Here are Ina Garten’s top 7 business tips for young food entrepreneurs

Ina Garten’s upcoming memoir, Be ready when luck happenshas already been making headlines before its release on October 1st – and for many good reasons. (She is Ina, after all.)

But for young food entrepreneurs, the new book is a goldmine of sound advice. Between the revelations about the difficult relationship she had with her family and the temporary separation from her husband Jeffrey (thankfully, they managed to patch things up), Garten offers some solid tips for anyone starting a business want to start and expand – it’s easy. She did this in 1978 when she bought a gourmet grocery store in Westhampton, New York, which she discovered by chance in a classified ad in upstate New York New York Times.

Her Barefoot Contessa empire — which included the store (sold out in 1996), cake mixes, frozen meals, 13 cookbooks and television shows — was clearly wildly successful, and Garten apparently learned a thing or two along the way. Here, we’ll focus on the ideas that could help people navigate the business world as skillfully as they do – be it in food or even another field.

It’s never a straight line

In the book, Garten tells a hilarious story about a hike in Balch Hills Natural Area near Hanover, New Hampshire, when Jeffrey visited Darmouth. As she tried to hike straight up, she became overwhelmed with air. So she started zigzagging across the path, and Jeffrey watched her, frantic, but learned a valuable lesson: it never goes straight up and over a hill. You have to find your own way to deal with challenges.

Use boredom to stay motivated

Garten writes that she has a low threshold for boredom – a main reason she left her job in Washington, where she felt like she was just a cog in a big machine. Boredom, she says, made her take crazy risks to get out of her miserable state. This includes learning to fly a plane and buying her store.

It is important to be a fair boss

If she had a problem with an employee, Garten said, she would first sit down with the employee in private to see if there was a solution. If not, she explained in detail why the person was fired and also informed her coworkers of the reasons. She did this for two reasons: first, to show that she was not being arbitrary, and second, to ensure that other employees knew that the behavior was not OK. Each time, Garten writes, she found that the employees were okay with her move.

Practice consideration towards customers

Garten wanted Barefoot Contessa to be a place full of fun, energy, and good times—where people actually enjoy coming to work. They never asked the buyers, “Is that all?” Instead, they asked them if there was anything else they could get for them. If a customer was not satisfied, there was a generous right of return. At first the store gave a refund no questions asked. Then they asked what the buyer didn’t like about it and picked something that would make them happier. The customers were stunned – and became customers for life, writes Garten.

Charging too little benefits neither you nor the customer

As I can attest, Garten has long been known for its delicious brownies. And by the 1990s, ingredient prices had risen, and Garten was faced with raising the price to $2.75. Although that seems like a bargain in an age of $6 brownies, she wasn’t sure customers would pay that much. There was only one way to find out: She put out a tray and in five minutes they were sold. That first weekend, she sold 1,600 brownies and learned that customers would pay for a product made with the finest ingredients.

You should learn to negotiate

Garten says she learned two things from her father. First, find out what the other person wants. Then think about how you can offer it to them within your business needs so that everyone feels comfortable with it. Second, leave something on the table. Don’t negotiate down to the last dollar or detail. Business should feel good because otherwise why would you do business with someone?

Forget about creating a brand – live it instead

Garten isn’t about building a brand, even if it has one of the most successful in the food world. She says it’s more important to do what’s true for you every day, and in sum, this will all strengthen your brand. She says being accountable to your standards and living up to them every day is a big deal. But that’s the only way it works.