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09 Jan 2026 · James Okoye

Before you open a second site

A second site is not a vote of confidence. It is a working-capital decision wearing a ribbon. We ask for three numbers before anyone talks to a landlord.

A small team testing an expansion model on a laptop

First: contribution at the first site after a honest allocation of central cost. If that number is not stable, you are not expanding. You are spreading a problem.

Second: the cash lag. Rent, fit-out, stock and people will leave the account months before the new till is interesting. Model that lag as if the opening slips by eight weeks, because it will.

Third: who closes the new books in month one. If the answer is “we will figure it out”, the group pack will be fiction until Christmas.

Waiting is a decision

The bravest call we have made this year was asking a client to wait. They did. The opening that followed was funded, staffed, and on a chart of accounts the group could actually read.

Read the expansion case

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