The grandfathering in of business just kills the ability to start something new it seems.

Been working on a family business with my brother. We've got quite a bit of money set aside to do it but we definitely feel like the deck is stacked against us every time we do something.

We thought about hey lets start small and do something like a fireworks stand. Then we found out we have to play by different rules than almost everyone around us because they did their stands Before 2005 so they can setup in a tent while we have to pay rent.

So we pivoted. Found another business we'd like to go in. Thing is that they sold licenses in our area for alcohol and it costs nearly $100k to buy a license that no one paid more than $1k for at the time. So we thought we'd keep with it and just go with beer and wine which anyone can buy a license for.

Found a building. Noticed that the water looked odd so investigated and it's on a well even though it's in the middle of the city. Building was build in the 1960s. The next door neighbor on each side of us has city water and it's within 10 foot of our property line. Called the water company and the response was we'll price it and provide a list of contractors. The price…. $100k. That's not a hookup to our building, but just to frontage our property. We asked, why are we forced to go the whole width of our property when each side has access? In case someone wants to build something else on the lots we'd own. There are no lots that wouldn't have service or could add service and because ours is three side by side small lots they want us to run it the whole length even though our building is only a few feet from the watermain.

Anyone else feel like starting a new brick and mortar business just is insane because of how many advantages that others got. Same goes for digital as well I guess as if you get in before legistation you get the benefits without the penalities.