I work for a commercial real estate developer. We recently leased a space to a bicycle shop that had been in business for thirteen years. As we do with all tenants, we asked them to provide recent year tax returns so we could check out their financial condition. Their most recent return, for 2006, showed taxable income of $1,800 after all of their expenses, including salaries to the owner and his help of about $35k. Obviously, nobody was getting rich. My experience has been that most bike shop owners do it for the love of it rather than because it's making them rich.