Falling in Love with Your Numbers

Use data to identify and highlight your most profitable offerings

As a self-proclaimed creative and the visionary of my business, I’ve often said, “I am not a numbers girl!” or “I am not great at math.” But as I’ve become more free from the daily operations of my restaurant, I find myself looking at my business through a very different lens.

With rising costs, staffing shortages and economic uncertainty challenging our industry, I’m leaning on something I used to avoid – the numbers. It used to be that I was present for every lunch and dinner rush. I could tell which menu items were popular just by watching what was coming out of the expo window. I could estimate our hourly sales within $50 – impressive, yes, but not uncommon. Many of us can do that. We know what a $2,000 hour feels like.

I’m also lucky to have a business partner and CFO who puts most accountants to shame. Between Eric and our GM, we’ve always had a rock-solid handle on our key financial reports and KPIs. So, for a long time, I thought I didn’t need to concern myself with the numbers. Spoiler: I was wrong.

What happens when we’re no longer on-site all day, every day?

What happens when we need to lead from the office – or from 10,000 feet?

In the absence of putting out the fires of daily operations, our brains look for something to fill the space. Sometimes that “something” is just noise – all the fear, uncertainty and overwhelm fighting for our attention. Cost of goods. Labor. The economy. Political turmoil. And sometimes that noise is so loud, our gut can’t be trusted. It’s too knotted up to give us a clear signal.

When we give in to that noise blindly, we risk telling ourselves stories that aren’t true – creating problems that doesn’t exist or chasing the wrong solutions altogether.

In the past, when anxiety would hit, my instinct was to hit the cook line. I’d create a new recipe, toss some dough around, or dive into some creative project. But as my business grew, I realized my creativity needed direction. Creativity without data leads to bloated menus (guilty), too many projects and too many cool ideas that we can’t actually execute. I was overwhelming my team and myself, if I am being honest.

That’s when I discovered the power of numbers.

Numbers don’t lie. They paint a picture that fear, worry or even the evening news can’t distort. When my mind starts spinning, numbers bring me back to earth. They show me where to focus, where to direct my energy – and often, they reveal that the thing I was worried about … isn’t even a problem.

Pizzeria Back Office Reports to Explore

Here are just a few of my favorite reports in our back-office system (names may vary depending on your platform):

• Menu Item Performance Report – YES PLEASE!

• Product Mix Report – Of course!

• Takeout Sales (Online vs. Phone) – Isn’t it interesting how online orders have a higher check average than orders taken by a human?

• Takeout vs. Dine-in Sales – Do I finally need to offer delivery?

• Labor, Retention and Turnover Reports – Turns out turnover is down 11% from last year. That changes my whole outlook.

After I’ve finished digging through my own numbers, I hand them off to Massimo – my AI assistant, whom I’ve taught to think like a CFO, business coach, marketing strategist and menu-engineering genius rolled into one. He knows everything about my business – from our mission statement to our menu, our guest reviews and sales analytics.

Together, we dig into item-level sales trends, analyze category-level product mix and model the impact of a strategic $1 increase on just one item – not a blanket hike, but a smart, surgical move.

From there, Massimo and I use the power of AI to benchmark my pricing against competitors – other full-service restaurants with full bars in my market segment. I know I’m hitting my COGS, but now I know if I’m competitively priced for my area. Am I underpriced? Overpriced? Right on the mark? Strategic pricing isn’t a guessing game anymore – it’s a competitive edge.

Yes, this ‘not a numbers girl’ has fallen in love with spreadsheets.

My favorite one? The Speakeasy Event Profitability Tracker. Hosting events like murder mystery dinners, concerts, comedy nights and magic shows is a blast. I genuinely love bringing live entertainment to Wholly Stromboli. But what I love even more is studying the stats to see which events are the most profitable.

Different shows bring different guest behaviors. Sometimes even the same guest acts differently depending on the event. At dueling pianos? Better have three bartenders – the cocktails flow all night. On the other hand, Spirits with Spirits – a night of ghost hunting and whisky flights – yields surprisingly lower bar sales. Same guest, different vibes.

From smart staffing to booking the right entertainers at the right price, those numbers give me a rock-solid game plan. They help me design events that aren’t just fun, they’re profitable. And isn’t that the goal?

As I reflect on those early days, I remember Eric handing me the P&L like it was a treasure map. I’d give it a two-second scan, see we were in the black, and hand it back with a casual, “Cool!” He’d look at me, half amused, half baffled. “Don’t you want to dig into it?” he’d ask, but back then, the numbers felt like a foreign language – something I didn’t need to concern myself with. I had my gut, and it was always spot on. And honestly? Eric’s numbers always matched what I felt and that was enough for me – at the time.

But now? I crave the story the numbers tell. What once felt like homework now feels like strategy, power and clarity. I fell in love with the numbers because I finally realized they’re not just math. They’re a mirror of our decisions, a pulse on our progress and the key to scaling smart.

So often in this industry, we trust our gut to make crucial decisions – and often, we’re right. But what if we backed up that gut instinct with data? What if we had facts to confirm what we already feel?

Turns out, facts and instincts make a pretty powerful couple.

MELISSA RICKMAN is co-founder of Wholly Stromboli in Fort Lupton, Colorado, and member of the World Pizza Champions.

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