Recent content by struggle99

I agree with Bode that it really depends and you probably won’t be able to really gauge that until you’ve been in business a while. However, if you’re looking at specific payroll costs, you probably want to staff hourly labor around 13-16% assuming your employees are trained well enough to...

The store that I’m currently running has the lowest sales of the bunch so it’s been a little harder to keep food costs in line. We typically run about 30-31% at our other stores, but in this store we’re flirting with 34% food costs. Straight up hourly labor (not including all the associated...

Yeah, likewise we only cleared about $800 on the 4th. Down from a typical Friday of between $2000-$2200. Thursday was strong but Saturday was also really weak.

like Piper, we also had a strong week last week – sales were 15% over our projections. That carried into a great Monday, but the last two days have been weak and make me think this week will leave me feeling frustrated. As you said, just need to ride the wave sometimes as long as it balances out.

No worries man, I’ve read through that article as well. It was definitely interesting, although I’m certainly not going to fool myself into thinking I need the same staffing levels as an Outback doing a million plus. Thanks for the heads up on the article though.

Thanks for the feedback. I suppose I should’ve been more clear that this would be curbside carry-out (they would not be reserved spots for people to sit in the car and eat what we brought out to them). The point about taking away prime spots from dine-in customers is a good one, but as we’re...

Anyone here implemented a curbside pickup program? Parking has been a major issue at my store so we’re looking to reserve some parking spots and just do an Outback Style curbside program. Problem is, I have no experience with this and am looking for any advice that people can offer. Thanks.

That is comparable to my pricing, but obviously pricing structures are going to vary depending on food costs, level of sales, etc. etc. The way I try and tackle menu pricing initially is to break down each menu item to find out what it costs me to make, then factor in all the fixed and variable...

well this is reassuring. it will just be a misdemeanor. I have been asked about criminal record in the past which is why I was curious. thanks for the feedback.

that’s a perfectly fair statement, but I’ve thought about it at length and will obviously pay for the consequences if this is emblematic of things to come. this is a good friend of mine from years past and I have chosen to trust him regardless of this. however, for the time being, I am really...

So I ran into a situation recently where my business partner was arrested for possession. It’s still unclear exactly what will come from this in court, but I was wondering if anyone has had experience in trying to secure an SBA loan with a criminal record. Any feedback would be helpful as I...

I will second PizzaMagoo’s suggestion. We project food and labor costs based on historical store data and give the manager a certain bonus based on how much they clear those figures by. If they don’t even meet the figures then they get no bonus and we talk about why they were unable to hit their...

I’m sure this thread is a little outdated, but if you’re looking for a store to mimic, check out Hot Lips in the Portland, Oregon area. They are about as close as anyone to becoming fully sustainable. I like the concept of Pizza Fusion, but based on everything I’ve read about them it seems like...

Received it, Washington DC, although my pizza shop will be in Philadelphia, PA.

We began by serving only pizza. It’s not impossible, but certainly difficult, especially if you don’t have a way to differentiate yourself early from the competition. We also now serve cookies, breadsticks, salads and strombolis – it helps for those people that want pizza but a little something...