Just the Vacation We Need

It's been a rough year so far. Last summer I finally started my own business after many months of planning. It's a restaurant franchise that caters to families. I have a partner, but she is an investor rather than an active participant, so I'm the one making the day-to-day decisions in the business.

As we all know now, the economy fell off a cliff last year, and that's affected just about everyone. The restaurant started off well and things looked pretty good, but by fall, fewer customers were coming in and we had to cut back our hours and reduce our staff. I asked the chef to come up with more lunch and dinner specials, which really helped, since everyone's looking for deals these days.

I'm not sure how long we can keep going. I'm lucky to have a husband who is a food broker - no matter how bad the economy, people still have to eat. Charlie is also very understanding, and he's offered to lend us money if necessary. Besides that, he knows I've been under a lot of stress. For my birthday next month, he's taking me to a wonderful place - a Fiji resort. I must admit, when he first told me this, I said it wasn't the best time for a vacation, there was too much to do, etc. Charlie pointed out that I'd been overworking for too long and it was the PERFECT time for a break. When I heard about their Fiji spa, I was sold.