What Does It Really Cost You to Make and Sell Food?

Are You Selling Plenty of Food but Still Wondering Where the Money Went?

Orders can be coming in, customers can be happy, and your kitchen can be busy all month — yet there may still be surprisingly little money left in the bank.

That is one of the most common problems facing small food entrepreneurs.

A meal may contain R40 worth of ingredients and sell for R100, making it look as though you earned R60.

But what happened to the cost of the container?

The electricity?

Your time?

Delivery?

Food that spoiled?

An oversized portion?

The packaging?

Equipment that eventually needs replacing?

Once those costs are included, the apparent profit can become much smaller. The book specifically addresses this gap between money received and money actually earned.

What Does It Really Cost You to Make and Sell Food? is a practical guide for South Africans who want to stop guessing and start understanding the real numbers behind their food business.

What You Will Learn

The book takes you step by step through the major costs involved in producing and selling food.

You will learn how to:

• Cost Ingredients Properly – Calculate the cost of the exact quantity used rather than simply using the purchase price.
• Measure Yield – Understand why the quantity you buy is not always the quantity you can actually sell.
• Cost a Batch – Calculate the real cost of a complete production run and divide it across sellable units.
• Control Portions – See how small increases in meat, rice, sauce or other components can quietly reduce profit.
• Include Packaging – Account for containers, lids, labels, bags, boxes, seals, napkins and cutlery.
• Value Your Labour – Give a realistic cost to preparation, cooking, packing, cleaning and owner time.
• Include Utilities – Allocate electricity, gas, water, refrigeration and other production costs.
• Measure Waste – Identify spoilage, overproduction, unsold products, damaged packaging and portion creep.
• Cost Delivery and Selling – Include fuel, vehicle costs, couriers, card fees, delivery platforms and commissions.
• Recover Overheads – Build rent, insurance, accounting, software, marketing and other business costs into the bigger picture.
• Allow for Equipment – Make provision for maintenance, repairs and eventual replacement of ovens, mixers, freezers and other equipment.
• Calculate True Product Cost – Bring all the individual costs together into one complete figure.
• Move From Cost to Price – Understand mark-up, margin, contribution, customer value and commercially sensible pricing.
• Assess Wholesale Opportunities – Calculate whether supplying retailers, resellers or distributors can actually work financially.
• Identify Profitable Products – Find out which products deserve to grow and which may need to be improved, repriced or discontinued.
• Respond to Rising Costs – Develop a systematic response when meat, dairy, cooking oil, packaging, electricity, fuel or labour become more expensive.
• Build a Costing System – Create an ongoing routine instead of costing products once and forgetting about them.

The book spans the full journey from basic product costing to margins, VAT awareness, wholesale viability, product profitability and ongoing cost control.

Who This Book Is For

This guide is particularly useful for:

• Home Food Entrepreneurs – People cooking and selling food from a home kitchen.
• Bakers – Home bakers, small bakeries and baked-goods businesses.
• Caterers – Entrepreneurs preparing food for private, corporate and community events.
• Takeaway Businesses – Small takeaway and meal-preparation businesses.
• Food Truck Operators – Mobile food businesses that must manage fuel, gas, packaging and site costs.
• Restaurant and Café Owners – Small operators wanting stronger control over portions, labour, waste and margins.
• Small Food Processors – Producers of sauces, preserves, frozen meals, rusks and other packaged foods.
• Market Traders – Entrepreneurs selling food at markets, pop-ups and events.
• Aspiring Food Entrepreneurs – Anyone considering a food business and wanting to understand the numbers before setting prices.

The guide was specifically written for food entrepreneurs who may be working hard and generating sales while still struggling to understand why so little profit remains.

What is included

The eBook includes practical supporting resources covering:

• Recipe Costing Worksheet
• Ingredient Unit Cost Calculator
• Batch Costing Worksheet
• Portion Costing Worksheet
• Packaging Cost Checklist
• Labour Costing Worksheet
• Waste and Spoilage Log
• Monthly Overhead Worksheet
• True Product Cost Worksheet
• Selling Price and Margin Calculator
• Supplier Price Comparison Sheet
• Product Profitability Review
• Monthly Cost Review Checklist
• 30-Day Costing Action Plan

The published book includes a dedicated Supporting Resources section following the 23 core chapters.

Key product benefits

• Know Your Real Cost – Move beyond ingredient-only costing.
• Price With More Confidence – Understand the relationship between cost, margin and selling price.
• Find Hidden Losses – Identify waste, oversized portions, delivery costs and unpaid owner labour.
• Protect Your Margin – Recognise rising costs before they quietly remove profit.
• Make Better Product Decisions – See which products deserve more attention and which may be draining the business.
• Build a Repeatable System – Use practical tools rather than relying on memory or guesswork.

Product-page pull quote

“The business may be selling. But is it earning? Those are not the same thing.”