She has built her cafe to $8,000 in revenue a week
= 416,000/year revenue.
Whole different world, I guess. It's completely possible to have an online business for a few $1000/year in costs. And yet this woman isn't turning a profit yet on nearly 1/2 a million in revenue.
Yes, but it's also a lot harder to charge money for an online business, especially a consumer-facing one. Nobody expects to get a muffin for free, but they expect Facebook to be free even if they use AdBlock.
I found this interesting, too. Margins should be huge in the cafe business, right? So it must be rent and employees that are costing her so much. I still would have expected a cafe to be profitable with that kind of revenue.
Margins are not huge for this sort of business. This am on NPR they were talking with a baker who said that his flour costs had tripled in the past year, his egg costs had doubled, and all of his supplies now had "fuel surcharges" tacked on. While margins might have been comfortable in the past, they certainly aren't now. These folks are between a rock and a hard place and have had to absorb much of these costs in their margins.
People think you have to be crazy to start a start-up these days. No even close, but you would have to be crazy to start a bakery now!
= 416,000/year revenue.
Whole different world, I guess. It's completely possible to have an online business for a few $1000/year in costs. And yet this woman isn't turning a profit yet on nearly 1/2 a million in revenue.