What's the purpose..

This is the very first blogpost I did when I started my blog, but I wanted to post it again. To represence why I am doing this and what I believe is important... A little over a year ago, I was taking a little nap when my phone rang. The area code was Upstate New York, which only mildly concerned me, as my daughter goes to college up there, so I decided to answer it even though I had no idea who was on the other end."Hello, B?" the woman's voice, kind of high pitched New York accent reminded me of Estelle Harris, the actress who played George Constanza's mother on Seinfeld."Yes?""This is Nadine, DJ's sister in New York. I've been trying to reach you through facebook, but I wasn't getting anywhere so I thought I'd call. How are you, B? and how's your husband?""We're ok." I said," How are you, Nadine?  It's been a long time.""I wanted to let  you know that Davy passed away a few months ago. You and your husband were so good to him. Thank you so much for taking such good care of him."It had been nearly five years since my husband and I closed our rotisserie restaurant in a successful food center in San Francisco, five extremely hard years from which we only recently began to fully recover. N's brother, he liked to be called DJ, had been a regular customer of ours, and when I say "regular", I mean every single day.I remember DJ's first visit to our shop. We must have been open just a few weeks and we served kind of expensive roasted meats and side dishes. The food was sold by weight, so I put some items on plate for him and weighed it out. I could see the struggle on his face as he asked me to put some food back...From that day on, whatever DJ ordered was $5. A plate full of food and maybe some chicken soup. We called it the "DJ special" and every single day we fed him, and sat with him at our tables outside, while he told us about his most recent ailment, or ordeal at the VA. He must have been in his 70s then. He would show up with his baggy flak jacket, his sweat pants and bright green hightops, floppy hat and sunglasses because whatever medication he was taking made his eyes sensitive to light. Every day we were open, DJ came for lunch. If we were going to be closed for any reason, we'd pack up a bag full of food for for him to have the next day (very rarely did we close...holidays like Christmas mostly.) Like me, DJ was a member of the Tribe and we'd talk holiday food together...Whenever he wasn't feeling good, I would tell him I'd say a healing prayer for him at synagogue. He pulled me aside one day to tell me how much that meant to him.Hearing Nadine's news, I was heartbroken. The day we closed the restaurant for good, a December day in 2008, was the last time I'd seen DJ. I had always thought we'd see him again, maybe if we'd opened another place. But I had lost my stomach for risk, and 2009 was a terrible time to try to raise money. News of DJ's passing made me feel like I had failed all over again.About six months later after N's call, I was talking to someone who lives in Bernal Heights about my client who opened a restaurant down the street from her. I had begun doing bookkeeping and restaurant consulting on a freelance basis after I closed my place, and I loved working with chef/owners like Tony and Jonathan. "They are a great addition to the neighborhood," she said. Like a family that had just moved in next door.While I was still doing some client work, I met a woman who needed help with her operations. She couldn't keep going the way she was...something had to change and she didn't even know where to start. One thing was certain for her, she had come to feel that she owed it to the community around her to stay open, and the only way to do that was for her to be successful.Of all the reasons people open restaurants, to be unsuccessful is NOT one of them. Everyone wants to succeed, but if you've spent your career learning your craft and developing your passion, you may have missed the part about running the business. In fact, maybe you've hired someone to do that part but you need to understand it yourself.Red Truck is the place to find that information. In this space, I'll cover in simple terms, what are financials, why you need a POS and which one to choose, how to be an employer. Mostly I want to hear from you about the challenges that face you as a restaurant owner. I've faced just about every single one, and if I haven't, I know someone who has and I'll be inviting them to guest blog here too. I've worked with start-ups, pop-ups, well-established businesses. While buying the services of a consultant can be expensive, I have designed my blog to be an inexpensive way to get crucial information to establish a strong foundation. You owe it to the community that you serve to be a success.