---
title: 077 Rules of Thumb Are Not a Strategy
description: "### The Demand Before you plan tomorrow's labor or food cost target, throw out the industry rule of thumb — the 30% labor, the 28% food cost — and check it against your own actual numbers and outcomes instead. Those…"
url: "https://kb.jeffreysummers.com/docs/077-rules-of-thumb-are-not-a-strategy-2/"
updated: "2026-07-30"
category: Perspective / Perspective Fieldbook
---

# 077 Rules of Thumb Are Not a Strategy

### The Demand

Before you plan tomorrow's labor or food cost target, throw out the industry rule of thumb — the 30% labor, the 28% food cost — and check it against your own actual numbers and outcomes instead. Those benchmarks are survivorship-bias averages, not a strategy for your specific building.

### The Work

Name the industry rule of thumb you currently plan to:
☐ Labor at 30%
☐ Food cost at 28%
☐ Other:
Throw it out. Check your own actual numbers instead:
Your actual number:
Your actual outcome (Guest experience, retention, margin) at that number:
What is specific to your building that the industry composite cannot capture — your lease, your labor market, your menu pricing, your Guest?
The number you will build from your own outcomes, not someone else's average: