Why Some Tarot Businesses Fail

When I launched my tarot business in 2015, I was excited.

And really, really determined. So determined, in fact, that I deleted my resume to send a message to the universe (and myself) just how serious I was about making this business work.

But I was also really, really scared.

And I learned how helpful fear can be as an emotion: It kept me out of complacency and pushed me to work hard enough to avoid failing.

This was important, because it wasn’t my first venture into self-employment. In another time in my life, I’d worked as a freelance writer, and that experience immersed me in a starving artist mentality where I was surrounded by peers who believed that if they could make just enough to cover their bills, that was good enough for them.

Which often meant that many of us were breaking even in our businesses, settling for low expectations and precarious financial situations.

I realized that as a tarot reader, I’d have to grow out of those limiting beliefs if I was serious about making my business last.

Refusing to acknowledge the value of your labour – even in spiritual work – can lead to the erosion of your livelihood as a tarot reader.

Since then, I’ve seen a lot of other tarot businesses come and go around me.

I’ve seen readers post heartfelt goodbyes on their social media pages and make closing announcements in their newsletters.

Often, they’ve shared that their businesses weren’t feeling sustainable:

The work was unpredictable, the income unreliable, and the pay didn’t feel worth it at the end of the day.

I know it's not about the money in this line of work: Many of us feel called to become tarot readers because we want to be of service to the world.

But we need clients to be in service to. Without a client roster, you have no tarot business.

It’s not always enough to just open up shop, or build a website, and expect customers to start rolling in.

Every business – tarot or otherwise – starts with the task of building up a customer base so that the work becomes steady.

One of my previous mentors, Renae Bechthold, taught me something that has always stayed top of mind: People don't experience success by accident.

It happens on purpose, and while some people might luck out here and there, more often than not, success happens through a series of deliberate actions that set you up for the kind of success you want to have.

But in the tarot world, there are a lot of myths that stop us from taking action and keep us passively waiting for everything to magically click together.

I often hear people say, "The right clients will find you," or, "If you're really meant to be doing this work, then money will come easily."

In truth? You need to be out there promoting yourself, building an audience, and garnering trust among potential clients before they will decide to hire you.

You can't wait for your business to happen to you: You have to create it.

This is why tarot business owners have to be intentional and consistent about how they’re getting their work out there.

At the same time, you also have to be realistic about how many clients you need to be bringing in to support yourself each month.

That means having effective steps and strategies to help clients find you. And being committed to figuring out what's not working in your business when things aren't growing the way you'd hoped.

It’s not enough to passively wait around for clients to appear.

This is where action and mindset meet, because limiting beliefs can cause you to settle for less in your business, or stay stuck in start-up mode longer than you can afford to.

I’m not going to say business is easy: It’s often much more work than you expect.

But it doesn’t have to become such a drain on your emotional, spiritual or financial resources that it no longer feels viable.

A tarot business can and should be something that feels supportive and sustainable for you.

And when your business does pick up and starts to gain momentum, so much changes: You start to feel like you're serving your community in the way you always hoped you would.

Having a growing client base affirms your dreams.

And that’s what I aim to help you create in Tarot Business Bootcamp. This is a no BS program where I’ll show you how to build an intentional, strategic tarot business step by step.

There will be a lot of work to do, because you will build or refine your business with each lesson. (There's a reason I call it a bootcamp.)

But I’ll be there with you every step of the way, available for questions, support, and accountability.

This industry only becomes stronger when we work together, and rise together.

Registration closes February 1. Details are here.

Hope to see you there.

Liz