We’ve all been there; you get together with friends and, after a few drinks, decide that it’d be a brilliant idea to open your own bar. It can’t be that hard to run a half-decent drinking establishment, right?
Let’s say you go a step further and actually decide to go through with it. It’s a bold, potentially life-changing move to make, yet one which is also fraught with potential problems and pitfalls.
That’s why it’s important to plan things out carefully and know the ins and outs of running a bar before you get started, so here are the main considerations that you have to take onboard prior to taking the plunge.
How you’ll fund your business
Every new business needs money to get going, and bars are no different. You have to work out what costs you’ll need to encompass before you can even serve your customers, taking into account everything from building rental, renovations required, insurance and licensing, inventory and staffing.
At this point it’s a good idea to write a business plan, which will effectively be a prospectus for your bar that you can use to attract third party investors. You could also seek a traditional business loan from a bank or another lender, or ask friends and family to contribute.
A combination of funding options may be needed to get your bar off the ground, but whatever route you take, make sure that you have a solid idea of what it will cost to get to your destination.
How you’ll launch & promote your bar
A major marketing push is needed in order to get drinkers through the door, and word of mouth momentum can be built by planning for your soft opening in advance of the official hard launch of your bar.
A soft opening is not just a good opportunity to get locals onboard, but also to build a profile in the media, court prospective suppliers and partners, and stress test your equipment and team of staff.
Today, bars also need to be on top of digital marketing. Creating a buzz on social media is just as important as making a splash through real-world interactions with customers, so plan for this from day one.
How you’ll build your brand
This crosses over with your wider promotional efforts, but branding is a useful aspect of opening a bar to consider in its own right.
You need to think about the identity and ethos that best represents your watering hole, and to come up with aesthetic elements which fit this. From the name and logo to the mission statement and even the selection of drinks you offer, all of this has to be determined in the run-up to your official opening.
Different brand identities work better for different types of bar. Perhaps you’re aiming to appeal to craft beer lovers. Perhaps you want to welcome sports fans. Perhaps you intend to appeal to a high end crowd.
Regardless of your target audience, building your brand to meet expectations is crucial. And researching what your competitors are up to can help a lot if you are stuck without a starting point at the moment.
How you’ll manage the enterprise
When opening a bar, you’ll probably want to take the reins yourself, and while this sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice it can be a challenging process, particularly during the early stages post-launch.
If you don’t have any prior experience of managing a bar, or more generally in managing a team of people, then there are a lot of missteps you could make. Recruiting an experienced bar manager to step in instead may be another cost to bear, but could work out better for the business in the long run. Failing that, working with an expert consultant to guide you will be impactful.
Final thoughts
A few things are needed to open a bar, and one of them is patience. You need to recognize that even your best laid plans might take months or years to bear fruit, so be prepared to tough it out through the harder times and don’t crumble in the face of a few bad days.
