Phil Bowler spends four days a week at his shop, Titan Computers, but said he made no income from the business, instead living off his pension and other investments.
He said the government treated small businesses “as a source of income” without offering “much help.”
He said: “They can increase the minimum wage to £23,000 a year, but a small business would have to turn over an extra £50,000 a year to pay that employee.”
Bowler said the biggest problem for him was VAT. Companies with a turnover of more than £90,000 per year having to register for VAT payments at a rate of 20%, external.
He said: “When 20% of your income has to go to the government it is a huge amount of money and VAT alone is killing businesses on all the high streets.”