JOHN FOLEY: Before you open your restaurant, you have to come up with an actual budget, and you have to figure out how much money is going to go for rent, how much money is going for utilities, and the beauty of the restaurant business is that most of it is based on percentages, and you can find those percentages in numerous places.

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The Restaurant Budget

-25 Percent to payroll

-30 Percent to food

-10 Percent to rent

-3 Percent to utilities

Twenty-five percent goes to payroll, your food costs should be around thirty percent, rent should be around ten percent, your utilities are around three percent, and then whatever’s left goes for advertising, marketing, the owner, the shareholders, and the rest is profit. If you get to a point where your food cost is fifty percent, and it’s supposed to be thirty percent, you’re going to find out that that twenty percent has to come from somewhere else, and someone is not going to get paid.