Plan · Ongoing support
Restaurant and bar opening support
For first-time owners and career changers who want to open once, and open well, in Spain.
€365 a month, plus IVA. Three-month minimum, then monthly until you open.
How do you avoid expensive mistakes when opening a restaurant or bar in Spain?
Get the numbers and the paperwork right before you sign anything. In my experience, the most expensive opening mistakes are made before the doors open: a lease or traspaso signed before the figures work, premises that cannot legally be the venue you have in mind, a budget with no cash left for the first six months of trading, and an opening date set before the licences, the team, and the suppliers are ready. Test the idea, then the site, then the plan. Spend money last.
Plan is how I do that with you. It is Atelier Sawyer's monthly pre-opening service for people opening a restaurant, bar, chiringuito, or café in Spain: a working partner from the first idea to the first service, so the expensive lessons are learned on paper rather than with your savings.
Before you sign anything
- You have found a local and the agent is pressing you for an answer, or for the traspaso.
- Your budget covers the fit-out, but you are less sure what happens after opening night.
- The menu is clear in your head, but nobody has costed it.
- You are not sure which licences you need, or whether the premises can have them.
- Friends and family have told you it is a brilliant idea; nobody has told you what could go wrong.
- You have run a business before, but never one that opens at nine and closes at two in the morning.
If any of those are true, you are at exactly the right point to get help. Problems cost far less to fix on paper than after you have signed.
The most expensive mistake happens before you open
It is usually the lease, or the traspaso that comes with it. A rent that only works in August; a personal guarantee you did not notice; a fianza and an extra deposit that swallow your working capital; IBI and community charges passed on to you; no rent-free period to cover the build. And in Spain there is one more trap: premises that cannot get the licence your venue needs. A bar with a kitchen, a terrace, or music has to fit the town's planning rules and, usually, pass an environmental assessment before it opens. If the local cannot, the traspaso buys you nothing.
Plan starts there. Before you commit, we check whether the site can make money at a realistic level of trade, not an optimistic one, and whether it can legally be the venue you want. If it cannot, I will tell you, and that conversation will be the most valuable thing I do for you. I will also give you my view of the lease as an operator: how its terms could affect your ability to grow, adapt, or change direction later. It is not legal advice; that is your abogado's job, and I am happy to work alongside them and your gestor.
How Plan works
Month one: testing the idea
We start with the questions that decide everything else. Who is this for, and are there enough of them nearby, in winter as well as summer? What will they spend, and how often? What does the site cost to run, and what does it need to take each week to cover that? I watch the site out of season too, because in a Spanish town the winter trade follows local routes, home to work, to the market, to school, and a busy August street can be empty in February. By the end of the month you know whether the idea works on paper, and what has to change if it does not.
Months two and three: building the plan
Next, we build the business you will actually open:
- The opening budget, with working capital for the first six months of trading
- The menu, costed dish by dish and priced to make money
- The kitchen and bar layout, checked against the menu before the builders start
- Suppliers, chosen on quality, terms, and reliability
- Your licensing timeline: the works permit, the environmental assessment where it applies, the town hall's opening declaration, food business registration with the Junta, and the terrace permit, in the right order
- The team you need, the contracts that suit the season, how to find them, and how to train them before opening
- The systems: rota, stock, cash-up, and the till, set up before the first service rather than after it
- The launch: who needs to know you are open, and when
Until you open
Openings slip; builders, town halls, and landlords see to that. After the first three months, Plan continues monthly for as long as you need it, so you are never paying for a long contract you do not use.
After you open
The first months of trading are where many new venues get into trouble. When you open, you can move straight onto Run without the intensive first month; I already know the business, and we carry on from where we are.
What is included
- About half a working day a month, on video or in person, in English or Spanish
- A tested concept and a site assessment before you commit
- An opening budget and a cash forecast for your first year, season by season
- Menu costing and pricing
- A licensing, registration, and opening timeline
- Supplier, recruitment, and training plans
- Systems set up before you open: rota, stock, cash-up, and till
- WhatsApp and email seven days a week: replies within four hours between 08:00 and 21:00, email the same day
- Templates and checklists that stay with you
Why work with me
I have spent more than 30 years in restaurants, cafés, bars, pubs, and nightclubs, as an owner and as an operator. 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, and I know where first-timers trip up because I have tripped there too. In Benalmádena, I opened El Punto Gastro Café in 2021, with Covid restrictions still in place and a deliberately small offer, and it paid its way from the first day. And I know what a lease can do: a clause I signed at 26 eventually cost me three pubs.
If you are coming from another career, or another country, your business instincts are an asset. Spanish hospitality has rules of its own, and Plan is where you learn them before they cost you money.
What Plan costs
€365 a month, plus IVA. Three-month minimum, then monthly with 30 days' notice until you open. When you open, you can move onto Run and skip its intensive first month.
Prices are shown without IVA, which is added at 21%. If you are setting up a business, keep the invoices: IVA paid before you start trading can usually be deducted once you do.
Plan is not right for everyone
- If you want someone to tell you the idea is brilliant, I am the wrong person. I will tell you the truth about the numbers, even when it is not what you hoped to hear.
- If you need someone to manage the builders day to day, you need a project manager or a fit-out contractor. I can help you brief and choose one.
- If you need a licence project drawn up and signed, that is the job of an architect or an engineer. I can help you brief them, and check their plans against the way you will actually trade.
- If you have already signed and open in a fortnight, start with a Pre-Opening Diagnostic. It is faster, and it finds what matters most in the time you have.
Not sure yet?
If you have an idea, a local, or a traspaso on the table and want to know where the risks are, start with a Pre-Opening Diagnostic. It costs €497 and finds the problems before they are built in. If you start Plan within 30 days, the €497 comes off your first month.
Frequently asked questions
How much money do I really need to open a restaurant, bar, or café in Spain?
More than the fit-out quote. In my experience, first budgets cover the build and forget the months after opening, when trade is slow and costs are not. Budget for the traspaso, if there is one, the fit-out, equipment, the fianza and any extra guarantee, licences, opening stock, and training, then add a contingency for the build and working capital to carry at least six months of trading at a realistic level of sales. Plan builds that budget with you before you sign.
My fit-out is over budget and opening keeps slipping. What do I cut?
Protect what keeps you legal, safe, and able to cook: the kitchen, the extraction, fire safety, accessibility, and anything your licence project depends on. Delay what guests will not miss on opening night: a second bar, upgraded signage, the furniture you fell in love with. Never fund an overrun from your working capital; the first months of trading need it more than the build does. If the date keeps slipping, re-cost the first year before you spend another euro.
How long until a new venue starts making money?
In my experience, longer than the plan says. The first months are about building trade and fixing what the opening exposes, not profit. The more useful question is how long you can survive if trade builds slowly, and whether you open into the summer or into the winter. If your cash runs out before sales reach break-even, the plan needs changing now, not after you open. A Pre-Opening Diagnostic tests that with you before you commit.
How long does it take to open a restaurant or bar in Andalucía?
Usually longer than the build. Most bars and restaurants need a favourable calificación ambiental from the town hall before they can open, alongside the works permit for the fit-out. Only then do you file the declaración responsable to open, and register as a food business with the Junta. Each town runs its own timetable, and the paperwork, not the builders, often sets the date. Plan sets out the order at the start.
Do I need a licence to sell alcohol in Spain?
Not a separate one. In Andalucía, what you may do, such as serve alcohol, cook, or play music, depends on the type of establishment you open as, and your opening paperwork must match it. A bar without music and a bar with music are different activities, with different rules on sound and hours. A terrace on the street needs its own permit from the town hall. Plan checks which category fits your idea, and your premises, before you sign.
Talk it through
A free 30-minute call will tell us both whether Plan is the right fit. If it is not, I will say so, and I will tell you what I would do instead.