Product Book
2055 From Perspective to Product The PreOpening Build
Last Updated: August 3, 2026Every section in Perspective asked you to examine how you see the business. Your market. Your competition. Your...
2060 The Decisions Before the Decisions
Last Updated: August 3, 2026There is a version of pre-opening that looks like work but isn’t. The operator who spends three months...
2100 Restaurants Have Guests Not Customers
Last Updated: August 3, 2026Language matters. I’ve been saying this for decades: restaurants have Guests. Walmart has Guests. A Guest completes a...
2095 How I See It PreOpening
Last Updated: August 3, 2026The mediocre operator treats pre-opening as a to-do list working toward a target date. The focus is on...
2090 Build to Sell
Last Updated: August 3, 2026Build to sell is not an exit strategy. It is a construction standard. When you build something as...
2085 The Last 30 Days
Last Updated: August 3, 2026Everything converges in the final month. The construction punch list is still running. Equipment is being tested and...
2080 Building the Operation Before the Building Is Done
Last Updated: August 3, 2026The staff side of pre-opening gets treated as a late-stage activity by most operators. That is a significant...
2075 The Construction Gap
Last Updated: August 3, 2026The most predictable problem in restaurant pre-opening is also the most ignored: construction always runs longer than expected,...
2070 The Site Decision
Last Updated: August 3, 2026Location is the only decision in this business you cannot undo. You can change the menu, rebuild the...
2065 Concept Before Capital Capital Before Everything Else
Last Updated: August 3, 2026The single most dangerous moment in the pre-opening process is the gap between what an operator thinks their...