If anyone asks me what is the one thing that i could do in the past in order to improve the existing version of me today ! i would simply say "Cook " :) yes , since my passion was and still in the restaurant and F&B operations business , i can say that i am an experienced person in the operations and strategic planning part of the business , but fact is that i have spent less time in the Kitchen and behind the lines since i have assumed my managerial roles back in 2004 until i started lately discovering that my real passion started when i started cooking and creating new items and flavors and i get delighted every time i get positive feedbacks from the people around me . Therefore , this article is an advise from me to all F&B operations, that includes restaurant managers, F&B manager , F&B operation managers and even F&B General managers of any type of F&B operations , that is if they wish one day to consider having their own business and not remain on salaries until their retirement !
First let's take this step by step , if you want to become an entrepreneur or restaurant business owner the best way for me is by starting this as family business , being involved yourself in the cooking and recipe development process and not someone who has made money and decided to open a restaurant and simply hire a team of chefs and other to run his/her operations , which is also possible but every successful restaurant business started with the owners being involved in creating the secret and basic recipes of this restaurant but also from another side if a successful chef opens your business and leave you at a later stage that means your business will become unstable as it depends on this particular chef's leadership , don't you agree?
Therefore , what i say and i know it as i was an operator for long time before i have decided recently to adventure into the world of entrepreneurs , that Many if not most of F&B operators do have knowledge of their menus and what is the menu made from but if you actually ask any of them to go behind the kitchen counters and prepare it from scratch , i doubt that a big percentage of them wouldn't even understand the process and techniques of preparations of menu items from scratch , may be at that stage is ok but the moment they decide to become business owners and now create and ask others to follow what they create , they should have the knowledge and experience of how food and recipes are created .
So , an advise to those who aim to run their own business at someday , start from now to cook and spend more time behind the kitchen counters in order to get the feel of creating menu items instead of just knowing them by heart . Trust me i know some general Managers of restaurant groups that can give you comments and input about menu items and flavors and even can give you lectures but might not be able to make a proper sandwich !
In order to reach to a perfect recipe , you have to do it over and over again , understand the chemical reaction of products , get opinions and develop and create again and again in order to reach to a perfect product that is authentic and unique so that you can ensure that you will have a unique product that will set you higher than your competition .
Similarly , for the chefs who have never been involved in creating business plans , understand the importance of positioning , having a mind of business as they need to have involvement in financing , investment , recruitment , purchasing and much more , the same applies to these as opening own business do not only reply on the fact of being able to cook ! you can cook but make wrong decisions of Location selection . selecting proper name for business , positioning your business , design , branding , handling finance part of business , all of which you don't need to be expert but at least to have some experience with that will keep you going and not spending your saved money to hire specialized companies that will set you all for you and leave and now you expect it to autorun which might not be the ideal case , therefore , it is also critical to chefs to ask to be trained on strategic restaurant operations and everyone needs to understand a bit more about the leasing part of the business which unfortunately not much operators are involved in this part which might be the most complicated part when you decide to do it all by yourself - if once again you opt to open a family business !
If you develop these skills from now if you are still employed in any type of F&B operations , this might be very helpful for you the day you decide to have your first own business adventure .
Thank you for sharing this with who you might need this advice :)