How it works
A read of your business, delivered in seven stages.
We do not sell a platform. We deliver a reconciled, evidence-based read of your restaurant, then show you how to act on it. This is the method, in the order we work it.
The seven stages
What we do, in the order we do it.
Each stage is a specific piece of work with a specific output. Nothing depends on you switching POS systems, changing distributors, or handing over more data than you already have.
Stage 01
Trade-area lattice
We map where your guests come from and where you already show up when they search. That includes your Google Business Profile, your website, your marketplace listings, and the local queries that generate covers. This is the geography of your visibility, before we touch pricing.
Stage 02
Mirror scoreboard
We build an anonymized peer scoreboard for your protein-and-format cells. Your pulled pork by the pound goes into a cell with other operators of your type, in your region, at your service format. Peer identities are never disclosed. Cell minimums enforce that; we never show a comparison with fewer than five peers.
Stage 03
Demand Ledger
We test twelve local queries that matter for your category on the AI answer engines your guests actually use. The ones you win are logged. The ones you lose become a specific content backlog. This is not an SEO audit. It is a scoreboard of the questions your restaurant answers, and the ones it does not.
Stage 04
POS reconciliation
We reconcile your product mix against your food invoices. The output is a defensible blended food cost. Not a distributor average, not a category benchmark. Your number. We run a hard reconciliation test on the POS pull. If it fails, we tell you and we fix the export before we do any pricing work on top of it.
Stage 05
Opportunity Model
Five engines: ranged, capacity-capped, and compounding, never additive. Pricing and menu margin, off-peak, seasonality, catering, and AI visibility. Every input is exposed. Every assumption is labeled. If any engine cannot be sized without more data, we say so and move on. No point forecasts.
Stage 06
Wedge Proof
The intellectual-honesty gate. We include the evidence that supports the case and the evidence that refutes it. If your restaurant is already winning the visibility battle, we tell you and we do not sell you a visibility program. The Wedge Proof is what makes the rest of the read believable.
Stage 07
Diligence layer
Every stage above is documented in a twenty-two-page evidence appendix, with sources, methodology, and the raw exports we worked from. Your accountant, your consultant, or your next investor can read the whole thing without needing to talk to us. Nothing is buried.
What you never see in our work
Named competitors. Estimated numbers. Hidden assumptions.
Every peer comparison is a range with a five-restaurant minimum. Every competitor is anonymized. Every number is traceable to a source, or explicitly labeled as an assumption. The Wedge Proof exists so we can tell you when a stage does not support the case we came in with. If you have worked with a firm that would not do that, you already know why it matters.
Common questions
What operators ask before the Diagnostic.
Do I have to change POS systems?
No. Margin Lab is POS-agnostic. We work with Toast, Aloha, Square, Clover, and SpotOn. If you are on something else, tell us in the first call and we will tell you honestly whether we can work with it.
How long does the Diagnostic take?
Roughly two to three weeks from the day your POS export and PFG invoices are in our hands. Two calls, one delivery meeting. Most of the time is on our side, not yours.
Do you need to see my books?
No. We only need product mix from your POS, food invoices from your primary distributor, and access to your public marketing surfaces: your website, Google Business Profile, and marketplace listings. Nothing about labor, rent, or full P&L is in scope for the Diagnostic.
What if the read shows I am already doing well?
We tell you, in writing, and we do not sell you a program you do not need. The Wedge Proof stage exists to force that answer if the evidence supports it.
Who sees the results?
You do. Your team does, if you invite them. If you accepted a PFG Growth Grant, your PFG rep sees the dashboard read but never your invoices or your P&L. Nothing crosses between operators. Peer ranges are the only place your data ever appears outside your own account, and it is anonymized to the cell.
Can I get out of Margin Watch?
Any time, month to month, no annual minimum. If you want to hand your dashboard off to another firm, we make the data available in a portable format. We do not lock you in.
The next step
Twenty minutes to see whether Margin Lab reads your restaurant the way we described here.
We do not sell a platform on the first call. We ask questions, we look at what your public surfaces already show, and we tell you whether a Diagnostic is worth your time. If it is not, we say so.