Right. I didn't say, suggest, or believe that the extra cost of restaurant food was due just or mostly to the initial, one-time costs of the startup. Instead

Right. I didn't say, suggest, or believe that the extra cost of restaurant food was due just or mostly to the initial, one-time costs of the startup. Instead I wrote > all before hiring any workers to get the food ready for customers. So, those are the on-going costs you illustrated. Also my main lament and summary remark was quite general covering both times and categories of small businesses: > I like to think of current progress in computing and the Internet technology as keys to greater economic productivity, but tough to see easy applications of this technology to the context of the OP, other restaurants, many small businesses, etc. Sure, small gains in "economic productivity" are visible, so I would revise that lament to "tough to see the desired big gains ...."