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What No One Tells You About Keeping a Small Business Alive
The Hidden Costs of Running a Small Business in America Today
At Seven Coffee Roasters, we’ve been proudly roasting and serving fresh coffee for over 20 years. It’s been a journey filled with dedication, long hours, and a deep love for our craft and our community.
But being a small business today is about more than just roasting coffee and serving customers. It’s about navigating rising costs, outdated systems, and broader economic forces that often make survival harder than it should be.
Here’s a look at what small businesses like ours face every day — and why it matters to all of us.
💸 Rising Costs at Every Level
Over the past decade, the cost of running a small business has increased across the board:
- Ingredients and Materials: Green coffee bean prices fluctuate wildly based on global weather and trade policies — yet customers expect stable pricing.
- Utilities and Operational Costs: Basic overhead like electricity, water, and packaging have all surged — without bulk discounts big corporations get.
- Insurance: Business insurance premiums have climbed year after year, adding yet another line item most customers never see.
- Inflation: Every dollar today buys less — whether it's supplies, shipping, or simple maintenance.
Big companies can absorb these shifts. Small businesses like ours? Every increase eats into already-thin margins.
🏥 Healthcare: A System Built for Large Corporations
Affordable healthcare remains one of the greatest challenges for small businesses:
- Offering employee coverage is extremely costly — often prohibitively so.
- Owners themselves often pay high out-of-pocket costs or go without insurance to prioritize their employees.
- Small businesses can't negotiate healthcare rates like giant corporations do — leaving them at a disadvantage before they even open their doors.
In many cases, small business owners carry the double burden: struggling with personal healthcare costs while also trying to support a team.
🧹 Shrinking Public Services, Growing Private Costs
Once upon a time, public infrastructure made doing business easier. Today, that support has eroded:
- Transportation: Lack of affordable, reliable public transit makes it harder for employees and customers to access local businesses.
- Education and Workforce Development: Underfunded education systems mean more businesses have to invest heavily in training from scratch.
- Public Spaces: Fewer investments in local parks, clean streets, and vibrant neighborhoods means businesses must spend more on marketing and private maintenance to attract customers.
As public services shrink, small businesses quietly shoulder more and more of the costs.
💵 Minimum Wage, Rising Costs, and an Uneven Playing Field
At Seven Coffee Roasters, we believe people deserve fair wages — full stop. But here's the complex reality:
- Rising minimum wages without broader structural support (affordable healthcare, education, housing, etc.) means small businesses must raise wages while also eating rising operational costs.
- Big corporations can automate or offshore jobs to balance these shifts. Small businesses can't.
We want to pay well. We work hard to do so. But it’s not a simple equation of “just raise prices” — it’s a delicate, ongoing balance.
Fair wages and small business survival require a broader system that supports both — not just slogans.
🌍 Federal Spending Priorities: Who Really Gets Help?
Billions are spent every year on military expansion, corporate bailouts, and international projects. Meanwhile:
- Small business loan programs are underfunded.
- Local community development often gets lip service without real investment.
- Tax breaks favor the largest corporations — not neighborhood businesses trying to hire locally and reinvest profits back into their cities.
Small businesses drive community wealth, job creation, and innovation. Yet time and time again, policy choices prioritize stock prices over storefronts.
It’s not about politics — it’s about math. And the math doesn't favor small businesses right now.
☕ It's Not Just About Coffee: It's About Community
We hear it from our customers all the time:
“I love supporting local.”
“I want my money to stay in the community.”
“I’m tired of everything feeling corporate.”
Your support isn't charity. It's smart investing in a healthier, more connected economy.
When you choose Seven Coffee Roasters, you’re choosing:
- Fresh coffee roasted specifically for you — not mass-market batches.
- Jobs and opportunities created right here in the community.
- Real customer service, real conversations, and real passion behind every product.
🧠 Conclusion: What Small Business Survival Really Looks Like
Running a small business today is harder than ever — not because we lack passion or hustle, but because the systems surrounding us too often stack the deck against Main Street.
It’s not about politics.
It’s not about guilt.
It’s about understanding the real landscape — and making choices that reflect what kind of economy, community, and future we all want.
At Seven Coffee Roasters, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done:
- Roast great coffee.
- Serve our community.
- Stand proudly as a small business with big heart.
Thank you for choosing quality.
Thank you for choosing local.
Thank you for choosing a better future, one cup at a time.