My grandfather owned a successful Mobile gas station and garage in Pennsylvania. To this day, the aroma of the grease and oil that permeated his place of business evokes many wonderful childhood memories playing about in his service station. Grandpa would jokingly ask who was going to pay for the sodas my brother and I would constantly ask for from his vending machine. He had one of those old Coca-Cola chest coolers which only required lifting the lid to to access your favorite beverage. Of course, he always relented and gave us a soda.

Some years later after he had passed, my grandmother told me there had been some lean years in the business. She noted some months required sacrifices at home to make ends meet. So I feel a bit guilty considering all the “gallons” of soda my brother and my five cousins went through whenever we visited our grandparents.

Though I’ve never owned a business, while earning my business degree from Averett University I did learn small businesses struggle the hardest to be successful. Looking back on my own family history, I have an, albeit very limited, understanding of these struggles.

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