Planning to build a bar business is not going as easy as you might think. Establishing a bar needed much more preparation as well as calculation. Though it is not as easy as other businesses, if you finally can walk around the finer details – guaranteed you will be able to achieve success in this very lucrative and rewarding business.
Here are 5 important things that you have to ensure your bar has in order to establish a successful business.
Choose The Bar Concept
Developing your concept and identity is the fun part of opening your own bar. This process needed to be done first, even before you take care of other things related to the bar opening. Having a clear concept of what you want your bar to be, will help you to navigate other important things regarding the bar. Such as what design you will use, what kind of menu you will sell, what kind of environment you want the guest to feel when they visit your bar, and many other important things.
More than that, the bar concept will also be the selling point that can help you to either attract customers or not. Thus choosing the right concept is very much needed to establish a successful bar. Give yourself time to brainstorm, and you can also discuss or ask for insight for people closest to you.
Hire The Right Employees
In order to not waste a lot of time and money training new employees who can only stay for a short period of time, when you open a bar – you need to apply strict standards when recruiting and running employee training programs. This can eliminate employees who will potentially walk away on short notice, or are not able to work at the pace you want.
When you already have a group of employees whom you know are worth it, some things that you can do to retain them are by providing incentives, bonuses, lucrative shifts, and raises. But you have to remember, not all incentives can be in the form of money. Some employees are more motivated if you give them a promotion to a higher position or allow them to learn new skills. For example, if you have a dedicated dishwasher employee who wants to master bartending skills, you can reward that person with training to be a bartender.
Another thing that can make your employees happy is to make sure the work environment is comfortable and warm, so they know that they will be able to share their ideas and feelings freely without being judged. Because employees will be the motor for your bar, you need to ensure that you create a good connection with each of them. And thus effective communication can be established in the work setting.
Create A Signature Cocktail
It will be very great if you can be able to create unique drinks that can make your bar stand out from the rest. Having a signature cocktail can also be a part of your brand concept. Don’t hesitate to charge your bar signature cocktails at a higher price, because it is special and something that customers can’t find anywhere else aside from your bar.
Host Events and Happy Hours
Creating an event or hosting happy hour programs can be the ultimate way for you to be able to attract new customers. During happy hour, you should give discounts on menus that have high profits or give special discounts on minimum purchases. Another option to attract customers’ attention is to host an event. The event you organize can be a regular program or an event that appears once in a while. To make the happy-hour program or events go viral, you should promote your events and programs on social media.
Establish A Bar With A Safe Environment
Opening a bar is a very risky business. You have to train the staff to handle alcohol very carefully, and how to mitigate in case there are conflicts due to the drunken guest. This is not only about customer safety, but also to protect your bar from being fined, investigated by police, or losing your license. You can create an opening and closing bar checklist that can be used as a guideline to ensure the safety of the bar. For example things such as ensuring the expiration date of the alcohol, double checking the cleanliness of the establishment, and briefing the bouncer to ensure that female staff needs to be escorted out before closing time are some examples of things that need to be on the checklist.
The bar industry is very competitive and it can be very difficult to run a bar successfully and profitably. However, by taking a more active role in your business, and ensuring you train employees properly – you can achieve resounding success after opening a bar.