Opening your first cafe or restaurant in Sydney? Start before the lease.

You are somewhere between the idea and the lease. You have money set aside, a suburb in mind, maybe a room you keep driving past. Everyone you ask has an opinion and nobody has signed a lease with their own money. This page is for that moment, and only that moment.

Who this is for

A first-time founder opening a cafe, restaurant, bar or takeaway in Sydney or New South Wales in the next twelve months, with the funds to do it and the grit to run it. You have not signed yet, or you signed recently and the fit-out has not started. You would rather pay a small amount now than learn the expensive way.

It is not for someone hoping to open on borrowed money with no runway, for a group opening its fifth site, or for anyone wanting a course. It is one operator working on your venue with you.

The four decisions that decide everything

The site and the lease. A former cafe with the exhaust, grease trap and three-phase power already in can cost $100,000 less to open than a beautiful empty shell. The lease decides what you pay every month for five years, what happens if you need to leave, and who pays for what. I read these for a living as a tenant, then as the person managing the landlord's portfolio.

The numbers. Real rent from listings, a builder's quote with the invisible costs as separate lines, a roster at award rates, and a break-even figure. If the room needs 400 coffees a day on a side street, it is not a business, and it is better to know that in a spreadsheet than in month four. The full line-item budget is free here.

The customer and the offer. Who you serve, why they pick you over the known name, and a menu priced to profit from day one. Most first venues open with a menu built for the founder's pride rather than the suburb's habits.

The working capital. Three months of rent and wages in the bank on opening day, on top of the build. Running out of cash in month four is the most common way a good venue dies, and it is visible before the lease is signed.

How it works

Step one. Before You Sign. A review of the site, the lease terms, the fit-out quote and the budget, with you, before a dollar moves. You get every risk found and named in writing, a break-even figure, the questions to put to the agent and the builder, and a plain yes, no, or not yet. If it is a no, you keep the report and you keep your money. This step is by application and priced on the call.

Step two. The 90-day build. The same ninety days that fix a leaking venue, run from zero in the right order: readiness and numbers, customer and demand, offer and pricing, site, lease and fit-out, brand and identity, website and presence, authority and trust, capture and booking, launch and systems. Cyan, the AI receptionist, answers your phone from week two. You open already looking like the best in the suburb, with every system written down so the venue runs on the system, not on you. One client at a time. One flat fee, shared on application, paid upfront. The full build list is on the coaching page.

Why me, and not a course

I established Great Aunty Three in 2011 in an empty shop that had been a locksmith for years. My mother's twenty thousand dollars was the first money in. The rest was my property, sold, plus savings and loans, about $200,000 all in. Approvals, drawings and the build took a year. We opened in Enmore in August 2012, and Sydney turned up: the Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph, Broadsheet, SBS, Time Out, Uber Eats launch partner. I ran it for eleven years and handed it to the team in 2022. It is still trading, now in Pyrmont, fourteen years on.

Then I managed commercial property for three years. Portfolios, arrears, leases, sitting where the landlord sits. The tenants who lasted were not the ones with the best fit-out. They were the ones who signed a lease they could afford on a bad month. I have been the tenant, the landlord's agent and the operator. That is the whole reason this page exists.

Everything I know about the numbers is written down free in the restaurant guides, with the sources named. Read them first. If you still want the operator in the room, book the call.

Straight answers

I have not found a site yet. Is it too early? No. Before the site is the best time. The numbers, the customer and the offer get decided first, then the site is chosen to fit them, not the other way around.

I have already signed the lease. Can you still help? Yes, but the review shifts. The lease is fixed, so the work goes into the fit-out scope, the budget, the working capital and the opening plan. Say the lease is signed when you book.

Do I need a business plan first? You need numbers, not a document. The review builds them with you.

Do you work outside Sydney? Sydney and NSW in person. The rest of Australia by video call for the review, and by application for the build.

How much does it cost? By application. One flat fee for each step, shared after a 30-minute call and paid upfront. Against a $150,000 to $400,000 opening budget it is a small line that protects the biggest ones. If you genuinely cannot find the fee, start with the free guide and the $27 Playbook.

Is this restaurant consulting? Yes. Cafe and restaurant startup consulting in Sydney, done by an operator. A consultant hands you a deck. This is the work, done with you, before the money moves.