FREE GUIDED PLAN
Start where you are. Each task says what to produce, what it depends on and where the guide or tool is. Your progress is your own record: it is not a government approval, a legal clearance or a food-safety certification, and marking a task complete never means anything has been approved.
Before a lease, a loan or a deposit, answer one question: at a level of sales you can back with evidence, can this restaurant pay its bills, repay what it borrows and pay you? The four steps below answer it with free tools on this site. None needs an account or an email address. Each step shows a fictional worked example of what its tool returns. Steps 1 and 3 follow the free opening workbook's restaurant; step 2 uses the break-even calculator's own, separate restaurant. Use the examples to learn each tool, then compare your own numbers with each other.
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A monthly sales figure is a target until you can name the orders behind it. Use orders × average basket × open days, one line per service period, and keep sales tax and tips out of the basket. Then look for evidence: watch the actual lunch and dinner windows, buy from nearby alternatives and run a permitted paid test at the price you intend to charge.
Worked example, from the free opening workbook: its fictional restaurant's base month is 2,220 orders and $48,380 in base sales over 26 open days. Base sales are before the workbook's delivery menu markup.
Enter your monthly fixed costs, the share of each sale that goes on food and drink, on labor that rises with sales and on packaging, processing and delivery fees, your average order and your open days. Compare the orders per day it returns with your own step 1 forecast, and with what your kitchen can actually produce in the busiest hour. The comparison only holds if both use the same assumptions: the same definition of an order and its average basket, the same sales mix, the same costs and the same period, such as orders per open day in a normal month.
Separate worked example, from the break-even calculator: a different fictional restaurant with $20,000 fixed costs and 62% variable costs requires $52,631.58 in monthly sales, or 113 orders per day at an $18 average order over 26 days. Its inputs are not the workbook's, so do not compare its 113 orders with step 1 or read them as the workbook restaurant's requirement.
A break-even month can still contain a cash shortage. The free opening workbook follows opening payments, staffing, delivery fees, owner pay, debt and 12 months of cash. Enter your costs once, then read the funding gap and the lowest cash balance. Then set the sales case to 2: orders fall by 20%, while payroll and fixed bills do not fall with them.
Worked example, back in the workbook's fictional restaurant from step 1: it has $180,000 for $146,000 of remaining opening payments, so $34,000 is left on opening day. In a normal full month its sales are $51,282.80 rather than $48,380, because 40% of the same 2,220 orders use a delivery app with a 15% delivery menu markup. No delivery orders are added. After full staffing, operating bills, owner pay and debt, that normal full month is still $4,968.30 short. The first months after opening differ, because the 12-month plan sets the sales ramp, open days and payroll for each month. Counting the opening payments, the first-year cash draw and a $15,000 cash floor, its first-year funding gap is $67,216.66. With the slower-sales case the gap becomes $130,141.15. Having enough to finish construction did not mean the business worked.
How to fill in the free opening workbook Download the workbook (.xlsx, no signup)
The result is one of three answers. Write down which one, with the evidence behind it.
Record what you find under three tasks in the plan below: “Build a sales forecast from service periods”, “Build the projected monthly P&L” and “Prove opening cash, owner living costs and contingency”.
Will specific people pay for this specific meal, and can the numbers work at all?
Every later task uses percentages of sales. Ten minutes here prevents a year of arguing about numbers you cannot check.
Produce: Your own worked example of labor %, food cost %, occupancy % and the sales a target requires, using numbers for your concept.
A neighborhood does not need a restaurant; particular people need a particular meal at a particular time and price.
Produce: A paid-test record: who bought, what, at what price, what it cost you, what they said and who came back. Friends and free samples listed separately.
A menu that is too complicated for the kitchen or too cheap for the ingredients fails before the first review.
Produce: Weighed recipes with measured yields, plate cost, food cost % and packaging cost by channel for every opening item.
Depends on: Learn the money basics.
A monthly sales number nobody can trace to Tuesday lunch is a wish. Orders per service period can be checked against capacity.
Produce: Orders and average order by day and service period, a monthly total, and the break-even sales those costs require.
Depends on: Cost the opening menu.
What does the operation cost each week, what does opening cost, and where does the cash come from?
Labor is decided by who is on shift when, not by a percentage. Overtime and employer costs appear only when you schedule real people.
Produce: A weekly shift plan by employee and role, each person's overtime, full employer cost, labor % and the local wage evidence behind the rates.
Depends on: Build a sales forecast from service periods.
Rent, labor, food and everything else have to fit inside the same sales. This is where you find out whether they do.
Produce: A monthly P&L with every cost line, percentages of sales, a lower-sales case and the owner's pay shown explicitly.
Depends on: Build a sales forecast from service periods; Build realistic coverage and pay.
A profitable plan can still run out of money before opening day. Payment dates matter as much as totals.
Produce: Opening payments on a calendar, confirmed funds, monthly cash for the first year, the owner's living costs, a contingency and a delay case.
Depends on: Build the projected monthly P&L.
A term sheet is not money, and a loan payment is a fixed cost that survives a slow month.
Produce: Quotes compared on identical terms, the payment schedule, fees and any balloon, and a written list of which funds are committed versus proposed.
Depends on: Prove opening cash, owner living costs and contingency.
Leases, permits, payroll and insurance all need the same legal entity, address and responsible person. Fixing a mismatch later is slow.
Produce: Entity documents, tax registrations, a business bank account, bookkeeping, payroll provider, insurance quotes and named professionals with their decisions recorded.
Which space can physically and legally do this, and on what terms?
The cheapest space is the one that already has the exhaust, gas, grease and electrical capacity your menu needs.
Produce: A shortlist with floor area, kitchen infrastructure, delivery condition, asking terms and the unanswered technical questions for each.
Depends on: Prove opening cash, owner living costs and contingency.
Permitted use, occupancy, exhaust, fire systems, accessibility and utility capacity decide whether a space can open at all, and they are not visible on a walkthrough.
Produce: A written assessment from the relevant professionals covering permitted use, occupancy, utilities, exhaust, grease, fire systems, access and the work required, with cost estimates.
Depends on: Shortlist spaces that can physically do the job.
Rent is only one line. Fit-out, deposits, concessions and delay can reverse which space is cheaper.
Produce: A side-by-side of occupancy over the term, fit-out, deposits, escalations, concessions, delay and reimbursement dates, with the unresolved issues listed against each.
Depends on: Check the premises with your professionals.
A license is tied to an address, a process and a timeline. Assuming one transfers, or arrives by opening day, is how openings slip by months.
Produce: The address-specific licensing path with authority, timeline and cost, or a viable opening plan without alcohol.
Depends on: Check the premises with your professionals.
Alcohol licensing overview (Italian guide; verify the current local rules)
The lease is the largest contract you will sign. Delivery condition, guarantees, approvals contingencies and exit terms cost more than the rent.
Produce: Counsel-reviewed obligations: term, rent and charges, escalations, delivery condition, landlord work, approvals contingency, guarantee, assignment and exit terms.
Depends on: Compare the finalists on cash committed; Compare financing and confirm committed funds.
Approvals, construction, suppliers, services, people, procedures and the rehearsal.
Health, building, fire and licensing approvals each have their own sequence. Losing track of one delays opening after the money is spent.
Produce: A live list of applications with numbers, receipts, owners, next corrections, inspection dates and the documented conditions for opening.
Depends on: Check the premises with your professionals; Set up the business, bank, tax and insurance records.
Construction costs money even when nobody is working. Scope, sequencing and change orders decide the delay.
Produce: An itemized scope with bids compared like for like, a dependency schedule, an equipment installation plan, and a change-order log with approvals and cost.
Depends on: Negotiate and review the lease with counsel; Track every approval and inspection.
The first delivery is where the food cost plan meets case sizes, minimums and a walk-in that is smaller than the spreadsheet.
Produce: Comparable delivered quotes, a par sheet with counted stock, an order plan constrained by usable demand and storage, and receiving and credit procedures.
Depends on: Cost the opening menu.
Processing fees, insurance gaps and a missing waste contract show up in the first month's cash and the first inspection.
Produce: Written fee schedules compared at your volume, tested orders and refunds, bound insurance, and waste, pest, internet, gas, utilities and maintenance arrangements with dates.
Depends on: Set up the business, bank, tax and insurance records.
Hiring too early pays for idle weeks; hiring too late opens with untrained stations. The timeline follows the build and the approvals.
Produce: Job scopes, lawful documented pay ranges, structured interviews, onboarding records and station sign-offs showing who can run which station.
Depends on: Build realistic coverage and pay; Track every approval and inspection.
Hire your opening team without paying for weeks of idle time
Temperature, allergen, cleaning, receiving and employee-health procedures have to match the rules that apply to your address, not a generic template.
Produce: Locally verified food-safety, employee-health, allergen, cleaning, receiving and temperature procedures, reviewed and signed by the person in charge, with the sources and dates recorded.
Depends on: Track every approval and inspection; Recruit and train to actual opening readiness.
The first customers find you through a listing, a map and a menu link. Wrong hours or a broken order link waste the opening.
Produce: Verified business details on every listing, working menu and ordering links, realistic opening announcements and a plan to measure paid repeat business.
Depends on: Choose POS, processing, insurance and operating services.
The soft opening exists to find problems while the order count is small enough to fix them.
Produce: Required permissions in hand, a tested order cap, a ticket-time, accuracy and waste log, and a list of corrections with owners and dates.
Depends on: Control construction, equipment and change orders; Have the person in charge validate operating procedures; Recruit and train to actual opening readiness; Choose POS, processing, insurance and operating services.
What do the first weeks say, and what do you change?
The first month tells you where the plan was wrong. Weekly numbers catch it while there is still cash to respond.
Produce: A weekly scorecard: sales versus plan, orders and average order, labor %, food used, waste, refunds and cash after commitments.
Depends on: Run a controlled soft opening.
A scorecard nobody acts on is a spreadsheet. The habit is one decision, one owner, one date, then check the next week's numbers.
Produce: A first-month review with the corrections made, who owned them and what changed in the following week's scorecard.
Depends on: Review each week against the plan.
A task is complete when the output exists, not when the reading is done. "Waiting" means you have done your part and an authority, landlord, contractor or professional owes the next step. Essential checks stay on the unresolved list until completed, however much else is done; completing them here records your own evidence, and only the responsible authority or professional can approve, clear or certify anything.
You do not need a course to use this plan: the money check, the tasks, the tools and the workbook are free and complete here. If you want structured lessons on opening a restaurant, RestaurantLaunch sells its course in two editions.
Compare the two editions before you choose
Both courses are taught in English. The Udemy edition is the shorter of the two, and the platforms are separate stores, so check the curriculum, price and access terms on the page of the edition you choose.