Business is in my blood. I just love learning about the inner workings of successful companies. As the time for Sean to go to full day school draws closer (1 year, 6 months and counting down), I can feel the call of getting back into the mix growing stronger. That is why love shows like the new “America’s Next Great Restaurant”. I have no affiliation with the show at all. My husband and I just happen to have really enjoyed the premiere episode on Sunday. I hope that it continues at this pace!
Have you heard about the show? Basically, ten entrepreneurial hopefuls are competing to win funding to open three of their ideal “Next Great” fast casual restaurant. The first episode showed the judges narrowing down the top 21 to the top 10. The only one that was sent home that I liked was the Soupz concept. I liked the idea of a made to order soup restaurant, but I understand that it might not be best year-round. (The three restaurants will be opened in New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.)
There are many strong contenders in the remaining ten. I like several of them (especially The Sports Wrap, Saucy Balls and W3’s) because of the entrepreneurs’ personalities, but I don’t necessarily think that their concepts are strong enough to take them through to the end. My husband and I both had the same top two favorites – The Tiffen Box and Limbo. The Tiffen Box is described as an “Indian Chipotle”. I happen to love Chipotle and Indian food, so this is the perfect mix in my mind – healthy, delicious Indian food that I can customize. Limbo would offer both healthy and decadent options of the same/similar dishes. I love the idea of mixing things up because that is how most of us live – while we want to be healthy overall, sometimes we want to indulge! I’m predicting that one of those two will win.
In any event, there were two overall themes that stuck out to me regarding what is necessary to make a great anything: character and concept.
Character: There were several traits that the four judges praised consistently. Leadership, energy, likeability, passion, drive, commitment, humility, control under pressure, endurance and the ability to represent their “brand” were key.
Concept: There were many great, solid ideas for quality businesses. The ones that the judges picked were simple yet appealing, relevant, doable/manageable and what people (customers) will regularly want. They all also came in to meet the judges with well thought out ideas showing that they knew about the fast casual industry.
All of the top ten didn’t possess everything yet they knew their personal strengths and weaknesses. They were also willing to be coached and get help in their areas of weakness from the more talented, experienced judges. I think that those are principles that all of us can learn from – whatever the type of “business” that appeals to us.
How about you? Does “business talk” excite or bore you? Is there anything that you are particularly working on making great right now?