Tough Times Take A Toll On Local Businesses

It's with great sadness that almost every week another business is shutting its doors in Highlands County due to a bad economy. Just a couple of years ago a lot of folks were conjuring any kind of business to open, believing the then-booming economy would make them successful.

Those were heady times, and today's economy is nothing like it was a few years ago. There is something we can do to help. We can do our best to support our local businesses and help them hang on.

Too many people don't give entrepreneurs enough credit. They risk everything on a dream. They put their homes, their savings and their retirement into restaurants, retail stores, service companies and all kinds of enterprises to chase the American dream. When they are successful, riches can certainly follow. More often, though, money runs out, the economy sours and they lose it. That's why it's so painful to see them fail.

These businesses pay our wages, sometimes our benefits, give to local causes and make living here special. Their loss is our loss. It takes something from our communities when they fail.

It's painful to say, but a lot of our local businesses are hanging on for dear life. They've cut jobs, cut back hours and constantly are looking for ways to keep the lights on. It's an incredibly difficult battle in extremely tough economic times.

We will get through this, though. Better times will follow this downturn, but there's no guarantee when it will happen. Perhaps that's the worst part. No one has an idea when it will turn around because there are so many factors driving it. The real estate and construction markets are, perhaps, the biggest problem locally, and probably across the nation. Add to that astronomical gas prices, inflation and costs going up in every sector and we have big issues to deal with.

If ever there were a time to support our local businesses, it's now. They need our consumer dollars to keep our neighbors and family members employed. We need them to survive this economic storm so that when the all-clear is sounded, they can grow and be even more successful. That, in turn, will benefit our communities in a 1,000 different ways.