For my last few positions, I've been focused on working with restaurants and trying to build technology to help them run their business more effectively. The d

For my last few positions, I've been focused on working with restaurants and trying to build technology to help them run their business more effectively. The dirty secret about the restaurant industry is that most independent restaurants are very close to bankruptcy and the people running it often do not know that until it's too late. There was a thread a few days ago about the true cost of making hardware devices often being less than 30% of the retail price. From a business perspective, the same should apply to every item on your menu as well. Except more often than not, the person running the restaurant often has no idea how much a meal costs to serve. The real issue is that people start restaurants not because they want to run a business, but because they like food. In a way it is a good thing that they don't approach it with a capitalist mindset, as I don't thing we'd have the same variety of food if everyone did, but more often than not they are running blind and just hoping for the best. They put in long hours and a lot of their own capital, and if they are lucky they can survive a few years by being able to pay their staff, suppliers and rent, and finally being able to afford to pay themselves enough to personally survive on.