Have you heard about prime cost and wondered what the definition of prime cost was? Restaurant prime cost is the one number you need to know and manage to make any money in the restaurant business. Watch this video (or keep reading) to learn the prime cost formula and where to find the numbers in your restaurant. 

For decades, restaurants have been run with one key number in mind. This magic number ensures that the owners make money. It’s called prime cost. To old timers like me,...

Do you want to know how to run a restaurant successfully? How to make money in the restaurant business? Watch this video (or keep reading) to learn how to run a restaurant. 

As an expert in the restaurant industry, I have seen it all when it comes to restaurants. I've spent almost 30 years working with restaurant owners and managers. I've seen people succeed incredibly, and I've seen people fail terribly. One of the critical pieces to running a restaurant successfully is understanding...

Understanding your food cost in your restaurant is very important. Let's cover the food cost formula. Watch this video (or keep reading) to learn the food cost formula.  

When you want to find your restaurant's food cost, it would be nice to have a food cost calculator. But since that's really lacking, let's instead focus on the food cost formula so you can calculate it yourself anytime. 

What Is the Food Cost Formula?

• Beginning inventory (what you started with on the...

What are restaurant startup costs? A better question is what does every restaurant have to have in place before they can be truly successful?

Watch the video below (or keep reading) to learn the costs you must consider when starting up a restaurant.

Many restaurant owners operate from a more spontaneous place. I'm very familiar with it as I operate the same way. It's more of a "Ready. Fire. Aim." kind of approach. You just want to get stuff done and it's hard to be patient and take the...

Do you know your prime cost? 

For decades, restaurants have been run with one key number in mind. This magic number ensures that the owners make money. It’s called prime cost. To old timers like me, it used to be called controllable expenses, in the control of management on a daily basis on how they hire, fire, schedule their team members to purchasing and utilizing products. 

Prime Cost = Total Cost of Goods Sold + Total Labor Cost

My goal is to teach anyone who is...

Hi restaurant friends! This is David Scott Peters, restaurant systems expert, speaker, trainer, coach and consultant. For the past 16 years, you've known me as the founder of TheRestaurantExpert.com and the creator or SMART Systems Pro, online restaurant management software.

After building the industry's best all-in-one restaurant operations software on the market, my business partner (who was a former member) and a group of current members (users of the software), got together to buy my...