Many issues discussed today in relation to small businesses are framed by COVID-19 rules and regulations, KG Plumbing and Gas owner Kane Geary said.
But small business owners have always dealt with stress, anxiety, burn out, fear of the unknown and whether they've made the right decision.
Mr Geary recently shared a post to Facebook, highlighting the pressure small business owners face, daily, no matter what is occurring in the world.
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"Running a business is really hard. What they don't tell you is that it can cause severe stress and anxiety, and drains you mentally to the point of depression in even the most laid back people. Starting up and running a successful business puts incredible strain on personal lives and relationships, many of which fail because there is just often no work life balance," the Facebook post said.
Though Mr Geary did not write this post, he said it resonated with him and he had experienced all of the struggles the post mentioned; burn out, relationship strain, wearing every hat in the business and a lack of work-life balance.
"It was to let people know what we go through, we don't just knock off at the end of the day," Mr Geary said.
"My wife and I started this business five and a half years ago.
"Overall it's been good, it's always hard, but we knew it would be hard.
"The first two years were difficult, I would do 10-12 hours on the tools, then a couple hours on the computer, working Saturday's and Sunday's to build it up.
"A lot of it I guess is losing that sort of private time, and the home time.
You don't have annual leave, in the six years I've never had more than a week off, we have a couple employees all the time so during time off I'm still invoicing, quoting, still working 2-3 hours a day in the business."
The toughest part of running a small business, Mr Geary said, was the balancing act of being present with family, but managing the entire business simultaneously.
"I am getting phone calls trying to put my kids to bed at night and trying to book leaking toilets," he said.
"On a normal average work day, I normally take more than 100 phone calls a day.
"I still receive calls, emails, texts on weekends. It's 24/7 when you're running a business, you need to stay on top of it."
Mr Geary said the scariest thing about running a small business was the uncertainty.
"You don't have a years worth of work, we're only two weeks ahead at a time and anything can happen," he said.
"The anxiety sometimes gets to you, you can't have a bad day and just not answer the phone or be at work.
With the amount of phone calls you take, you often don't want to talk to your friends and family in the off time, you're over talking because you've done it so much, you're done with that persona you have to put on."
Many people have an idea of what owning a small business would be like, he said.
It's not the glamorous lifestyle some might believe it to be; normally small business owners are working longer hours than most.
"The post was more to let people know what small businesses go through, we're not all rich, sitting by the pool sipping drinks.
"We don't have sick days, annual leave, compassionate leave, super. We've got to do it all ourselves, the post just rung so true to give people a bit of an idea of what it's like.
"For myself, its more the time and the dealing with people.
"One hundred calls a day can take it out of you on its own without having to do everything else. It's rewarding, but it's quite demanding."
