Opening a Restaurant in 2025? Here’s How to Beat Rising Costs

If you’re a chef, café owner or hospitality entrepreneur planning to open a restaurant in 2025, you’re entering one of the most dynamic — and demanding — eras in hospitality. With rising food costs, staff shortages and shrinking profit margins, running a venue successfully now demands more than great food and customer service.

The good news? With the right tech stack, you can stay ahead of the curve. In this article, we’ll break down the biggest challenges facing new restaurants in 2025 — and explain why combining Square’s Hospitality Point-of-Sale system with the FoodByUs Ordering and Menu Costing Platform is the smartest way to reduce your cost of goods, increase profit margins and streamline operations from day one.

The 2025 Hospitality Landscape: What You’re Up Against

1. Rising Cost of Goods (COGS)

From fresh produce to pantry staples, prices are continuing to climb across the board. Inflation, freight issues and global supply chain disruptions have pushed up costs for hospitality operators — making it harder than ever to protect margins.

2. Ongoing Staff Shortages

The hospitality labour market hasn’t bounced back to pre-COVID levels. Skilled staff are scarce, wages are rising, and teams are often stretched thin — leaving owners to wear multiple hats just to stay afloat.

3. Low Margins, High Expectations

Whether you’re opening a restaurant in Sydney or a café in Melbourne, diners expect great value — and competitors are everywhere. There’s little room for inefficiency, waste or manual processes. Automation and data are no longer optional.

How to Open a Restaurant in 2025 and Protect Your Profits

The two most critical systems every venue needs from day one? A hospitality-grade point-of-sale system and a smart wholesale ordering platform. Here’s how Square and FoodByUs make the perfect pairing.

1. Lower your COGS & Order Smarter with FoodByUs

FoodByUs is Australia’s leading wholesale ordering platform for the hospitality industry, used by thousands of venues to streamline their supply chain and reduce costs.

✅ Compare Live Pricing Across 4,000+ Suppliers

From fruit & veg to dairy, meat and dry goods, FoodByUs lets you view and compare pricing in real time — ensuring you’re always getting a competitive deal.

✅ Track Supplier Price Changes

Use built-in Price Tracking tools to monitor fluctuations over time and spot when key ingredients are becoming more expensive — helping you adjust menus and supplier choices accordingly.

✅ Centralised Ordering for the Whole Team

Say goodbye to messy spreadsheets, text messages and phone calls. FoodByUs enables consistent, trackable ordering from one central platform — saving time and avoiding errors.

✅ Designed for Aussie Hospo

Built for Australian restaurants by hospitality experts, FoodByUs offers real local support and understands the unique challenges faced by venue owners down under.

2. Optimise Menu Profitability with FoodByUs Menu Costing

One of the most powerful features of the FoodByUs platform is its Menu Costing tool — which integrates directly with Square POS to help you understand the true cost of every dish on your menu.

📈 Automatically Link Sales & Ingredient Costs

The integration with Square pulls in real-time sales data, matching it with your ingredient spend so you can see exactly how profitable each menu item is — down to the cent.

📉 Reduce Waste and Cost Leakage

The system shows which dishes are underperforming or using ingredients that have spiked in price, so you can adjust portion sizes or replace components to improve your bottom line.

🍽 Build a Menu That’s Lean and Profitable

With insights from both Square and FoodByUs, you can design a smarter menu that reduces food waste, simplifies prep and drives more revenue per dish.

🔍 Stay Ahead of Price Fluctuations

Thanks to ongoing price tracking, the system will alert you when an item’s COGS increases — allowing you to take action before it eats into your profits.

In 2025, relying on manual spreadsheets or guesswork just won’t cut it. The FoodByUs Menu Costing Tool gives you a real-time, data-driven way to protect your profit margins.

3. Run Front-of-House Seamlessly with Square POS

Square for Restaurants is a modern, easy-to-use POS system built specifically for the hospitality industry.

✅ Fast, Flexible and Intuitive

Train staff in minutes, process orders lightning-fast and switch between dine-in, takeaway and delivery with ease. It’s built to match the speed of your service.

✅ Live Sales & Reporting Dashboard

Get real-time visibility into what’s selling, what’s profitable and how your venue is performing — with data you can act on instantly.

✅ Integrated Payments & Online Ordering

Accept card, mobile and QR payments seamlessly, and integrate online ordering and delivery without needing extra software or hardware.

✅ No Lock-in Contracts

Square offers flexible, transparent pricing with no long-term contracts — perfect for start-ups, pop-ups and small businesses wanting to stay agile.

Why You Should Use Square & FoodByUs Together

Pairing Square POS with FoodByUs gives you complete visibility and control over both the front and back of house:

Functionality	Square POS	FoodByUs
Real-time sales and insights	✅	✅ (via integration)
Menu costing based on live data	✅	✅
Wholesale ordering & supplier management	❌	✅
Price tracking on food supplies	❌	✅
Staff training and payments	✅	❌
Customer-facing service tools	✅	❌
Australian-based support	✅	✅

Together, they empower you to:

Lower your cost of goods
Create more profitable menus
Eliminate manual admin and waste
Make confident, data-backed business decisions

Tech is Your Best Ingredient in 2025

Opening a restaurant in 2025 is no small feat — but with the right systems in place, it’s absolutely achievable. Combining Square’s modern POS with FoodByUs’ end-to-end supply and menu costing tools gives you the visibility, control and scalability needed to build a profitable, sustainable venue.

So whether you’re planning your first café or expanding to your third site, make sure your tech stack is working as hard as you are.

Ready to Get Started?

Join FoodByUs and Square for $6,000 off your food orders

Square offers flexible, transparent pricing with no long-term contracts — perfect for start-ups, pop-ups and small businesses wanting to stay agile. For a limited time, you can get $6,000 off your food ordering on FoodByUs by joining Square.

Explore Square for Restaurants
Compare supplier prices on FoodByUs
Build a profitable menu with Menu Costing