By now you know that the first step in building your most profitable food business is getting a solid financial foundation in place.

Still Working to Build a Solid Financial Foundation?

Or maybe you’re not quite sure what building a financial foundation entails?

Click here to download the free Profitability Roadmap.
It’ll help ensure you have each important pillar in place and are ready to move on to maximizing your profitability.

Got your financial foundation in place?

Great! The next step is to carve out 1 hour per month (yep, that’s it!) to work through the 4 steps for maximizing your profitability.

4 Steps for Maximizing Your Profitability:

1. Get Timely + Accurate Monthly Financials

Your Bookkeeper should provide you with completed financial reports by the 7th of each month, for the month prior. This allows you to see how your business is performing and make timely business decisions.

If you’re doing your bookkeeping yourself, it is imperative that you hold yourself accountable to sitting down at the end of each month to input your financial data and then review your essential financial reports.

2. Create a Profit Plan

Much like a budget, a Profit Plan lays out your business financials for the next 12 months and helps you stay focused on achieving your Financial Success Formula - the revenue goals and cost targets that will help you achieve maximum profitability. You can get detailed in your plan, or just start with the 4 key food business metrics.

3. Track Your Actual Outcomes vs. Profit Plan

Each month, when your financial reports are available, update your profit plan so you can see how your actual revenue, costs and profitability compare to the goals you set.

4. Identify + Implementing Key Strategies

The information in Step 3 can offer amazing insight into how your business is performing and where to focus your attention in order to achieve your business and financial goals.

For example...

Are your costs on target, but sales lower than projected and affecting profit dollars? You know to focus on growing sales.
Hitting your sales goals, but your labor costs are too high? Focus your attention on ensuring your labor is allocated correctly and that there are no bottlenecks or backlogs in your workflows that are driving up costs.
Food Cost % higher than you hoped? Tracking your food costs, or implementing a budget for your purchasing team may help you reach your goals.

Remember, you don’t need to be a financial wiz to build a profitable food business. And I’m here to support you in your work!

The Financial Success Formula Program offers our custom Profit Planning template and hands-on workshops, plus daily support and monthly coaching calls to help you hone your CFO skills.

About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Consultant + Freelance CFO with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.

Food Business Financials, Profitable Food Business, Financial Success FormulaSarah DelevanDecember 28, 2020Sarah Delevan Consulting, Profitable food business, Solid Financial Foundation, Profitability Roadmap, Maximizing Profitability, Profit Plan, Food Costs, The Financial Success FormulaComment

Why You Should Stop Chasing Industry Standards

I have been working to bust the “30% Food Cost” and other ‘industry standard’ MYTHS for years.

Good news: progress is being made and the result is an increase in profitable food businesses all across the country!

Why am I so passionate about this?

Simply put: Industry Standards are a danger to your profitability, period.

Partially because the “standards” are for restaurants, NOT CPG Brands, Meal Delivery, Catering or Wholesale businesses. Partially because they are old and outdated. Mostly because industry standards are taken out of context and not incorporated into a holistic approach to building a profitable food business.

That’s right, I said it. HOLISTIC.

The parts of your business don’t operate in a vacuum...

...They are all interconnected
…Each must hit its goal
...They must work together to produce a profitable outcome.

Your business must be viewed as a whole.

30% Labor Costs might be the right goal for your business!
IF your other costs total less than 70%.
If they total more, hitting a 30% labor cost will result in monthly losses instead of profits.

One member of the Financial Success Formula program joined with a 25% labor cost and struggled with cash flow + financial sustainability

Another hits 38% labor costs and is consistently profitable!

Let go of industry standards and find the RIGHT MIX of revenue + cost targets for YOUR business.

READY TO GET STARTED?

Get the control and confidence you need as a business owner and get your Profit Assessment to identify WHERE your business is on the road to profitability, and the next steps you can take to find the right targets for your business.

About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. and the host of the Good Food CFO Podcast. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.

Food Cost StrategiesSarah DelevanSeptember 14, 2020Sarah Delevan Consulting, profitability roadmap, Profitable Food Business, Build a Profitable Food Business, food business financial consultant, Food business Consultant, Food business industry standards, Food Costs, Food Cost Myths, Food Industry Standards, Revenue and Cost Targets, CPG Brands, Good Food CFO, Food Cost Consultant, Financial Success FormulaComment

The Financial Success Formula

I get asked all the time…

How do I calculate the right price for my products?
What’s the right target number for my Cost of Goods Sold?
How can I make sure that my food business is profitable?

My answer...

Find Your Financial Success Formula!

No two CPG Brands, Wholesale Businesses, Manufacturers, Caterers, or Meal Delivery Businesses have the same ingredient costs, labor costs, or operating costs.

Your products may be similar.
Your suppliers could be the same.
But, your Financial Success Formula is all your own.

…it is the key to helping you find financial success in your food business.

Want to learn more?

Tune in to the most popular episode of The Conversation Series to learn:

What the Financial Success Formula is
How to identify YOUR formula
Why knowing your formula is critical to your success
How you can use your formula to price your products, set budgets + more

Click here to listen now.

Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.

Resources + Tools, Financial Success FormulaSarah DelevanSeptember 7, 2020Sarah Delevan Consulting, Food business Consultant, food business financial consultant, food business accounting, Food Costs, Financial Success Formula, CPG, Caterers, Meal Delivery Business, Conversation Series, Wholesale Food Business, Food ManufacturesComment

The #1 Thing You Can Do to Take Control of Your Food Costs TODAY

Food Costs play a BIG role in the success and profitability of your food business.

But time and time again I meet business owners who have…
...cost out their products for the launch of their business and never revisit their calculations again
...never cost out their products
...not paid attention to what their Food Costs are month-to-month.

They have no idea what their TRUE food costs are!
And the result is low profit margins, inconsistent financial outcomes, and cash flow trouble.

Here’s the GOOD NEWS:
Understanding your food costs, setting the right targets, and hitting them consistently isn’t hard, and you can get started TODAY.

In this video I share the #1… only takes a few minutes… BUSINESS CHANGING thing you can do today to Better Understand + Start Controlling Your Food Costs.

It’s the very thing that helped one of my program members identify that her Food Costs were 60% - that means 60% of revenue went directly to making her products, and just 40% was left to cover operating + labor expenses. It became easy to see why she was experiencing consistent losses.

Another member discovered he had average Food Costs of 93%! He was floored, and truly had no idea!

A third member discovered his food costs ranged from 18-35% during any given month and the large swings were playing a BIG part in his cash flow issues

Follow the simple 2-step process to gain a better understanding of your food costs, start saving money and improve your profitability!

About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.