There’s an article in the Irish Times this morning with a picture of a sad looking young woman.
She is the owner of a coffee shop/café that is closing down, and she is bemoaning how difficult it is to run a small business in Ireland nowadays.
When I come across articles like this I think about starting my own business in 1986/1987 when interest rates and unemployment rates in Ireland ranged from 15% to 22%. Those were tough conditions.
Now, we have a tremendously successful economy in Ireland, one in which it is easy to start and run a business. Public finances are in rude good health and people are coming here from all over the world to work and live.
I feel for anyone who is forced to close their start up business.
But running a business and being self-employed is not for everyone and blaming the macroeconomic conditions in the country is a cop out, in my view.