7LESSONS

One Life never opened with a bang; neither in d3 nor in JVC. A gradual, steady approach to business growth allows you to identify and correct problems while they are still minor and have little impact on your business. Starting with a large influx of customers is fantastic only if you can maintain that momentum in the future.

2. Culture matters more than experience

When hiring staff, understand that people with lots of work experience have most likely adopted the culture of previous employers as their own. If their previous employer's culture differs from yours, they will have to unlearn things before being re-trained. They could have come from a restaurant that aggressively upsells, for example. If that is not what you want, it will be more difficult than you think for them to unlearn that behavior. I believe you it is better to hire someone who you can mold into the culture and behaviors you are trying to cultivate.

3. Nothing trumps food quality

It's important to remember that the primary reason people are coming to you is for the food, and any deviation from that can be detrimental to your business. It’s also worth noting that consumer expectations of what constitutes great food is continuously evolving, so if you are staying the same, you’re most likely being left behind.

4. Average Check Matters

When trying to grow your business, one factor that has a huge impact on your business is Average Check. In 7 years, we managed to double our average checks through menu engineering, moderate price increases *cough* and upgrading the concept along the way. The truth is, it takes a similar amount of time and effort to serve a table spending 50-60 dhs as it does one that spends 100-150 so the key is to understand how to give more value to the consumer for them to spend a bit more.

5. The only constant is change

When we started, we had a very specific idea for what One Life was and what it wasn’t. We didn’t use any sugar, we didn’t have sandwiches, we were dedicated to a paleo/ healthy lifestyle for a while, but now we do sandwiches, we use sugar, we sell Coke, and we even have alcohol. It might sound like we sold-out but the truth is each of those decisions were only introduced when it felt right or necessary to do so. We still stick to our fundamental beliefs that good food is food made from scratch so we make our own bread, roast our own coffee, make the majority of our sauces in-house, and avoid using processed food items as much as possible.

6. Cost Control is a way of Life!

We only hired a cost controller in 2021. Unfortunately, at that point we had already developed a slightly wasteful culture internally which we’re now finding is quite an effort to reverse. I don’t believe any individual we work with has ever really had bad intent towards the business, but the more you grow, the more the cumulative effect of carelessness when it comes to cost control can affect your business negatively. You may price an item according to a specific food cost target, but at the end of the month when you look at what that item actually costs you in ingredients, you will invariably be over your target. The goal isn’t to eradicate this effect but to minimize it.

7. Be Present

I absolutely love what I do, I love being at the cash register at lunch and engaging with our customers. I think One Life or any restaurant for that matter is very difficult to manage remotely. Being present, humble, listening to your customers, and constantly trying to better the food, the service, and the overall experience for guests has been extremely rewarding for me and the business.