I find it offensive to my nature when people say I am where I am today because of luck. I have worked hard. I have spent countless hours crafting what I do. I took a risk and bet on myself.
I work more hours now than I ever would working forty hours a week for someone else, because I do everything. I do not just do the work that brings in income. I handle the accounting, the marketing, and the additional education so I can continue improving my craft.
I work hard.
There are benefits to working for myself, but there are also downsides, especially when you are the entire team. When I need additional help, I hire people on a contract basis for large events. Most of the time, it is just me.
I am a photographer. I do not make six figures, but I make enough to support myself and to thrive. During slower seasons, I take on additional work. I have side hustles that help create stability throughout the year.
One of those hustles is reselling on eBay. I have been buying and reselling items there since 2001. Before I turned photography into my primary business, reselling was my main source of income. Even now, I maintain consistent weekly sales so that I have reliable income regardless of how busy or slow my photography business may be.
Then I see people saying tax the rich, tax business owners. I do not think many people realize that most businesses in America are small businesses. Large corporations are actually the minority.
Small businesses are the backbone of the United States economy. They make up 99.9 percent of all business establishments. There are over 34 million small businesses, defined as firms with fewer than 500 employees. They employ roughly 46 percent of private sector workers and account for nearly half of United States economic activity. They also contribute significantly to job creation and onshoring efforts.
Approximately 82 percent of small businesses in the United States are self employed, non employer firms with no staff. These 28.5 million businesses make up the vast majority of all United States firms and contribute roughly 6.8 percent of total revenue. While they represent most firms, they account for about 10 percent of total employment.
That means most businesses operate with very small profit margins.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20 percent of small businesses fail within their first year. Nearly 50 percent close within five years. By the ten year mark, roughly 65 percent have failed.
So when people talk about taxing small businesses more, it feels disconnected from reality. I know firsthand how hard you work and how thin the margins can be. Yes, there are benefits, such as setting your own schedule and having flexibility to raise children or care for elderly family members. But the trade off is responsibility, pressure, and long hours.
For me, it is about working hard for myself instead of working hard for someone else.
It is not easy.
It is not luck.
It is hard work and determination.
What is luck is when a business explodes in growth and becomes a massive corporation. For the rest of us, success is built one long day at a time.
What Success Means to Me
My success is defined by the fact that I can support myself on what I earn. I have clients who hire me from hundreds of miles away. My work has been published in real estate magazines and in a national health magazine. I even saw it in the wild once when I took my mom to one of her doctor appointments. It has also been featured in local publications.
I am building a reputation that I am proud of.
I do not need to make six figures to feel successful. I live a fairly debt free life, aside from my mortgage, which is nearly paid off. I am building something to leave to my children and grandchildren.
Although I am married and my husband works full time, we can pay our bills on either one of our incomes. We do not rely on both incomes just to survive. That gives us the ability to save for retirement at a faster rate and to pay down our mortgage more quickly.
But none of that is luck.
It is possible because we both work hard. We made plans, and we followed through. In addition to my photography and other side hustles, I also manage social media for local businesses, creating promotional photos and content for their pages. I am ordained and occasionally write blogs. I used to focus more on blogging, but as you can see, I am a little spread thin these days.
