What amazes me, however, is how far small business owners are willing to go to keep their companies from going under and as many people as possible on the payroll. These men and women — some of whom have spent decades building their businesses, growing their markets and client bases, and then employing people who stay with the company for years — are not going down without a fight.

I personally know a number of small business owners who, rather than let people go, have stopped paying themselves a salary. They have families to feed, as well. But many of them have effectively chosen to put other employees’ families before their own. They don’t have to, but they do anyway.

Then there are those small business leaders who are ploughing their savings, which they have meticulously put aside for years to fund their retirements, back into their companies in a desperate effort to keep the lights on. That is a huge gamble to make on your future old age.