Desk 05 · 4 stories
Pre-Opening Operations
Between certificate of occupancy and first paying guest: hiring, training, systems, stock, and the handover.
Featured guide
The Opening Order: Count Operating Supplies Before Buying Cases
Build an opening order for operating supplies from service needs, rehearsal consumption and confirmed case sizes. Check usable stock, storage and delivery readiness, then plan the first reorder.
05
The complete desk
All Pre-Opening Operations guides
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02
Playbook
The Furniture Handover: Give Operations a Package It Can Maintain
Transfer installed furniture into an operating record: room locations, approved specifications, care instructions, warranty terms, spare parts and unresolved items with named owners.
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03
Patterns
Announce Seasons, Not Dates
The public opening date is the only schedule item a project volunteers to be judged on, and the record says it should be the last one committed. A patterns piece on announcement discipline: why dates slip publicly, the season strategy, and spending the debut only once.
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04
Playbook
The Soft-Opening Playbook
The weeks between certificate of occupancy and grand opening are not a victory lap. They are the shakedown cruise. How to sequence training, dry runs, friends-and-family, and limited service so opening night is a performance, not an experiment.
