Concept & positioning
Clarify who you serve, what you are known for and how the menu, brand and room tell one story, so guests know exactly why to choose you.
- Brand and guest definition
- Menu and pricing strategy
- Competitive positioning
Hospitality strategy & operations
Sharper concepts. Tighter operations. Better margins.
TM Hospitality Strategies partners with restaurant and hospitality operators to turn good food and good service into a business that runs well and grows on purpose.
- Owner-level advice
- On site or remote
- Plain-English reporting
Where the work happens
- Concept & positioning
- Menu engineering
- Labor & scheduling
- Cost control
- New openings
- Restaurants
- Hotels
- Cafés & bars
- Catering
About
Strategy built from the floor up
Hospitality is a business of details: the menu, the shift schedule, the prep list, the P&L. TM Hospitality Strategies connects those details to the bigger picture so every decision supports the guest experience and the bottom line.
The work is hands-on and practical. Expect clear priorities, simple tools and recommendations your team can actually run on a Tuesday night.
Placeholder copy. This section is a draft and should be replaced with your own story.
Great hospitality looks effortless because the systems behind it are not.
- Guests firstEvery change should make the experience better, not just cheaper.
- Numbers you can readSimple reporting that owners and managers both understand.
- Boots on the floorRecommendations tested against how a real shift runs.
Services
Where I can help
Four focused areas that cover the way a hospitality business is built, run and grown.
Operations & systems
Build the playbooks, checklists and scheduling that make service consistent without burning out your team.
Financial performance
Understand prime cost, menu margins and pricing so growth shows up in profit, not just revenue.
Growth & new openings
Plan expansion, new locations or new revenue streams with realistic numbers and a phased roadmap.
Approach
A simple process, no mystery
Four steps from first conversation to results that last.
Listen
Walk the operation, review the numbers and hear from the people who run it.
Diagnose
Find the few changes that will move results the most and rank them by effort and impact.
Build
Put the plan, tools and training in place, with your team involved at each step.
Sustain
Track the right measures and adjust, so the gains hold after the engagement ends.
Free tools
Run the numbers
Five quick calculators: prime cost for the whole business, plate cost for a dish, pour cost for a drink, actual food cost from your inventory counts and the sales you need to break even. Everything runs in your browser.
Each one also has its own page with a worked example: prime cost, plate cost, cocktail pour cost, break-even and actual food cost.
Enter your total monthly sales in dollars, for example 120,000 or 120k.
Drag a slider, or type a percentage (31.5%) or a dollar amount from your P&L ($31,240).
$31,000 a month
$32,000 a month
$12,000 a month
- Each point of prime cost is worth
- $1,000 a month$12,000 a year
- Getting prime cost to 60%
- +$36,000 a yearif prime cost came down 3 points
63%Prime cost
- Prime cost
- $63,000
- Left after these costs
- $25,000
Track it month by month
Save each month's numbers to see which way prime cost is heading. Saved months stay in this browser only, until you clear them.
Prefer a spreadsheet? Download the prime cost tracker template (Excel, also opens in Google Sheets and Numbers).
No months saved yet. Set this month's numbers above, then save them.
| Month | Sales | Food & bev | Labor | Prime cost | Remove |
|---|
Illustration only, not advice. Bands are common rules of thumb (under 60% strong, 60-65% on target, 65-70% watch, over 70% needs attention) and vary by concept. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere, and nothing is stored unless you save a month (then only in this browser).
Suggested menu price$20.67at 30% food cost
At or under target
- Plate cost
- $6.20
- Food cost at your price
- 28.2%
- Gross profit at your price
- $15.80
Illustration only, not advice. The example recipe and target are placeholders, so set your own. Suggested price is plate cost divided by your target food cost.
Suggested drink price$18.56at 20% pour cost
Over target
- Cost per drink
- $3.71
- Pour cost at your price
- 26.5%
- Gross profit at your price
- $10.29
Illustration only, not advice. The example recipe, bottle prices and target are placeholders, so set your own. Pour cost uses 29.57 ml to the ounce.
Rent, salaried staff, insurance, loan payments, software: costs that stay the same however busy you are.
Food and beverage, hourly labor, card fees and anything else that rises with every sale. Drag, or type a percentage (61.4%) or the month's total from your P&L ($61,400).
Break-even sales$118,421a month
- A week
- $27,328
- A day open
- $4,555
- Guests a day
- 163
Illustration only, not advice. The example costs, average check and days open are placeholders, so use your own. Break-even sales are fixed costs divided by the share of each sales dollar left after variable costs.
The value of food on hand at the start of the period: last count's closing figure.
Everything received in the period, net of credits and returns.
What your recipes say food cost should be at this sales mix; the plate cost calculator gives it dish by dish.
Actual food cost31.8%of food sales
Well over theoretical: +2.8 points
- Food used (cost of goods)
- $31,800
- Over theoretical, a month
- $2,800
- A year at this rate
- $33,600
Illustration only, not advice. The example figures are placeholders, so use your own counts. Actual food cost is opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory, divided by food sales. Bands for the gap are rules of thumb: within 1 point close, up to 2 points worth a look, more than that well over.
Selected work
Case studies, in the making
Write-ups of real engagements will appear here, each told the same way: the challenge, the approach and the measured outcome. Until then, these cards are labeled placeholders.
Placeholder
Neighborhood restaurant
Menu and pricing review.
- Challenge
- Approach
- Outcome
Placeholder
Multi-unit group
Operations playbook rollout.
- Challenge
- Approach
- Outcome
Placeholder
New concept launch
Opening plan and budget.
- Challenge
- Approach
- Outcome
Who do you work with?
Independent restaurants, small groups and hospitality businesses that want practical, owner-level strategy.
How does an engagement start?
With a short conversation to understand your goals. If there is a fit, we scope a focused project with clear deliverables.
Do you work remotely or on site?
Both are possible. On-site time is the most valuable for operations work, and strategy work can be done remotely.
What does it cost?
It depends on scope. Pricing is shared after the first conversation, so there are no surprises.
Let's talk about your next move
Tell me about your concept and what you want to change. I'll reply with honest next steps.
Not sure where to start? Draft it here.
Your message
Copy it, then paste it into a LinkedIn message.