Chef Application Business Plan Summary: Fill & Download for Free

This is not a simple question. So much depends on your situation.But to begin, here is a list of the top schools:http://www.thebestschools.org/rankings/best-culinary-schools/Now many of these schools are quite expensive and others are less so. Also, many of the schools listed require you to have some working experience in a professional kitchen be it fast food or fine dining. This requirement is to make sure you really know what you're getting yourself into.Additionally, size matters. While schools like the CIA are quite large and many of your classes will take place in large lecture style presentation kitchens others like Kendall College offer a much more intimate relationship with your instructor with class sizes of 30 or less. But much like any college choice you'll have to decide which you prefer.Now there are clearly alternatives to these highly rated schools. Many junior colleges offer the most bang for your buck. And many of these programs have great reputations of there own. Particularly if you plan to stay in the local vicinity of the school post graduation. I've worked with many great cooks/chefs who came through JuCo programs. For example, I'm from the Chicagoland area and both Elgin CC and College of DuPage have excellent programs.Perhaps the best way to find the right school for you is to ask around local chefs. Don't try to visit a chef during busy times. A general rule is that between 2-4pm is the time to visit with the chef. Have some idea before doing this which programs you are interested in. Ask the chef if he's familiar with the programs you're interested in. Ask if they have worked/hired anybody from the programs you're interested in.Once you've got an idea which schools might be the right one for you, visit the schools you're interested in. Tour the facilities and meet the instructors. Check into scholarships and financial aid available etc.The final step is the application process. You should be prepared to go through some sort of interview process.In summary, it's a personal decision that is unique to you. There are many ways to make it in the culinary world. Do your research, don't overextend yourself financially and be prepared to work long hard hours.Good Luck!!

BUSINESS PLAN THENSure! Here’s the method.The first step to building your business credit is to set up your business credibly. You can do this by making sure what you put on your application makes your business look credible. You should have a business address or virtual address, business phone that’s listed with 411, website and email address, and proper licensing.Next you’ll want to get your D-U-N-S number with Dun & Bradstreet. And once you start getting approved for business credit accounts it’s a good idea to set up credit monitoring with Experian Commercial and D&B as well.Then you’ll want to start building your business credit profile and score using vendor accounts. These are companies who will give you credit even if you have none now, they report to the business credit, reporting agencies, and the offer terms such as Net 30.It’ll take about 60 days for those accounts to report after you pay your bill. Once they do report, you can then start to get revolving retail credit cards for your EIN that are not linked to your SSN. And as you continue to get more accounts you’ll be able to get fleet and cash credit accounts.This is a brief summary of the process. Here’s a free guide that maps out the steps with more detail https://www.creditsuite.com/ein.I hope this helps!I started my first business at 14 then at 18 I went into business with a GUY who bought a building .That was his end my end was to order the food and beverage, train the cooks, train the waiters, hire an entertainment manager, to train,schedual, the waiters who sang as well as worked as waiters.it is still the best model for a restaurant .The waiter/musicians get minum wage and big tips,they shared the tips with the kitchen my labor was low but included people that were big time ENTERTAINERS! LENNY KRAVETS,RICKY LEE JONES,PETER TORK from the MONKEYS,and many others .The food was planked feasts that were served on large boards covered with rice steamed vegtables,fruits,ribs(BEEF) chicken sea bass lamb shanks chili .And ICE CREAM sundays on large platters .We had beer and wine. The entire entertainment industry came for birtdays and PROMOTIONAL EVENTS.Best restaurant formula I ever saw.We had MAJOR TALENT that we paid minimum wage!We expanded into four restaurants .And then into another chain with some lawyers who bought the next buildings.The only differance was we had PATTY DAVIS,RONALD REGANS DAUGHTER,JUGGLERS,SLIGHT OF HAND ACTS AND CRAZY ACTS LIKE CEDRICK THE ENTERTAINER (WHO DOESN'T REMEMBER HIS ACT OF THE TIME! We had a ROLLS ROYCE SILVER ARROW THAT I REFUSED TO GET INTO FOR FEAR THAT IT WOULD BE PULLED OVER AND SOMEONES DRUGS WOULD BE FOUND! SOME TIMES I WAS THE ONLY DRUG FREE SOBER PERSON IN THE RESTAURANT.Other Chefs would say to me that the food wasn't very good and I would just say we did a thousand meals a night and no one in the kitchen had a culinary education but me! Alice cooper came and made INDIAN FOOD every now and then .We had pita pockets with all kinds of filling during the day!YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED HOW MANY BIG TIME ENTERTAINERS GOT THEIRSTART IN THE RESTAURANTS! I WOULD LIKE TO DO THE SAME THING HERE EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD JUST BE A FOUR ORFIVE MONTH TOURIST THING! THE OLD SMOKE HOUSE would be the perfect type and size building and I would much rather do it with DOCTORS instead of lawyers! The next time IT will be as a REHAB FAUCILITY to teach cooking! Waiting,Busing,dish washing,pot washing and to be a HOST,cashier,and parking cars for a valet service!HOW woukld people find it JUST GO TO THE HOLLY WOOD SKY LIGHT! This time I want to add comedians!And I will hire some one else to do security!We did it all with out a computer. LOL R.O.T.F. it will be easy to scale into a national chain!But don’t just start a BUSINESS INVEST YOUR EARNINGS as your business grows!MONEY THAT YOU EARN BY WORKING OR BY DOING SOMETHING ELSE, (MOST DO THIS FOR 45 years) EARNED INCOMEMONEY THAT YOU EARN BY SELLING SOMETHING, (MOST NEVER DO THIS) PROFIT INCOMEMONEY THAT YOU GET BY LENDING TO SOMEONE ELSE, (MOST SHOULD STAY OUT OF THIS) INTREST INCOMEMONEY THAT YOU GET FROM STOCK DIVIDENDES, (MOST COULD DO THIS BUT NEVER STUDY ENOUGH) DIVIDEND INCOMEMONEY THAT YOU GET BY RENTING OUT SOMETHING LIKE A HOUSE, (MOST COULD IF RESPONSABLE) RENTAL INCOMEMONEY THAT COMES FROM AN INCREASE IN VALUE OF SOMETHING YOU OWN,(MOST HAVE THINGS ,BUT NEVER REALIZE THE VALUE) CAPITAL GAINSMONEY THAT YOU GET BY LETTING SOMEONE USE YOUR PRODUCTS, (MOST COULD IF THEY GOT AN EDUCATION) ROYALTY INCOMELast but not lest DO NOT! TOUCH PRICIPLE! (ANYONE CAN BUT FEW DO)

There is so much good stuff to learning from consulting. Here are the top 30+ things I would recommend learning. . . links to blog posts. Hope helpful.Hypothesis-based consulting: guessing the answers to client problems (09/26/12)What we call hypothesis-based consulting, some cynics call educated guessing. Either way, it is a smart way to break down complex or ambiguous problems, and quickly start driving towards an answer. Hypotheses start early in the process, go broad at first, but then get narrowed down quickly. It can be unnerving to some clients, but it works.Why do consultants use PowerPoint so much? (12/1/12) Good presentations are succinct. They may have a 60 page appendix, but the summary will be terse and have a point of view. Using the analogy of a tree, the presentation is the fruit. There is no reason to show off all the minutiae. You need to really boil it down to its essence. .Consulting PowerPoint Presentations: 4 Steps (12/5/12). To be clear, it is more than just making fancy graphs, but it is a large part of what we do. Executives are often very visual people. They have busy schedules and short attention spans. Sometimes, you only have 2 hours with a CXO (CEO, CFO, COO, COO, CIO, CMO) at the end of 4 month project – so you need to make sure that your presentation makes an impact.Better PowerPoint: 6 ways to make your point (4/30/12) What’s the so what?You will hear this phrase used on projects a fair amount. It is certainly not the best usage or even politely worded, but it is critical: Your presentations need to have a point . . .What is a good excel model? (11/13/12) Recently, I was given an excel model that was like the Titanic: large, slow, overly ornate, and structurally unsound. Not only was it frustrating to work with and laborious to fix, it was also a bit laughable. It did not answer even the most basic questions . . .Data analysis in 20 minutes (10/2/2014) Consultants are in the business of taking messy, unorganized data and turning it into information, and hopefully, some insights. Here is a simple example of excel clean up. . .Why consultants love best practices (6/10/12) Management consultants use the phrase “best practices” often. Perhaps too often. A few pictures that help explain why best practices are so popular with consultants and clients. . .How consultants interview clients (11/4/12) This week my team interviewed more than 20 people, everyone from VPs down to the analysts and clerks. The interviews were a gold mine of insights – especially since we were still in the early days of the project and collecting data. My throat was killing me, but these interviews helped us get our bearings on the client’s business, the personalities, and the politics. Every consulting project has interviews and here are my top interviewing tips . . .DMAIC: A great consulting tool for process improvement (4/28/12) Ask any consultant, and I mean ANY consultant (strategy, process, IT) and they will know what DMAIC stands for. It is an abbreviation for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve,Control. It is a tool often used in process improvement projects. . .SIPOC: Consulting framework to untangle problems (2/14/13) SIPOC is an ugly sounding acronym, but it is a useful way to think through problems. Clients often present consultants with complex processes that seemingly don’t have a start or a finish. Sometimes, the best thing is to stop digging. Take a step back and think through the problem. Untangle the problem in a more structured way . . .Consultant’s tool: what is a maturity model? (7/1/12) What really surprises me is that many clients have trouble explaining what is exactly wrong and what they want done. They often talk about symptoms – flat revenues, dropping margins, or increased receivables – not the root causes.A maturity model gauges the client’s maturity in a number of areas and points out the areas of improvement. It’s actually a simple thing that often looks like a report card or an excel table. It looks simple, but there is good stuff there. . .Lean means no waste. No TIMWOOD (2/11/2014) Lean is obsessively focused on doing only what is critical and what is valued by the customer. The way of thinking inherently believes in opportunity cost. You should only do what matters (to the customer). Put another way, if the customer wants 100, you should deliver 100. If you deliver 110, you wasted effort. . . The lean fundamentalist asks, “What is the customer really willing to pay for?” Anything more than that is really waste.Six Sigma: Consultants eat your own dog food (3/15/2014) Do you have boring, low-value added parts of your business that need to be standardized? By squeezing out the variability (read “craziness”) out of the process, you will be more efficient. Reduce the variability in the boring parts of your work to allow more time, freedom, and margin to innovate and deliver real value to your clients. . .Clients hire consultants to GET TO YES (12/6/12) Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In written by Roger Fisher and William Ury is perhaps the most famous book on negotiations. It’s been endorsed by people who use these lessons daily – diplomats, lawyers, and business people because this stuff works. Fortune 500 organizations have a terrible time implementing these simple things and, as a result, often hire management consultant for help . . .Consulting advice: Help your clients save face (4/4/14) This is a simple concept that is critical for consultants and sales people to understand. Never put your client in a situation where you are directly and publicly disagreeing with them. Never box them into a corner where they might be ashamed of the situation. Never embarrass them. It’s a very Asian business culture concept of harmony, and it is super-applicable to consultants. Some of the most deadly phrases . . .How consultants do industry research (5/12/12) Management consultants need to be quick learners. Junior analysts are routinely asked to support proposals and projects across different industries. The good ones are fast, and proficient with Excel and PowerPoint. The great ones get up-to-speed quickly on the industry dynamics and can add in industry specifics to the pitch. . .4 reasons why management consultants love data (4/15/12). Management consultants are always on the prowl for good data. After all, it is the stuff that client recommendations are made of. To a cynic, it might seem obvious. The title of this post would be a kin to: “Why chefs love ingredients” or “Why district attorneys like evidence” or “Why gardeners like sunlight.” Even so, what exactly about the data do consultants love so much?Saying YES to clients can get consultants in trouble (8/29/12) When the client asks for something – new research, some ad-hoc analysis, an extra workshop – it usually seems like a reasonable request. After all, they pay the bills and shouldn’t they get the most out of their consultants, right? Experienced consultants and lawyers will tell you there are many reasons why being overly agreeable can create problems. . .Pauses: a consultant’s public speaking tip (4/20/12) Good speakers pause. After they finish one thought, they don’t rush to the next sentence. They don’t rattle off useless verbal fillers (uh, ah, um, well, so, right, hmm). Instead, they embrace that millisecond of silence, harness the awkwardness, and force the listener to pay attention. Many people call it the pregnant pause. . .What is scope creep? (1/29/13) Generally, this means that the client wants more work done for the same amount of money. It’s not pretty and it’s no surprise that consultants dread it. It usually means late nights, grumpy analysts, dissatisfied clients, and potentially lower project margins. All bad things. . .Structuring problems: Consultants use buckets (05/16/13) Consultants use buckets. I know it sounds pedestrian and unsophisticated, but it’s harder than it looks. When you are trying to crack a complex problem, inevitably you will start to group things. Structuring problems forces you to organize your thoughts, and reflect on what your key messages will be. It is the first step in turning data into insights.Frameworks: Distill your thoughts until they are 80 proof (1/21/14) Consultants are structured thinkers. They may not have as intuitive a grasp on the topic as the client – after all, the client has been living in this field their entire life – but consultants excel at piecing together bits and pieces of data until it starts forming an outline of a story. . . .The best short-answer to give clients? It depends (5/13/2013) “It depends” is a phrase you hear a lot in both business school and management consulting. To some, it might seem like a boring half-answer, timid, or worse – mentally lazy. As weird as it might seem, it is often the best short-answer to give a client.Cracking the case interview (8/11/2013) This format of interviewing is tough, but also a lot of fun. The interviewer gives you the problem and background, and it is up to the candidate to think through the problem, and selectively ask questions to solicit the information needed to get to a solution. 70% IQ, 30% EQ.Resumes are bait (11/7/13) I was on the recruiting team at a Big 4 consulting, and we looked through hundreds of resumes every year and 90% of them went into the trash. We probably spent less than 15 seconds on a cover letter and 30 seconds on a resume. Basically, the resume review was quick and violent.The way I see it, the entire purpose of a resume is to get invited for an interview. Period. Getting an interview means the fish took a bite at the bait. Resumes = bait.Finders, Minders, and Grinders (1/28/14) Managing a Professional Services Firm by David Maister is a consulting classic. For those interested in the economics of partnerships and want to know how managing partners think of their business model, you have to read this book. There are three archetypal roles that roughly line up with these job titles in the respective industries. . . finders (partners, principals), minders (senior managers, managers), and grinders (senior consultant, consultant, analysts)Consultant, what’s your leverage model? (3/16/2014) Leverage is how consulting firms make money. As I discussed in a previous post, professional services firms – lawyers, accountants, marketers, consultants – are built on organizational pyramid structures. There are fewer partners than analysts, no surprise. The ratio of finders, minders, and grinders (senior, middle, junior resources) affects the types of projects they can handle and also their profitability. . .18 excel modeling tips. (12/11/2015) This week I coached a new consultant in creating an excel model. Here are some of the words of advice I gave him. I wish I knew these pointers 20 years ago. . .Consulting proposals: 12 common mistakes. (12/19/2014) . In consulting, writing proposals and statements of work are the lifeblood of the firm. It is akin to fisherman throwing out nets, or farmers planting seeds. If you are not putting together proposals and pitching potential clients, you are dead. . . .Competitive Intelligence 20 tips (10/28/2014): When I was working overseas, I was on a competitive intelligence project. It might sound super-crafty, and Mission-Impossible, but it was not. It was actually quite boring. Lots of meetings to share information, and try to piece together the competition’s strategy and tactics. Very ethical and process-driven initiative.Data Analysis in 20 minutes (10/2/2014). Consultants are in the business of taking messy, unorganized data and turning it into information, and hopefully, some insights. Here is a simple example of excel clean up, and the steps to copy, paste, filter, sort, and cleanse data. For most consultants, the data cleansing would 7-10 minutes (takes some trial and error) and the graphics would be another 10 minutes, if (s)he knew what graph they wanted to make. . .Consulting formula: Think + write + communicate + revise (8/04/2014) On a large project with so many moving parts, people, stakeholders, and organizational history that I sometimes get lost in the activities, status reports and project management mess. Stop. I need to come back to the basics of consulting. This post is written to myself, for myself. Gotta get back to basics:IT implementation worst practices: healthcare.gov (11/3/2013) IT implementation is “bread and butter work” for consulting firms. It often involves dozens of consultants, multiple locations, and sometimes 2-3 years for a full roll out of an enterprise resource plan (ERP) like SAP or Oracle. These are big hairy projects that cost dozens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. It’s big money.What is RACI? (05/18/2015) This is a tool consultants use on any project which requires clear definition of roles and more communication on a new process. When you have more than a handful of people involved, it’s very easy to get confused and make incorrect assumptions on who is doing what. Confusion = frustration = lack of adoption = failure.