Losing Money 24/7

[fml.slipky]

I really can't make any money. I price my dishes x3 more expensive than it's production value yet I still lose cash daily. Cleaning rules are on the least expensive option ($276 per day)
Reviews are alright but I can't get to make money. Help?

[OwNathan]

Check your stats in the Stats Panel, see what recipes are going nicely, what aren't. Also, be sure you aren't overstaffed and that you have enough tables to make some real profits. Create a few high quality but cheap custom recipes, so that you can really milk money with those!

[Moosegun]

It can be very tough getting the balance right, my first two restaurants went to the wall before I got it right. I focused on good solid cheap food, used a lot of furniture for ambience as it is a one off cost as opposed to cleaning etc. Worked my staff pretty hard to start with and went for a lot of tables. Now got an 124 seats which are pretty full all day, as busy times I have 40+ people getting moody outside because they cant get in. I did do a lot of work with custom recipes, when you work out what works with what you can create some excellent stuff.

[OwenMoney]

OwNathan, I appreciate this and previous responses regarding how to turn a profit in the game. I've followed the formula you mentioned a couple of months ago and still can't make any money.

My restaurant that just (essentially) went bankrupt had 24 tables, 3 chefs, 4 waiters, a relatively packed house every day, all recipes priced at 300%+ markup, no complaints about the prices or atmosphere and rave reviews about the food... yet the negative earnings just keep growing. My staff was working so hard that all but 3 quit. If you raise their wages to keep morale up, it just puts your further in debt.

The Decisions & Policies seem like the real profit killer. I think the game tips even say as much. I just don't see how you can keep your restaurant moderately clean and make money. If you do too little, your atmosphere gets trashed in the reviews. If you do just enough to keep customers happy, you bleed money.

Normally when I'm stumped like this by a game, I look to YouTube for someone doing a playthrough to see what they're doing, but so far there doesn't seem to be a lot of stuff out there on the game. I'd love to see an example of a successful restaurant in the game somewhere.

Other than me being a total failure, I am liking the game. Though re-doing the same recipes over and over every time I start over is becoming tedious.

[Moosegun]

My success came when I found a plot with pretty low rent but large space, so I could fit 124 seats in. I do agree about the cleaning policies, coming from a hopsitality background I cant bear the thought of stuff not being at least adequately cleaned.....

[OwNathan]

Originally posted by OwenMoney:

OwNathan, I appreciate this and previous responses regarding how to turn a profit in the game. I've followed the formula you mentioned a couple of months ago and still can't make any money.

My restaurant that just (essentially) went bankrupt had 24 tables, 3 chefs, 4 waiters, a relatively packed house every day, all recipes priced at 300%+ markup, no complaints about the prices or atmosphere and rave reviews about the food... yet the negative earnings just keep growing. My staff was working so hard that all but 3 quit. If you raise their wages to keep morale up, it just puts your further in debt.

The Decisions & Policies seem like the real profit killer. I think the game tips even say as much. I just don't see how you can keep your restaurant moderately clean and make money. If you do too little, your atmosphere gets trashed in the reviews. If you do just enough to keep customers happy, you bleed money.

Normally when I'm stumped like this by a game, I look to YouTube for someone doing a playthrough to see what they're doing, but so far there doesn't seem to be a lot of stuff out there on the game. I'd love to see an example of a successful restaurant in the game somewhere.

Other than me being a total failure, I am liking the game. Though re-doing the same recipes over and over every time I start over is becoming tedious.

Try to spend less on policies and more on decorations, that can be really helpful at the beginning of the game!

[_provector]

I have to agree with a friend here. Altough I only have 5 hours in game so far despite starting restaurant for the third time and using many tips its almost impossible to get any reasonable profit mine is mostly in range of 50 - 150 $ a week. Having spent hours on restaurant empire I remember it was much easier to make the money there. I'd suggest adding at least difficulty level, an easy for casual players would be great.

[freelancer909]

It does get (money) better. I agree on an easy mode for those with less time to devout to the game.

[DeadSilent]

You can go two different routes at the start. Either market your menu toward Vegans and Vegetarians or go for Blue Collar and Cheapskates. Cheapskates and Blue Collar Workers don't care as much about cleanliness as long as you have a decent amount of decorations, so you can save tons of money by not doing any cleaning policies at all.

Price your dishes based on the reviews. What I did was think about what these items would cost in a cheap restaurant and used that as a base. I kept an eye on how the reviews were rating my prices, and then I would keep raising them until I started taking a hit. Cheap items like bowls of tomato soup, you can sell for $5-$7 as Vegans and Vegetarians have high budgets. You can also get away with selling those cheap pasta dishes for 4 to 5 times what their ingredient costs are.
Find the threshold of how much your customers are willing to pay and dance on that line.

I don't recommend doing this, but I went a step further and did a spreadsheet to figure out how much per second my expenses were costing me. I factored that into the price based on how much time the dish took to prepare.

[CHOCOLATExPANDA]

Don't even consider cleaning options until you're making a good profit. Another thing to consider is upkeep. A cheap grill can cook 10 items for 30$ upkeep, but an expensive grill can cook 15 items for 55$ upkeep. If I only cook maybe 4 items MAX on my grill at a time, why would I need a bigger grill? Pay your employees less. Lower pay doesn't affect them negatively IF their morale remains high. If you work them to 0 energy, their morale takes a 100 point drop. Get them to high morale first, and then make sure they never work past 0 energy. If you can achieve that, you can get away with paying them minimum wage, as it doesn't affect their performance, and paying them more only increases morale (which you won't need by that point). If you're in a cheap starting area with lots of cheapskates, you do need to consider your prices, but refer to the comment above: continue to raise your prices until you witness a breaking point. Every day that your customers (mostly cheapskates) are satisfied with the price, add another dollar to every menu item. When you see all the cheapskates putting bad reviews because of price, you know that you need to lower it a little and that is the breaking point. In my personal first restaurant, I could add 5$ extra to every meal and the cheapskates are still happy. That means a table of 4 brings me a whole 20$ profit, and I'm making over $750 just starting (2 grill guys, 3 waitresses). Now that I'm making so much, I can afford more cleaning, equipment, etc.

[Moosegun]

The reason furniture is better than cleaning early game is that it is a one off fixed cost, rather than an ongoing monthly cost.

[OwNathan]

Originally posted by _provector:

I have to agree with a friend here. Altough I only have 5 hours in game so far despite starting restaurant for the third time and using many tips its almost impossible to get any reasonable profit mine is mostly in range of 50 - 150 $ a week. Having spent hours on restaurant empire I remember it was much easier to make the money there. I'd suggest adding at least difficulty level, an easy for casual players would be great.

We will try to add a difficulty level as soon as possible! In the meantime, try to limit your expenses maximizing the number of customers! I've seen many reports with people having only 6 tables, a big staff, or all cleaning policies maxed, but at the beginning of the game is not necessary to get all 5 stars reviews!

[Moosegun]

Agree with that, at the start it is about getting as many bums on seats with the lowest overheads.

Get a reasonably cheap venue, with space (mine is medium / medium @ £250 p/m)
Plenty of tables
Furniture > Cleaning
Get your prices as high as cheapskate with accept (slowly increase as popularity rises)

[DeadSilent]

My current restaurant can seat 72 people. I have a staff of 9 Chefs and 11 Waiters. I have all cleaning policies maxed. Half of my marketing is aimed to bring in White Collar, High and Low Budget families, and High and Low Budget Tourists while the other half is dedicated to turning away Gourmets and Foodies (who I can't please with my current menu and decor). Vegans and Vegetarians don't bother with me, as I don't have a menu that markets to them.

My Expenses per week are between $6,500-$9,600 depending on how much food gets cooked(raw ingredients) and how many customers I served. I'm still able to turn a profit between $1,900-4,000 with all of that going on and everyone stays at maxed morale. I currently have a 92% excellent rating with a 8% in Very Good.

I can't stress enough with the others here, that finding that threshold of how much your customers are willing to pay for things is a key element that will help through the entire game. Decorations will carry you through the early game and partially into the middle. You don't need to worry about cleaning policies until you start getting White Collar workers, Families, and Tourists.



1. Maximize prices on your menu items without losing too much score on your reviews. It's better to take a small hit on your rating if it helps keep the doors open.

2. Hire just enough staff to keep your workers from losing morale, even if they're at the breaking point at the end of every shift. If your staff are losing morale every shift, hire a new person to compensate instead of raising their salaries. The amount of morale gain per night from better pay doesn't matter if they're always getting a morale down at the end of every shift.

My rule of thumb when starting is 2 waiters and 1 chef per 6 tables. Of course these numbers change as they get more experienced.

3. Go all decorations at the start with zero cleaning policies. Bottom tier customers don't care about cleanliness.

4. Ignore marketing until you feel as if you're making enough money to afford it. Cleaning policies and too much marketing will break the bank fast.

Happy cooking!

[Moosegun]

Excellent and interesting approach, I have 124 seats, 6 chefs and 10 waiting staff. I have gone the other way, focusing on cheapskates whilst bringing building a menu for foodies which is also working very well for vegans, veggies, low income families and low tourists. My only marketing so far is turning away blue collar and white collar, as my custom menu items, whilst very tasty, are slower to cook. Like you I have found that pricing is keen, getting to the threshold that the cheapskate are 2/4 stars for price is key, they still give 4/5 stars due to everything else being spot on.

Staff, I focus on energy and specialisation, so i have some staff who focus on particular things, with a few jack of all trades supporting them. Making sure you rest your staff at quieter periods and rotate them through shift is also vital. I am yet to lose a member of staff.

Refreshing that we have taken slightly different routes but have both built successful businesses. I love seeing my restaurant full at bust times, with 40+ people moody outside because they cant get in. Very satisfying.

Tonight will see my full menu revamp, upping quality and price on all menu items and a massive marketing campaign to move from cheapskates to my real targets, really interested to see how this pans out.

[Part-Time Jesus]

Ignore cleaning and advertising for a while

Dont give your food away = if its $1.90 to make it, sell it for $6.00 or $5.00