If you have not watched Gordon Ramsey's new series "Kitchen Nightmare" you should, especially if you are an entrepreneur. This new series is all about running a business and not cleaning up your kitchen or cooking good food - well part of it does but the concept is great. The show concentrates on running a business and how to get your audience.
I learned a lot from the 10 episodes then creating a business and how to properly promote. The emphasis on running a business and not running a kitchen is what kind of caught my attention. I picked up the main concept of the show by just listening Ramsey saying repeatedly "treat it like a business." This applies to anything even blogging and internet marketing.
Ramsey does not talk to the cooks about how they cook but takes a look at the managerial and location of the restaurant. Ramsey even profiles the town or city the restaurant is located in. This shows a lot of entrepreneurial skills. Ramsey checks the competition of the locals and surveys the nearby restaurant. This shows a lot of pre planning before reopening a business.
Opening a business is not easy or starting one. It takes time to see who your competition is and how to be different and unique. With Gordon only given a week to re open a successful restaurant business, he has a lot of crunch time and studying to do. Gordon reads the kitchen, the staff, the food, and the overall environments.
Opening a business is a lot of work, but once you have it flowing smoothly it is smooth sailing. Gordon Ramsey is a business man which was once a popular chef and cook. A business is your life of income which you will need to treat it with all seriousness. You make money from your business and if you do not what becomes of you? There were multiple examples of Gordon showing how to run a business and not a kitchen.
Competition:
Gordon scans the competition of the locals to see what the restaurant can do to be competitive and unique. Scanning the locals is important because this is a community that is constant or plateaued. You will need to give a great impression to those of your community for them to comeback.
This works with any business, even on the internet. You will need to check out who your competitors are what you can provide that differs from everyone else, what makes you unique? The internet is the biggest competition ever. Your competition is everyone in your niche, there is no local location with each niche in its own little corner you have everyone competing against you. So what makes you different from the competition? What differentiate your style from others? Did you research your market?
Impression:
With competition and having the traffic flowing what is the first thing a user looks at, the style. It is the first impression that stands out. Gordon remodeled some of the restaurants kitchens' and even dinning room. This is because you need to create the atmosphere for the user, the first reaction is the best reaction. Once they are seated the food needs to be followed up with another better taste.
Taste and the scenic view helps create the environment that is needed to create comfort. Once you prep the food and ready for delivery, it needs to astound the customer in which Gordon's recipe does. This is a great tactic for follow up impressions.
With the competition and a user going to your website, they are first influence by your web design, layout, and colors. Readers are very stereotypical on the internet. They see something whack they leave, thinking this can not be very informative or professional. As you know I have went to 3 web designs in the 9 months of creating this blog. I went from newbie to professional, but I do not consider myself a guru or pro. That is why so many important bloggers out there have redesigned their websites and layouts.
With the unique layout design and catchy appeal you will need to follow up with another reaction from the user, give them great content. They like your content, a better chance of them returning and visiting. Though you can not give them a taste test, but giving a great user experience is important - it provides a sense of professionalism.
Communication:
A restaurant is a team effort and so is a business. But what about for a blogger and affiliate marketer? I am a one person boss and team? So I talk to myself all day - not really. But For a team business, communication is important. It helps keep everyone on the same page and insync. This stops any minor mistakes that may happen when there is no formal communication.
In a kitchen the head chef needs to communicate to all his team and the front end when the food is out. The chef would also need to go a head and direct motivation to his cooking staff. Without this communication there can be errors in orders.
For a one team member, keeping everything in sync is important. Writing down notes and taking pride in what you do. Give yourself a check list, or an hourly time schedule. This helps you with your schedule and what you will need to do. Keep yourself on track by simply staying organize and on point.
Managing:
Controlling your staff and the flood of traffic coming in needs to be in sync with everyone in the business. Just from above, communication is formal managing. Keeping everyone in sync with the orders and food coming in and out is crucial for a restaurants survival. This holds true for any business, managing orders, stats, income, etc is the only way to keep track of what is going on.
Properly managing is important, managing a team or managing your paper work is important in an everyday business life style. Simply take care of priorities and then organize by importance or situations. Just keep everything in sync. Recently I organized my workspace helping me manage my work style at my desk. This helps me better work and manage my work style.
Conclusion:
Treat your business as a business and watch Kitchen Nightmares. Watching the episodes definitely helped with how I can look at my blogging business or affiliate marketing business. There were so many rules and things that Chef Gordon Ramsey did that pointed out about business and not about the kitchen. The concept was great! Improve the kitchen/ restaurant because it is a business!
