Always busy.
Never profitable. Until now.
We work with independent restaurant owners doing $165K-$3.3M in annual revenue. Our engagement works to bring food cost under control, open B2B catering and event revenue, and rebuild your net margin. How fast it moves depends on how seriously you work the plan - what you will see from the first meeting is exactly what is holding the business back.
8 patterns we see in most independent restaurants
Food cost above 35% (target: 28-32%)
Root cause: No daily food cost tracking. Vendor prices creeping. Menu has 6+ items with food cost above 38%.
What we do: Daily food cost tracking system (10 min/day). Menu engineering audit - cut bottom 4-6 items, reprice top performers. Annual vendor RFP.
Owner-chef bottleneck (60+ hours/week)
Root cause: No documented SOPs in kitchen. Chef-owner is in every shift. Knowledge lives in their head.
What we do: Document 15 core dish recipes as SOPs. Train sous-chef as proven backup. Chef-owner reduces to 4 shifts/week within 6 months.
Heavy seasonality (40%+ revenue drop in slow months)
Root cause: 100% reliance on B2C dine-in revenue. Slow months = losses.
What we do: Launch B2B revenue streams: corporate lunch programs (weekly orders from local offices), private event catering, holiday gift orders. Target 25-30% B2B mix.
Staff turnover at 80%+ annually
Root cause: Below-market wages, no tips pooling clarity, no growth path, aggressive shift culture.
What we do: Hybrid compensation: hourly + tip pool + monthly margin-share bonus. Defined growth path: server → senior → trainer → AGM. Quarterly all-hands.
No CRM, no email list, no repeat customer system
Root cause: Customer who comes 2x/month is anonymous. No marketing tool.
What we do: A CRM wired into the POS, so the customer who comes twice a month stops being anonymous. Email list capture at every order. Loyalty program with reward structure. Quarterly comeback campaigns.
30%+ delivery commission (Wolt, DoorDash, UberEats) eating margins
Root cause: All delivery goes through 3rd parties at 23-28% commission. No direct ordering channel.
What we do: Build direct ordering channel (WhatsApp Business + simple online ordering). Target 40% of delivery orders direct within 9 months.
Hidden food waste at 5-8% of cost
Root cause: No daily inventory count. Spoilage between purchase and sale is invisible.
What we do: Weekly inventory count for top 5 categories. FIFO discipline. Designated kitchen manager for inventory. Drop waste to 2-3%.
Menu hasn't been engineered in 3+ years
Root cause: Owner attached to legacy items. Pricing not updated for inflation.
What we do: Annual menu engineering: contribution margin analysis, item ranking, strategic repricing, quarterly mini-updates.
The numbers we aim at
These are the targets we work toward in an engagement - a bar to measure against, not an average anyone measured for you.
| KPI | Typical starting point | Plan B target |
|---|---|---|
| Food cost percentage | 35-40% | 28-32% |
| Net profit margin | 3-7% | 15-18% |
| Average ticket size (per cover) | $55-$85 | $80-$120 |
| % revenue from B2B (catering, events) | 0-5% | 25-30% |
| Repeat customer rate (visit 2+ times/month) | 20-30% | 45%+ |
| Staff turnover (annual) | 80-100% | <30% |
| Owner-chef weekly hours | 60-75 | <45 |
What working with us looks like
- 01
Month 1: Kitchen + financial audit
We pull 13 months of P&L, every vendor invoice, every menu item's actual contribution margin. We identify the 1-2 highest-leverage actions.
- 02
Months 2-3: Menu + cost discipline
Daily food cost tracking goes live. Menu engineering audit complete - bottom items cut, top items repriced. New vendor RFPs launched. Average food cost drops 3-5 points.
- 03
Months 4-6: B2B revenue + staff systems
Corporate lunch program launches with 3-5 pilot accounts. Catering pricing structure rebuilt. Staff compensation restructured. Hiring SOPs in place.
- 04
Months 7-12: Operations + freedom
POS + CRM fully deployed. Direct ordering channel running at 30-40% of delivery. Owner-chef at 4 shifts/week. We shift to quarterly check-ins.
Common questions from independent restaurants owners
What size restaurant is this for?−
We're chef-owned and proud. Will this hurt the food?+
What about full-service vs. fast-casual vs. QSR?+
How long until we see real change?+
What if we're in a cash crunch right now?+
Do you work with franchise restaurants?+
What's the team like - who does the work?+
What's your fee structure?+
Stop being busy-but-broke.
20-minute strategy call. We'll tell you if we're a fit. No pitch. No pressure.