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  • Magazine

Sizzling Returns

Thompson hospitality was in crisis mode. Founded a few months earlier in 1992 when CEO Warren M. Thompson negotiated a leveraged buyout of 31 Big Boy restaurants from Marriott Corp., the fledgling company was neck-deep in debt. Herndon, Virginia-based Thompson Hospitality Corp. (No. 12 on the BE industrial/service companies list with $321 million in revenues) acquired the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia restaurants for $13.1 million. THC also raised $1.9 million in capital from about 25 investors, and Thompson anted up about $100,000 of his own cash to convert the locations into Shoney’s restaurants. But the transaction wasn’t going according to plan.

  • Magazine

Escaping the Boomerang Life

Tondalah Stroud never imagined that as a 37-year-old married mother she’d be sleeping in her childhood bedroom in suburban Chicago. But when she and her husband, Walter, 46, found themselves upside down in their mortgage and saddled with more than $20,000 in credit card debt, mounting medical bills, and two monthly car payments totaling $1,400, moving in with her mother seemed like the most cost-effective option.

  • Entrepreneurship

Letting Go

Despite the mantras of “Never give up” and “Keep fighting” that many achievers subscribe to, hundreds of thousands of Americans shut down businesses, end relationships, or close the doors on some type of dream each year. Did all these people lack faith and courage to follow through? No.

  • Magazine

Steering Thru the Skid

Spring comes to the Detroit metropolitan area later than most parts of the country and even though it’s almost May, a palpable chill remains in the air. Just as the region begins to thaw out from a long, cold winter, at least one if its longtime residents is emerging from a deep freeze of its own. For Southfield, Michigan-based Avis Ford Inc. (No. 14 on the be auto dealers list with $86.5 million in sales), the worst is over. In fact, in the first quarter the dealership sold 645 vehicles, the best quarter in more than five years. And with Ford vehicles gaining in market share combined with a relatively steady stream of work going through Avis’ 42 service stalls and body shop, Chairman and CEO Walter E. Douglas Sr. is cautiously optimistic about the prospects for 2010.

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