Reality show offers recipe for success

Practice management lessons are gleaned from some unusual sources. One obscure well of business wisdom is "Kitchen Nightmares," a reality show on BBC America.

Practice management lessons are gleaned from some unusual sources. One obscure well of business wisdom is “Kitchen Nightmares,” a reality show on BBC America. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay helps restaurant owners turn their failing businesses into successes.

The appeal of the program is that he is as profane as he is savvy, so the censors bleep a good 50% of his comments.

What Mr. Ramsay lacks in manners, he makes up for in quality advice. Interestingly, that advice is relevant not just to restaurateurs but also to entrepreneurial financial planners and investment advisers. Here are some of the lessons I have learned from the show.

• Know who you are and make sure everything about your business supports that message.

A good restaurant does one sort of food very well. A bad restaurant does 50 types of food badly. An Irish family running an Irish restaurant should serve Irish stew, not lasagna.

• Everything about your restaurant should support the primary product — the food. If you have decided to be a rustic Irish pub, the décor, the signage, the servers and the music should all say “a village in Ireland.” The Guinness sign can stay, but the checkered tablecloths have to go.

Planners and advisers must also have a clear picture of their roles and their clients. Is your target market blue-collar retirees? Your marketing material, communications and lobby décor should appeal to that demographic.

Convene an advisory board made up of members from your target market. Instruct them to “audit” all marketing communications and aspects of the client experience, and advise you on what works and what does not work.

• Fresh ingredients in simple, well-executed preparations attract and retain customers.

Too many entrepreneurial restaurateurs think overly elaborate dishes are a path to a booked room. But often those elaborate preparations and smothering sauces mask inferior ingredients and cooking.

A quality piece of fresh salmon grilled with a dash of salt, pepper and lemon will please the diner’s palate more than a filet of defrosted fish swimming in béarnaise sauce.

Solid financial planning delivered well is easy to sell and is imminently referable. Could you become an expert in a complex yet esoteric niche of financial planning and make millions? Yes, you can. If you have a strong passion to do that, go for it. However, there are millions of underserved people with significant assets who need basic financial planning. It is not glamorous. However, you can help many people make a lot of money.

• What “chef’s specials” are found on the menu?

“Kitchen Nightmares” gives you a peek at the tricks of the restaurant trade. The optimist in me always thought the daily chef’s specials were a product of the chef’s culinary and artistic expression.

The cynical side of me said the specials made use of ingredients quickly, before they spoiled. I was wrong on both counts.

According to Mr. Ramsey, the specials are all about work flow. They should be an easy-to-prepare dish that requires little of the chef’s time. That way, during a business dinner service, the specials are prepared quickly while the line cooks prepare orders from the menu.

Planners and advisers need to approach their business in the same way. They need to identify core processes that are repeated often, and plan them like clockwork. If you are hyperefficient at doing those core processes, you will free up your time to focus on higher-value activities. For example, if you are hyperefficient at the logistics of an annual client meeting, that gives you more time in the meeting to sit and have meaningful conversations with your clients.

• The way you become hyperefficient is to standardize across clients. Every client gets the same high-quality experience. With annual client meetings, every aspect of the meeting is consistent. The same prep information is in the file in the same place in the same format so the adviser can do a quick review before the meeting.

Every meeting begins at 10 minutes past the hour and ends at five minutes until the hour.

If you are looking for ways to move your business to the next level, consider the tips from Mr. Ramsay. They are simple, straightforward and powerful.

Bon appétit!

Kirk Hulett is senior vice president for strategy and practice management at Securities America Financial Corp. in Omaha, Neb.