follow the instructions

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.