Running a business in Britain, page 6
246 articles on what it actually takes to run a business in Britain: VAT, staff, rent, rates, tenants, stock and sites. From the studio that simulates it.
- Selective licensing, and the council that changes the rules. A council designates one ward, and every rental property in it needs a licence with conditions attached. The fee is not the problem. The conditions and the penalties are.
- Twenty properties is a job, not an investment. Three properties is a hobby. Twenty is a job with a compliance calendar, a maintenance backlog and a phone that rings on Christmas Eve. Here is where the transition actually happens.
- The food hygiene rating and what actually loses you a point. Three things get scored and only one of them is about food. Most points are lost on structure and on whether the inspector believes you can keep it up.
- Menu engineering, and the dish that is quietly losing money. Your bestseller may be your worst dish. Plot every item by how often it sells and how much cash it makes, and the menu tells you what to do with each one.
- Covers, turns and the maths of a full room. A full dining room is not the same as a profitable one. Turn times, the second sitting and spend per head decide whether sixty covers pays the wages.
- Food cost percentage, and the waste nobody records. Your recipes say 28%. Your stocktake says 34%. The six points in between are sitting in a bin, a staff supper and a portion nobody weighed.
- What happens when the EHO turns up. There is no appointment. An officer arrives mid-service, asks to see the walk-in, and what happens next depends entirely on what you can show them within ten minutes.
- Hospitality turnover is the cost nobody puts in the budget. A chef hands in notice on a Tuesday and the bill starts running that afternoon. Most of it never reaches a line in your accounts.
- Your kitchen layout is a limit on your takings. Your dining room seats seventy. Your kitchen serves fifty five on a good night. The gap is measured in walking distance.
- What a half star is worth. A half star on Google is not a vanity metric. It moves bookings, and a bad fortnight can sit in your average for two years.
- Getting and keeping a premises licence. The licence is not a form. It is a set of conditions you will live with for years, written partly by your neighbours and the police.
- Supplier terms, and the discount that is not one. The three percent your supplier offered for paying in seven days is not a discount. It is you lending them money at a rate you would never accept.
- What it costs to open a café. The equipment list is the part everyone budgets for, and the part that rarely goes wrong. It is the twelve weeks afterwards that empties the account.
- The economics of a British pub. Beer margin pays the rent and food pays the wages, until food stops paying the wages. The tie decides which problem you have.
- Tips, service charge and the law that changed. Since October 2024 tips must reach staff in full. The written policy is not optional, and a worker can ask to see your records.
- Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR, and which one lies to you. A hotel that sold every room last night can still have had a worse night than the one next door that sold half. One number tells you which.
- Dynamic rates, and the Tuesday that is not a Saturday. A Tuesday in February and a Saturday in June are not the same product. Charging one price for both is a decision, and usually an expensive one.
- The commission you pay for a booking you nearly had. Commission looks like a tax on bookings you would have had anyway. Sometimes it is. Working out which ones is worth more than the argument.