> Your scenario assumes that larger competitors, possibly from other localities and nations, will not come in and provide services as well as you can at a lower

> Your scenario assumes that larger competitors, possibly from other localities and nations, will not come in and provide services as well as you can at a lower price (perhaps by subsidizing at first to gain market share). This doesn't apply to all industries nor all products and services that can be offered. I suggest reading, "Small Giants." Not everyone wants to do business with big players. Some people are forced to due to lower prices and their diminished funds, but not everyone is in that boat. Small, privately owned business can operate just fine surrounded by big players, especially when customer service and customer satisfaction absolutely smashes the big player across the street. Suggested reading: "The Millionaire Next", which clearly indicates that a lot of wealthy families got wealthy providing professional services to other wealthy families. You have to start somewhere and at some scale, and once you reach a certain point, you can stop. It's OK not to want to be the next billionaire. > Do you have examples of occupations that can achieve success with a skill level of 8 out of 10? Computer programming. 6/10 in London will get you lucrative contracts you can use to bootstrap a side business with part of the proceeds. London is so dense and business so freely flowing, that the GFC did next to nothing for most of us in this industry. We still got our AUD$1,200/day payslips. DevOps. 7/10 would get you a huge daily rate (like I'm on now) and that can be used to bootstrap a side business (like I'm doing now.) Driving Instructor. I remember my instructor back home in England. Lawrence. Lovely guy. Good instructor. Maybe 7-8/10. AUD$35/hour for a driving lesson. Had so much business he was hard to get a booking with and could pick and choose his clients. Why? Because every year a new 16 year old boy/girl entered the arena and wanted to learn to drive. Tens of thousands of them from the surrounding towns. Despite the very large instructor schools having hundreds of instructors all over the country, Lawrence was "successful" and continues to be. Cafes, bookstores (despite what you said earlier), and those kind of businesses (those that can be operate by a single business owner) easily stay in business here in Australia and certainly at home in England. Overall, I think you'll find the problems you've outlined to be mostly exclusive to and quite excessively bad in the US, but it's not the case in the UK and Australia (to the same degree.) I'm going to bet a lot of Europe is the same as AU/UK, too. Yes big players exists here, but check out this documentary about why Starbucks failed here in Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGUkxn5kZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGUkxn5kZQ -- what was it you were saying about economy of scale?