'Menu engineering is the term given to the practice of developing a menu that will hit your food cost goals. You do have a food cost goal, right? Ideally, it should be defined by building a detailed financial model of your pizzeria. If you haven\'t made one yet, now is the time. Download our financial model spreadsheet at perfectingpiza.com Once you have a food cost goal, you have to prove it. It\'s great to have a target of 20% but is it even possible to achieve with what you have on the menu and how many of each you expect to sell? How to Engineer a Profitable Menu Step One: Set Your Food Cost % Goal Whether you set your food cost goal as part of building your financial model or it is a number based on years of experience you need to have a number to shoot for. Step Two: Cost Out Menu Items Cost out every menu item to know its food cost. It doesn\'t matter how you do this. Use pen and paper, a spreadsheet, your POS, Big Dave\'s Food Cost Pro, or our simple Recipe Cost Cards. One way or another you need to know exactly how much it costs you to make every item on your menu. Step Three: Price Each Item Pricing your menu items is not as simple as it may seem. There will be lots of back and forth until you have prices you are happy with. Use local market pricing or traditionally accepted prices as your starting point and keep whittling away at them until you have prices that give you the food cost % and sales you are after. Knowing what your market will bear, traditionally accepted price ranges, and food cost goals are all important factors that come into play when establishing prices. Step Four: Build a Menu Mix A menu mix is a model of a week or month of your sales. The mix is built from the number of each menu item you sold and its selling price and gross profit. Based on that combination you can create a projection of what your overall food cost, sales, and gross profit will be for the period. Step Five: Tweak the Mix Once you have your menu mix built you can make changes to it and observe how those changes impact your food cost and your gross profit. Small changes can add up quickly. Check out the tools we have for engineering a profitable menu at perfectingpizza.com'
Tags: pizza , food cost , menu engineering , menu prices
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