In the P&L post I published recently, I made a point about labour costs that I want to come back to. I said that every owner-operator should include their own salary in the labour line of the P&L. I also said that many don't pay themselves a proper salary at all, and that I think that's a mistake. This is the longer version of why. The pattern I keep seeing Most owner-operators I've worked with, particularly those running smaller independent cafés, pubs and restaurants, don't

If you run a café, pub or restaurant and you don't have a clear picture of your profit and loss, you're flying blind. The P&L is the tool I come back to more than any other. Whether I'm building a business case for a new operation or analysing an existing one to understand where the problems are, it's where I start. In my experience, it's where most operators should start too, but many don't, because the whole thing feels intimidating. It doesn't need to be. Real P&L accounts