Bernard Achterhof
third-generation shopkeeper
Margin-obsessed; knows every supplier trick
Open at Six
Mira wants a beautiful shop; Tess wants a profitable one.
Planned · not started yet
Business & entrepreneurship Ambition Money under pressure Hard choices Small town Workplace Hopeful Lightly witty
The premise
Mira wants a beautiful shop; Tess wants a profitable one. The bakery opens at six every morning, and every chapter it either covers its costs or it does not — including the year a burst water main closes it for a month and the sisters must decide whether to reopen at all.
The protagonist
Mira Albrecht — Pastry chef opening a bakery with her sister Tess
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Leila Moradian
small-business accountant
Cash-first; watches the bank balance, not the profit line
Owen Castellane
brand strategist
Story-first; believes people pay for a reason to choose you
How the story moves
Three years in the bakery; the sisters’ partnership is the spine, strained by the flood and by Mira’s wish to open a second shop.
What readers take away
- Business plans and cash-flow forecasts
- Pricing from ingredient, labour and overhead costs
- Food-business registration and hygiene basics
- Leases, fit-out and rent reviews
- Hiring, rotas and minimum wage
- Local marketing and customer loyalty
- Business-interruption insurance and crisis response
- Deciding when to expand
- Calculate break-even volume
- Read a lease’s repair and rent-review clauses
- Manage stock and waste
- Register for VAT at the right threshold
The books
- 1The plan Planned
- 2Opening Planned
- 3Pricing Planned
- 4The flood Planned
- 5Staff Planned
- 6The second shop Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.