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The F&B Break-Even Checklist

Every cost and assumption to validate before you sign the lease. Print it, walk the numbers, and don’t open until each box is honestly checked.

1. One-time start-up costs

The capital you burn before you sell a single item. Underestimating this is the #1 way founders run out of cash in month 3.

  • Lease deposit + first/last month rent (often 3–6 months upfront)
  • Fit-out / renovation (kitchen, seating, plumbing, electrical)
  • Kitchen equipment (espresso machine, ovens, fridges, POS)
  • Furniture, signage, and branding
  • Licenses, permits, and health inspections
  • Initial inventory + opening-week stock
  • Pre-opening payroll + training
  • Working-capital buffer (3–6 months of fixed costs)

2. Fixed monthly costs

These hit whether you sell $0 or $50k. Your break-even is mostly decided here.

  • Rent + service charge / CAM fees
  • Base payroll (salaried staff + your own draw)
  • Utilities (power is brutal for kitchens — model it high)
  • Insurance (liability, property, workers’ comp)
  • Software / POS / delivery-platform subscriptions
  • Loan or equipment-financing repayments
  • Accounting, marketing retainer, waste collection

3. Variable (per-sale) costs

Scale with revenue. Small percentage errors here compound fast — 3 points on food cost can flip a profitable month into a loss.

  • Cost of goods sold (food + beverage) — target % by model
  • Hourly / shift labor that flexes with covers
  • Payment-processing + delivery-platform commissions (15–30%)
  • Packaging + disposables (heavy for takeaway/ghost kitchens)
  • Loyalty discounts, promos, and comps

4. Revenue assumptions to pressure-test

Optimism lives here. Validate every number against the real space and location, not a hope.

  • Average check / ticket size (realistic, not best-case)
  • Covers per day × seats × turns — does the room physically fit it?
  • Day-part split (weekday vs weekend, AM vs PM)
  • Realistic ramp: most F&B takes 3–6 months to hit steady-state
  • Seasonality dips (and can you survive the low months?)

5. The break-even questions

If you can’t answer these from memory, you’re not ready to sign.

  • What monthly revenue covers all fixed + variable costs? (break-even)
  • How many covers/day does that require?
  • How many months of runway until break-even — and is it funded?
  • What’s your contribution margin per sale?
  • At what point does this concept simply not work, and what’s plan B?

Don’t want to run all this by hand?

Validator does every calculation above in about 5 minutes — free.

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