Happy SMART Day Everyone!

Click to go to “Restaurant Impossible”

Quite by accident, Thom and I started watching a show on TV call “Restaurant Impossible” on the Food Network.  In the show, a failing and desperate restaurant owner somewhere in the country contacts Chef Robert Irvine.  Chef Irvine flies in with a designer, a contractor, ten thousand dollars and two days to totally transform these dismal eateries and provide the last hope for these owners to remain in business.  It’s fun to watch the transformation of the interiors—but even more fascinating to watch the transformation of the proprietors.  In just about every case the owners have gone years without any income and are deeply in debt, while their restaurant and its business deteriorates around them.  It’s hard to imagine why they didn’t do something about it or at least they cut their losses long before they hit bottom.  But are they unusual?  Probably not. Maybe “Budget Impossible” happens to all of us if we wear blinders when it comes to our finances or our lives. [Read more…]