10 steps to visualising a food business
This exercise helps F&B entrepreneurs plan a new business, study and grow an existing one, and diagnose a company to improve it
Over the thirty years or so that I’ve worked with different kinds of food businesses, I’ve found them to have some common denominators, and I recommend visualising them in a certain manner. This will allow you to evaluate their state of being, much like a doctor would evaluate the condition of a human being. It will be of use to people attempting to start, grow or turnaround their food businesses.
Like the human body has lifelines, including a circulatory system and a respiratory system, and body parts like heart and lungs, I see a food business as a living entity with lifelines and parts. Isolating which systems or parts within are ailing, or not functioning as they should, helps us assess the potential of a food startup and also the state of health of an existing food business.
I’ve found this visualisation model to be useful in gauging the pulse of all food businesses regardless of which point in their life-cycle they may be at.
Imagine a shoe box. A plain white cardboard shoe box. Now take off its lid. It has walls and a floor. Do you have an aerial view of it? We can can resize this box to the size of a restaurant, but for the moment let’s make it only a little bigger than it presently is, maybe the size of a doll house. It could have different rooms in it for the stores, kitchen, dining area, etc. Keep an aerial view so you can still look in.
I’ve chosen to visualise a restaurant since it represents the entire gamut of food storage, production and service under one roof. You may choose to visualise any food business of your choice from a bottled brand on a retail shelf to a wedding catering company, or any other food business that you’d like to assess by adjusting your visualisation accordingly.
Now, within this space we are going to visualise eight different pipelines or lifelines coming in and going out of this box. So imagine...

Imagine a white duct bringing in fresh outside air into this white room, and pulling stale and hot air out, to ensure the comfort of your guests in the dining area and your staff in the kitchen.
These pipes or flows in the business are, in fact, its lifelines. Opening and closing these taps of flow to the right extent and for a duration that serves the business just right, can make or break your business.
Add to this just two more things to complete the picture. Visualise the box again. Where is it?
Where should it be located? Let’s place it where our target audience can best access it. Or if it’s a pure kitchen, locate it near a market where raw materials for production can best be sourced. Check how affordable and licensed the space is or can be.
The last thing to remember is the importance of…
» Is the concept correctly timed in the market place. Is it relevant?
» Is adequate time invested by the entrepreneur, particularly when the business is starting up or ailing?
» Is the entrepreneur committed to giving adequate time of a 1000 days for the business to have had its fair chance in the marketplace?
So 10 things in all...
I believe that seeing a food business in this way helps you map and control pretty much most of what can be mapped and controlled in the food business.
» When I plan a new food business, this is how I see it.
» When I study a food business to grow it, this is how I see it.
» When I diagnose an existing food business to improve it, this is how I see it.
Now I hope that this is how you will see it too.