Who I help · First-time owners and career changers
Opening your first restaurant, bar, or café in Spain
For first-time owners, for people bringing a career from somewhere else, and for people bringing a life from another country. You have the idea and the drive. I will help you build the business to match, and avoid the mistakes I made.
What do first-time hospitality owners in Spain get wrong?
In my experience, the most expensive mistakes happen before opening night. Paying a traspaso, or signing a lease, before the numbers work and before anyone has checked that the premises can have the licence you need. Budgeting for the fit-out and forgetting the cash needed to survive the first months of trading, and the first winter. Building the menu around what you love rather than what your area will buy, all year round. Setting an opening date before the town hall, the team, and the suppliers are ready. And underestimating the hours, which are long, late, and busiest when everyone else is on holiday. None of it is fatal if you find it early. All of it is expensive if you find it late.
Atelier Sawyer helps first-time owners across Spain, from a one-off review of the plan to a working partnership all the way to opening night.
What I see in first openings
- The dream local: a beautiful site, an agent in a hurry, a traspaso to pay this week, and terms nobody has read with an operator's eye.
- The fit-out budget: carefully planned to the last tile, with nothing left for the first quiet months.
- The menu from the heart: lovely to cook at home, and impossible to cook for sixty on a Saturday in August.
- Friends on the payroll: great company, and hard to manage when standards slip.
- Pricing from the competition: copying the place down the road, without knowing their costs or yours.
- Paperwork in a second language: licences, contracts, and tax forms signed without being fully understood.
- The owner in every role: chef, manager, gestor's assistant, cleaner, and marketing department, from day one.
Coming from another career, or another country
Your first career is an asset. Managing people, reading a profit and loss account, negotiating with suppliers, and keeping your head in a crisis all transfer. What does not transfer is the pace: margins measured in cents, cash that comes in daily and goes out monthly, a team you rely on at midnight on a Saturday in August, and a product that has to be perfect every time and is gone the moment it is eaten.
If you are coming from another country, Spain adds rules of its own: how a business is set up, how licences work, what a traspaso really buys, and what your staff are owed under the convenio. None of it is hard once you know it. I will help you use what you already know, and learn the rest before it costs you money.
Setting up in Spain
Before you sign anything, decide with a gestor how you will trade, because the lease, the licence, and the bank account will all be in that name.
- Your right to work: if you are not Spanish, you need an NIE, and, if you are not from the EU, permission to live and work here as self-employed. Since Brexit, that includes British citizens who were not resident before 2021.
- Autónomo or SL: trading as an autónomo is simpler and cheaper to run; a limited company (SL) protects your personal assets but costs more to run. Your gestor will set out the difference for your situation.
- Registrations: with Hacienda and the Seguridad Social before you trade, and each employee registered before their first shift.
- Your team: contracts under the hospitality convenio for your province, which sets minimum pay and conditions.
Buying a business, or starting from scratch?
Buying a going concern through a traspaso can be quicker than starting from nothing, but you are buying its history as well as its fixtures. Before you agree a price, ask:
- Do the accounts match the till, and the till match the bank?
- How long is left on the lease, and does it allow it to be passed to you?
- What is the traspaso actually paying for: the lease, the goodwill, or the equipment? And is the equipment owned, rented, or still being paid for?
- Is the licence in order, for the activity you plan, and can it be transferred to you?
- Who are the staff? When a business changes hands, its employees usually transfer to the buyer on their existing terms.
- Does the business owe anything to Hacienda or the Seguridad Social? Those debts can follow it to you, so ask for certificates that the seller is up to date with both.
- Why is it for sale?
Your abogado and gestor handle the legal and financial checks. I will tell you what I see as an operator, and whether the business can make money in your hands.
How I help first-time owners
| If you… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Have an idea, a local, or a traspaso on the table, and want a second opinion | A Pre-Opening Diagnostic, €497 |
| Want a working partner from the first idea to opening night | Plan, €365 a month |
| Are buying an existing business and want an operator's view | A Pre-Opening Diagnostic, €497 |
| Have opened, and want help through the first months | Run, €595 a month |
| Need a website that takes bookings from day one | Websites, from €1,800 |
| Need a till, bookings, and stock system that fits | Digitise, from €2,345 |
Prices exclude IVA.
My own first time
I have opened seven venues of my own and several more for the people I worked for, in London and on the Costa del Sol. My first opening in Spain was El Punto Gastro Café in Benalmádena, in 2021, with Covid restrictions still in place and a deliberately small offer; it paid its way from the first day. I made my share of first-timer mistakes long before that, and the most expensive was a lease clause I signed at 26. Years later it cost me three pubs. I would rather you learned that from me than from your landlord.
Frequently asked questions
Can I open a restaurant, bar, or café in Spain with no hospitality experience?
Yes, and plenty of good ones are opened by people from other careers, and other countries. Usually the idea is sound, the market likes it, the fit-out is beautiful, and the passion is there. Then they meet the reality: the public, the neighbours, the town hall, the bills, the hours, and the winter. None of that can be wished away, but all of it can be planned for. Go in with your eyes open, ideally after a season working in a busy venue, and with an experienced operator at your side.
What is a traspaso, and what should I check before I pay one?
A traspaso is what you pay the outgoing tenant to take over their lease, usually with the fit-out, the equipment, and the trade. In law, it is an assignment of the lease. Unless the lease says otherwise, a business tenant can assign it without the landlord's consent, but must tell the landlord within a month, and the landlord can raise the rent by up to 20%. Before you pay, I would check the lease, the licence, the equipment, and any debts.
Should I trade as an autónomo or set up a company?
It depends on the risk and the size of the business. An autónomo is simpler and cheaper to run, but you are personally liable for its debts. A limited company (SL) can now be set up with very little capital and keeps your personal assets separate, but it costs more in accounts and administration. Decide with your gestor before you sign the lease, because the lease and the licence will be in that name, and changing it later costs time and money.
Do I need permission to open a business in Spain if I am not Spanish?
Usually, yes. Everyone who is not Spanish needs an NIE before signing a lease, registering a business, or opening a business bank account. EU citizens register as residents and can then trade. Others, including British citizens who were not resident in Spain before 2021, need an authorisation to live and work here as self-employed. Check your route with an immigration lawyer before you commit money, because the paperwork can take months.
Talk it through
If you are not sure where to start, a free 30-minute chat will tell us both.