I am a qualified chef by trade. I did a three -year apprenticeship and worked internationally for over 10 years.
The biggest lesson from working as a chef is that you are only as good as your team. You can’t execute a final dish as just one person, every night to a tonne of hungry people. Can you freaking imagine. But guess what lovely…. You are doing just that!
How does this relate to you as a one-man band running your ‘busyness’ from home? (See what I did there? ‘busyness’ meaning business )
Let me take you through a very basic professional kitchen scenario:
- You want to create a new menu for the season
So you research the season, the trends and check in with your food brand and ask customers
And then you create a new menu (btw It looks awesome!)
You decide to highlight fish on the menu
So you select, negotiate and buy some fresh fish from the best supplier.
You decide what sides (vegetable, starch and sauce) go with it.
A customer sees it on the menu, it is what they feel like, they order it.
The order goes into the kitchen.
The chef starts to prepare it.
Before it goes out the chef needs the cold prep chef to prepare the salad to go with it.
Plus the hot prep chef (not as in handsome hot, as in prepares all hot sides) adds the side dishes.
It goes to the pass where the head chef checks for consistency and correctness
The waiter takes it to the table.
The dish hands cleans the dishes
Did the chef do everything by themselves?
Now I know you are not dumb, but I also know that you as a small business owner has fallen into the trap of doing it alone.
Within 8 weeks of ‘being’ in my own business I realised I was becoming burnt out for the first time in my career. I have worked in some high pressure situations & kitchens. From cooking for the Queens husband (His official title isn’t Mr King btw!), showed Christie McVee with from Fleetwood Mac how to properly roll gnocchi AND (I am totally gloating) had Kate Winslet tell me my duck salad was the best she has had. The whole point in telling you this is that working by myself within 2 months nearly sent me to the looney bin.
Why?
One fundamental problem. I was trying to do it by myself.
I left a career where I was surrounded by people who helped me. We were a team damn it! We were a ‘Mastermind’ so to speak. So I totally underestimated the power of this.
- 1: Paid a virtual assistant who could do something in 2 hours that took me 10 and made me feel like I wanted to put a hammer through my computer.
- 2: I joined mastermind groups that helped with brainstorming and problem solving. Good old fashioned women L.O.V.E
- 3: Found a Business coach that would hold me accountable, kick my butt and help remove the BS blocks I would put up.
If there is one tip I could share and hope it would stick to your very busy, overloaded brain. It would be to STOP doing it alone and START investing in your business mindset. Otherwise you may as well say hello to stress and have a lot of time being sick or tired? Wow doesn’t that sound glamourous.
The exciting part about all of this is that I am looking at working with 6 women this year. Women who are committed to growing their business so that in turn they can help more people, live the lifestyle they desire.
So if you are looking to work with a coach who will help you break the rules, hold the space for you show up as yourself, learn to laugh at procrastination. Slap n tickle fear & worry, and fall fiercely in love with your business. All the while generating more revenue… Then girlfriend we need to talk.
Click here! to book a time to take the next step.
Nat x
