A business owner will expand to his level of incompetence.

There's an article in today's Bulletin about a gardening business in an out of the way location that has had great success. So the guy is going from one employee to four and moving to the Old Mill District.

Part of me wants to shout: "Don't do it!"

But NOT growing is heresy in America. (Of course, he may succeed, and it may be exactly what he wants--but that wasn't my experience.)

I've been enjoying my store lately. My one store. I've had four stores, five if you count the Bookmark, and it wasn't always an enjoyable experience. It often wasn't even a profitable experience.

I have my own variation of the Peter Principle: A business owner will expand to his level of incompetence.

I was sort of reminded of this with this new street closure proposal. "You'll be able to move stuff to sell onto the street," they told me.

I'm sorry--I have a store that is functioning very well right now, Thank You Very Much. A store that is designed for one person to maximize the space and time. It's been finessed down to the smallest details. It's still manageable, but even more importantly, it's still enjoyable.

Whatever makes you think I want to expand into the street? How would I keep track of that? What would I do, move stuff in and out each night? Would I have to leave my post at the store and go out to help people? To clean and straighten, and...?

...well, like I said, the store is designed for exactly what it does. Designed by decades of experience.

So you open a store and you talk to your customers and they appreciate your knowledge and experience and reward you with business. What do you do? You expand and become a manager of multiple employees, who no matter how good almost never match your dedication and experience.

It took me 30 years to find Sabrina, who took responsibility for the store and who managed it with dedication and honesty and knowledge. Before that, it was a constant turnover (which was my own fault in many ways--management is not what I wanted to do.)

Two stores isn't just twice the work, it's three times the work. Three and four stores are even worse--unless you are very skilled at management and technology and that's what you WANT to do.

If what you want is your own business, somewhere fun and yours--then expanding isn't always the best idea.

Unfortunately, most people only learn this by doing it.

If I had one piece of advice for beginning small business owners it's this--beware burnout. Be careful how much you take on. Keep doing the things you enjoy, even if you can make more money doing what you don't enjoy. Keep it fresh and manageable.

Then you'll be there for the long haul.