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You don't always need to hire someone. Sometimes you just need the system and a quiet afternoon. These are the same playbooks we build inside live operations, turned into something you can run on your own.
You don't always need to hire someone. Sometimes you just need the system and a quiet afternoon. These are the same playbooks we build inside live operations, turned into something you can run on your own.
Start with the free downloads to find where you're leaking, then pick up the build tool for whatever needs fixing. Your pace, your order.
Start with the free downloads to find where you're leaking, then pick up the build tool for whatever needs fixing. Your pace, your order.
Food Business Opening Checklist (FREE)
Food Business Opening Checklist (FREE)
Opening a food business is a thousand small decisions, and the ones you forget are the ones that bite three months in. The gaps usually only show up after the doors are open, when they're expensive to fix.
What's inside: A complete checklist of what to get right before you open, from the boring-but-critical to the things first-timers always miss. Work through it and you open with your eyes open, not crossing your fingers.
Pairs with: The Food Business Systems Framework. The checklist gets you to opening day. The Framework makes sure what you open actually runs.
FAQ:
Q: Is it really free?
A: Yes, completely. Download it, use it, no strings.
Q: I'm still months from opening. Too early?
A: It's the perfect time. The whole point is catching gaps before they cost you.
Q: What if I'm already open?
A: Use it as an audit. Most find a few things they skipped, and it's rarely too late to close them.
Coffee Shop Problem Guide (FREE)
Coffee Shop Problem Guide (FREE)
Your sales look healthy, the queue is there, the reviews are decent. So why doesn't the bank balance match the busy? Because the most expensive problems in a coffee shop are the quiet ones, the leaks that don't show up until you go looking.
What's inside: A short guide to the problems quietly draining coffee shops, money, repeat customers, and time, with the first move to stop each one. Plain language, real examples, no finance degree required.
Pairs with: The Food Business Systems Framework. This guide shows you the leaks exist. The Framework shows you exactly where yours are and what to fix first.
FAQ:
Q: Is this only for coffee shops?
A: It's written for coffee shops, but cafes and small eateries lose money the same ways, so it travels well.
Q: Is it free?
A: Yes. It's the easiest place to start.
Q: Will it tell me my specific problems?
A: It shows you the usual suspects. To pin down yours exactly, that's the Framework, or a call.
Food Business Systems Framework
Food Business Systems Framework
You fix the problem, it comes back. You fix it again, it comes back again. The reason isn't effort, it's that the thing you keep fixing isn't the real problem. You can spend years solving the wrong one.
What's inside: The diagnosis before the build. It shows you which of the ten systems that run a food business are missing or broken, what each gap is quietly costing you, and the order to fix them in. Plus the four-layer model that explains why systems fail even when you build them. 69 pages of working document, not a book to skim.
Pairs with: All the Playbooks. The Framework tells you what to fix. The Playbooks show you how. Once it points you at a gap, you go to the matching Playbook to build it.
FAQ:
Q: I already know my problems. Do I need this?
A: Maybe not all of it. But most owners find at least one gap they hadn't seen, and the cost numbers tend to reorder their priorities.
Q: Is this just theory?
A: No. You score it on your own operation, and it gives you the exact order to fix things. The work is doing, not reading.
Q: Where do I start after it?
A: It tells you. Each gap points to the Playbook that builds that system.
SOP Playbook
SOP Playbook
Same dish, different result depending on who's on shift. You've told them a hundred times and it still comes out wrong. The place only works when you're standing in it, because nothing is written down in a way anyone can follow.
What's inside: How to build SOPs that hold under pressure. The seven-part format that makes a procedure usable, the priority system so you build the few that matter instead of drowning in forty nobody reads, and the checklists that make them stick. Written for both table-service and quick-service.
Pairs with: The Framework, which tells you which SOPs your operation needs first. Diagnose there, build here.
FAQ:
Q: I don't have time to write forty SOPs.
A: Good, because you shouldn't. The priority system has you build only the few the customer or the business feels right away. The rest can wait.
Q: Will my staff use them?
A: That's the point of the format. SOPs fail when they're written for a binder, not the floor. These are built to be followed mid-shift.
Q: Table-service or quick-service?
A: Both are covered, with the differences called out.
COGS Playbook
COGS Playbook
Revenue looks fine, but the money never quite lands in the bank. You're not even sure your prices make a profit, and food cost keeps creeping without anyone deciding it should. The menu math is where the quiet money lives.
What's inside: The math behind your menu, in plain steps. Yield testing, recipe costing, pricing a menu that actually makes margin, break-even, and tracking the waste that eats your profit. 60+ pages, no finance background needed.
Pairs with: The Food Cost and Inventory Playbook (coming soon). COGS sets the right cost and price. Food Cost and Inventory keeps reality matching the math, day to day.
FAQ:
Q: I'm bad with numbers. Is this too technical?
A: No. It's built for owners, not accountants, and every step is worked through with examples.
Q: I already have prices. Why recost?
A: Because most menus are priced off a guess or a competitor, not off what the dish costs you. That gap is where the margin disappears.
Q: Does it cover drinks and food?
A: Yes, the method works for both.
Food Cost and Inventory Playbook
Food Cost and Inventory Playbook
Your COGS math is right on paper, but the stock still vanishes. Over-ordering, spoilage, portions creeping, a variance nobody can explain. The cost you calculated and the cost you pay drift apart, and the gap is pure leak.
What's coming: The day-to-day controls that keep your real food cost in line with the COGS math. Stock counts, receiving, storage, FIFO and FEFO, par levels, and variance tracking, so the money you saved on paper finally shows up.
Status: In progress. Want it the day it drops? Email us and you'll be first to know.
Pairs with: The COGS Playbook. COGS sets the target, this one keeps you hitting it.
FAQ:
Q: When's it out?
A: It's in the works. Email us and you'll be first in line.
Q: Can I start with COGS now?
A: Yes. COGS is the right first step, and this one builds on it.
Q: Will it work for a small operation?
A: Yes, the controls scale down to a single outlet.
(In progress, coming soon)
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