The #1 reason restaurants aren't profitable. #restaurantcoach #restaurantprofits #restaurantmistakes

17 Jul 2025 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:20

Short YouTube clip (Donald Burns) arguing the primary reason restaurants aren't profitable is that owners/operators "don't know their numbers" and therefore try superficial fixes (adding more menu items, marketing more, or changing staffing) instead of addressing financials and focus. The dialogue highlights the mistaken belief that a bigger menu or trying to be everything to everybody will improve profits.

You think is the biggest problem you see with restaurants when it comes to profitability?
I just think people don't know their numbers and they don't know how to tackle it. They just think, I'm not making profit. Let me add more items to the.
Menu, or I just need to market.
More, or I got to be in the back cooking because the cooks aren't doing a good job and the food isn't good, and I gotta. I gotta make it better. People are just adding more stuff to the menu. Yeah.
They think a bigger menu is going to be better because we need to be more.
We need to be everything.
To everybody.
Yes. Yes. But the thing is, people don't know how to read their numbers. They don't know what a piano is. They don't know how to read a piano. They don't know prime cost. And I think that's the biggest problem, because once you. Once you educate yourself on that, and it's super hard to do unless you have a coach. And once you learn how to do that, then you can pinpoint what the issue is and you can fix it really quick.