Sandwich Order Form Template: Fill & Download for Free

The most useful analogy I’ve heard was the Restaurant Analogy, so without further ado, welcome to:The Minimum Value CafeIt’s been a long day; you’re hungry and grumpy, you just need a bite to eat before you go home. You slip into your favorite budget food spot, the somewhat crowded Minimum Value Cafe. Thankfully there’s an open table right there.You sit down at the table and see the familiar menus. Some people like the one with the bright orange logo with a picture of a red panda hugging a bright-blue earth. Others prefer the menu with the red-yellow-green-blue ball logo; they say the waiters will serve you faster. There are others as well, though one thing everyone can agree on is to stay far away from the menu with the big blue “e” orbited by a gold ring, food ordered from there has been rumored to put a few too many innocent patrons down with nasty stomach bugs…So you pick up your menu of choice. Some of these menus are getting pretty advanced; they open up to a page with your most commonly ordered dishes. As you are sitting and browsing your menu, you are startled to hear a voice from behind “Hello, my name is Yechiel, and I will be your Controller for the night (the waiters here have their quirks), are you ready to place your order?”You point to your favorite tuna-and-egg sandwich, a double-shot espresso, and cheesecake for dessert. The waiter says “sure, it’ll take just a few milliseconds, can I get you anything to drink in the meantime?” and before you could respond, the waiter (err… Controller) disappears in the back.The back, far from the eyes of the common folks, is where most of the action happens. The Controller passes on your sandwich order to the sandwich boy, the coffee order to the barista, and the dessert order to the pastry chef (why these kitchen workers like calling themselves Models is anyone’s guess). The Models, in turn, rush to the storage room to fetch the ingredients, get back to their stations to cook/prepare/assemble it all. When everything is ready, they hand it to the waiter (sorry, sorry, I know you like being called Controller, it’s just hard to remember all the time, stop yelling at me like that!). The Controller then assembles it all nicely on a big tray engraved with “The View” in cursive script, and brings it all out to you and sets it on your table.This whole process was so quick; the food was prepared in front of you before you even took your finger off the menu!So what’s it mean?That’s the analogy in brief, and that’s what happens every time you browse the internet.The process starts in your browser, where you enter a URL, click on a link, submit a form, etc. That sends a request to the server where a Controller picks it up. The Controller handles the request, passing it on to the appropriate Models. The Models are where the main logic of the application takes place. The Models retrieve the data you need from the database(s) and assemble it based on the user’s request. The Model then hands that data to the Controller who, using templates found in the Views, assembles it into a format the user will enjoy. The Controller then takes the assembled View and sends it back to the browser where the User gets entertained by endlessly repeating cat GIFs.Separation of concernsWhere this analogy really shines, in my opinion, is in answering the second part of the question: What is the benefit of separating each component from the others?Let’s take a closer look at our restaurant. One can easily imagine a smaller establishment, where the chef is the one interacting with the customers, taking their orders, preparing them, and serving. Similarly, in smaller applications, you might be able to have all the logic needed in one file (that’s pretty much what happens in small static websites).Once the restaurant grows however and starts offering a variety of dishes, and the client base becomes too big for one person to handle, it becomes more and more important that each employee knows their place and job.Imagine the chaos if the waiter decides to “help out” in the kitchen, no chef would ever accept such an intrusion. How about if the chef decided to busy himself with setting the tables, while orders kept piling up in the kitchen, customers would get annoyed real quick.Most importantly is the issue of accountability. When everyone has a well-defined job, the manager knows where to go when something goes wrong. Is the food burnt? Speak to the chef. Are patrons waiting too long for their orders? See if the waiter needs help.In a well-oiled, well-defined system, every component has its job, and when things need fixing or tweaking, you know exactly where to go to fix them.Similarly in your application. If every part of your code has its job and is in the right place, it makes it so much easier to catch and fix bugs, add features, and improve performance, without having to worry about stepping on the toes of any other component. After all, you never want to anger the ones who deal with your food ;)

On of the best ways to distil an extensive business plan into just one sentence, is to describe your business in terms of an existing and well known business model. Maybe something like: "We plan to do for fresh fruit/vegetable juice what McDonalds have done for the fast food industry" (i.e. providing convenience, offering assortment and process standardisation, heavily branded, growth via franchising) or "We plan to be the Mercedes Benz of furniture" (i.e. conveying the thought of top quality, reliable and safe)While a single sentence may convey the overarching direction of your business plan, you may also need to develop an elevator pitch that combines a few additional concepts into a paragraph so that you can better describe your plans. Here is a 'paint by numbers' approach that may help you put your plan into a short 'elevator pitch'.So, first determine answers to the following questions and then compile the answers in the template given below:(Name of your business)(A) What primary market is the business intending to enter? Identify the broadest market descriptor. i.e. “Insurance”, “Hair care” “Furniture”, "food and beverage".(B) For whom does the business exist? What broad category of target user are you targeting? i.e. “For (individuals, startups, SME businesses, corporate enterprises, Government Departments, Non-profit organisations, Government Agencies …”(C) What are their burning problems that your offer is planning to solve? i.e. They “ can no longer afford …", “are tired of ….”, “want safer ….”, “need better performing ….”, "desire a better looking …..”, “need a more comfortable ……”, “are looking for a longer lasting ….”, “want the latest ……”, “need to reduce the costs of …..”, “want a more convenient ……”, “need an easier to use …..”, "want to indulge ..." or “want improved access to ….”.(D) What specific key products (good/service) are you planning to provide to satisfy this burning problem? e.g. “pre-packaged sandwiches and espresso coffee”, “gold plated fashion jewellery”, “a building compliance audit service”, "lawn care and edging service".(E) Who is the key product offer primarily targeted to? Many customers may benefit from your offer, but who gets the most value from your key products? i.e. lunch time office workers, day time labourers, stay at home mums, weekend holiday makers, travelling parents, growing startups, struggling small businesses, downsizing government departments.(F) How do the primary target users benefit? What’s in it for them? Identify the tangible or subjective benefits. i.e. To “mitigate fear”, “improve their self esteem”, “gain increase confidence”, “improve their status”, “gain greater meaning”, "satisfy an urgent demand”, “find pain relief”, "save time/money" or “grant an indulgence”.(G) Where else have customers previously gone to satisfy their burning problems? What type of business is your main competitor for the primary target user? i.e. big corporations, solo operators, custom made specialists, supermarkets, mass producers ...(H) Why is your product offer different/better from other options? “Unlike …..“or "as opposed to …. (existing offers)" who don’t do something or are very expensive or are unsafe or are not attractive or are outdated or are too slow or don't value something or hard to access or difficult to use.Then put your answers in this template below to create your first 'elevator pitch' that you should keep refining until it can be delivered seamlessly and authentically:.....(Business Name) ........ specialises in providing (A) .............. for (B) ...............who want (C) ............ offer. Our (D) ............ helps (E) .............. (F) .............. unlike (G) the .............. who are (H) .............As an example of using this template for a pre-packaged sandwich shop planning to sell fine espresso coffee, you might describe your business plan in a short statement like this:Earls specialises in providing (A) food and drinks for (B) individuals who want (C) a more convenient and healthier food and beverage offer. Our (D) pre-packaged sandwiches and fine espresso coffee helps (E) daytime office workers (F) save time and indulge their exquisite taste desires unlike (G) the 'made to order' take-a-ways who are (H) slow to serve and don't value quality espresso coffee.

When I lived in New York, a typical weekend looked something like this: head to a friend’s house, knock back a few shots but don’t get completely obliterated.Sip on whiskey for another hour or two, then take a cab (or walk) to a nearby bar.Drink some more. Try not to fall asleep. Are you going to fucking fall asleep, bro? Wake up.Leave said bar. Head to a nearby deli or pizza shop, buy a sandwich or a few slices of whatever, doesn’t matter. Eat tha… Wait! Before you eat that, hit this bowl!Spark up said bowl, get belligerently high. Laugh at something stupid. Eat your food. Stay up until two or three, sometimes later.Go to bed, ideally with yourself, or with someone willing to leave early enough the next morning so that the rancid fart-cloud that will soon encapsulate your shoebox-sized room will have plenty of time to disperse before the next unsuspecting victim.Wake up. Roll-over. Do it again.Go to work at some point.Pretend to live an adult life, and do business-y things.Feel like you’re just a little kid over-encumbered with stupid adult responsibilities, trying to balance that care-free lifestyle with an I want to accomplish things in my life! attitude.Have an identity crisis. Move to Denver. Leave your friends and family.Rinse, repeat. It was brainless.Not hard work.What’s Your Favorite Flavor of Shit-Sandwich?Mark Manson poses that brilliantly poignant question in his blog here.I hate shit-sandwiches, personally, but I eat one for breakfast practically every day. I write, I edit audio, I work on my podcast, I reach out to people who will probably say no to me and disappoint me.I'm a hungry boy.What Manson was getting at was something along the lines of this: what would you be totally okay with struggling through and ripping your eyelids off for? What suffering do you want in your life?Shit-sandwiches are never tasty, but you can learn how to muscle through your gag reflex.Hard work is pushing through those challenges in order to discover just what type of shit-sandwich seems barely tasty enough that you'd be okay if it was the only thing you enjoyed every morning.Don't Confuse Hard Work With Brainless WorkThere are some people that expect things to just happen to them because fuck it they’ve worked hard and they deserve it, right?But then that wouldn’t explain why 87% of worldwide employees are actively disengaged at work.That's what brainless work looks like. And brainless work =/= happiness.Sitting in a cubicle, keeping your head down and working all day until your brain bleeds is easy, because it's within your comfort zone. It's not hard.I did that for a large part of my career, and I hated it, but it wasn't hard. It was brainless.Discovery is going out of your way to do things that are often difficult and challenging and outside of your comfort zone.Where The Magic HappensThere’s this magical place, just outside of your reach:That’s where the magic happens. Let’s define it a little more academically, from an academic paper on this specific topic:"The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk."Key phrase: without a sense of risk.When I got up and moved to Denver, that was really fucking terrifying for me. I knew like three people, wasn’t super familiar with the city but I liked to ski, right?Still, outside of my comfort zone.And then that pushed me to do all sorts of other crazy shit, like give a talk about something I hardly had any professional credentials to speak about in front of a few hundred people, start a blog, go mountain-biking, interview entrepreneurs and people who are way more successful than me, etc.And it’s been a fucking magical experience. I’ve met too many amazing people to count, had the balls to say no to shit when it simply wasn’t working and have expanded my sphere of comfort.And that’s just the tip.So, what are you doing to push your comfort zone?If you always feel comfortable and like you know exactly what you’re doing, then chances are you're not working hard.If you're in a cubicle every day and you work 12-16 hour days, you're not working hard. You're being way too unselfish with your time.Think bigger. Do one thing every day that scares you.Then your sphere of comfort will start to expand, and you’ll find yourself doing crazier and crazier shit and pushing your limitations.Hard work is spending your time selfishly (not brainlessly), doing things that are difficult and outside of your zone of comfort.For yourself, not other people.Don't confuse brainless work with hard work.[Related: I created this super simple goal-setting template that allows you to map out your year in less than an hour. You can access that here.]