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[tknuncle]

I own a small painting company near Chicago and I have NEVER EVER been this busy before. I have people waiting up to 3 months before we can even start their job. I am usually only about 3-4 weeks booked out...not 3 months. I only have 10 employees but have been trying to get more with no luck at all. Seems all the good painters are working for other companies. 2 months ago I had some union guys working for me and I was keeping about 15 guys working. Since May they have all gone back to their union jobs. It has been absolutely insane with all the work. And to be completely honest I have never ever turned down work since I opened my company in 2001...well as of a week ago I have stopped doing free estimates because I can't handle the work load. I have been having a hard time sleeping because of all the stress. So makes me wonder what other small business's who specializes in service industries is going through the same thing?

I'm well aware that retail is suffering. But a lot of it is there own fault. Many did not get webpages going for their merchandise and are being passed up by Amazon. As a small business you have to be ready to go with changes quickly. Many big corps can't do that as quickly unless their management is ready. I feel bad for so many but I see companies hiring around here. Maybe I am wrong but it has been crazy here. I survived 2008, 2009 and 2010 when it was tuff to find work. So I am not too worried because I believe I will always be working as long as I do good work.