Friday, November 20, 2009

Saus is growing up

Seeing the business come together is teaching us all surprising lessons. I don't think any of us realized how linked every part of the business is. To add just one menu item we have to think not only about additional ingredients we need to buy, but also how it's going to fit in in our production process. Does an additional employee need to come in in the morning to prep for this item? Do we need additional equipment to make it? How will this all affect out budget? Does the taste fit in with our market? How do we price it to cover costs but to fit the wallets of our market?

When we originally started talking about our concept, we could think in the abstract. We could come up with brilliant, unique ideas that would drive our market crazy. Now we need to think practically. We still need our brilliant ideas (our money makers if you will), however, we need to think in business terms as well. We need to think of costs; we need to think of our production process; we need to think of execution and our market. There are so many moving parts to the business and they all need to sync up perfectly. In short, we are growing up as business people.

I am reading a book about small businesses. One of the ideas presented is that there are different "personalities" in every person. There is a creative side, an organized practical side, and a do-er side. (I am really simplifying the concept here because I don't want to drone on and on about it.) Right now, I think the team is honing our personalities. We have moved from the creative to the practical, which I think was a natural step for us. I think I can speak for us all when I say we are enjoying this learning process that we are going through. We are still striving to execute all our ideas and make our dream restaurant, but we realize that we need to address every adjustment that would be needed to make to the business to accommodate everything. No decision is a small decision, as they are all connected. Phew, no pressure...

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