It’s Masterchef season and according to a funny article by Mia Freedman  while we are all getting into the kitchen we are only doing it to conjure up fancy-pants chef dishes. That’s right you won’t find the Masterchef generation cooking basic food for the family every day not because they can’t do it, but because it is boring to do so – they are chefs!

And then of course there are those of us  - yep, most often Mums  - who have to ‘plate up’ every day for their families. The food is often predictable, rarely exciting (in my family anyway) but it’s healthy and turns up with awesome regularity every single night. We are cooks.

In business, as in food, there are cooks and chefs.

A business chef is energetic, enthusiastic and brimming with ideas and strategies. She is very driven and boy is she on a mission; but let’s be honest - she get easily bored with the day-to-day stuff of the business and is not known for her attention to detail.

A business cook on the other hand is a quieter and more measured soul who brings to her business the most essential of ingredients – discipline. The business cook is the woman who gets stuff done. Perfectly. Every day.

Naturally many business founders are chefs. Chefs have the energy and ideas to grow the business but because they lack attention to detail, chef-led businesses often struggle with financial management and product/service quality can be a bit iffy too.

If you are a business-chef your best bet is to hire cooks. You don’t have to actually employ them - you can just buy the bits you need – and I’d start with a decent bookkeeper.

There are also many small businesses founded and managed by cooks. Cook businesses do what they do very well but rarely progress to be larger businesses. The reason for this, of course, is that cooks spend all their time perfecting the ‘in the business’ stuff and are less inclined to work on strategy.  

Having a great small business isn’t an issue  - in fact for many of us a profitable small business is the Holy Grail - but if a cook wants to grow a mini goldmine she will need to tap into her inner chef for a bit of creativity. What if she can’t find her inner chef ? Well again she can hire some help, but in this case rather than outsourcing the task she might want to hire a business coach help her unleash her own abilities.

Which one are you - cook or chef?