Definitely getting deeper every decade! Our kids did not Get It. Then…. they opened a store….started to Get It. Then 2008 came along. They ALMOST lost their house. They completely understand now what we’ve been thru with micro-small professional business.
There were many times when our employee(s) took home their paycheck and had benefits and we had nothing. Final months, DH only paid bills. During these years we thankfully had skills for homemade/home cooked/home canned meals. Clothes mostly from thrift stores or given us for Christmas. We never paid for TV service… were on dial-up Internet for decades. Went without a LOT of things while non-business owners or big business owners went skiing and to the Caribbean. If we hadn’t been prepper-skilled, we would not have made it. Good thing we did enjoy our rural life.
But every few years, more BURDEN was legislated in….. The leaking out of money from small business is endless. DH worked it by himself at the end….no employees. Had to stay small then. And STILL got tangled up in endless NEW regulations. You hire office people merely to fill out govt regulations forms. Bah!
He closed up and worked his final years as an low level employee —- wheeeee, with benefits. 🙂 Well, not many but at least an employee discount. And a Thanksgiving turkey.
The relief from having no professional license/FEES/$$$ for continuing education seminars, etc. made us feel like his part time work gave us more usable money than during the last decade of business.
Our kids are smart and thrifty. They’re doing ok but ….it should be better for the work they put in. SIL has at least two other small businesses running as well as the store. Shouldn’t be this difficult. They’ll age faster than they should. Hope they’ve got retirement savings…
OldMtWoman