A Priceless Case Study in EP

**MJDeMarco** · Oct 19th, 2007, 12:13 AM

The Background on the Entrepreneurial Premise (EP) is here:
http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com...ead.php?t=3056

The following serves as a great case study and ironically, comes from reality TV.

There is a show last night I watched called "Kitchen Nightmares". It features a world famous chef that visits a struggling restaurant, cleans house, and turns the business around.

I don't know how I stumbled onto the program but found it quite educational for reality Tv, very quasi Trump's apprentice.

The restaurant was called the Old World Restaurant or something to that effect - the genre was Italian. The background is that the owner, Joe (not sure the owner's name), is struggling to make the restaurant work. He's maxed to the hilt; 2nd mortgages, credit cards you name it - he is barely getting by. And of course,owning and running this Restaurant which is situated in an old historic building, is the owners "dream".

I mention in the EP that people don't care about your dream, your business, and your goals for making money.

Anyhow, the famous restauranteer, Gordon, did some research to determine why the Old World Restaurant was struggling in this small Pennsylvania town. He does a survey of the town and finds that there are 6 OTHER ITALIAN RESTAURANTS in the town. Furthermore, there are ZERO steakhouses in the town.

So the expert restaurateer recommends to the owner to CHANGE HIS RESTAURANT GENRE FROM ITALIAN to a STEAKHOUSE.

The owner's initial reaction?

"Thats not my vision."

As I watched, I couldn't help but laugh. Your vision? People don't care about your vision. They care about your restaurant satisfying their needs. Your town has 6 ITALIAN restaurants -- perhaps thats why you can't turn a profit? Does your restaurant exist to serve the needs of the people? Or the needs of your "Vision?" or "your dream?"

Needless to say, Gordon convinced the owner to switch from Italian to Steakhouse and yes, the restaurant turned around.

I considered it an excellent case study on having the proper Entrepreneurial Premise.

An Italian Restaurant was the owner's dream ... the town didn't care -- until he switched it to a Steakhouse.

To watch a video segment and wow, it gets quite heated!

http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/

Click on "Episode 5: Did I stutter" watch the expert and the owner go at it!

**biophase** · Oct 19th, 2007, 12:51 AM

This is one of my favorite shows. I love the beginning of the shows when he has to eat the food at these crappy restaurants.

What I don't like about the show is that Ramsey gives the restaurants an infusion of cash via a remodelling or new help. I think it would be better if he just gave advice and they followed it. He does way too much for them.

The European version of the show gets no makeovers or major overhauls and the restaurants sometimes still fail even given his help.

**china** · Oct 19th, 2007, 04:17 AM

If only it were as simple as reality TV!

In our neighborhood, we had an Indian gentleman move in. He was a chef and he realized that there were too many Indian restaurants in the neighborhood so he decided to open an Italian restaurant.

This could have been great, perhaps. The problem was that he seasoned his Italian food for Indians, making things that tasted more like Curried Alfredo sauce instead of just Alfredo sauce.

His Italian food was really really BAD!! It was beyond the "weak tasting" things that people normally call bad. It was "weird tasting" and tasted nothing like Italian food even though it looked like Italian food.

Where is Chef Ramsey when you need him?

**Russ H** · Oct 20th, 2007, 12:33 AM

Brilliant.

What I liked the most was that Ramsey didn't ridicule or put down people-- he talks to them straight, and doesn't pull any punches.

This made the owner nuts, of course.

But that's not unusual-- many entrepreneurs I know have a really, really hard time with criticism-- myself included. The concept of someone coming in and "messing with your dream" can put a lot of people on edge.

But as Ramsey says, there's a difference between having a dream. . . and living in a dream world.

If you want to make money in business, you don't have the luxury of living in a dream world.

-Russ H.

**michael515** · Oct 20th, 2007, 01:01 AM

Originally Posted by Russ H

Brilliant.

If you want to make money in business, you don't have the luxury of living in a dream world.

-Russ H.

Whoever said that winners do what losers don't want to do was so right on!!!

**Diane Kennedy** · Oct 20th, 2007, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by china

If only it were as simple as reality TV!

In our neighborhood, we had an Indian gentleman move in. He was a chef and he realized that there were too many Indian restaurants in the neighborhood so he decided to open an Italian restaurant.

This could have been great, perhaps. The problem was that he seasoned his Italian food for Indians, making things that tasted more like Curried Alfredo sauce instead of just Alfredo sauce.

His Italian food was really really BAD!! It was beyond the "weak tasting" things that people normally call bad. It was "weird tasting" and tasted nothing like Italian food even though it looked like Italian food.

Where is Chef Ramsey when you need him?

China, I just gave you rep++ because you made me laugh. Curried alfredo?

Seriously, there is a lesson here. We have a saying that "Just because you THINK you can fly a jet plane, doesn't mean you CAN fly a jet plane." This has to do with people who go to heavily motivational programs and come out so inspired they think they can do anything. It's scary. I've seen people lose everything (family, money, health...sanity) because they have a taste of this dream that they can have, but they don't do any of the homework or built the skills. I'm not saying you have to slow down, but you do, at least IMHO have to get the foundation. Otherwise, a little taste of success might just bankrupt you.