How can I start my own Bar/Club?

Question

Im 21 years old from Los Angeles. My dream is to open up my own Bar/Club. Is there anyone who has opened a succesful Bar or Club that can give me some tips as in how to start?. As in how you found your location, financed the project, liquor license. I myself am a DJ so the music side is taken care of & I got tons of bartender friends. I just need some advice as to getting started (the process)......Thanks

Answer 1

Well you could read 10 books by experts and still be lacking in what exactly you need.

Most important of all, check out successful clubs and see what makes them tick. Study this as you would any life's work, in detail and learn everything you can about what makes successful places work. Make contacts in the business, because you will need great management and investors. You want to know a Realtor that deals in those properties and get close to them, they have a lot of information from a perspective not many people use as to what works or not and how to get in for less money.

Groom yourself for a leadership roll by understanding the business better than anyone.

Asking here is a good start, but usually you won't get much here because those who've done it are not on this site usually and they won't be willing to give you for free what it took them decades and all kinds of money to find out.

It would be very good for you to start working at places you want to model after, then you can see operations first hand. It would be good to work up to a position of responsibility and management if you can. You will start at the bottom, but if you are a great worker they can count on and you're smart you will stand out and they will use you for things beyond what the entry level people do, you will be valuable to them and in a position to learn a lot more about the business and maybe befriend the owner.

You could try to just throw up a bar and do it the hard way, but good luck, those situations almost always end badly. You need information and insight to know what 95% of club owners don't even know. To do this you have to learn from the best of them, and get them to teach you. You won't get them jumping to do that here, trust me.

Answer 2

Hmmm.... sounds nice. It sounds you need a sum of money, a designer for your bar. He is very important, because the style is always this main think attracts the customers.

the location, you don't need to set it in the downtown place cause it cost higher rent, but you can find some place near the downtown, like at the margine of the city. Of course, essentialy, you need to rent a place that has parking spaces. If customers find it hard to part, they won't go.

Get license? Just check out the local government website, it gives your more and more accurate detail than any one else, you need to do research, dude!

Actually it is not hard, just according to the requirements, make sure you meet them one by one, step by step.

And the difficult part is to find , contact and bargain with your supplier. You can do some research first as well. You go to other bars see what they normaly sell. write down the suppliers names that you are interested in. Search them on the web, contact them and make appointments start to talk.

Go back to the designer, he is important, communicate properly with him, tell your personal wishes, ideals and themes of your bar. Then the designer would communicate with your project workers.

All the best.

Answer 3

I own a successful bar.  You have already been given some very good answers, but here is my 2 cents worth.  The easiest thing to do would be to find a location that has already been a bar. This will save money on the plumbing & maybe the wiring.  Lease, do not buy your coolers and ice machines.  They are expensive to repair and they WILL break down. By leasing them, you won't have to worry about expensive repair bills.  Make sure you have enough storage for inventory.  Some distributors have a minimum you have to buy, so make sure you have room for extra kegs and cases. Invest in a good POS system. This will help you track your sales and make it harder for employees to steal. And sorry to say, but employee theft in the bar business is very common.

Keep your bar clean and have a strict set of rules. Having rules won't hurt your business, they will only weed out the riff raff.  Absolutely refuse service to anyone underage. Serving minors will get you closed down quicker than anything.

I wish you luck and much success.  It is a very hard business, but it can been very successful.

OBTW Bars are not required to serve food in order to be successful.

Answer 4

I'd talk to people that you know in the club biz and ask THEM how to do it. Make sure that they know that you won't be a competitor, opening up down the street from their place.

LISTEN to what they say, and make notes about the process.  

Unless you have an oil well in your backyard, you will need a backer, who can loan you money, for the business. That could be a bank, but more likely, it will be a person who has money and wants to make more of it . Who do you know that has LOTS of money ?

At age 21, most people are NOT going to lend you money. You  need a partner who has money, or a connection to it.  Think about who that could be.................

The most important  thing is the liquor licence. No booze, equals no people, BUT booze also has it's own set of problems.  Inventory, what and how much to stock ? Security of the stock, and control of the way it is served. Contracts with the suppliers for beer and hard stuff, and equipment like draft pumps and  glass washers, and fridges.

Equipment also means tables, chairs, bar stools and lighting, along with cash registers and food ordering computer sytems, and of course the kitchen. What........... no food ? Think about that for a minute, would you  go back to a place that  didn't have food of some kind ?

Ok I have made you think, I hope . It is not an overnight thing,. a club. To make it a sucess, it takes ALL of your time and money, along with some one elses' money, too.

Good Luck

Jim B. Toronto.