I RECEIVED SAD news this week that a neighbourhood business, SupperSolved, will be closing after eight years of operation.

I only found out about this service months ago, and have only been using it since March. And, yet, it’s become an integral part of my daily life.

SupperSolved is one of the most well-thought-out businesses I’ve come across. You can tell attention has been paid to every detail, and to the overall experience of the customer.

The idea is simple, but brilliant. For a reasonable cost (a month’s worth of entrées costs me $360) you get access to a beautiful, clean work space and all the ingredients you need to make meals. Everything is pre-cut and arranged when you arrive. It’s like having your own sous chef. All you do is follow the recipes and assemble the meals, placing them into the provided foil trays. Then you take the trays home and freeze them. It takes an hour-and-a-half for my son and I to assemble a full month’s worth of meals.

He enjoys preparing the dishes, as do I. I think that learning to cook is such an important life skill that I take him out of school to do this. And I enjoy having with me. The staff also tell me they love seeing father and son working side-by-side, cooking their family meals. Everyone is sad that, at the end of this month, this will all come to an end.

It’s such a great business model that I would buy it if I had the time and energy to run another business. I’m told the owners are looking for another space. The issue is condos. All around the area of Toronto where I live, land owners are selling their properties to developers. Businesses are being driven out. And I get it: we need places to live at least as much as we need shops. I’m not among Toronto’s many high-rise haters. I think population density is the only way we can go. We have to build up, and there;s limited real estate on which to do it.

Still, I’m sad to see this business go. I’m also inspired by it. As someone who helps clients build powerhouse businesses, I’m forever on the lookout for good models and success stories. SupperSolved was one. The staff were friendly and helpful. The cost was reasonable. The space was big, bright, clean, organized and pleasant. The level of organization and attention to detail was extraordinary. SupperSolved took all the stress out of meal planning. Having found them, I was liberated from the awful daily chore of taking time from my busy working day to think about dinner—and then to shop, clean, prep, and serve. And clean again.

I dread going back to the stressful, inefficient, costly and irksome daily routine I had before. The fact is I’ve experienced liberation. And because of that, I don’t think I can go back. When you come into contact with a brilliant idea—and, more important, a brilliant system—”going back” isn’t an option.

The experience has given me insight into what I want in my own work. I want to have just this effect on my clients. I want my business to be a comprehensive, well-thought-out system that changes the lives of people who use it for the better. I want to make a practical difference, the way that SupperSolved has made a practical, pleasant, liberating difference in my life. And I want them not to go away, but that’s another matter.