Let’s open a restaurant. In a previous post we explored the myriad of ways that inspiration for a concept can come to you. Regressing a bit, the moment can come from the popularity of your special recipe, visiting a restaurant and realizing that you can do this concept better, different, or with a more customer friendly design, or realizing that your concept does not exist and that there is a need. The passionate energy is building to a crescendo and the tympani sounds. You have just crossed the chasm and decided to take the leap of faith. The rest is easyJ
Visualization: Create the space in your mind, smell the smells, taste the tastes, hear the sounds, touch the space, walk around the space. Sit where the customers will sit. Always have a bias for viewing everything from the customer’s perspective. What are they seeing, how are they feeling, what scents are waffling through their space, how does the furniture feel to them? Walk through the kitchen or prep area, what does that look, feel, and sound like? Watch your staff moving through the restaurant. What works, what does not? How big is the space (square feet), how is the space laid out (rectangle, square, oval, irregular)? Stand outside and look in? What senses of the person passing by are being stimulated? Now would be a good time to take out a pencil and paper and record your mental images.
What does this culinary temple look like from the outside? Now walk through the front door, what is the customer seeing, sensing, smelling, touching, and hearing?
Visualization, creates the living breathing embodiment of the goal. Now that the path is laid out before us, we simply need to work backwards, complete the steps that bring us to the space we have created.
