Office Hours: Events Are Fake Marketing

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter, more successful businesses.

In this episode, I dive into how to turn restaurant events into true profit centers instead of simple marketing stunts. I explain why events should be treated as products with clear margins and measurable results, and how that mindset shift can transform your bottom line. I walk through the systems I use to plan, price, and evaluate events so they drive both revenue and brand loyalty.
 
Takeaways

• Events should make money twice: at the ticket sale and through repeat customers.
• A great event is a product with a defined cost and profit margin.
• Hope is not a strategy; measurement is essential for success.
• Predictability in events leads to increased profitability.
• Full rooms do not guarantee profit; focus on fat margins instead.
• Every event should have a clear conversion goal.
• Delete 'awareness' from marketing vocabulary; prioritize revenue.
• Audit past events to understand profitability.
• Create a 12-month event calendar with repeatable, profitable events.
• Reprice events for margin, not just fill rate.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Restaurant Marketing Strategies

01:50 Transforming Events into Profit Centers

05:44 Actionable Steps for Event Profitability

If you’ve got a marketing or profitability related question for me, email me directly at [e-mail] and include Office Hours in the subject line. If you'd like to scale the profitability of your restaurant in only 5 days, sign up for our FREE 5 Day Restaurant Profitability Challenge by visiting https://joshkopel.com.