creating; one day in 2020 I played Dragon Age, loved it instantly, and wanted ALL the merch, but there were very few people making enamel pins for the game at that time. So I made my own. 5 years later, I've released well over 200 pin designs, and I've branched out into accessories, home decor, stickers, stationery, and more. But the reality of operating a small business, especially one run part-time alongside a full-time job and when you've got a family, comes with significant challenges that are rarely talked about openly. So today I wanted to share some of the biggest hurdles many small businesses face, in the hope that it might offer a bit of clarity, connection, or simply help others feel a little less alone. 

Saturated Markets: Trying to Stand Out in a Sea of Creativity

The creative industry has never been more vibrant. Clearly that is an amazing thing, but it’s also incredibly challenging. Whether it’s stationery, deskpads, pins, t-shirts, or stickers, every market is jam-packed with unbelievably talented artists and crafters. You’re not just trying to make a good product; you’re trying to make a product that cuts through thousands of others, which is niche enough that speaks to a specific audience but not so niche that you're sat on a pile of products which are not selling.

There are days where it feels like shouting into the void. You pour your heart into a design only to see it get lost in an endless scroll of similar posts and products. You spend hours or days designing a thing, then spend weeks or months getting it manufactured, then you launch it and.. it doesn't sell well. Or at all.

It’s not that your work isn’t unique or valuable, it’s that the digital world moves fast, and visibility is limited.

Artists and small businesses have to keep up the momentum, ensuring products and designs are connecting with people, and carving out a voice that’s unmistakably their own. It’s rewarding when you get it right, but emotionally exhausting to maintain.

If you asked a bunch of small businesses what they’d do with £20,000, I’m pretty sure most would put the bulk of it into creating products they’ve been wanting to make but haven’t been able to.

Upfront Costs: Manufacturing, Imports & the Real Price of “Just Make More”

One of the biggest misunderstandings about small businesses is the assumption that restocking or expanding product lines is simple - just make more, right?

I wish!

Manufacturing requires huge upfront payments, often in full, long before a product ever reaches a customer. Add import taxes, international shipping fees, currency fluctuations, and the unpredictability of global shipping, and suddenly a simple restock becomes a major financial commitment.

Like a sold out pin on my store? I have to order a minimum of 50 when I produce pins, and my pins can cost as much as 8-10 USD a unit. If I want to restock that design, I could be looking at $400-500 in costs, and there is no guarantee that I'll sell all 50. I might have that stock sat on my shelves for months, or even years, which is true for many of my designs.

Then there’s the cost of running the business itself:

• packaging materials: product-specific protective packaging, business cards, postal boxes, packing tape, tissue paper, postal labels, label printer.. you get the idea.
• website fees: Shopify costs me at least £50 a month + 3% card processing fee, and Etsy's fees are 20-30% per product
• bookkeeping software: I use Xero (other accounting software is available!) which is £30-40 a month
• accountancy fees: mine are £144 a month, and because I operate as a limited company (for a few reasons), there are a few annual fees involved, too
• display equipment: my comic-con display is probably around £100 all-in, and I occasionally have to replace materials due to wear-and-tear
• storage: I fortunately can keep all my products in my home, but I know a number of artists and small businesses who pay several hundred pounds a month in storage fees and rent

The list is endless.

For many small creators, every new product is a gamble. Will it sell? Will the quality be right? Will customs hold it for a month just because they can? The financial pressure is constant, and it’s one of the biggest barriers to growth. If you asked a bunch of small businesses what they’d do with £20,000, I’m pretty sure most would put the bulk of it into creating products they’ve been wanting to make but haven’t been able to.

Event Fees: When Table Prices Jump over 40% Overnight (having already increased by 10% in the last 12 months)

Conventions and markets are lifelines for small businesses. They offer direct exposure to a broader audience, chances to meet customers face-to-face, and the opportunity to join a vibrant creative community. But they also come with significant costs—and those costs aren’t just rising, they’re skyrocketing.

A clear example is MCM in the UK. Table prices for 2026 have been increased by 41%, having already increased by 11% in the last 12 months.

For large companies, this might be manageable. For small creators, it’s a real financial blow. What was once a reasonable investment has become a major risk, especially when you factor in travel, accommodation, transport of stock, and the sheer volume of products you need to sell just to break even. Even smaller events can be huge loss-makers; I've done several local events where I spent a day away from my family and didn't even break even. At Hyper Japan, a huge event in the capital city where I thought my fandom products would do really well, I lost £1000 having made a 6 hour round trip and after working 3 long days.

Events used to be one of the most reliable, exciting ways to reach new audiences. Now, many small businesses are being priced out not because their work isn’t strong enough - but because the barrier to entry has become unaffordable.

There are also so many more events now than there were even 2-3 years ago. Ticket prices are going up, which means attendees may have less to spend when they get there, and folks are therefore more choosy about which events they go to.

Tariffs, Overseas Sales & the Endless Battle With Postage Costs

If you’ve ever tried selling overseas as a small brand, you know it comes with a unique set of headaches:

• fluctuating postage prices
• strict shipping regulations
• customs declarations
• VAT, tariff, and duty requirements
• packages delayed or lost
• customers upset about costs and/or delays you can't control

Tariffs can make products significantly more expensive for international buyers, and many don’t realise the creator isn’t the one charging those fees. It’s heartbreaking when a customer messages saying they were hit with unexpected import charges - charges that their government sets, and which we as small businesses have not control over. 

Postage itself is another challenge. Prices go up regularly, sometimes with little warning. I am fortunate to have a shipping provider who offers USPS labels with tracking for a reasonable fee, which means me and my customers have peace of mind. But the cost of those labels have been increased by USPS twice in the last 12 months, by up to 15%. Offering “free shipping” is nearly impossible for small shops because the cost has to be absorbed somewhere, and margins are already thin.

If a lanyard has cost me $6 to produce, and I'm selling it for $10, clearly there's no scope to include shipping in my product prices. Could I increase my prices? Sure. But I'd get fewer orders, and it feels unfair to constantly pass those costs on to my customers.

Selling overseas opens your business to the world, but it also adds layers of admin, cost, and stress that aren’t always visible from the outside.

Fitting It in Around Life: The Part-Time Juggle Is Real

Running Lunamise has always meant working evenings, weekends, and lunch breaks to keep things afloat. I began my store during a particularly quiet month while teaching in Japan, and I've always kept my store going around full-time jobs (and for the last 2 years, with a baby in tow!). Keeping it a part-time gig and not my main source of income means I am protected from fluctuating markets, slow sales, and product flops, and the regular income of a full-time job gives me the financial security to try new things with Lunamise. However it also means packing orders after a long day at a full-time job. It means answering customer messages at midnight because that’s the only quiet moment in the day. It means prioritising designing new products over self-care or a gym membership. It means weekends away from my kid or missing family occasions to attend comic-cons.

There’s a misconception that a side hustle or part-time creative business is “just a hobby” or “something extra”. In reality, even when doing the bare minimum, it’s a second job - one that demands creativity, organisation, customer service, logistics planning, marketing abilities, social media presence, personal sacrifice, and emotional resilience.

Finding the time, energy, and mental space to dedicate to Lunamise has been one of the biggest challenges of all, especially since becoming a parent. Some days it feels impossible. But the love for my products and the positive feedback from customers keeps me going. Knowing someone got a product I designed for their birthday?? Amazing.

Social Media: The Algorithm Rollercoaster We Never Asked to Ride

If you run a small business, you know this pain intimately.

You spend hours planning posts, photographing products, editing videos, writing captions, researching hashtags, keeping up with the latest trends… only for your post to reach 3% of your following because the algorithm decided today wasn’t your day. 4.6k followers means nothing if only 50 were shown your post and of those, 15 engaged with it.

The platforms change constantly. Remember when Instagram went from squares to rectangles, and Twitter became the bot-hellscape that is X? New features, new formats, shifting priorities that favour paid ads or viral trends. For small businesses, it’s exhausting trying to keep up, and even harder to know what type of content will actually be seen.

Social media used to be a simple, organic way to connect. You post a photo, your followers see it, they engaged with the post, and you gained new followers. Great! Nowadays it’s a strategic minefield, and creating consistent, high-quality content requires time many of us simply don’t have.

Sadly it remains essential. Without a presence online, it’s nearly impossible to grow. So we keep trying, experimenting, learning, and hoping our efforts eventually pay off. Some folks, like me, have given up, deciding our time and effort is better spent elsewhere. But this approach definitely has a very real impact on website sales. 

Final Thoughts: We’re All Doing Our Best

Despite all these challenges, artists and makers who run small businesses pour their hearts into what we do. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s meaningful. I really do appreciate every order (I love seeing what products folks choose!), I am genuinely over the moon when someone approaches me at an event and shows me pins they've bought from my store, and I've read every single one of the 3340 reviews on my Etsy.

Every like, comment, share, order, and kind message genuinely makes a difference. They remind us that the late nights and hard decisions are worth it, because real people existing in the world connect with, and love, what we have created. Sites like Temu and Aliexpress are doing their best to devalue our art, produce poor quality fakes of our products, and mass produce as much tat as possible with no regard to working conditions or safety standards, but they've nevertheless increasing in popularity year-on-year. I am hoping that one day general attitudes shift, and consumer focus will turn to small businesses, local artists, and handmade goods.

So to everyone supporting my store (and any small business), especially in the run-up to Christmas - thank you. Your support is not just awesome and hugely appreciated, it’s absolutely essential, and small businesses really do rely on you just to exist. And to every small creator out there facing the same challenges as me: you’re not alone. We’re all in this wonderfully chaotic journey together!