• Kate McNeil opened All the Tropes, a romance bookstore, six weeks after quitting her job.
• Despite concerns about market saturation, All the Tropes thrives as a niche community destination.
• Passion, perseverance, and local support helped McNeil launch her business.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kate McNeil, a 41-year-old small-business owner based in Atlanta. It's been edited for length and clarity.

The idea to open a romance bookstore started during COVID.

I joined an online group of fellow romantasy readers, looking to connect with other people who also enjoyed my favorite form of escapism. That group had over 2,000 members, and it was difficult to feel a sense of community. Eventually, it broke off into local chapters.

After COVID, I didn't know of any dedicated space for these same readers to meet in Atlanta. That's how I started the journey to opening the first romance bookstore in my neighborhood. In the two years since I opened, more romance bookstores have opened up, including one less than two miles away.

I thought I'd retire from my teaching job

When I launched All the Tropes bookstore, I was working a job I thought I'd retire from. I taught theater at Decatur High School for six years. My students always came first. I didn't want those kids to feel like I wasn't present or that they didn't have my undivided attention, so the bookstore was a back-burner idea for a few years.

I'd get home from rehearsal at 11 p.m., conduct business research until 2 a.m., then get up at 6 a.m. and go to work the next day and teach.

I took my time to gain a full understanding of the market, but there were still challenges

I learned about dealing with publishing companies and book distributors, connected with local artists to showcase their work, and reached out to local authors. One of the biggest challenges was finding a place for the store.

I knew that I wanted to stay on the east side of Atlanta because I lived in Kirkwood and felt very connected to the community.

In 2024, I found a location a four-minute walk from my home, and I knew it was time to make my idea a reality. In May of that year, I quit my teaching job and prepared to open the bookstore by the end of summer on Romance Bookstore Day.

I had 6 weeks to get the store ready for opening day

I received the keys to the bookstore six weeks before the day I planned to open. The timeline I had for opening day came with a lot of risks. I had cashed in my retirement fund, quit my job, and had a large preorder of "Onyx Storm" before there were bookshelves in the store.

There were many times my friends and I didn't leave the store until 4 a.m. A local artist painted the shop; I printed my merchandise at a local shop in Kirkwood; and I created the fabric wall. There were many nights I had doubts that All the Tropes would come to fruition.

I was a mom with two young kids opening a niche business that, to my knowledge, would be the first in the state, but I was prepared. I had my accounts with publishers, and my branding was complete. Perseverance, my husband, my village of friends, and an invested community got me to opening day.

All the Tropes opened August 17, 2024, on Romance Bookstore Day. In the span of a few months, I went from a passionate high school teacher to the owner and operator of a romance bookstore.

An increase in niche romance bookstores in the city concerns me

Even in a city like Atlanta with several thriving independent bookstores, I wonder about the percentage of residents who read for fun and, more specifically, read romance. While becoming a general indie bookstore would allow me to sell so many other things, I still believe All the Tropes can continue to thrive in a niche market, despite oversaturation.

Unlike a large book retailer, All the Tropes is a destination spot people can come from out of town to visit. Our social presence and promotion of local writers and artists also offer something unique to readers.

All the Tropes could pivot to general fiction, but so far, more stores opening has not impacted store traffic or sales.

4 Things helped me turn my business idea into a reality

All the Tropes continues to thrive because of my original vision of creating a community space for romance book lovers to connect. We now have eight active book clubs and continue to see consistent revenue.

Passion, trusting my gut, therapy, and a supportive group of friends are the reason I was able to turn an idea I brainstormed late at night into a successful niche business ready to grow.

We are now ready for a larger space and to expand our three-person team.

Do you have a unique small business story to share? Email the editor, Manseen Logan, at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• Natendrea Jones used Facebook Marketplace to market her seafood-catering business.
• A viral TikTok review in May brought her more than 300 orders overnight.
• Jones now runs Red's Garlic Seafood from her home kitchen and hopes to expand into a food truck.

When TikTok food reviewer Gabriel Rivera DMed Natendrea Jones about her seafood this spring, she assumed it was a prank.

"I thought somebody was playing a joke," Jones, 36, told Business Insider.

The South Carolina native had spent years trying to turn her cooking into a full-time business. She grew up surrounded by home cooking and began earning money young, first by preparing salads for neighbors and family cookouts, then by doing hair and nails.

Cooking remained a side hustle for more than a decade. Jones made seafood platters for friends and occasionally sold pans, but hair and nails paid the bills.

A viral food review brought 300 orders overnight

Jones had been posting her food on Facebook Marketplace for years. The platform didn't strike her as unusual: As a hairstylist and nail technician, she'd previously used Craigslist to find clients.

"I would always post on Facebook Marketplace because that was like my Craigslist," she said. "I was a Craigslist girl."

Meanwhile, Rivera had built a following of more than 2 million on TikTok by ordering food through Facebook Marketplace and reviewing it from his car. When he found Jones' listing, he offered her $200 to make him anything she wanted.

Jones prepared a pan overflowing with snow crab legs, lobster, shrimp, oysters, and fixings. It was not yet a menu item, she said, but it would soon become known as the "Gabriel Special."

When Rivera posted his glowing review in May — "her seasoning is on another level," he said between bites — Jones woke up to a flood of orders.

"I checked my Square. I had literally over 300 orders," she said. "I dropped my phone. I dropped to my knees."

Jones said she generated $50,000 in sales over the following two weeks and later surpassed six figures in sales. She used some of the money to buy supplies, such as new pots and pans.

Going viral created new problems

The sudden growth was exciting, but it was also difficult to manage. Jones enlisted help from family members early on, refunded some orders, and said some customers waited as long as a month for their food.

"There's no way I can do 100 orders in a day," she said. "This type of motion is new to me."

The pace eventually caught up with her. About three weeks after the review went live, Jones said she had to pause orders for a day to reset and catch up on sleep.

"The adrenaline was there, but I crashed," she said.

Since then, Jones has built more structure into the business. Customers order through her website, which adjusts pickup dates based on demand. She uses preorders to determine how much inventory she needs and now schedules pickup windows. On busy days, she said, her home-kitchen operation can handle 50 to 60 orders.

She still gets inquiries through Facebook Marketplace, but said most sales now come through Instagram and TikTok, where she has built sizable followings.

The business behind the seafood platter

Jones' best-selling platters are not cheap to produce. She buys seafood in bulk, along with fresh corn, potatoes, garlic, butter, edible flowers, packaging, and other ingredients. She estimates that she spends roughly $20,000 a month on supplies, though costs fluctuate based on order volume and seafood prices.

"People just say, 'More money, more problems,'" she said. "Sometimes I'll have moments where I don't see money at all — the money is gone, but it comes right back because that's a business."

Her signature sauce is central to the business, she said. Jones spent nearly eight years refining it and is protective of the recipe.

"My sauce is everything — because anybody can make a seafood boil, but how is your sauce?" she said. "I make my sauce from scratch and love and magic."

The business is named Red's Garlic Seafood after her late father, who was known as "Big Red." He was a chef who had hoped to open a family restaurant, Jones said.

Her next goal is a food truck, though she's taking her time to secure the vehicle, permits, and licenses needed to operate it.

"I want to do everything the smart way," she said.

Eventually, she hopes to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant. For now, she said she focuses on making each platter with the same care she brought to Rivera's order — the one that changed her business overnight.

"I make sure every pan has the flavors that it needs," she said. "I put the love and effort into the pan."

In 2025, the EU’s value of sold production in constant prices increased by 2.9% compared with 2024. This is the first time since 2022 and comes after 2 successive declines in 2023 (-1.5% compared with 2022) and 2024 (-1.9% compared with 2023).

Constant prices are adjusted for inflation by using the prices of a fixed base year (in this article the year 2021) to reflect value changes over time. Current (nominal) prices are measured using the actual prices of goods in the year they are produced.

The EU’s production increased gradually every year in the period 2015-2018. In 2019, the value of sold production registered a small decrease and dropped sharply in 2020 due to the effects of the global pandemic. However, 2021 and 2022 showed increases in production in all the industrial activity groups.

Click to enlarge

Source datasets: DS-059358, DS-059367 and sts_inpp_a 

In nominal terms, the EU’s value of sold production rose from €5 869 billion in 2024 to €6 090 billion in 2025.

This information comes from data on the production of manufactured goods published by Eurostat. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on industrial production, which also includes analysis by country and sector. 

Highest increase in value of sold production for food products

Looking at the top 5 groups of manufacturing activities, the biggest rise in sold production value in constant prices was recorded in food products; +3.8% compared with 2024 and +11.2% since 2015. 

Machinery and equipment recorded the second-highest increase (+3.3%), ahead of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (+0.6%). Meanwhile, chemicals and chemical products, and fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment) registered small decreases compared with 2024 (both -1.4%).

Chemicals and chemical products and fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment) were the only manufacturing groups that observed a decline over the past decade.

Click to enlarge

Source datasets: DS-059358, DS-059367 and sts_inpp_a

For more information

• Statistics Explained article on industrial production
• Thematic section on prodcom - statistics by product
• Database on prodcom - statistics by product

Methodological notes

The analysis of the manufacturing activities refers to the division breakdown (first 2-digit level) of the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE). Full names of NACE categories listed in this news item are as follows:

• Manufacture of food products
• Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products
• Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment
• Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c.
• Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers