Living the dream, unleashing the nightmare. My ex-coworker close friend bought a variety store in a podunk town, he was tired of engineering and thought owning/operating a variety store was the answer. He made many improvements, the store was much like an old mom and pop variety store. After a few years of operation he still wasn't making much money. A local trucking contractor was supplying their trucks from his diesel pump and my friend let him carry an account. During covid the contractor stopped paying his account and essentially told my friend to pound sand. I think the account owed over $10K. The state wanted my friend to remove his old underground gas and diesel tanks be cause they were 30+ years old. My friend had to have soils tests and engineering evaluations (more $$$) done at the same time. Fortunately there was no issue, but my friend decided not to replace the tanks because there was virtually no profit for him selling gas and diesel and money was tight. So he closed his pumps, which led to reduced customer traffic and sales. He tried to increase sales but times were tough and he was not succeeding. So he thought a venue change was in order, decided to get set up as a restaurant ... and he felt he needed a liquor license to bring in the restaurant crowd. So, as he was doing the remodelling to create the restaurant and bar, he had to face the politically charged alcohol permitting process that dragged on and cost much more money. Once the license was granted, he decided to hire an experienced bartender to help him launch the restaurant and teach him bartending and bar management. The bartender slowly ripped him off over time. She's gone. Now he's too poor to be able to afford help. The restaurant is getting much improved traffic but my friend is running himself ragged trying to be chief, cook, bottle washer and bartender; and little if any profit. My friend's wife is useless, my friend is stuck and he's too poor to afford hired help. It's certainly not easy.