You don’t need a finance degree to run a healthy restaurant. You need to watch a short list of numbers – and actually act on them each week.
Owners often drown in reports and still miss the few figures that decide whether the business is really working. Here are the ones we check first.
The four that matter most
- Labour cost % – wages against sales. On the coast, aim to hold it steady through the swing between peak and quiet.
- Food cost % – what your ingredients cost versus what you charge. Small drifts here quietly eat your margin.
- Average spend per guest – the fastest lever most venues ignore.
- Covers per shift – are you actually filling the seats you’re paying to staff?
Watch the trend, not the day
A single bad night means nothing. The same figure sliding for three weeks means everything. Check these weekly, compare against the same period last year, and you’ll spot trouble while it’s still small enough to fix.
Get in the habit and the numbers stop being scary. They become the earliest, clearest signal you have about where the business is heading.