What's in Your Wallet

I love being my own boss because of the flexability especially with raising three children all under the age of ten. I love having a chocolate business because it is an area where there is still tremedous growth. Especially in a down economy, people are still investing in their speciality foods and thankfully our chocolates fall into that category. Even on a day like yesterday where temps reached high into the 90's, customers still came to all three locations for their "favorites". One customer was having a bad day so she bought a box of our hand rolled truffles for lunch. I eat them for breakfast so clearly I won't judge.
Owning my own business, there are so many upsides, but the downsides are really beating me down: The Cost of Running My Own Business
1.Payroll Taxes- any small business owner, and larger one now, will tell you that the payroll taxes are what keeps businesses from growing. During the presidential campaign a reporter noted that if a candidate were really invested in helping our Nation's Economy grow,then they would lower the payroll taxes. I am running three stores now with the same number of employees I had in one store back in 2004. I'd love to employee more people, but there are too many weeks that the taxes are higher then the sales.
2. Small Business Loans- these are an Urban Myth because banks are not loaning to existing businesses and the so called "Economic Recovery Loan Program 'ARC' makes you jump through so many hoops and takes so long to get approval it's easier to moonlight at another job to help bring in funds.
3. Credit Cards- I read an editorial a few years back where the writer stated that the real terroists were those who only use credit cards because they were not putting much needed cash into our sinking Recently I was notified that Visa, MasterCard and Discover are increasing the transaction cost to us (the small business owner) for the convience of our customers using their cards (the banks). So lets explore this further;
The Bank Bail Outs are paid by us (the tax payers) and yet some executinves are receiving bonuses. Most private organizations are not giving pay raises and are even forced to cut salaries to help sustain the business. I for one work fulltime, but don't take a check so that may staff is paid. So the Banks got bailed out, executives are still living high on the hog and the credit card companies are looking to raise capitol through it's customers by increasing interest rates and transaction fees. Do you want more money in your wallet, then use cash. It's old fashion, but it helps keep you disciplined; you only spend what you have. So what's in your wallet?