Your life is tough.
OK, you make good money, but you’re never home, you hate your boss, whatever industry you’re in is either uninspiring or downright evil, and you want to take your ill-gotten gains and leverage them in to something that gives you the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.
Do you open a Subway franchise? No way. Where’s the fun in that?
You want to do something fun. You want to open a bar.
A bar is a no-brainer. You buy beer in a keg at a £1 per pint and sell it for £5. A bottle of vodka might cost £15, and you sell each shot for £3.50. Who couldn’t make those numbers work?
The problem is, it’s not that simple.
Opening a bar is hard, and running a successful bar is infinitely harder. A disturbing number of people think that if you can scratch together the money to get in, a bar will return astronomical profits, just because it is well stocked, and the doors are open. The phrase I’ve heard most often is, “In good times, people drink to celebrate. In bad times, they drink to commiserate.” You’ve got all your bases covered, right? Good economy or bad, you’ve got the booze, and people will always want to buy it.
Ray Foley, editor of Bartender Magazine, estimates that 75% of bars fail in their first year.
The reality of owning a bar is much more stark than what most people believe.
Ray Foley, editor of Bartender Magazine, estimates that 75% of bars fail in their first year. While I haven’t vetted his numbers, my experience in the business leads me to believe this is true.
There are many types of bars in this world, and for each there is a lot of competition. You want to open an Irish pub in your neighbourhood because you see Irish pubs doing well. The big question is this: What makes yours stand out from all the others?
When the time came for my partners and I to open our own bar, we tried to internalise all of the lessons we had learned from the places that came before us. It turns out that, despite all of our experience, we didn’t know a thing. Yes, we knew how to cobble together a product order, but who was going to answer the phone when it rings at 11 a.m.? We could put together a decent cocktail menu, but who was going to make sure anyone would find out about it? What do you do when your ice machine dies in the middle of service? What happens when the tax-man comes calling?
But, in addition to all of that we had to look at our business and say,
“What is it that I’m going to do that will make someone walk in to my venue and not the one down the street?” If you can’t figure out a good answer to that question, your bar is destined for the scrap-heap of oblivion.
If success hinges on showing people a good time, it also requires we act responsibly. Bars are in the business of intoxication, and we have to deal with all of the challenges which that implies.Drunk people fight, they steal things from the bathroom and they fall down. Some people who are intoxicated enough won’t even hesitate for a second to rip a bar to shreds. Finding staff responsible enough to deal with this is not easy and finding staff who don’t also participate in the party is harder still.
The fact is, opening and running a successful bar takes an enormous amount of work. I have worked in this industry for over 30 years and I was lucky to work ninety hours per week.
How did I spend my time?
Learning accounts, searching for the cocktail menus, trying to find a new manager (again!), figuring out how much gin I needed on hand for the weekend, repairing the bar because a shelf collapsed and a full keg fell on someone’s foot. With all of that going on I was also wiping off toilets, taking over shifts if someone was out, finding another pest control guy because the last one didn’t turn up, firing a person who got drunk on their shift, greeting guests, cancelling my newspaper ad because I didn’t think it’s working and, being the only person that always has his phone on, just in case something goes down in the rare moments that I don’t happen to be at the bar. In summary…….I was always on call.
The fantasy and fact of owning a bar are two different things. It’s hard and sometimes dirty work but, if you get it right, it can be extremely rewarding.
If you’re interested in opening a bar, then we would like to help.We specialise in opening bars, clubs and restaurants and also operate our own venues. We will set you on the right path and be with you throughout the journey. Get in touch today.