Before Complaining About a Small Business Closing, Think About This

Over the weekend I fell down the rabbit hole of visiting some local community groups on Facebook, and I was dismayed at what I found.

You know all about Facebook groups, right? It's a place where people can go and hide behind their keyboard saying dumb and stupid thing without the fear of any kind of retribution.

Go keyboard warriors, go.

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A Business Makes a Change and the Community Reacts

One of the stories I came across was information that a local restaurant was closing, and apparently, selling their business to a regional restaurant group, who would re-open the restaurant under a different name or theme.

For my purposes here, the who, what, where, and when aren't really important. This kind of thing happens all the time, and people seem to always jump off their keyboards with stupid comments.

"How dare they!"; "They didn't even tell their employees!"; "We don't need another one of those businesses!"

Anyone Can Start Their Own Small Business

Our country, our state, and our cities have all been places where anyone can start a business. Sure there are rules, regulations, and such to follow, but literally anyone can start a business.

One thing you do need is capital, or money. You can use what you have, or mortgage your house and your future, or find investors. Whatever route, it's not an easy road.

Running that business can even be harder. There's mortgage payments or rent, taxes, fees, overhead, and more. That doesn't even include the bonus of having a staff.

Almost every business needs employees. That means you have to hire, fire, and maintain and staff - and live with the staff you have.

There's more, a lot more, but these are the simple basic.

Running a Small Business Can Be Hard

Operating a business can be impossible.

Let's say you're running a restaurant. You need a staff. People to manage, people to cook, people to serve.

Sure, you'll find people you can count on do to the things you want them to do, and the way you want them to do them. In between, you'll hire and fire people that don't work and that don't fit.

Along the way, you'll need to manage these people. That means making schedules, and covering shifts when no one shows up. It means covering a shift when someone's kid is sick and no one else will work. In short, it means your business becoming your life.

Some people make it work. A large number of people don't or can't make it work, and fail. It's a tough life.

People Are Stupid

The story about the business closing that I mentioned above has had people comment - and, as you know, people say stupid things.

"They didn't even let their employees know until the last day.

Sometimes business owners don't know they're closing `til the last day. Sometimes, they're operating on a shoestring and just trying to make it one day at a time.

Sometimes owners have completed a sale, and turn around is quick.

Sometimes owners don't want to tell their employees because they can't risk their business imploding in its last days.

"We don't need that new kind of restaurant!"

Then, start your own restaurant. I'm sure the new business has done some sort of research about what they're doing - it's THEIR MONEY after all!

It's Time to Celebrate a Successful Business Selling Their Business

Maybe it's time we said "Thank you" to small businesses who are able to go out of business on their terms.

Thank you for giving everything you had - money, hard work, blood and soul - to give to our community and make it better.

Thank you and congratulations for going out on YOUR TERMS.