One roof, two businesses, and usually only one of them is carrying the other.
Most gaming taverns are two businesses wearing one set of books. Gaming throws off high-margin revenue with modest labor. Food and beverage is labor heavy, inventory heavy, and thin. Averaged together, they tell you almost nothing.
Build a departmental P&L
Split revenue and direct costs by department, then allocate shared costs deliberately rather than by accident.
- Direct: gaming proceeds and fees, food and beverage COGS, departmental labor
- Shared: rent, utilities, insurance, management, marketing
- Allocate shared costs on a consistent basis, most often square footage or revenue share
The uncomfortable question it answers
Plenty of operators discover that food and beverage loses money on its own and exists to keep gaming customers in the building. That can be an entirely rational strategy. It is only dangerous when it is happening without anyone deciding it.
What to do with the answer
Once you can see each department, the decisions get concrete: adjust hours, reprice the menu, cut items that neither earn nor drive traffic, or accept the loss as customer acquisition cost with a number attached to it.
The handful of numbers that actually tell you how the business is doing.
See how we help ›