The order matters more than the checklist. Sign the lease before the licence path is agreed, or order equipment before the kitchen layout is fixed, and you pay for the same thing twice. This is the sequence we run, with the decision that gates each step.
| When | What happens | The decision that gates it |
|---|---|---|
| Before the lease | Concept, budget, rent-to-sales test, go/no-go. Mainland or free zone agreed with the PRO. | Where you will sell, and to whom. This decides the licence path and therefore the lease. |
| Weeks 1–2 | Lease signed, landlord NOC, fit-out contractor shortlisted, licence path started by the PRO. | Delivery-first or dine-in-first. It changes the kitchen, the staffing and the POS. |
| Weeks 2–5 | Kitchen layout and MEP with the contractor; food-safety consultant briefed; long-lead equipment ordered. | The layout must be frozen before anything is ordered. Extraction and sinks are the long-lead items. |
| Weeks 4–8 | Fit-out. POS built with real recipes and yields, purchasing and inventory set up, supplier accounts, aggregator onboarding. | Choose the POS before the recipes are written, not after. |
| Weeks 7–10 | Hiring and onboarding, one-page SOPs, opening checklists, soft-launch menu. Specialist sign-offs tracked. | Hire for the soft-launch menu, not the dream menu. |
| Weeks 10–12 | Training week, soft open, first weekly P&L. Handover into Run. | Open when the numbers can be measured, not when the paint is dry. |
Eight to sixteen weeks from signed lease in the projects we run. The spread is almost always the licence path and the fit-out.
| Work | Who |
|---|---|
| Trade licence, visas, government liaison | Your PRO |
| Food-safety and municipality filings, kitchen compliance | Food-safety consultant |
| Fit-out, MEP, extraction | Fit-out contractor |
| Feasibility, site and lease, sequence and budget, kitchen and equipment plan, POS and inventory with real recipes, suppliers, hiring, SOPs, opening week, first P&L — and briefing and tracking everyone above | Backhouse |
The specialists are good at their part. What a first-time operator lacks is the person who knows the order, holds the budget, and notices in week three that the equipment list and the kitchen drawing disagree.
This is why launch clients move into Monthly Ops for the first year: the systems built in weeks four to eight only pay off if someone keeps them true after opening night.
From a signed lease to first service, the projects we run typically take eight to sixteen weeks. The licence path and the fit-out are the two things that stretch it: a mainland-versus-free-zone decision made late, or equipment ordered before the kitchen layout is fixed, can each add a month.
It depends on where and how you sell — dine-in on the street, delivery only, inside a mall or a free-zone community — and it has to be decided before the lease, because the lease and the licence path depend on each other. Your PRO advises on the legal side; we make sure the decision is taken in the right order, with the numbers next to it.
The PRO and the food-safety consultant handle the trade licence, visas and the municipality and food-safety filings — that is specialist work. Backhouse produces the opening: feasibility, site and lease, the sequence and budget, the kitchen and equipment plan with the contractor, POS and inventory built with real recipes, suppliers, hiring, SOPs and the first weekly P&L. We brief the specialists and track their sign-offs so the opening date stays honest.
Yes. Japanese founders opening a first venue in the UAE are a core client group. Consultations and the paperwork we produce are available in Japanese — see the Japanese page.
Bring the concept, the target area and the budget range. We'll tell you the sequence and where the money usually goes wrong.
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