Could You Meet the Bar Ownership Challenge If it Were an Option?
With bar ownership, there will come many challenges that you may not have yet considered. Your duties and those of your employees will require a few extra credentials. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fun type of business but not like any other that you may have encountered. Your customers in a bar situation, are a bit different than those in a restaurant environment and special skill sets are needed to prepare your employees. These are special requirements, that are in addition to the normal food service worker chores.
Bar ownership or management can certainly be a lot of fun at times but you shouldn’t be on the wrong side of the bar. You have a business to run and sometimes things can get out of hand in a pub or lounge so you need to be careful and always fully alert. Your bartenders should be friendly and cordial to customers but always aware of the situation at their duty area and throughout their scope of responsibility.
You should never let things get out of hand. Be aware of your customer’s actions and know how to carefully shutoff a customer when you have to do it and be conscious of mood changes, that can occur in bar patrons from time to time. Remember, honesty is a major consideration when hiring you bar staff. A dishonest bar tender can do you great harm.
You may know how to mix drinks and that is one thing but knowing how to control your customers is another requirement of equal value. Even if you think that you’ve hired the best barkeeps, still be aware of the feedback that you get from both customers and fellow employees and be sure to watch your tallies carefully.
Compare other staff takes on similar nights and the liquor costs accordingly. Be on top of what is going on at all times. It can get hectic especially on busy nights. That careful observation needs to involve the times when you are behind the bar, as well as when you are on the customer side of the establishment.
As a bar owner or manager, you will want to learn to bar tend on slower nights and be always prepared to fill in for staff who call in last minute or need to leave suddenly, as this and other situations will arise from time to time. Keep a list of those individuals that you can call upon, with little notice. This resource may be former employees, off work staff or even those with resumes that are currently on file. When you are not able to get replacements when staff calls in sick, quits on the spot or unexpected circumstances happen, it will ultimately be you who needs to fill the void.
Be prepared. My experience with the restaurant and bar had me working just about every position at one time or another. Maybe you will schedule yourself for certain jobs to reduce your overall payroll. This will be your choice as you make the decisions.
Setting up a bar from scratch is still another chore. You can decide how many items you will offer to your customers. In this instance, the customers will help you decide. You may be influenced by what your regular customers consume. If your place is a fun establishment, you will soon have regulars just like the “Cheers” bar. At the start, of course you will have premium brands on your top shelf. These might be Absolute Vodka, Grand Marnier, Crown Royal, Frangelica, and other expensive selections. Your selections will change a bit due to the taste of your regulars. The shelf just below would probably have Smirnoff, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Gilbey Gin and others. Below this would be your bar brands like Gold Crown, Allen’s, Popov, bar whiskeys etc.
Similarly, you will decide what kinds of beer to stock and decide if you will offer draft beer. Your bottle beer would come from the big three. Budweiser, Miller and Coors will furnish the majority of your choices and your customers will help you decide what else to carry. Certain customers drink certain brands. As for draft, Bud once again is the most popular in most states. You might choose to try one of the popular light beers which could be a Miller, Coors or Bud product. A third or fourth tap, you might have to experiment with. Wine will be determined by your customers, price and taste. If you only have two choices, you would probably have one red and one white variety. Some areas are bigger wine drinking areas than others. This will be learned in no time at all. You won’t need to do too much experimenting here.
Setting up your mixer station will be pretty basic. There will have to be lemon lime mix, ginger ale, cola, soda water and H2O. You will have spicket taps hooked up in back of the bar with lines running to your storage area where you will also have CO2. You’ll also have a separate system with CO2 for your tap beer. Once you establish a certain offering, you will need to have backups on hand to replace those that empty out. Keep a record of all your empties too. Try to determine the proper number of servings you should get from each bottle. After a while, you will be an expert at this.
You will compare your nightly tallies to the amount of liquor sold and you’ll compare to the take calculations with different staff members. Make sure the same drink is being served by different staff and a similar take reaches a similar tally. It sounds like a lot of work but in time it will not be an overwhelming task. The beers you choose to sell will be the major brand plus the choices of your customers. Depending on the space allowed, you will figure out all of this. After you determine your consumption weekly, you will decide how much supply to keep on hand. Your beer distributor will help you with this task.
If you should have a draft system is just another choice that you will make along with your regulars. You will stock what they drink and what is profitable for you. Everything will essentially be determined by space, coolers available, customers and profitability. What you think will sell doesn’t always work. As far as wine sales, start with a red and white and decide what your customers want. Maybe your market area is not big on wine but perhaps it is. Only time will tell and your additional research. Soon, you will determine what your busy nights are, when to run specials and the needs of your regulars.
You may decide to have a jukebox in your bar. These can be obtained from a local amusement company. The firm would furnish the music player and help set it up with speakers etc. Then you would get to keep a percentage of the deposits that were taken in on a regular basis. This same company would probably furnish pool tables, cigarette machine, video games or anything else that you thought you had room for in your establishment. There would be a split on proceeds. One thing to remember, you would need to have a lot of change on hand, just to get through the weekends. I know that I certainly did but the huge bags of quarters that I ended up with, helped to make change for my cash registers. Also, you will need coolers and ice machine to finish off your bar. Everything will depend on the size of your pub, bar or full Lounge with tables.
If you have room for a stage and plan to have live entertainment that might include live music, this will mean a busy environment requiring more coolers, staff, stock and the need for some type of security. For my own operation, I had live music 2-3 nights a week for a long time. My most successful night of the week was on a Thursday night. You might think that odd but I established a popular open mike night that lasted for over two years every week. I had a house band that worked for me continually and at a much reduced rate.
My club attracted a huge crowd and lots of free performers that wanted to showcase their talent. Sometimes, there would only be a couple of extra singers and some weren’t very good. Other nights, there might be 2-3 bands performing for free in addition to my paid house band. There would be guitars, harmonicas, trumpets and banjos too. Most of the other competitors couldn’t compete with me on that particular night. Sometimes, I would go to the mike myself and read off raffles for tee shirts and hats that I got from my distributors. The beer salesmen always could get you mirrors, lights, shirts and caps. Especially during the holidays and during sporting events like the Super Bowl, they would have posters, banners, table tents and other novelties. The neighborhood competitors would schedule entertainment only on the weekends. Bands ask much more on a Friday or Saturday as you know.
Like in the food business, a bar needs gimmicks. The slow nights for me, happened to be Sun, Mon and Tues. On these nights, I ran specials. Every Tues. night, I gave away a couple of large pizzas as a door prize and announced a winner later in the evening. It would keep people around longer. They didn’t want to miss the drawing and would come back later if they went off to another place. They never knew exactly when I was going to pick a number from the hat. Monday night, I might have margaritas on special or something else. You have to be creative all the time in these types of businesses. You have to always be aware of the bottom line and stay profitable if at all possible. If you follow these guidelines, I’m sure you can be the success that you know you can be and ultimately you will meet the challenge of your bar ownership.
Author: John Sprague
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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