Both stores are at a point of dilemma. There is probably a word for it; Hobson's Choice, Catch-22, Prisoner's dilemma; I don't know what it is.

1.) the more business we do, the more we need help. the more help we need, the more business we need to do.

Let's say, to pick a nice round number (that isn't the real number) we make 500.00 a day. At that level, I can get most of my work accomplished, I come home and have a small amount of energy left over. It's enough that I can have a half-time employee, and also get a few days off here and there.

Everything over 500.00 becomes a bit more than one person can accomplish. At 600.00, I come home exhausted every night.

A full-time employee is probably needed. A full time employee at 10.00 an hour would cost me 1600.00 a month, plus taxes. Let's say, 1800.00 a month.

At 40% profit margins, I need to make another 4500.00 a month.

Even if I just increase the hours of the employee I have, who started at 20 hours a week, and has worked up to 30 hours a week, to a full 40 hours, I'm needing to do about 2250.00 a month better just to pay for the extra help. He doesn't want to work 40 hours, so I'm probably going to need to get another half-time employee, which increases the risk, but gives me a bit more flexibility in work shifts.

So, once I go over 500.00 a day in sales, and I need to hire an employee, I need to do closer to 600.00 a day to just break even.

So I'm working harder, taking more risk, and making the same amount of money.

Linda's store is undergoing similar growing pains.

So I can put my nose to the grindstone, just figure I'm going to be exhausted all the time, but take the money. Or I can hire an employee, kick back a little, and not make any money. It seems to be an ongoing dilemma.