Cooking Up A Business – Chef Selassie Atadika, Midunu

I’d first like to take thank Ruka for the invitation to contribute as a guest blogger for Alldens Lane’s The Business Woman blog. It has been a great opportunity for me to sit down to consolidate and articulate my key learnings for the past years’ experience as a CEO. As a newbie in the CEO world who is still very much learning the ropes, I think the four most important lessons I am learning and would like to share are: uniqueness, work-life balance, delegation and partnership.

Uniqueness:
You need a unique selling point to differentiate yourself in the market. Different is good, but different can also require time for the market to understand. Be patient and persistent. Before starting my company Midunu, I had been thinking and dreaming about the concept for years. I had seen the gap in the market and knew new my product and service could fill it. We were not quite a restaurant and not quite the usual catering company. We were redefining dining and entertaining and needed to be patient and let people experience it for themselves to be able to understand what we do and help us pass the message. My regular clients come to me because they want something distinctive which they can’t find elsewhere and are the best brand ambassadors.

Work-life balance:
Starting a new business has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done. As a small business owner, I have had to multi task, be a ‘jack of all trades’ and firefight the various challenges that inevitably come up from day to day. It has taken me a while to learn to just STOP. The break s not only helps me get the much needed rest, but it also allows me the time to reflect on business achievements and confirm that I am headed in the planned direction. It is imperative to take the breaks to recharge your battery and take care of yourself. You have to be at your personal best to give the company the best.

Core Team and Delegation:
As my company has grown and I have brought on more staff, it has been important for me to coach them to understand the brand, company objectives and their contributions and value to the team. Once the team members have this understanding, I am finding that they are better able and willing to undertake their assigned tasks and areas of responsibilities. This allows me the opportunity to delegate more to the team members which in turn allows me more time for strategic engagements as CEO and more time away from the office for improved work-life balance. The investment of time and knowledge to staff who understand and believe in our brand and mission is a very worthwhile investment.

Partnerships:
Being an entrepreneur can sometime be a solitary affair. But being unique in the market doesn’t mean being alone. There are vendors that you work with, businesses that need your product and services, and complementary businesses that you can strategically collaborate with, professional networks that have knowledge which you can tap into and other entrepreneurs who are having similar challenges who you can commiserate and brainstorm with. I think the trick is to find those with similar ethics and business cultures and either provide inputs for your product or service, could use your product or service or provide similar clientele with a complementary service or product that way you are not in direct competition.

So there you have a short version of the key lessons I’m in the process of learning thus far as a CEO. I hope you are able to relate to them or find them useful. Time to get back into the kitchen!

Selassie
Chef and Owner, Midunu