I’ve been helping a friend Up in Indonesia to work out different ways of looking at how you can position a seafood business. So we are looking around at how people have done it differently.

An interesting approach is that taken by chef Josh Niland who has adopted an approach to seafood called The Whole Fish.

Typically when we think about buying cooking fish we think about the flesh only – and then throw away just about everything else.

But Josh looks at it differently and finds interesting new ways to use every piece of the fish. and I mean literally every piece. He’s also looking at interesting approaches to ageing fish just like butcher’s currently age cuts of meat. Aged fish – who would of thought?

I also went to have a look at his retail outlet called The Fish Butchery.

This is a really interesting retail concept because it puts the cutting up of the fish front and centre in the restaurant. Rather than hiding it away out the back like it typically is. Or being worried about what people think about seeing fish chopped up before their eyes.

The most remarkable thing about the outlet isn’t the food that they sell that’s ready to eat, but moreso the time and effort that they talk talking to walk in customers who were buying fresh fish about different ways of preparing and cooking it.

I think this demonstrates to business owners out there that there is always more than one way to skin a cat  – or in this case  – a fish.

In today’s tough market – where every consumer has access to one a limited amount of information about what’s available to them when they are shopping or looking for something to eat  – you need to differentiate yourself as much as possible. Not just in the way that you look – but also in terms of what you are offering to consumers.

It’s too easy to say “it’s always been done that way, so I need to do it that way too“.