Run · Ongoing support
Restaurant and bar turnaround support
For independent restaurants, bars, chiringuitos, and cafés that are busy, tired, and still not making money.
€595 a month, plus IVA. Six-month minimum.
What can you do if your restaurant or bar is losing money?
Start by finding out where the money is going, before you cut anything. In the independent venues I have worked with, it usually leaks through four places: food and drink margins that have drifted, labour that no longer matches trade, service that changes with whoever is on shift, and an owner doing too many jobs to see any of it. Fix the numbers first, then the systems, then the habits. Cutting blind usually makes it worse.
Run is how I do that with you. It is Atelier Sawyer's monthly turnaround service for independent hospitality businesses across Spain: an intensive first month to find the problems, then a working day a month to fix them and keep them fixed.
Does this sound familiar?
- You are busy, but the bank balance does not reflect it.
- August pays for the year, and by February it has run out.
- Your food and drink costs have crept up, and you are not sure where.
- The rota is built on habit rather than on trade.
- Service is good when you are there and patchy when you are not.
- A key member of staff has left, and the gap is still open.
- The IVA quarter, the Seguridad Social, or the next rise in the convenio feels like a cliff edge.
- You cannot remember the last day off you did not spend on your phone.
If three or more of those are true, the venue is not failing; the system around it is. That can be fixed.
How Run works
Month one: finding the leaks
The first four weeks are intensive. I go through your numbers line by line: sales, food and drink cost, labour, waste, and the overheads nobody has questioned since you opened. I watch a service as a guest before I introduce myself, because a room tells you things a spreadsheet cannot. I talk to your team, front and back of house, in English or Spanish. One visit in person is included in the first month. Within Málaga province, so is the travel; further afield, travel and accommodation are charged at cost, agreed with you before anything is booked.
By the end of the month you have a written plan: what is wrong, what it is costing you, and the order we will fix it in.
Months two to six: fixing it
After that, Run settles at about a working day a month, spent where it is needed most. Some months that is a menu re-cost and a supplier review. Others, it is building a rota that matches trade through the season, or coaching a manager who was promoted for being a brilliant waiter and never shown how to lead.
Between sessions you can reach me by WhatsApp or email, seven days a week, public holidays included; if you are trading, so am I. Between 08:00 and 21:00, WhatsApp messages get a reply within four hours and emails the same day; anything later gets a reply from 08:00 the next morning. If something goes wrong on the day of service, mark it urgent and I will call you back within two hours. Each month we look at the same handful of numbers, so you can see whether things are moving. So can I.
After six months
Run continues month to month, with 30 days' notice, for as long as it is useful. Some clients stay; others leave with a business that runs without them. Either is a good result.
What is included
- An intensive first month: a line-by-line review of the numbers, a service observed as a guest, conversations with your team, and a written turnaround plan
- About one working day a month after that, on site or remote
- A monthly review of the numbers that matter: gross profit on food and drink, labour as a share of sales, prime cost, and cash
- Menu costing and pricing, supplier and stock review, rota design, and manager coaching, as the plan requires
- WhatsApp and email between sessions, seven days a week
- Templates and checklists that stay with you, whether or not you stay with me
What changes, and how you will know
I will not promise you a number before I have seen your books; anyone who does is guessing. What I will promise is that we measure the same things every month, in plain sight, and that you will know within the first month whether the plan is realistic.
The aim is simple: a venue that makes money all year, a team that holds standards without you watching, and an owner who gets a day off.
Why work with me
I have spent more than 30 years in restaurants, cafés, bars, pubs, and nightclubs, as an owner and as an operator, in London and on the Costa del Sol. I have turned round venues that others had written off, including the Sun Inn in London, which grew from £10,000 to £800,000 in annual turnover within thirty months. I have also lost it all: in 2013, a lease clause I had signed at 26 cost me the Sun Inn, and the two pubs it had been quietly carrying went with it. That is why I look at the whole business, not just the site that is struggling, and why I read every lease as though it could close you.
What Run costs
€595 a month, plus IVA. Six-month minimum, then monthly with 30 days' notice. The intensive first month is billed at the same rate as every other month.
Prices are shown without IVA, which is added at 21%. If your business is registered for IVA, you can normally deduct it on your return.
Moving on from Plan? You skip the intensive month; I already know the business.
Run is not right for everyone
- If you cannot pay your debts as they fall due, or you are behind with Hacienda, the Seguridad Social, or your landlord, speak to your gestor and a lawyer who handles insolvency first. I can work alongside them; I cannot replace them.
- If you need someone to run your shifts, you need an encargado or general manager, not a consultant. I can help you hire and train one.
- If you want a report to put in a drawer, I am the wrong person. Run only works if we change things.
Not sure yet?
If you are not sure what is wrong, or whether Run is the right fit, start with a Hospitality Health Check. It costs €347 and shows you where the money is going, and what to fix first. If you start Run within 30 days, the €347 comes off your first month.
Frequently asked questions
We are busy every night, so why is there no money in the bank?
Usually because the money leaks where a busy night hides it: margins that have drifted with supplier prices, a rota built for last year's trade, drinks on the house and discounts nobody counts, and costs nobody has questioned since you opened. Busy only pays when each cover earns enough. Start with prime cost: food, drink, and labour together, as a share of sales. A Health Check finds where yours is going.
How do I make a good summer last through the winter?
Plan the winter in spring, not in November. Work out what a quiet month costs you to open, then decide which days and hours still pay, and close or shorten the rest. Agree winter hours with your team early, and put the summer's surplus aside before it is spent. Then give locals a reason to come in the quiet months. A seasonal venue makes money over the year, not every month.
How do I know whether my business is worth saving, or whether it is time to close?
Ask three questions. Does the business make money in a normal month, before its debts? Is there a clear reason it does not, which you can fix? And can you afford the time to fix it? If all three answers are no, closing well is better than closing late. If you cannot pay your debts as they fall due, speak to an insolvency lawyer now: in Spain, you have two months to apply for a concurso de acreedores.
I cannot pay this quarter's IVA. What do I do first?
File the modelo 303 on time anyway, and ask for an aplazamiento in the same filing. For debts of up to €50,000, the Agencia Tributaria usually grants it without a guarantee, spreading the payment over months. Tell your gestor the same day. IRPF withheld from your staff's wages usually cannot be deferred, so pay that first. Then find out why the money was not there, because an IVA bill you cannot pay is a symptom, not the problem.
My wage bill has gone up again. How do I cut labour without wrecking service?
The convenio sets your rates, so the saving is in hours, not pay. Pull sales by hour from your till for the last eight weeks, and staff to that, with your strongest people on your busiest hours. Trim the dead hours at either end of service before you cut people, and use fijo discontinuo contracts to match the season. Then fill the quiet hours with prep, cleaning, and training.
Talk it through
A free 30-minute call will tell us both whether Run is the right fit. If it is not, I will say so, and I will tell you what I would do instead.