The Retail Roadmap
The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your First Store with Confidence
By Luke Geddes
A practical guide for first-time founders who want to understand what to decide, when to decide it and what to question before avoidable costs and commitments begin to build.
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Most retail mistakes do not begin on opening day
They begin earlier, when the wrong location is chosen, commercial terms are accepted too quickly, design moves ahead before the brief is clear or spending starts before the right foundations are in place.
The Retail Roadmap draws on more than twenty years of experience opening and advising physical retail businesses. It explains the decisions that can shape a launch long before the doors open, and the questions founders should ask while they still have choices.
Built around the VenQ® Framework, the book takes you through four stages: Vision, Evaluate, Negotiate and Quality Build & Launch.
It is written for first-time founders opening a store, salon, boutique, showroom or other physical retail location, including online brands preparing to move into bricks and mortar.
What The Book Helps You Do
Opening a physical location involves hundreds of connected decisions. The Retail Roadmap helps you understand which decisions matter most, when to make them and what to question before committing.
- Turn your concept into a clearer, commercially grounded plan
- Assess whether a location genuinely fits the business
- Question Heads of Terms before the lease is drafted
- Brief designers and shopfitters with greater clarity
- Plan the practical steps from concept through to opening
- Recognise when to proceed, pause or walk away
It is practical, commercially grounded and written to help first-time founders make better-informed decisions.
What’s Inside
The Retail Roadmap follows the major decisions involved in planning and opening a physical retail location, including:
- Defining the concept and testing the commercial model
- Evaluating locations before committing
- Negotiating Heads of Terms and understanding the lease process
- Planning the design and fit-out in the right sequence
- Preparing the business legally and operationally
- Building the team and customer experience
- Planning marketing and local visibility
- Controlling costs and preparing for launch
Built around the VenQ® Framework, each stage includes practical guidance, questions, examples and checklists to help you apply the thinking to your own project.
Who The Book Is For
The Retail Roadmap is designed for:
- First-time founders preparing to open a physical retail location
- Online brands moving into bricks and mortar
- Founders developing a store, salon, boutique, showroom or service-led concept
- Founders exploring a kiosk or smaller-format opportunity
- Business owners who want to understand the process before committing to property or significant expenditure
It is especially valuable at the beginning of the journey, while locations, commercial terms and plans can still be questioned or changed.
Why This Book Matters
Many founders only discover what they needed to know after money has been spent, commercial terms have been agreed or the fit-out has begun.
The Retail Roadmap gives you practical guidance earlier, while you still have the opportunity to question the plan, compare options and change direction.
A Better Place To Start
Not every founder needs advisory support from day one, but every founder benefits from understanding the process before making significant commitments.
The Retail Roadmap gives you a practical starting point for understanding the decisions ahead and preparing for conversations with agents, landlords, solicitors, designers and shopfitters.
Available in:
- Paperback
- Kindle
Buy your copy through Amazon and start making better-informed decisions about your first physical location.
Buy on Amazon
