Premises secured, licences applied for or granted, key equipment ordered with delivery dates, and the funding trail documented. Announce nothing publicly until those are settled, because a lease clock and a supplier delivery both start running against you. Preparation, any applicable consular procedure, government review, and admission are separate stages with no promised end date.
Sequence the licences before the lease if you can
Some permits depend on the premises, and some premises are worth little without the permit. Find out which applies to the intended activity early, because that ordering decides whether rent starts before the business can legally operate. Build the evidence pack alongside those steps rather than after them, confirm current submission instructions for the route actually being used, and leave room for further evidence requests that arrive without warning.
Add one rule to the sequence: no working in the business before the authorization to do so exists. Preparing to open — negotiating a lease, ordering equipment, incorporating — is different from operating, and the line between them matters more as the opening approaches and the temptation to help grows. Establish who may lawfully act during the interval, and what a contractor or a hired manager can do in the founder's place.
Hypothetical example: a founder fitting out a water-sports rental operation plans an opening week falling before the status that would permit them to run it, and resolves the problem by appointing an interim manager rather than moving the date twice. Settle that arrangement before the fit-out starts, since it is far cheaper to plan than to unwind.