Your Business Doesn't Need More Advice.
It Needs Better Performance
If your business isn't hitting its numbers, the problem may not be marketing. It's often what's happening operationally.
Blackbook Performance works directly with owners and operators across hospitality, leisure, wellness and membership businesses to find where you're losing money, and fix it.
30+ years of senior operational leadership. $90M+ in P&L responsibility. $21M+ in capital projects delivered.
Every engagement follows the same evidence-based rigour behind Mark's ISO 9001:2015 QMS Lead Auditor accreditation and 52+ completed audits.
→ Find out where you're losing performance
Where is your business leaking performance?
Labour: Are you carrying too much payroll for the revenue you're generating?
Margin: Is revenue growing while profit stays flat?
Operations: Are POS bottlenecks, inconsistent stock tracking, or high staff turnover quietly eroding performance?
Management: Does too much depend on you being in the building?
Compliance: Are you carrying unnecessary operational or regulatory risk?
Customer Experience: Are operational failures quietly costing you repeat customers?
If any of these sound familiar, the fix starts with a proper diagnosis, not another opinion.
The Difference
30+ years operating premium and high-volume venues, including direct ownership as co-founder of multiple Sydney venues
Relaunched Middle Bar at Kinsela's in Darlinghurst in 2001, home to bartenders recognised at the inaugural Australian Bar Awards, and later opened and designed the Colombian Hotel on Oxford Street, during a five-year tenure with the same group through to 2006
Co-founded, designed and built multiple Sydney venues, including The Rum Diaries (Australia's first dedicated rum bar, later featured in the book 21st Century Bars and scored 14/20 in the Good Food Guide), White Revolver, Cream Tangerine and The Canteen, with additional launch support for Goodbar and Brick Lane
Group Operations Manager across two award-winning Sydney venues, Lobo Plantation (Time Out Sydney's Bar of the Year) and Kittyhawk
International consulting engagements delivered across Hong Kong, Bali and Kuala Lumpur, including operational setup, bar design, menu creation and staff training for Harvey Nichols Hong Kong, the pre-opening launch of Sentosa Villas in Bali, now operated as Peppers Sentosa Villas, and staff training programs across Kuala Lumpur's bar and restaurant scene
High-profile event bars delivered across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, including the Lord Mayor's New Year's Eve, Open Air Cinema, Tropfest and Night Noodle Market
Venues taken from pre-opening through to full commercial performance, including a $3M capex wellness club, $10M private members club and an $8M entertainment precinct
Multi-site overhead reductions of 15% delivered through disciplined workforce analytics and labour-to-revenue modelling
Built and maintained a close operational partnership with the neighbouring Avani Broadbeach Residences (Minor Hotels), including weekly stakeholder meetings, conferencing delivery and food and beverage supply into the hotel
Operated White Revolver, Cream Tangerine and The Canteen within the same building as the Accor-managed Swiss Grand Hotel, meeting weekly with General Manager Richard Holt on licensing and operational alignment between the venues and the hotel
Served as Licensee for Lady Lux, winner of the 2006 ALIA Nightclub of the Year award
Premium membership businesses launched and scaled from zero, including 280+ members within seven months of launch at The Pillars
Forensic financial governance that recovered $70K owed to a client and strengthened controls
Workforces of 200+ led across geographically dispersed, complex operational environments
At A Glance
30+
Years of Senior Operational Leadership
Three decades leading hospitality, leisure, wellness, membership, gaming, entertainment and customer-facing businesses across Australia, the UK and Asia.
$21M+
Capital Projects Delivered
$21M+ in capital projects delivered across venue launches and refurbishments
280+
Members Within Seven Months
The Pillars Private Members Club, Sydney. Built and launched the operational platform, contributing to 280+ members within seven months of opening.
$70K
Owed to the venue
Uncovered and recovered through a forensic financial review at The Golden Age Cinema and Bar
$90M+
P&L Responsibility
Full commercial accountability across a multi-site hospitality, gaming, bottle shops and entertainment portfolio.
$1.6M
Weekly EGM Revenue
Grew weekly EGM revenue from approximately $300K to $1.6M across the Good Time Group portfolio.
What Blackbook Does
Fix: Operational Performance & Turnaround
Operational Performance Reviews
A structured, forensic review of your operations that identifies where you are losing money, where execution is falling short, and where the opportunities are. You get a clear, evidenced, prioritised improvement roadmap you can act on immediately.
Governance, Compliance & WHS Frameworks
Audit-ready workplace health and safety frameworks, liquor and gaming licensing compliance, and regulatory governance. Built for operators who understand that a compliance failure is not just a fine; it is a reputational event.
Build: Pre-Opening & Operational Readiness
Venue Launch & Operational Readiness
End-to-end pre-opening support covering operating model design, SOP creation, technology stack setup, financial controls, staffing frameworks, and compliance infrastructure. If you are opening a venue, the decisions you make before day one determine how the next three years go.
Improve: Commercial Performance, Workforce & Customer Experience
Commercial Performance & Revenue Growth
Whether it is F&B margin, membership acquisition, event revenue, or ancillary income streams, Blackbook identifies where your commercial model is underperforming and builds the operational levers to improve it. Calibrated to your specific venue, your customer, and your cost structure.
Workforce & Labour Performance
Roster design, workforce analytics, labour-to-revenue modelling, and team capability frameworks. If labour is your biggest cost and your biggest variable, this is where significant overhead reduction lives.
Customer Experience Design
A structured review and redesign of your guest and member experience, from service culture and floor presence to programming, retention, and the moments that drive loyalty. Drawn from experience across ultra-premium private clubs, luxury hospitality, and high-volume multi-site venues.
How We Engage
Operational Review: A focused assessment that identifies the biggest operational and commercial opportunities in your business.
Project Engagement: Hands-on support for launches, turnarounds, restructuring or major operational projects.
Advisory Retainer: Ongoing access to senior operational expertise without the cost of a full-time executive.
Interim Leadership: Senior operational leadership during periods of transition, growth or turnaround.
Selected Results
Case Study 01
The Pillars: Private Members Club, Sydney
Challenge: Build and launch the operational platform for a $10M private members club, from pre-opening through to live trading.
Mark's Role:
Operating model, financial controls, technology infrastructure, a team of 50, and brand partnerships and stakeholder coordination, including personally negotiating a member benefits partnership with the Fullerton Hotel Sydney, securing room upgrades and preferential rates for members on stays and special occasions.
Result: 280+ members within seven months.
Case Study 02
The Good Time Group Holdings: Multi-Site Hospitality & Gaming, Queensland
Challenge: Launch a new $8M entertainment precinct in Broadbeach from the ground up, then grow it into a high-performing multi-site group, integrating a $15M hotel acquisition along the way.
Mark's Role: Recruited from Sydney as General Manager to lead the Broadbeach launch, building the operation from a founding management team of four and writing the systems and procedures used to open Fat Freddy's, the gaming room, the event space and Miss Moneypenny's within two months. Promoted to Group General Manager as the business grew into a three-site group of around 200 staff across Broadbeach, Miss Moneypenny's Noosa and the Stradbroke Island Beach Hotel. Held full P&L accountability across the $90M+ portfolio, led workforce architecture and operational integration following the acquisition and a subsequent merger, and took direct operational responsibility for the Stradbroke Island Beach Hotel, its luxury beachfront accommodation and the group's attached bottle shops.
Result: EGM revenue grew from $300K to $1.6M per week; overheads cut by 15%. Within the portfolio, Miss Moneypenny's won the 2024 Restaurant & Catering Hostplus Award for South East Queensland's Best Contemporary Australian Restaurant (Formal) and earned AGFG Chef Hat recognition for four consecutive years, among a wider run of state and industry accolades across the group's venues.
Case Study 03
Golden Age Cinema and Bar: Cinema & Bar Venue, Sydney
Challenge: Establish whether the venue was capturing all the revenue it was entitled to across its ticketing and point-of-sale operations.
Mark's Role: Led a forensic financial review of ticketing and point-of-sale records as General Manager and Licensee, examining five years of trade, while concurrently serving as General Manager of Paramount Recreation Club, a gym and wellness venue with its own café, in the same building.
Result: Uncovered $70K owed to the venue that had gone unclaimed over that period, and implemented stronger financial controls to prevent it recurring.
→ See more case studies, including Seadeck, Love Cloud Events and Bartender Boxing
How Blackbook Works
Discover: A confidential 30-minute conversation to understand your business and the problem you're facing.
Diagnose: A structured operational assessment across people, process, systems, financials, compliance and customer experience.
Prioritise: The issues are ranked by commercial impact, so you know exactly what to fix first.
Implement: Mark works alongside your management team to put the changes into practice, not just hand over a report.
Measure: Improvements are tracked and accountability is built in, so the results are visible, not assumed.
Testimonials
What Clients Say
Who Blackbook Works With
Blackbook works with a select number of businesses at any one time. The engagements that deliver the most value tend to share a few things in common.
You are operating in a premium or complex service environment where execution directly impacts revenue and reputation. You know something is not working but lack the operational clarity or internal capacity to fix it. Or you are about to launch or scale and want to get it right from the start.
Blackbook works with:
Premium hospitality venues and hotel F&B operations
Private members clubs and lifestyle businesses
Commercial fitness, wellness, and leisure operators
Multi-site gaming and entertainment portfolios
Events and experiential businesses
Premium customer-facing service brands
If that sounds like you, the first conversation is straightforward. No obligation, no jargon, no pitch deck.
About Mark Tarrant
Blackbook Performance is an operational performance advisory founded by Mark Tarrant.
Mark has spent more than 30 years leading premium hospitality, leisure and membership businesses across the UK, Asia and Australia, starting on the floor with TGI Fridays before rising through assistant general management roles across Europe, including a flagship venue in London's Leicester Square.
He later moved into operational consulting across Asia, including engagements with Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong and the pre-opening launch of what is now Peppers Sentosa Villas in Bali.
In Australia, Mark has spent two decades on the floor and in the boardroom across luxury hospitality, premium private members clubs, multi-site gaming and entertainment, and large-scale events, including the Lord Mayor's New Year's Eve, Night Noodle Market and Sydney's Open Air Cinema. He has also co-founded and helped build several Sydney venues, including The Rum Diaries, Australia's first dedicated rum bar, later featured in the book 21st Century Bars.
Most recently, Mark served as Chief Operating Officer of The Pillars, an ultra-premium private members club in Sydney's CBD, building the club's entire operating model from a $10M capex fit-out through to 280+ members within seven months. He also negotiated a member benefits partnership with the Fullerton Hotel Sydney, securing room upgrades and preferential rates for members.
Before that, Mark was recruited from Sydney as General Manager to launch The Good Time Group's $8M Broadbeach precinct, opening four venues in two months from a founding team of four. As Group General Manager, he grew the business into a three-site Queensland group of around 200 staff spanning gaming, F&B, luxury beachfront accommodation and retail bottle shops. He held full P&L accountability across the $90M+ portfolio, growing EGM revenue from $300K to $1.6M per week and leading $23M in capital deployment.
Mark is now based in Sydney, where Blackbook Performance works directly with local owners and operators.
Unlike traditional consultants, Blackbook does not deliver slide decks and disappear. Mark's ISO 9001:2015 QMS Lead Auditor accreditation, earned through training with an Exemplar Global Recognised Training Provider, sits behind everything Blackbook does, shaping the same audit-led approach he now brings to hospitality and leisure operations.
→ No pitch deck, no pressure. Just a conversation about your business.
Credentials
Qualifications & Accreditations
ISO 9001:2015 QMS Lead Auditor (training delivered by an Exemplar Global Recognised Training Provider)
Volkswagen Group GSM Retail Auditor, 52+ dealership audits completed across VW, VW Commercial, Audi, Cupra and Skoda in NSW and QLD
Advanced Diplomas in Hospitality, Management, Events, Business & Marketing
Certificate IV, Training & Assessment
Certificate III & IV, Fitness
RSA, NSW & QLD
RMLV & RCG, QLD
Approved Manager, NSW & QLD
Licensed Promoter & Registered Matchmaker, Combat Sports NSW
BTEC Leisure Studies & Tourism
City & Guilds, Travel & Tourism
Technology Mark works across:
Oracle Micros · Lightspeed · SwiftPOS · Bepoz · Impos · OrderMate · Me&u · FoundU · Tanda · Deputy · Lightyear · Xero · OpenTable · SevenRooms · Asana · Monday · Mindbody
Frequently Asked Questions
Every engagement is scoped to the size and complexity of your business, so pricing is confirmed after the initial discovery conversation rather than fixed in advance.
This depends on whether you need a one-off operational review or ongoing implementation support. Timeframes are agreed together after the Diagnose stage.
Yes. Initial discussions and any operational review are treated as strictly confidential. An NDA can be provided upon request.
Blackbook works with a select number of businesses at a time and is upfront if an engagement isn't the right fit. There is no obligation to proceed after the initial discussion.
Yes. Blackbook can work alongside your existing management team to implement recommendations, establish accountability and measure improvements. Engagements can range from a focused operational review through to hands-on interim leadership and implementation support.
Yes. While hospitality is a significant part of Blackbook's experience, the methodology applies to any customer-facing business where people, process, cost control, compliance and customer experience directly affect commercial performance.
→ You've read the how. Let's talk about your business specifically
Contact
Blackbook works with a select number of clients at any one time. If you are looking for practical, hands-on operational improvement, start with a 30-minute discussion.