"Before I ever got those doors open..."

A recent post from a friend on Facebook, on the effect of government regulations on opening a small business...

I'm gonna address this issue one last time, then no more politics for a while. I'm getting on my own nerves. Here's the short story of opening a tiny little shop: 

In September of 2010, I made the dubious decision to buy a piece of commercial property to open a yarn and pottery shop. I had a certain amount of money (x dollars) in my coffers to accomplish this. According to my calculations, the business could be opened with a commercial loan to buy the building and then (2/3)(x) to get my starting inventory and fixtures. And that might have been true, but WAIT! Slow down. Along comes the borough. the borough tells me that I'll need to hire an engineer to draw up plans to show exactly HOW I'm going to make this building ADA compliant. Hm. It was a business before, so why me? So, engineering fees. HUGE. Then, I find out that, get this, 60% of my egresses must be handicapped-accessible. I have two egresses. The only solution? Rip off the entire front of the building to remove one egress, then make the other one accessible. To make 100% of my egresses compliant. Make sense? In government it does. So, there we have a few grand I didn't expect. Now it's looking like (4/5)(x). But wait! My bathroom sink has to be moved two inches to be compliant. "But then the door won't swing, sir!" "Then re-hang the door, and move the sink, Honey." OOPS. Now it's 1.2(x). Uh-oh. "But I just wanna sell some yarn." "This building is not grandfathered in. They used to sell mortgages, not yarn. You must comply." 

I'll cut to the chase. Before I ever got those doors open, the government was my only hindrance. I could have had a perfectly accessible shop for about 25 grand less than the government cost me. I've spent every penny I have to be compliant. And every now and then, guess who comes by to tell me which signs are violating the zoning rules? Yep. Same guy. And guess who has never come in to buy so much as a mug? The zoning guy. Neither has the mayor. Neither has the borough engineer. the government has done nothing but suck me dry. And I continue to pay them for the privilege. BUT, what have we done for ? Improved a neglected building, planted flowers, and brought consumers in from out of town, who end up patronizing other businesses.  

No thank-yous from me, government. But you're welcome. 

And with that, I drop this issue altogether. I'm sick of it.

My brother, who just opened a restaurant in Pittsburgh, and is involved in renovating a second pub out towards the airport, has similar stories.  Zoning meetings that they were required to attend, in order to hand over a piece of paperwork - just to hear "we'll get back to you".  Inspections that had to be obtained, with only one person authorized to do them... and with a 3-4 month backlog for the first inspection (and the follow up inspection as well, mind you, along with the final certification).  Paperwork (submitted in triplicate!) inexplicably lost, approvals delayed because someone was on a month-long vacation, and of course, more fines, fees, and other governmentally-approved money sinks than you would believe.

For someone who's never built a business, he's sure worked awful hard to do nothing.