This evening I am cooking – a recent phenomenon as I explore different ways to relax on the rare days that I work at home in Falmouth, Cornwall.
Last week’s effort was pasta stuffed with pumpkin and served with gorgonzola, parma ham and a rocket sauce.
Rave reviews, even though I forgot to add the ham.
This week I’m acknowledging the weather and creating a lamb minestrone stew.
Both, by the way, courtesy of the excellent cookbook “Keeping it Simple” by Gary Rhodes.
I’m not a natural cook and haven’t done anything significant in a kitchen for over 30 years – but maybe my latest mid-life “change” will be for the good.
Enjoying myself?
You bet – great therapy to not be surfing the web (or “typing” as Jack Dee calls it).
What encourages me to leave my stew on simmer and write this post (before I test the 2008 Giardini Falanghina from Sainsbury) is that I am a novice, following a simple set of instructions.
Is running a business any different?
If it is not a franchise, what happens is that the prospective business owner buys all the ingredients – but has no recipe and no instructions.
Imagine, if you will, that I was sat here with:
- diced lamb
- button onions
- carrots
- new potatoes
- chicken stock
- red pepper
- plum tomatoes
- cannellini beans
- French beans
- courgettes
- butter
- tarragon
- parsley
- olive oil
and no idea whatsoever what to do with them.
The resulting mush would be a mess.
But nice Mr Rhodes tells me exactly what to do and when to do it.
Having a franchise prototype to follow ensures that all I have to do is “follow the instructions”.
So, as Michael Gerber would say, make sure your business is a franchise prototype and you will produce the right result every time.
Your protocols and brand standards should be like a cook-book for the team.
I’m off to stir my simmering pan.
Wish me luck – dinner will be served at 19:00.
