“Success isn’t always about ‘Greatness’, it’s about consistency. Consistent, hard work gains success. Greatness will come.” - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
It's no secret that Dwayne Johnson is one of the most hardworking actors in Hollywood today, and the quotation above is a reflection of his work ethic. It also provided a way to set the stage to pencil some thoughts on a trait I feel is critical to success.
Some background first, before we launched PartyChef my partners and I spent a good 18 months running a restaurant with the intent to use the first as a testbed to build a business case for a chain. What follows is a high-level overview of how things started unraveling, and what we learned from that journey.
In the early months, the four of us spent countless hours commuting from various points in the city to the restaurant to ensure we were building it right. Whether it was food tasting, finalizing the menu, figuring out the procurement process with suppliers, setting up the POS system - we did it all. The results were rather impressive right out the gate, our price point was spot on, customers loved the food and the energy of the place. However, a couple of months in we started seeing signs of trouble the moment we handed over the day to day operations to the team on the ground.
This started a slow decay over the subsequent months that we never fully recovered from. Looking back I'll have to admit that while we had a great concept on paper where we failed was with the consistency of execution, I've attempted to distill some of the lessons I learned across those hard months.
- Location, Location, Location - You've heard this term when it comes to realty and the retail space so its a no brainer that you have to pay attention to where your business is set up depending on the clientele you intend to attract.
- Get a sounding board - In the early stages of setting up a company, there is a high likelihood that you are running on passion alone. It's critical to find a rational (and experienced) sounding board to run your various ideas by. If nothing else it will give you a new perspective and help you avoid painful mistakes as a newbie.
- Make a list, check it twice - Whether its the rental, equipment costs, resource costs, overheads, etc you need to make a comprehensive list of what it will take to deliver the end product or service to your customer. Then you need to check it once again to ensure you haven't left anything out, and if you have decided on the best value for money option available.
- Check your surroundings - Whether its competition, obstacles to customer acquisition you really need to understand what challenges your business will face by virtue of being where it is.
- Differentiate - You need to have a clear USP, in a crowded market place there has to be something that compels a customer to decide to take a chance on you.
- Build a great team - Whether you're in a services business or a product business you need a team to execute on your vision. Find the right people, spend time on your recruitment strategy to find the right fit. Invest in training to ensure they understand how you do business.
- Respect - Regardless of whether we're talking about cleaning staff, cooks, service staff or managers they all deserve respect. Building a business is as much about the business plan as it is about the culture you build. Come down hard on accountability but at the end of the day, people stay because of how you treat them.
- Get your hands dirty - Clearing up plates, setting the table for your next customer, taking orders. A good founder needs to know enough about their business to be able to step in when there is a need - Regardless of what that job entails!
- Create a framework for an iterative process - For a business to operate efficiently there have to be guidelines in place, you need to have a process to ensure your team knows what they need to do
- Keep an eye on your costs - Waste in the food industry can severely erode your bottom line and you'll find your shutters down faster than you would ever think possible. The same applies to any business, if you're not fiscally aware you will find yourself forced into a corner - taking decisions you really don't want to.
- Getting the word out - Whether it is reaching out to the neighboring apartments, universities or trying to get on your local food aggregator you really need to understand how to reach your target demographic in a manner they are most convenient with.
- Adapt - The market has no patience, new companies, changing customer needs, regulations, and disruptors can play havoc with what you've built and some of them appear on the horizon with little or no warning. You have to be light on your feet and have a framework and a team that allows you to evolve to meet the changing needs of the market.
- Know when to quit - Building a business from the ground up is no easy task and as most founders will attest its rather difficult to not get emotionally involved. However, there are times when you do need to throw in the towel. Have a set of conditions defined that help make the case for closing down or pivoting instead of leaving it to an emotionally charged decision. This way all founders are bought in from day 1 on the exit/failover scenarios. In our case, we pivoted to the concept that is now "PartyChef" once those trigger conditions were met.
- Being Consistent (for ALL of the above) - Customer Service, Cleanliness, Quick Turn around times, Quality of Food, etc - are just some of the areas that you need to be consistent. It does NOT come easy, while processes play a big role you need to have a strong group of leaders and managers across various functions that drive this day in and day out. Make a list of those non-negotiable that you stand for as a business and either be or find the leader that drives that culture within your organization.
Three years later a lot of these lessons have been seared into my brain but all said and done I can honestly say this easily qualifies as the best education I've received to date - courtesy the School of Hard Knocks!
If you found this article interesting, there are links to others below. Feel free to share!