Math for food
Nobody makes money in food business overnight. Standardization and consistency are the keys to profitability, but in the chaos it’s easy to let attention slip, let ‘good enough’ take over, until you no longer understand why you’re not making money.
Being responsible for large budgets has given me a forest-view, and working in kitchens has taught me the “penny ballgame”. I understand how the pennies feed the dollars from the prep table to the P+L, no matter how many commas there are. Just as good service leads to great hospitality, doing small things right consistently, over time, leads to financial success.
Pro Teams
In a perfect world, all food-based entrepreneurs work with bookkeepers, accountants and other pros who know food business. But since those pros are few and far between, I often meet with them to get people’s books set up right, make sure they have financial systems and reports that correctly reflect and address key industry metrics and their individual situations.
MAth For business planning
There’s a lot to master!
recipe and menu costing and pricing
understanding basic financial reports
menu engineering: deciding menu offerings for profit
working with bookkeepers/accountants to set up and learn how to use your chart of accounts and financial reports
cash flow in general: how crucial it is to success, and how it differs from profit/loss tracking
costing and pricing menu items to break even, pay the bills, make a profit
identifying, valuing and eliminating waste
common expense and contract traps for unsuspecting owners