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The opening plan

Most plans answer the wrong question. Break-even tells you when you stop losing money. It does not tell you how much money you need to get there, and that second number is the one that ends ventures.

This works it out, stress-tests it against a late ramp, and gives you a complete business plan as a PDF. Free, no signup. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent to me or to anyone else.

How to use this

Takes about five minutes

What you need

  • Your capex or fit-out budget, before contingency
  • Monthly fixed costs: rent, salaries, utilities, the floor you pay whether or not anyone shows up
  • Rooms and a nightly rate, or daily covers and an average spend
  • The cash you will genuinely have in the bank on opening day
  • Roughly which month you plan to open

What you get

  • Peak cash: the deepest your balance goes, which is the number that ends ventures
  • Whether you are short, and by how much
  • Break-even, planned against a ramp that runs late
  • A complete business plan as a PDF, with every assumption marked as yours, sourced, or my own rule

Getting the most out of it

  1. 01

    Guess rather than skip. A rough number you can defend beats an empty field. Nothing is saved anywhere, so you can run it again the moment you know better.

  2. 02

    Fill in seasonality even if it feels approximate. It is the field most people skip and the one that changes the answer most. A flat model hides the quarter that actually threatens the business.

  3. 03

    Run it twice. Once with your plan, once with the ramp three or four months late. The gap between those two numbers is closer to what you should actually be raising.

  4. 04

    Enter the loan if you have one. Debt service coverage is the ratio a lender will judge you on, and it is better to see it before they do.

  5. 05

    Do not use it to justify a decision you have already made. It is built to return the unwelcome answer. If it says you are short, that is the useful part.

The nine that matter

Nothing renders until these are filled. Everything below them is optional, and each optional field adds a section to the plan.

Waiting on the nine

Fill capacity, rate, capex, fixed opex, variable cost and cash at opening. The plan builds itself as you type, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.