Have you seen the commercials that aired for the most recent season of Restaurant Impossible with Robert Irvine?
It’s a well-done commercial.
So what’s the problem here?
Restaurant Impossible is about Robert Irvine finding a struggling restaurant and muscling (Seriously, have you seen his muscles?) his way onto the scene, remodels the restaurant in dramatic fashion, re-writes the menu and pretty-much relaunches it.
In the commercial, Irvine kicks it off relating how many people have been begging him to come back. A quick flash of videos proceeds that share some of the audition videos he’s received begging him to come and help them.
One lady in particular begs “Our savings our gone, our 401K is gone, everything is gone.” And then Irvine comes on, looks at the camera and states “We’re not just changing restaurants, we’re changing lives.”
On one hand, it’s inspiring to see. On the other hand, it’s frustrating to watch the general public mislead about the reality of business.
If these individuals had a restaurant, and they ran it into the ground once, you can reset as much as you want, but unless you fix the mentalities and beliefs that they have gotten them to where they are, you’re not going to actually save the restaurant. And it’s rare to reset beliefs in the short period of time that the camera crew is onsite.
There’s a serous misbelief that if a business can get a cash influx, remodel the building and kick it off again, everything will be fine. But they fail to address the main issue: How the business owner was running the business.
Not having seen the series itself, I’ll admit that I’m assuming it’s similar to other remodel shows that also don’t address the root issue of how someone ended up in that situation. It’s like winning the lottery. It’s a proven failure!
Repeat studies have shown that the vast majority of lottery winners are right back financially to the same situation as before with in a few years. Money is squandered away because those individuals aren’t taught how to save, invest, or plan. This time, we’re using the excuse of creating entertainment to mess with people’s lives under the guise of coming in to help.
I want to see a show where a business owner is taught how to manage money! A show where they are taught how to manage their people, how to manage a business!
From the Author:
If you’re struggling with your business and it’s crushing you, please don’t let yourself belief that just a sudden influx of money will fix all your problems.
Take a step today towards fixing the problems in your business. Check your margins & adjust pricing or expenses. Plug into more training to learn how to manage your business, how to keep great employees plugged in.
If you think you’re there and you’re not sure where to start getting training, check out our Resources page for some of our most helpful (and a lot of Free!) products. And I’d highly recommend starting with the Business Basics page! It’s chock full of helping ideas and concepts, direct tips, processes for business transformation and will help you truly whip your business into shape!
Stephanie Scheller is a TED speaker, a two-time best-selling author and the founder of Grow Disrupt: a San Antonio based company dedicated to disrupting the way the world does business through training. In just under a decade, Stephanie has been behind the scenes with nearly 2500 small businesses. She has worked in groups and one-on-one to create total business transformation & help business owners live the life they got into business to create!