The operator’s dictionary

Glossary

The terms that decide a restaurant P&L — defined the way working operators use them, each linked to the free diagnostic where the term does real work. No jargon for its own sake.

Prime cost: Food cost plus labour cost, as a share of revenue — the two lines an operator controls week to week. The published GCC ceiling GGB tests against is 62% of revenue: above it, the structure loses money before rent or profit get a turn. Plot your prime cost →
Food cost %: Everything the kitchen buys against everything the till takes, monthly. The published ceiling is 32% of revenue. It moves with purchasing, portioning, waste and menu pricing — usually the fastest line to fix and the first to drift. Rank your leaks →
Labour cost %: Total payroll cost as a share of revenue, with a published ceiling of 30%. Rarely a salaries problem — usually a roster shaped like the clock instead of the demand curve. Read your labour line →
Contribution margin: What a dish leaves behind after its ingredient cost — the number menu engineering runs on. A menu is not priced dish by dish; it is steered by which margins the mix sells. Engineer the menu →
Menu engineering: Classifying every dish by contribution margin and sales mix — stars, plough-horses, puzzles, dogs — so the menu steers guests toward the plates that carry the P&L. The method, in depth →
Break-even covers: The number of covers (or orders) per day a concept must clear before it earns a dirham — derived from fixed costs and per-cover contribution. Set before the lease is signed, not discovered after. Find your break-even →
Theoretical vs actual food cost: Theoretical: what the recipes say your sales should have consumed. Actual: what the kitchen really used. The gap is variance — the most honest control number in the business.
Variance: The gap between theoretical and actual, read line by line or outlet by outlet. Variance catches portioning drift, waste and shrinkage in days instead of quarters, and makes branches comparable. Score your control →
Aggregator commission: The percentage a delivery platform takes per order. A channel can grow revenue while shrinking profit — the read that matters is true margin per aggregator order versus dine-in. Read your delivery margin →
Cloud kitchen: A delivery-only operation with no dine-in floor — lower capex, tighter margins, and unit economics that live or die on channel mix and commission discipline. Model a cloud kitchen →
Rent-to-revenue: The lease as a share of monthly sales, with a typical band of roughly 6–12%. Fixed the day the lease is signed — which is why feasibility beats fit-out. The launch sequence →
Unit economics: The complete P&L of one outlet, stated with its assumptions — the model a franchisee and a financier can both underwrite. The difference between a brand that scales and one that multiplies its losses. Test franchise readiness →
Franchise transferability: Whether a concept survives a change of hands and a change of city — documented standards, protected brand, replicable economics. Readiness asks "are you prepared?"; transferability asks "can someone else run it?" Score transferability →
Founder dependency: How much of the business runs only because the founder is in the room — approvals, supplier calls, standards held in one head. The honest test: does it run to standard for two weeks with the founder unreachable? Read your dependency →
Head-office control: The operating layer of a multi-outlet group: one consolidated daily read, variance by outlet, approvals and cash controls that do not route through one phone. The head-office fix →
Operating health: GGB’s unified read across five domains — margin integrity, operating control, founder-independence, scale readiness, demand & retention — rolled from the diagnostics into one score and band. Run the Command Report →
P&L discipline: The weekly rhythm: sales, the four cost lines, one action, twenty minutes. Not the accountant’s month-end pack — the operator’s habit that catches drift while the month can still be saved. The weekly P&L template →
Consented win-back: Re-engaging lapsed guests using contact data they knowingly gave, with consent on record — owned demand instead of rented reach. The retention loop’s honest engine. Read your retention loop →
HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — the food-safety system Dubai Municipality expects a licensed kitchen to run, built into operating standards before opening rather than retrofitted after an inspection. HACCP in Dubai, explained →
SOP: Standard operating procedure — a standard written down instead of remembered. The difference between a system a new hire can run and a handshake with the founder’s memory. Operating standards →

Put the terms to work — run the Command Report