by Laura Conaway

Out of business.
David Wood

Out of business in Roseville, Calif.

David Wood sends this picture from Roseville, Calif., northeast of Sacramento, land of 11.8 percent unemployment. Wood writes that the picture is just two days old:

It's on the door of a Swirls yogurt shop that opened in early fall 2008. Even though it is immediately next door to a very popular and thriving Tex-Mex style restaurant they never attracted many customers.

I am a longtime patron of the restaurant but I never entered the yogurt shop. I often saw the lone worker sitting at a table reading a paperback. As an entrepreneur and business owner myself, my heart breaks for the people that must have put so much effort, time, AND money into this venture.

But I can't help but be reminded of the comment my favorite banker made when I asked her if I was crazy to mortgage my house for start-up money 20 years ago. She said (exactly), "You'll be okay because you are doing something that you are an expert at. At least you're not opening a yogurt shop."