Sips Nail Spa & Bar started as a simple question: why should getting your nails done feel like a chore, and why shouldn't a great cocktail belong in the same room? Turning that idea into three UK venues in Stratford, Mayfair and Croydon taught me more about opening a business than any course I've taken. These are the lessons that stuck.
The concept has to be clear in one sentence.
Nail spa plus cocktail bar sounds fun. It only works if the customer understands it instantly and the team can deliver both sides without chaos. We weren't a salon that happened to pour drinks, and we weren't a bar with a manicure table in the corner. Guests came for a complete experience. That clarity shaped everything: layout, staffing, pricing, music, even how we talked about the brand. If you can't explain the offer in one sentence, the room will feel confused too.
Design the journey, not just the look.
I designed and built a lot of the fit-out myself across the sites. Pretty interiors photograph well. What matters day to day is how a guest moves from door to seat to service to payment, and how staff move without colliding. Sight lines, noise, storage, wash-up, where coats go, where product lives — those details decide whether a busy Saturday feels smooth or frantic. Build for the peak hour, not the empty Tuesday photoshoot.
Licensing and rules are part of the product.
In England and Wales, premises licensing, planning use and the practical rules around alcohol and late hours aren't paperwork you bolt on at the end. They shape what you can sell, when you can open and how the room is used. I learned to treat that work as seriously as the colour palette. Start it early. Budget time for it. A beautiful venue that can't trade the way you imagined is an expensive lesson.
Fit-out always surprises you — plan for that.
Quotes slip. Lead times slip. Something behind a wall isn't what the drawings promised. On every Sips site I left margin in both money and calendar for the unknown. Doing parts of the build myself helped me understand where money was going, and it made conversations with trades clearer. Still, the founders who survive fit-out are the ones who assume something will go wrong and keep enough cash and time to absorb it.
Hire for the hybrid, train for the standard.
A nail technician and a bartender can share a floor, but they don't share the same craft. We needed people who respected both sides of the house and a training rhythm that kept service consistent when it got busy. Culture mattered as much as skill: warmth at the door, precision at the table, calm when tickets stacked up. One weak link on a Friday night teaches you faster than any handbook.
One number told me if the night was working.
Vanity metrics are comforting. For Sips, I cared about whether covers and average spend were doing what the model needed, and whether guests came back. Rebooking and return visits beat a loud opening week. If the room is full once and quiet forever, you staged an event, not a business. Watch the figure that predicts next month, not only tonight's till.
Systems let you leave the building.
The goal was never to be the person who had to be on site for everything to work. Opening and closing checklists, clear ownership, stock routines and a simple way to escalate problems meant the venues could run when I was elsewhere — writing, on a set, or looking after another company. That is the difference between owning a job and owning a business. I wrote those habits into Launch Your Venue because every new operator underestimates them.
What I'd tell anyone opening a salon, café or bar.
Fall in love with the customer problem, not the wallpaper. Prove the offer before you over-build. Put licensing, cash and hiring on the critical path from week one. And write things down while they're still fresh. Stratford, Mayfair and Croydon each had their own personality, but the foundations were the same: a clear concept, a room that works under pressure, and a team that can deliver without you hovering.
If you're planning your own venue, Launch Your Venue walks through a 26-week path from idea to opening night. It's on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. For the wider picture of juggling more than one company, see What running several businesses taught me and seven habits for running several businesses at once.