Thinking about cost of construction, changing economy, the coming year, business survival. the cost of living over the last 20 years has risen dramatically while wages have not and the added challenges of surviving 2020 has made it tough for small business owners.
Life is hard.
I am working 60+ hours per week to do what I can to make sure my business survives. I am tired. However, my industry is one of the lucky ones coming out of 2020. We were able to change our focus to residential architecture and came through ok after a hard summer. So many other small business owners in other industries are facing harder struggles.
Please do what you can to support your neighbors, do good in the community, and resist the urge to be negative to others. We still have a long way to go to get through the pandemic.
Also not overlooking the toll that losing friends in the community is having on each of us. Just thinking about finances tonight.
Here is some food for thought.
This is based on averages as our country starts debating minimum wage impacts if it increases to $15 per hour:
Over the last 20 years (pulled from google searches for data which varies depending on source, but this should be close)
Median cost of a house increased 134%
Median cost of a car increased 73%
Median income of CEOs increased 126%
Median cost of healthcare increased 1458%
Average cost of college tuition increased 127%
Average cost of groceries increased 199%
Average cost of a fast food burger increased 126%
Median income increase 50%
Average minimum wage increased 7.7%
