Hospitality is never short on passion. But profit? That part can feel murky.
In our latest live workshop with Richard McLeod, CEO and founder of Loaded, we broke down the simple, practical steps any venue can take to become more profitable.
If you missed it, here are the big ideas, served up Crunch style. Clear, real, and ready for action.
1. Profit has a pattern. Once you see it, things get easier.
Every venue makes money in the same way. Richard calls it the hospitality profitability matrix, and it comes down to a few key levers:
- How many people know you exist
- How many of them choose you
- How much they spend
- How much it costs you to serve them
- How much you spend on labour
- How well you control the rest
Most owners focus almost entirely on the first lever: more customers. But Richard’s reminder was simple: real profitability is usually found behind the scenes, not out on the footpath.
You don’t have to overhaul everything. You only need to get a bit better each week. That consistency compounds.
2. Start with average spend. Small improvements go a long way.
If you did nothing this year except raise your average spend by a few dollars per head, your profit would jump without adding a single customer.
Richard showed an example from one of his venues where two team members served the same number of customers but produced wildly different revenue. Not because one upsold aggressively, but because she created a more consistent, thoughtful experience.
Here’s what to do this week:
- Run your team’s average order value
- Share the results with them
- Close the gap between the lowest and strongest performers
- Identify what your top performers are doing and train the rest
Owners often think boosting restaurant sales requires marketing first. Often, it starts with the people already serving your guests.
3. Fix your cost of goods by focusing only on your top 10 items
Most operators think they need to stocktake everything. Richard’s advice was refreshingly realistic.
Just start with:
- The 10 items you buy the most
- The 10 items you sell the most
- Your 5 most discounted items
For those items, know:
- What you pay
- What you should be using
- What you’re actually using
- Whether the menu price makes sense
- How discounts are affecting your margin
This alone can transform profitability. One venue using Loaded shaved 60k off their food spend in a year without changing their menu or adding customers.
4. Labour control is where most venues lose money without realising
You need two numbers every week:
- What you plan to spend on labour
- What you actually spent
Richard shared how smart operators track this across every shift, comparing sales each half hour to labour each half hour. It shows waste instantly.
The goal is not to cut staff. It’s to staff smarter, match labour to sales, and help shift managers make decisions confidently instead of guessing.
5. Weekly rhythm beats random big efforts
Richard’s old system was beautifully simple:
A weekly catch up with his leadership team, the same agenda every time, the same numbers on the table, the same three priorities.
Not seven priorities. Not fourteen. Just three.
Most successful venues have a rhythm like this. It keeps the team aligned, keeps goals simple, and builds the discipline that drives profit.
The biggest takeaway
The operators who become consistently profitable don’t chase shiny tactics. They commit to improving the same few areas week after week.
If you want to grow your restaurant, improve cost control, or boost restaurant sales in busy and quiet months, this is where to look first.
Simple, clear, and totally doable.
If you’re inside Crunch, the full session replay with Richard is now available. If you’re not, start your free month trial to join our next live workshop and get access to the tools and community that help hospo owners run smarter, more profitable businesses.
Plus, don’t forget to check out our friends at Loaded to start putting these numbers to work.
