As a person that has grown up in an entrepreneurial family and that has always owned some business or another the one definitive thing I can say about it is that it is hard and that what is the hardest part often changes with time. From personal experience I can relate what I found hardest and also provide some examples as to why. Fortunately each of us only has one hardest part of owning a business at a time.

I was in the retail business catering to a niche market of hobbyists. As the owner operator the hardest aspect to me was the time factor. The hours aren't just the stores hours of operation. There were demands to keep the place clean, update and rotate stock, keep on top of new things hitting the market, paying bills, going over the books with the accountant, and on and on and on. The demand for more time just never ended. This demand eventually starts forcing you to subtract time from other areas of life. For me it was time with my family. I reasoned they were people that loved me and wanted to see me succeed so they would understand. Fortunately they did but not all are so fortunate. It took making it a true "family" business to make it work until a time was reached when the business could support a full time employee to curtail this.

Once the demand for time was met what became hardest was keeping up revenue to support my ability to pay someone to provide me with that freedom. This meant more research, better advertising, pinching pennies a little tighter, and not only knowing what was going to be the next hot thing, but being able to meet that demand. While this called for a bit more time than I devoted to it previously it wasn't overwhelming or intrusive, afterall having an employee allowed me that extra time. The problem is that sometimes the best research you have and advertising you can buy falls flat for reasons beyond your control. When that happens free time goes back out the door and you are faced with having to jump back into the fray full steam ahead.

Case in point we made the vast majority of our sales on sports cards. In the summer of 1994 business was great, we had a fantastic customer base growing and we were thinking expansion. Suddenly professional baseball went on strike. Then professional hockey follwed suit. Suddenly all this product that was supposed to fly off the shelves sat stagnant because many people were refusing to support those sports in any way. In essence a pile of gold turned to mold. I still had to meet

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