Beyond the Numbers
The Four Numbers That Tell the Story of Your Food Business
If you own a food business, it’s easy to become consumed by the day-to-day demands of production, deliveries, customers, staffing, and endless to-do lists. At the end of the week, you glance at your numbers and either feel encouraged—or discouraged.
But the numbers themselves aren’t the goal.
They’re clues.
At OtherFoods Kitchen, we encourage members to think beyond the numbers and understand what each one is trying to tell you. Our software focuses on four core measurements because, together, they reveal the health of almost every food business.
1. Revenue
Are people buying what you’re selling?
Revenue is the easiest number to understand, but it’s often the hardest to interpret correctly.
A growing revenue number is exciting—but it doesn’t always mean your business is becoming healthier.
Ask yourself:
- Which products are generating the sales?
- Are those products actually profitable?
- Are new customers finding you?
- Are existing customers buying more often?
- Is your average order increasing?
Sometimes a 20% increase in revenue comes from one large wholesale account that barely covers its costs. Other times, it comes from a new product with excellent margins.
Revenue answers “How much are we selling?”
The next numbers answer “Was it worth it?”
2. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
What did it cost to make those sales?
COGS is the direct cost of producing your products:
- Ingredients
- Packaging
- Labels
- Direct production supplies
Every recipe tells a story.
If your chocolate chip cookie suddenly costs 12% more to produce, something changed.
Maybe:
- Butter prices increased.
- Portion sizes drifted.
- Packaging became more expensive.
- Waste increased.
- A supplier raised prices.
These changes often happen gradually, making them difficult to notice until profitability disappears.
COGS isn’t just an accounting number.
It’s your production report card.
Healthy food businesses constantly ask:
- Can we reduce waste?
- Can we buy smarter?
- Should we adjust pricing?
- Is there a better supplier?
- Can we standardize recipes more effectively?
Small improvements in COGS often create larger profit increases than chasing additional sales.
3. Labor
How efficiently are we producing?
Labor is usually the second-largest expense for most food businesses.
Many owners assume labor simply means payroll.
It doesn’t.
Labor measures how efficiently your business converts employee time into finished products and satisfied customers.
Questions worth asking include:
- Are employees spending time on high-value work?
- Are schedules aligned with production?
- Are bottlenecks slowing everyone down?
- Is training reducing mistakes?
- Could one improvement save hours every week?
Sometimes the solution isn’t fewer employees.
Sometimes it’s better systems.
The most successful kitchens don’t necessarily have the smallest payroll.
They have the most productive payroll.
4. Expenses
Where is the rest of the money going?
Expenses include everything required to keep the business running:
- Rent
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Marketing
- Equipment
- Software
- Office supplies
- Repairs
- Vehicle costs
- Professional services
Many of these costs are fixed.
Some grow quietly over time.
Every few months, review each expense with one simple question:
“Would I buy this again today?”
If the answer is no, it may be time to renegotiate, replace, or eliminate it.
Expenses should support growth—not simply become habits.
Looking Beyond Individual Numbers
Each number tells part of the story.
Together, they tell you what’s really happening.
For example:
- Revenue is increasing…
- COGS is increasing even faster…
- Labor is staying flat…
- Expenses are stable…
That likely points to a production or pricing issue.
Or perhaps:
- Revenue is flat…
- COGS is improving…
- Labor is improving…
- Expenses are unchanged…
Even without higher sales, your business may actually be becoming stronger and more profitable.
The relationships between the numbers often matter more than the numbers themselves.
Ask Better Questions
Every week, spend a few minutes asking:
- Revenue: What generated our sales this week?
- COGS: Did anything become more expensive?
- Labor: Where did we gain—or lose—efficiency?
- Expenses: Is every dollar helping us grow?
Over time, these questions create better decisions, and better decisions create healthier businesses.
Food for Thought
The goal isn’t to chase bigger numbers.
The goal is to understand what the numbers are trying to teach you.
When you learn to look beyond the numbers, you’re no longer just tracking your business—you’re managing it with purpose.
OtherFoods Kitchen believes the best food businesses aren’t built on guesswork. They’re built one informed decision at a time. Our software tracks Revenue, COGS, Labor, and Expenses because these four numbers form the foundation of smarter operations, healthier profits, and sustainable growth.