Make Restaurants Profitable

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1 in 4 restaurants ran at a loss last year.And if you’re honest?You’ve probably felt just one bad month away from being part of that stat.I’ve recorded a few episodes for this podcast now and after speaking with some of the best restaurant owners in Australia … nearly every single one of them has been through the same stuff that you’re facing right now.Whether it's finding staff, 80 hour weeks, rising supplier costs, struggling to balance family, no money left to pay yourself, fires, floods … you name it - the guests I’ve spoken to have seen it all.Some of them are now industry leaders and experts, with successful restaurants, franchises, turning over millions in revenue, and even stocking their products in supermarketsThis podcast is about what really made the difference.The stuff no one talks about.The mindset shifts, the messy moments, and the moves that actually worked.So if you’re: Sick of grinding with nothing to show for it Ready to finally pay yourself properly Wanting a business that runs without you there 24/7Then this is for you.Every week, we’ll break down how to make restaurants profitable againNot just with theory, but real strategies that are working right now.If you need help right now head over to foodiecoaches.com and book a call with our team otherwise hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re tuning in and I’ll see you every WednesdayCheck out the behind the scenes over at @foodie_coaches and @tim.kummerfeld

  1. 21 hr ago

    Why Restaurant Owners Need a Personal Brand

    Johnny Di Francesco has been in business for over 30 years, and he’s learned that if you stop building your brand, people forget you.  In this episode, he explains why he started sharing his story, even though he’s semi-introverted and never planned on a personal brand. Tim Kummerfeld makes the case that every venue started with someone’s passion, yet most owners stay quiet about why they opened.  ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  They cover what to say when you don’t know where to start, and why Johnny refused to create a persona. 00:00 Why Restaurant Owners Need a Personal Brand 00:20 How to Find a Small Food Manufacturer for Your Product 01:10 Why Brand Awareness Fades Without Marketing (Coca-Cola Example) 02:30 Sharing Your Story After 30 Years in Hospitality 04:10 Why Restaurant Owners Should Tell Their Founder Story 05:00 Afraid to Share Your Story? What Owners Should Say 05:50 How Sharing Your Struggles Helps Other Business Owners 06:20 Personal Branding Without a Persona: Be Authentic ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Make Restaurants Profitable is the podcast for restaurant, cafe and bar owners who want to see how profitable venues are really run. Tim Kummerfeld sits down with hospitality operators to unpack the decisions, mistakes and numbers behind their results, so you can apply them to your own venue. Subscribe to get notified for weekly releases.

    Why Restaurant Owners Need a Personal Brand

  2. 2 days ago

    Why Johnny Di Francesco warns against a central kitchen (if you have less than 20 venues)

    In this conversation, Johnny Di Francesco and Tim Kummerfeld went deep about when to build a separate central kitchen. Based on Johnny's experience, a central kitchen takes away from your profits if you have fewer than 20 venues, and building one bigger kitchen in an existing restaurant gets you the same consistency. ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac Johnny also talks about what he would do differently in food manufacturing: use a small co packer, own the brand and the retailer relationships, and keep your risk to your last run. 0:00 Central kitchen: false economy 0:37 Why Johnny centralised his dough 3:02 Central kitchen costs: capex, rent, labour, transport 4:10 Central kitchen under 20 restaurants 4:33 Supplying your own venues vs true customers 5:12 Scaling from 1 to 5 restaurants without a central kitchen 6:40 Getting into Coles and Woolworths: manufacturing margins 7:35 Using a co packer for food manufacturing 8:57 How to find a co packer ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Make Restaurants Profitable is the podcast for restaurant, cafe and bar owners who want to see how profitable venues are really run. Tim Kummerfeld sits down with hospitality operators to unpack the decisions, mistakes and numbers behind their results, so you can apply them to your own venue. Subscribe to get notified for weekly releases.

    Why Johnny Di Francesco warns against a central kitchen (if you have less than 20 venues)

  3. 3 days ago

    Pizza world champion on opening a second site: “People mistake turnover and profit”

    Johnny Di Francesco says it bluntly: “Turnover feeds the ego. Bottom line feeds the family.” A second site at the same turnover won't double your profit, and he says you're probably losing about 5%. In this episode he explains why, and the one question he asks owners before he'll say yes to a second restaurant. ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac Johnny has been in business for over 30 years, won a world title for his pizza and opened restaurants across three continents. He has seen what happens when a second site opens too early: his US licensees opened a second restaurant against his advice, and it ended in closures. 0:00 Second restaurant: why it won't double your profit 0:28 When to open a second site: Johnny's advice to his US licensees 1:16 Scaling a restaurant too early: why you scale chaos 2:18 Why Johnny now says do less and do it really well 3:22 Restaurant licensing: why Johnny only licenses to owner operators 4:20 Multi site restaurants: the hardest jumps from 1 to 2, 3 to 4 and 4 to 8 sites 5:32 Should you open a second location? The 50 hours a week and zero hours test 6:10 Second site profit: why you probably lose 5%, and the 7% vs 14% EBIT maths 6:53 Turnover vs profit: turnover feeds the ego, bottom line feeds the family ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Make Restaurants Profitable is the podcast for restaurant, cafe and bar owners who want to see how profitable venues are really run. Tim Kummerfeld sits down with hospitality operators to unpack the decisions, mistakes and numbers behind their results, so you can apply them to your own venue. Subscribe to get notified for weekly releases.

    Pizza world champion on opening a second site: “People mistake turnover and profit”

  4. 23 Oct

    How to cut slow shifts in your restaurant using AI

    How to cut slow shifts in your restaurant using AI: Mo Saad of Fricken connects AI to his Square and timesheet data to find the shifts that aren't paying for themselves. ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac Which nights cost you more in wages than they bring in? Mo Saad and Tim Kummerfeld show how Fricken uses AI to spot quiet shifts, build a branded dashboard from a few prompts, and work out where ad spend actually pays off, while the owner still makes the final call. CHAPTERS 0:00 How to cut slow shifts in your restaurant using AI 0:58 How to connect AI to your restaurant POS and timesheets 1:58 How AI finds slow shifts and cuts decision fatigue 4:00 How to build a restaurant dashboard with AI 6:30 How to use AI for restaurant ad spend and Uber Eats ads 9:30 Where to start with AI in your restaurant Ready to grow your restaurant's profit before you add more shifts? ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Subscribe for more hospitality business coaching content.

    How to cut slow shifts in your restaurant using AI

  5. 21 Oct

    How to build a high performing restaurant team that runs without you

    How to build a high performing restaurant team that runs without you: Mo Saad of Fricken shares how he trains his kitchen from the fries up, hires for attitude, and trusts his managers to make the call. ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac What do you do when your best managers are making decisions without you? Mo Saad and Tim Kummerfeld break down how Fricken trains for safety and consistency in the kitchen, why front of house starts with attitude, and why Mo skips meetings to keep his team fresh. CHAPTERS 0:00 How to build a high performing restaurant team that runs without you 0:58 How to train new kitchen staff and keep your kitchen safe 4:12 How to train front of house staff and hire for attitude 6:37 How to manage restaurant managers so they make the call 7:40 How to run restaurant management meetings without burning out your team 10:06 Restaurant KPIs to track every week Ready to grow your restaurant's profit without working every shift? ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Subscribe for more hospitality business coaching content.

    How to build a high performing restaurant team that runs without you

  6. 19 Oct

    How to expand a restaurant business to a new city (and what went wrong for Fricken)

    How to expand a restaurant business to a new city: Mo Saad of Fricken shares what went wrong when they opened on the Gold Coast, from supply chain and food costs to quality control and brand. ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac Should you build a central kitchen before you open in a new city? Mo Saad and Tim Kummerfeld break down why Fricken nearly bought one and didn't, what outsourcing prep did to food costs and rosters, and how a brand archetype session led to a full rebrand. CHAPTERS 0:00 How to expand a restaurant to a new city: Mo Saad and Fricken 0:57 Restaurant supply chain problems in a new city 2:04 Central kitchen vs outsourcing restaurant prep: food cost and rosters 4:13 How to keep quality up when you outsource prep 5:38 How to rebrand a restaurant with a brand archetype 8:25 How to earn trust from celiac customers Ready to grow your restaurant's profit before you grow your footprint? ▶ Book a Profit Finding Session: https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac  Subscribe for more hospitality business coaching content.

    How to expand a restaurant business to a new city (and what went wrong for Fricken)

  7. 7 Oct

    How debt quietly raises your real breakeven (and what to do about it) - with Timmy Niesler

    A hospitality business can look profitable on paper and still hit a financial wall when old debt, repayments and tax obligations start eating the cash. Book a Gameplan Session → https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac In this episode, Tim sits down with Timmy from FC Accounting to break down what happens when hospitality owners are carrying debt and struggling to keep up with current obligations. They cover how ATO debt affects cash flow, why your real breakeven may be much higher than you think, and the difference between having a cash flow problem and having a profit problem. They also explain Division 7A loans and how taking money out of your business the wrong way can create a much bigger tax problem later. The goal: understand the debt, know where your cash is really going, and make changes before the business hits the wall. Book a Gameplan Session → https://foodiecoaches.co/yt-bac 00:00 Managing Debt and Cash Flow 00:56 ATO Debt and Business Models 03:23 Profit Versus Cash Flow 07:14 Understanding Division 7A Loans Follow along: Foodie Coaches https://www.instagram.com/foodie_coaches/ Tim Kummerfeld: https://www.instagram.com/tim.kummerfeld/ New episodes every Wednesday. #restaurantaccounting #restaurantdebt #cashflow #restaurantowner #hospitalitybusiness #smallbusinessaccounting

    How debt quietly raises your real breakeven (and what to do about it) - with Timmy Niesler

  8. 18 Aug

    He Makes the Australia's Best Pizza: Lucio De Falco on 17 Years of Building Lucio Pizzeria

    How Lucio De Falco built Sydney's most iconic Neapolitan pizzeria from scratch — and the lessons every restaurant owner, café owner or pizza maker needs to hear about consistency, quality and running a hospitality business that lasts. From a 14-year-old kid washing dishes in Naples to one of the best pizza chefs in the world. Lucio De Falco started washing dishes at his aunt and uncle's pizzeria in Naples when he was 14. By the time he was 21, he was in Sydney — recruited to help launch the first Neapolitan-style pizzeria in Australia at a time when nobody here knew what that meant. Four years later, he opened his own. Lucio Pizzeria Darlinghurst, 2008. Within the first year it had been voted Sydney's best pizza by The Sydney Morning Herald, Time Out and The Good Food Guide — back when reviewers showed up unannounced and you didn't know they'd been there until the article ran. Today Lucio Pizzeria has three venues — Darlinghurst, Zetland and Bar Lucio in Kensington — and Lucio is Vice President of AVPN Australasia (the official body for true Neapolitan pizza), an international judge, and the man behind one of only a handful of AVPN-accredited pizzerias in the country. In 2018 he competed at the Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza in Parma against 750 pizzaioli from 44 nations and came home with Best Pizza in Australia and 5th in the world. In this episode, Lucio sits down with Tim to talk through 17 years of running his own pizzeria — the obsessive focus on dough fermentation, the difference between being a great chef and a great operator, why most owners burn out chasing the wrong things, and the one thing he says separates the standout operators from everyone else. It's a conversation about craft, consistency and what it actually takes to make food that's worth coming back for. You'll hear: 00:00 – Washing dishes in Naples at 14 — how it all began  01:40 – Coming to Sydney at 21 to launch the first Neapolitan pizza in Australia  02:20 – Opening Lucio Pizzeria Darlinghurst at 25 — and winning Sydney's best pizza in year one  05:00 – Why fermentation, ingredients and craft are the difference between great pizza and average pizza  06:00 – The difference between being a great chef and being a great operator  07:20 – The numbers most chefs avoid until it's too late  10:00 – Why profit margins are getting tighter (and what the best operators are doing about it)  11:30 – Why you have to watch your business from up high, not from inside the kitchen  14:00 – Burnout: how to spot it before it costs you everything  45:00 – Why staff happiness is the most important thing you can build  46:30 – "It's hard to gain a customer. It's easy to lose one."  48:30 – Why your customer experience matters more than your marketing  49:00 – His advice to anyone thinking about opening a pizzeria right now Key takeaways: Pizza is art, but pizza is also business. Master both, or you'll burn out.The fermentation, the dough, the ingredients — there are no shortcuts. Consistency is the brand.A great chef and a great operator are two different people. The best owners are both — and they know it takes years.Watch your business from up high. The minute you're stuck inside it, you stop being able to lead it.It takes years to gain a regular customer. It takes a fraction of a second to lose them.If you're thinking about opening a pizzeria right now, do your homework first. Don't let your ego make the decision for you.One in three hospitality businesses is either breaking even or losing money. Know your numbers before you sign anything.If you want to build a hospitality business with the kind of consistency and craft that lasts 17+ years, book a free Profit Finding Session with the Foodie Coaches team at https://discover.foodiecoaches.com/bac Follow Lucio and Lucio Pizzeria: @luciopizzeria @lucio.defalco Follow along: @foodie_coaches @tim.kummerfeld New episodes every Wednesday.

    He Makes the Australia's Best Pizza: Lucio De Falco on 17 Years of Building Lucio Pizzeria
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About

1 in 4 restaurants ran at a loss last year.And if you’re honest?You’ve probably felt just one bad month away from being part of that stat.I’ve recorded a few episodes for this podcast now and after speaking with some of the best restaurant owners in Australia … nearly every single one of them has been through the same stuff that you’re facing right now.Whether it's finding staff, 80 hour weeks, rising supplier costs, struggling to balance family, no money left to pay yourself, fires, floods … you name it - the guests I’ve spoken to have seen it all.Some of them are now industry leaders and experts, with successful restaurants, franchises, turning over millions in revenue, and even stocking their products in supermarketsThis podcast is about what really made the difference.The stuff no one talks about.The mindset shifts, the messy moments, and the moves that actually worked.So if you’re: Sick of grinding with nothing to show for it Ready to finally pay yourself properly Wanting a business that runs without you there 24/7Then this is for you.Every week, we’ll break down how to make restaurants profitable againNot just with theory, but real strategies that are working right now.If you need help right now head over to foodiecoaches.com and book a call with our team otherwise hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re tuning in and I’ll see you every WednesdayCheck out the behind the scenes over at @foodie_coaches and @tim.kummerfeld

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