I interview a lot of job candidates who knock on my door after a failed business. Just yesterday, I interviewed an area supervisor wannabe who said she sold off her chicken feeds and dog food business because it was “too stressful.”

“I didn’t know that I would have to do everything herself,” she lamented. “I was the one sourcing, pricing and manning the store. It was hard for me to find someone I can trust who can help me.”

In the end, the husband asked her to close down the store in order to take care of their children. Even though it made money, business was too cumbersome and took too much time.

“I had to make money day in and day out,” she complained. “Even if I had sales, I still had to pay my overhead.”

Welcome to the real world, honey.

And you think that I’m very lucky to have a business, swimming in oodles of cash.

Let me let you in on a secret: Most days, I am looking at my passbooks and wondering whether the balances are correct.

My thought, “They should be higher, right?” as I ask my assistants for checks they have yet to deposit or my supervisors for sales they have yet to make.

I always worry about money, especially on the 14th of every month where I have to pay rent and payroll. As these large expenses put a huge dent onto my bank account, I cannot help but worry. If I can’t find enough money to pay, I’ll be out of business!

Yes, I have staff to feed, and I have stores to manage. But at the end of the day, managing a business isn’t all fun and games.

For example, today, I am awoken by the text that one of our best sales staff somehow had a crazy idea on not showing up to work because she simply didn’t like to relieve in another store. “She has a migraine,” my supervisor said. “But she always has a migraine when she doesn’t want to be assigned to other stores.”

I had another sales staff go absent yesterday because she just didn’t feel like it. Her boyfriend apparently said he will financially support her. Today, they must have had a fight yesterday so she said she wanted to return to work.

I had to delay a store opening because I wasn’t able to get a Contract from the lessor. There are some red tape we have to finish before we can open the store. As you know, government rules and regulations are getting stricter nowadays.

So no, I am not wallowing in cash.

Instead, I mutter and complain as I deal with another frustrating HR problem, supplier problem, and payroll process.

And the problems never end…

No matter what: The job still has to be done and there’s no one to do it but me. So I have to do my best to manage my time and get it done. Otherwise, I am the bottleneck and the wheels stop turning.

If I stop procuring and pricing stocks, we will run out of new items to release…

If I stop checking and paying the payroll, computations get awry and people won’t get paid…

If I stop pushing my staff for sales, revenues will go now and the business will explode…

If I don’t pay my suppliers, they’ll cut us off and I’ll have a problem doing business…

If I don’t balance my cash, we can easily run out of it…

In the end, it’s all up to my shoulders to manage the business.

So no, managing the business is all fun and games. It’s not being a gazillionaire. In fact, it’s a lot of work that needs to be done. And someone’s got to do it.

So let this be a warning for any aspiring entrepreneurs, think first before quitting your job. Check first if you have enough capital to subsist and the mental willpower to survive all the craziness that is entrepreneurship.

When you do entrepreneurship, you can’t quit mid-way. You have to finish the race all the way to get the returns.

So good luck you guys. And have a good weekend ahead!