Collapse of a cooking empire

News events mean that I want to pause my series on efficiency. Don't worry, the series will continue next week.

As you've probably heard, the restaurant empire of celebrity chef, George Calombaris, has collapsed. MAde Establishment is going into liquidation owing $8M in wages underpayment.

I remember when George started The Press Club restaurant. It was a good, busy, successful restaurant. You had to book and they charged premium prices. Then he became entrepreneurial and opened a string of more than 20 restaurants. Administrative duties vastly multiplied and the standards of each restaurant was not as high because it no longer had the owner (a person who gives a damn) supervising.

Now George has to sell his home and his holiday house.

Over the years, I've seen literally dozens of dentists with multiple practices. Except for a very few notable exceptions the dentist is working harder but making less money than they would if the focused on one single practice.

They have to deal with a big staff (which requires constant recruitment), multiple locations and heaps more patient complaints.

With a single practice, properly run you can work 4 days, 46 weeks a year and take home $500K. Isn't that enough? How much more do you need? So, unless you love being a manager and have a real talent for it stick to one practice location and focus all your energy on that.

Read George's story and learn from it.