Good businesses have margin. Profit margin, yes. But also margin for your time, your emotional and physical health, your relationships, your sanity, and your integrity. Low-margin work eventually leads to ruin. The margins rarely get better; the sunk costs get worse.
I think retail, and independent "small" retail, in particular, are just overly complex businesses for their scale. Many variables with little margin for error. Jeff Harbaugh's been covering this complexity for a long time: http://www.jeffharbaugh.com/inventory-management-and-customer-conversionretention-in-the-snow-sliding-business/ …pic.twitter.com/tl61DRmcyX
building