The Weight

What nobody tells you about running a business

Me, on vacation, ignoring my daughter’s pleas for attention so that I can check my email at a spring training baseball game.

It seems like I have been having the same conversation over and over again, just with different business owners.

They all have the same challenge: business ownership is a hard and lonely endeavour.

There was the solo-preneur accountant who is steadfastly against taking on employees because he just doesn’t think he could handle the weight of responsibility that would carry.

He said he’d lose sleep over the thought that he ultimately was responsible for their livelihoods. So, he continues to grind through by himself, working more hours to service more clients.

Then there was the chemist whose company provides specialized auto detailing coatings to car dealerships. This is the slow season for car sales and his work slows by association.

Even though he’s been in the business for a number of years and is used to the cycle, his stress level is still elevated.

“Once the business goes away, you can never be certain it will return,” he said to me.

He’s now in a season of heavy lead generation and cold sales calls…the part of the business that he does not enjoy at all.

Then there was the owner of an architecture firm. She was a paid employee of another firm for over 20 years. It was steady, predictable, and safe. She had a salary, 401k, medical benefits, and more vacation/PTO time than she could use each year.

She didn’t have to worry about the P&L, attracting new clients, top line revenue, notifying the state within the proper amount of time of an employee’s departure from the firm, or paying the rent.

She left that job to start her own business because she wanted more freedom and the opportunity to be more selective with the clients she took on.

Now all of those worries are on her mind constantly.

Different people in different industries. Yet, there were three common threads that linked all of their stories:

• The common goal to grow their businesses beyond where they are now

• The pain of the long hours, and what that would look like if the business expanded

• The stress

It is no wonder so many business owners feel the weight of constant stress when you consider the following:

• According to a Payscale report, the average annual salary of a small business owner is $70,484.

• Entry-level owners (less than a year in business) make around $34,000, while those with 20+ years of experience earn about $75,000 (Tailor Brands, 2025).

• To stay afloat, 70% of small business owners report having made sacrifices for their business, resorting to measures like working longer hours (45%) and even cutting their own salaries (32%) (Bank of America survey, 2024).

That last statistic feels like a middle finger to the American Dream.

The average small business owner is not living an overly comfortable lifestyle and taking multiple lavish vacations each year; they are working long hours, including weekends, just to stay in business.

We started small businesses because of the promise of freedom: financial freedom, time freedom, and freedom from having a boss.

We were sold on the American Dream of building a business and controlling our own destiny. Business ownership was supposed to bring that freedom. Yet most small business owners are actually working themselves into the ground for a salary that doesn’t cut it in 2026.

An entire industry has been built to tell small business owners how to grow: how to 10x revenue, how to work less hours, how amazing the lifestyle is.

What we don’t talk about enough is the weight of running the business and the very human cost involved. Open Instagram and search “small business” and you’ll get more twentysomethings sitting on a balcony overlooking the turquoise-blue ocean in a silk robe than you will see the real face of operating a small business in the U.S.

And the hardest part of it all is the isolation. Business owners aren’t just carrying this weight, they are carrying it in isolation. They can’t talk to their employees about the business struggles, they can’t post about it on social media. Most have a hard time discussing these struggles with their spouses (if the long hours and low salary allows them to have one).

It isn’t just money and time that gets sacrificed: energy, peace, and health all get put on the backburner in the interest of keeping the business going.

I know because I lived this life for most of the years I owned Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Enterprises. I was addicted to the hustle culture and the idea that if I put the work and time in now, that the payoff would be there some day.

What I was actually doing was isolating myself and leading an unhealthy lifestyle.

What I really needed, and what I believe all business owners need, is a community of people in the same boat as them; other business owners going through similar struggles.

Once I found this for myself, I was able to recognize the terrible, yet well-worn path I was on. I started to see that it was possible to move beyond the daily grind and even see that the business could grow without me having a hand in every single part of it.

Now I’m a year-and-a-half post-exit. I was able to get out without losing the relationships that matter the most to me with my wife and two children. I can look back on my experience with gratitude, but I also know it didn’t have to be that hard.

This time, as I start my next business venture, it is based on the experiences I’ve had, the knowledge I’ve gained, and the passion to support others in a way that gets them closer to the dream they had when they first started. Business owners need the clarity and support a community can provide. Having lived both sides of the story myself, I aim to help other owners write a better ending for themselves.