Working document. Not the plan. Read the plan ←

The Workbook

Every step between here and a professional business plan. Built 2026-10-01, from the business plan template and guide. Check things off as they land. Progress and notes save on this device automatically.

The ground rules, for every step:

Real numbers only, from the Square files. Nothing invented.
Every guessed line in the model is marked as a guess. Never smoothed.
Your words beat mine wherever your words exist.
Legal structure is a question to counsel, not an invented fact.
The target: open bar #1 (Vegas, Arts District). Bars #2 and #3 are Vegas too, and only happen if bar #1 works.

0 of 0 done

Phase 1 — What is already proven

Mostly done. What's left here gates everything else, and what's left is yours to give.

The idea, in your words, captured

01 Idea.md. Without a concept in the founder's own voice, every other section writes itself wrong.

Notes

Nine months of Square data on disk, both bars

272 days each, running on cron so it keeps coming. The proof layer the rest of the plan stands on.

Notes

Sales charts built

Monthly trajectory, weekday shape, daily strips. Live on the plan page.

Notes

Target set: three bars, gated

Bar #1 is the whole ask. #2 and #3 are Vegas, only if #1 works. Settled 2026-10-01. Not a 20-unit promise.

you

Notes

The numbers conversation

Rent for a comparable Arts District corner. Labor % at both bars. Food cost % at both. Target space (sq ft, build-out quote). This is the one input only you can give, and Phase 2 is blocked on it.

you

Notes

One-word confirmation

A later capture said "comprehensive spirituality." Almost certainly "comprehensive spirits program." Confirm once and the file is clean.

you

Notes

Phase 2 — The machine

What makes bar #1 replicable. This section is what an investor actually bets on.

Map the LHP floor

Template input #1. Walk the bar with a tape (or send me rough room dims), I turn it into a plan drawing.

together

Notes

Map the Barb's floor

Template input #2. Same method, second data point. Two real rooms is the difference between a template and a guess.

together

Notes

Map two or three reference bars

Template input #3. Spaces in Vegas or NY that show what a third format looks like. Walk them, I draft the plans.

together

Notes

Land three space templates

Three different bar setups for three kinds of space. Every bar after #1 must match one of them. Nothing else opens.

Notes

Unit economics per template

Capex (build-out, license, AV, deposit), monthly P&L, break-even, target margin. Real lines from the NY data, guessed lines marked. Blocked on the numbers conversation (Phase 1).

Notes

Site gates

Numeric pass/fail criteria for any space before a lease gets signed: target margin, cash-on-cash return, format match to a template. The Shake Shack move, made explicit.

Notes

The operating model, in writing

One bar, one day, open to close: hours, shifts, the 10-15 person staffing model, ordering, close-out. A short interview, in batches, whenever you can talk.

together

Notes

The replication system

The playbook (301 encyclopedia + SOPs), the training pipeline (Moodle + working shifts + the video rule), the central team it will need, the KPI stack reported weekly per bar. This is the answer to "how do you open a third bar without being there every night."

Notes

Comp table, Arts District

Six or eight nearby bars: positioning, what they run, what they don't. Observations, labeled. No invented numbers. Might take one evening of walking the block.

together

Notes

Phase 3 — The three bars

Where the plan becomes a business. Biggest conversation in the build lives here.

The ownership conversation

Who comes into ownership of the three bars. What an owner puts in (money, what else). What they get (stake, distribution, rights, exit). Who decides what. The whole plan is built to present the four selections to an investment team, so the team itself gets written down first.

together

Notes

Entity structure to counsel

Separate entity per location, distribution mechanics, how the option on #2/#3 is held. Written as questions to counsel in the plan, never as an invented answer.

you

Notes

Roadmap table

Bar #1 filled in. #2 and #3 carry the gate condition (margin hit, GM proven by the money) and no dates. One bar, plus an option on two.

Notes

Pro formas and sources & uses

One P&L per template, the three-bar model, who funds what. The NY cash flow as one leg, owner capital as the rest.

Notes

Risks and contingencies

Single-market risk, the human-capital risk named directly, license and build-out schedule, what a bad year in one bar looks like and how the group absorbs it.

Notes

The ask

Money, a number or range. The team. The sequence of decisions after. One page. No poetry.

Notes

Executive summary, written last

One page, three numbers max. It summarizes what's now true, so it exists only once everything else does.

Notes

Your cut

You read the whole thing as an investor would. You cut what's wrong. It gets tightened. Final.

you

Notes

Spin off the restaurant cocktail bar

Separate project, different team, its own plan. Gets the same template treatment when the time is right. Listed here so it's not forgotten and not mixed into this document.

you

Notes

Order matters. Phases run in sequence; within a phase, the lines marked you are the gates. Everything else I can do the moment they land. Back to the plan ←