I don’t want to fire anyone either....but as a small business owner and physician, I’m getting hit from all sides here. The government is increasing my taxes, cost of employing people, and reducing my income...something has to give.
Employees of small businesses need to know that small business owners don’t necessarily get up in the morning and take risks with their capital just so that they can take a vacation in the summer or have health care. While I am happy to employ someone to further MY business goals and aspirations, my employing them is NOT my most important reason for working and owning a business. Like most small business owners, personal taxes are a cost of doing business...and if my costs of doing business increase, and I cannot increase the price of services rendered, then I AM going to look to decrease the cost of my service provision...and my number one cost of service provision IS personnel costs.
As an aside, I was in my local dry cleaners the other day. The owner was complaining he had to fire his only two employees and had to replace them with out of work family members. One was his son that had to be pulled out of college. The owner's comments mirrored yours.