Open My Business — Because the mistakes are expensive and almost always avoidable
I've spent 35 years watching people lose money on decisions that were completely avoidable. These guides exist so you don't have to learn the expensive way.
Years of experience
I've watched people spend $100k fixing an approval problem that was visible before they signed. I've watched others spend $300k on infrastructure before fitout even started. These guides exist because most of it is preventable.
Guides available
"Great stuff in the guide, well worth it and the bonuses are incredible."
— JIM B.
Why this exists
I've spent 35 years designing and opening physical venues. In that time I've watched intelligent, capable people lose serious money on decisions that were completely avoidable. Not because they were careless. Because nobody told them what to look for.
I watched one client sign a lease on a cafe that had never been approved for food service — $100,000 to fix before they opened a door. Another signed a lease where they were responsible for all building infrastructure — $300,000 before fitout, stock or staff. A third paid a $65,000 deposit to a fitout contractor who went bankrupt the following morning and kept every cent of it. All three problems were visible before they committed. If they'd known what to look for.
The Open My Business guides exist for one reason: to make sure you're not the next person telling one of those stories. Whether this is your first venue or you've been burnt before — this is the system that changes the outcome.
Each guide covers one venue type — from site confirmed to open doors — built around what actually goes wrong. The $100,000 approval problem. The $300,000 infrastructure bill. The $65,000 contractor deposit that disappeared overnight. No theory. Just what you need to know before you commit.
What it actually costs when you don't know what to look for
The three stages where it goes wrong
I watched someone sign a lease on a site that had never been approved for food service. $100,000 before they opened. Visible before they signed. Nobody looked.
Services upgrades, DA delays, shopfitter scope gaps, variations. Every one of these is largely preventable if you know what questions to ask before you commit.
The first 90 days set your trading pattern. Open without a plan and you spend the next year trying to recover ground you never needed to lose.
Start here — it's free
Not sure about a site? About to enter lease negotiations? This checklist covers the eight critical areas you need to assess before you commit — built from the same 35 years of experience as the full guides.
It won't replace professional advice, but it will make sure you're asking the right questions before you sign.
A pre-lease checklist for anyone opening a cafe, shop, bar or restaurant
Get the free checklist
The full suite
Built from 35 years of real projects. Written for people who want to open well — not just open — and who'd rather spend $97 on a guide than $100,000 on a mistake.
Cafe
The approval that wasn't in place. The extraction that couldn't be installed. The drainage in the wrong place. I've seen all of it. This guide means you won't have to.
Retail
The layout that looked right until customers walked in. The shopfitter quote that excluded half the work. The lease clause nobody read. This guide covers all of it before it costs you.
Bar
Bars have more ways to go wrong than almost any other venue type. Licensing, noise, services, compliance. This guide maps every one of them before they become your problem.
Restaurant
The grease trap nobody budgeted for. The health inspection failed on opening week. The kitchen that didn't suit the menu. This guide exists so none of that happens to you.
Add to any guide at checkout
LAUNCH BONUS PACK — THREE TOOLS THAT KEEP THE REST OF THE PROJECT ON TRACK
Concept to Sales Programme · Build My Brand Playbook · How to Choose & Brief a Designer
Years of experience
Who built this
Nate has spent 35 years designing and opening physical venues — cafes, shops, bars and restaurants. Hundreds of real projects, real budgets, real approvals and real consequences when things went wrong.
The same problems come up constantly. A cafe approved for retail but not food service. A tenant responsible for $300,000 in building infrastructure nobody told them about. A shopfitter quote that excluded services, electrical and drainage. A DA that took six months when they budgeted six weeks.
These guides exist because every one of those problems was preventable. The information existed. The questions could have been asked. The right advice was available. Most people just didn't know what they didn't know — until it was too late.
This isn't theory. It's 35 years of watching what goes wrong — and building a system so it doesn't happen to you.