I work for a small family business. We have an office and factory in the UK and an office in Hong Kong. We used to have a factory in China. No longer. Our products are of yesteryear and we have had some very unfortunate issues over the last 4 years, so are just now getting back in to profit. We have a very small market share due to some of those issues, so room to grow. I would say I live an ok middle class life. Have been forced to cut back on holidays and expenditure in order to save for a house that we have just bought. I would like to think that in a few years we will be back up to the £2m+ that we had about 10 years ago before I was in the company.

Read some of your comments. Your family are wrong. Owning and running your business is often far far more work than just getting a job. I should know, I work for my small family business and my Father who built the business has sacrificed far more than anyone I know.