where does all the money go for small businesses?

 Boy are we having a case of the Mondays! 
In just a matter of 30 minutes that it took to run to the grocery store to pickup a few last minute items for dinner, our dog Lillybelle, stole a couple of packages of homemade tortillas off the counter and proceeded to shred the plastic bag and eat a majority of them.  Our other dog Indy was also a prime suspect, but she luckily didn't seem affected by it.  My daughter called as I was on my way out of the store and said that the dog was whimpering and appeared to be bloated.  I probably would be also if I had ingested that many tortillas.
We hurried her to the vet, and within a few minutes they had her throwing up a brick of tortillas.  (Sorry, if you don't have pets or kids this is probably pretty gross.)  It's amazing what a relief it was when she did that!  After that was done, they gave her another shot for the nausea and then a pro-biotic capsule to give her a for a few days to help get her "gut health" back to normal.  Almost $300 later we were on our way home.  
After what seemed like a very intense morning, we are happy to report that it appears she is somewhat back to normal, although a little lethargic.
Unexpected setbacks
Unexpected expenses such as that leave little left over for us at the end of the month.  Our business was much more successful before the recession hit us hard.  Many of the businesses we cleaned for were forced to go out of business.  I know that many people think that people who run their own business are banking, but many of us are not.  We are normal families with normal expenses like mortgages, car payments and such.   Sending our kids to college is important to us as well as continuing to run business that has paid the bills for over 35 years.
We continually maintain or replace equipment as needed.  Thankfully, our business doesn't require top of the line technology in order to run efficiently, just some good vacuums, environmentally safe cleaning products and some good old fashioned elbow grease. (Also, the intelligence to know what and when to use all the things we just mentioned.)  We would love to hire more staff to help provide the top quality service that customers have come to expect, as well as provide jobs for more people in the community.    
We have a small budget and try to use social media as a way of advertising for more business.  Larger franchises have more money available and are often able to advertise for more than just one area.  This really hurts a small business like ours who strives to maintain a great reputation.  We could really use a working partner who is familiar with this line of work and how this type of business runs.  We do not get to set our own hours, we work at least five days a week and are usually on call 24/7.
We are proud to be business owners and take pride in the job we do.
Please think local next time you are in need of a service from another business instead of a big name.  Small business owner (and their dogs) will greatly appreciate it.
I hope you have a fantastic, (barf free) Monday.