Resources for owners.

Choosing a POS and back office for a convenience store: a buyer's checklist

The questions to ask before you sign for a convenience store register and back office, covering registers, price changes, fuel, lottery, invoices, reports, support and your data.

How to open a bar: licenses, layout, pour costs and the first month

An ordered plan for opening a bar: the liquor license and what to ask, the location, the layout, buying alcohol, pour costs, staff and ID checks, tabs and the end-of-night count.

How to open a coffee shop: a step-by-step guide

An ordered plan for opening a coffee shop: the format, the location, permits and the health department, equipment and water, suppliers, cost per cup, staff and tips, and the first month.

How to open a convenience store: a step-by-step guide

An ordered plan for opening a convenience store: the location, licenses and permits, suppliers, the pricebook, the register and back office, lottery and tobacco, staff and the first month.

How to open a grocery store: a step-by-step guide

An ordered plan for opening an independent grocery store: market and site, licenses and food safety, suppliers, SNAP and WIC, pricing, shrink and waste, staff and the first 90 days.

How to open a liquor store: a step-by-step guide

An ordered plan for opening a liquor store: what your state allows, licenses and federal registration, wholesalers, layout and security, pricing and deals, ID checks and the first 90 days.

How to open a restaurant: a step-by-step guide

An ordered plan for opening a restaurant: the concept, the numbers, the location, health permits and licenses, the kitchen, the menu, suppliers, staff, the register and the first months.

How to start a gas station: what changes when you sell fuel

What changes when a convenience store also sells fuel: jobbers and supply deals, tanks and environmental rules, the forecourt, fuel pricing math, card fees and the store inside.

Loyalty programs for small stores: how to plan, price and run one

How a small store can plan a loyalty program that pays for itself: the goal and the reward, the cost, sign-ups at the counter, the rules on texts, privacy, tobacco and SNAP, and measuring it.

The Independent Operator's Guide to Margin Leaks

Where margin actually leaks in an independent store, and how to plug it. A field playbook, not a theory paper, you can run this week.

Menu design: how to build a menu that makes money

Build a profitable menu: cost every item, sort each one by how often it sells and what it earns, decide what to keep, fix or drop, then lay out, describe and price the menu.

Restaurant food cost: how to measure it, cost every plate and bring it down

How to work out your real food cost, cost every recipe, price from it, compare what you should have spent with what you did spend, and close the gap, with worked examples you can copy.

Restaurant revenue: more sales per table, per hour and per guest

Break restaurant sales into numbers you can measure, from guests and average check to table turns and sales per seat hour, then raise each one without hurting service or margin.

Restaurant technology: the tools you need and how they fit together

A plain guide to restaurant technology: the register, payments, kitchen screens, online ordering, kiosks, tables, recipes, staff and tips, reports and security, and how they all connect.

Retail holiday planning: a guide for independent stores

A holiday plan for independent stores, working back from the busy days: last year's numbers, stock and vendors, pricing and ads within the rules, seasonal staff, bank holidays and gift cards.

Retail inventory management: a practical guide for independent stores

How an independent store keeps stock under control: a clean item file, receiving that matches invoices, counts on a schedule, reorder points, dead stock, shrink and the weekly numbers.

Running more than one store: how to keep control of stock and cash

How to run two or more stores without losing control of stock and cash: paperwork for each store, one setup everywhere, managers and access, cash and transfer rules, and what to watch.

Small business cost control: a practical guide for store owners

How a store owner can control costs without cutting what customers notice: know the numbers, then work through product cost, labor, card fees, energy, shrink, insurance and small bills.

Shift and cash

Cash over/short: a simple policy your crew will follow

Lottery

Catching scratch-off lottery mistakes at shift change

Pricebook and inventory

Vendor invoices: catching short ships, wrong costs and missing credits

Fuel

Tank readings and fuel deliveries: checking what came off the truck

Shift and cash

How to close a shift quickly and correctly

Scan data and loyalty

Loyalty programs for convenience stores that customers actually use

Fuel margin calculator

Work out your fuel margin in cents per gallon after the card fee, and the gross profit on what you sold.

Markup and margin calculator

See the margin and the markup on any item from its cost and its price.

Lottery commission calculator

Estimate what lottery sales and cashing pay your store at your state's rates.

Break-even calculator

Find the monthly sales you need to cover your fixed costs at your average margin.

Labor cost calculator

See labor as a share of sales and your sales per labor hour for any week.

Cash over/short calculator

Work out what should be in the drawer at the end of a shift and how far over or short the count is.

Alcohol margin calculator

Work out the margin on beer, wine and liquor from the case cost, the pack size and the shelf price, with the profit on each unit and on each case.

Retail inventory method calculator

Estimate your ending inventory at cost with the retail inventory method, from beginning inventory, purchases and sales at cost and at retail.

Supplier cost comparison calculator

Compare two suppliers by cost per unit after delivery fees, see which one is cheaper and how much you save on each order you place with it.

Profit and loss calculator

Build a simple monthly profit and loss from sales, cost of goods, payroll, rent, utilities, card fees and other costs, with gross and net margin.

Loyalty break-even calculator

Find how many added visits a month a loyalty program needs to pay for its rewards and its monthly cost, at your average sale and gross margin.

Loyalty impact calculator

Estimate the added monthly sales and gross profit from loyalty members visiting more often, after the cost of the rewards on those added visits.

Promotion return calculator

Compare a promotion week with a normal week for one item: the added units, the profit with and without the promotion, and the return after its costs.

Average sale growth calculator

See the added monthly sales and gross profit from raising your average sale per transaction, at your monthly transaction count and gross margin.

Ordering time cost calculator

Work out the hours and wages that placing orders by hand takes each month, and how much of both automatic ordering would save at your own numbers.

Marketing return calculator

Work out the monthly gross profit from the new customers your marketing brings in and the return on what you spend, from visits, sale and margin.

Delivery profit calculator

Find the profit and margin on each delivery app order after the app's commission, packaging and food cost, from your average order and food cost.

Table turnover calculator

Work out how many times each table turns in a shift, and per hour, from the number of tables, the parties you served and the length of the shift.

Menu price calculator

Price a dish from the ingredient cost on the plate and your target food cost percentage, and see that price rounded up to the next quarter.

Marketing budget calculator

Set a marketing budget as a percentage of your monthly sales and see the dollar amount it gives you to spend each month and over a full year.