The “hustle” of small businesses and local vendors.

I had a small business I ran out of Etsy and local Farmer’s/Maker’s Markets. I closed my business in 2025 because I was tired of the competitiveness of the Milwaukee “hustle” culture. For some people it works great and they thrive on it, but I felt an insane amount of pressure to be everywhere at the same time and chronically online just to stay afloat. I am grateful for the opportunities that were facilitated for me when I still had my business, but even in those spaces I felt strange energy where it suddenly wasn’t down home, quintessentially Milwaukee friendliness, it just felt kind of isolating - like an “every man for himself” type of environment. Even when I would go out of my way to try and be friendly with the people in the stalls around me. Maybe I wasn’t putting out the right energy, though.

Anyway, I just wanted to see if others had felt similarly in the past. I know it’s highly dependent on the event you work at and the other invited vendors, but I feel like all I see on socials is these overly sunny outlooks on what it’s like to be a maker in Milwaukee and that wasn’t accurate of the majority of my time. Though, I will say, the customers were always very sweet!