How to Open a Bar | Business Ideas

A bar, also known as a saloon, is a retail business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. Bars which offer entertainment or live music are often referred to as music bars or nightclubs. Many bars have a happy hour to encourage off-peak patronage. Bars that fill to capacity sometimes implement a cover charge or a minimum purchase requirement during their peak hours. Such bars often feature entertainment, which may be a live band or a disc jockey playing recorded music. The term "bar" is derived from the specialized counter on which drinks are served. Patrons may sit or stand at the bar and be served by the bartender, or they may sit at tables and be served by cocktail servers. The "back bar" is a set of shelves of glasses and bottles behind that counter. In some establishments, the back bar is elaborately decorated with woodwork, etched glass, mirrors, and lights. Opening a bar can be a risky business. Learn as much about the business as you can before jumping in. Here are some steps to help you.

Open a Bar Business Instruction:

Types of Bar:

A bar's owners and managers choose the bar's name, decor, drink menu, lighting, and other elements which they think will attract a certain kind of patron. However, they have only limited influence over who patronizes their establishment. Thus, a bar originally intended for one demographic profile can become popular with another. For example, a gay bar with a dance floor might, over time, attract an increasingly straight clientele. Or a blues bar may become a biker bar if most its patrons are bikers.

• A cocktail lounge is an upscale bar that is typically located within a hotel, restaurant, or airport.

• A full bar serves liquor, cocktails, wine, and beer.

• A wine bar is an elegant bar that focuses on wine rather than on beer or liquor. Patrons of these bars may taste wines before deciding to buy them. Some wine bars also serve small plates of food or other snacks.

• A beer bar focuses on beer, particularly craft beer, rather than on wine or liquor. A brew pub has an on-site brewery and serves craft beers.

• "Fern bar" is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar.

• A music bar is a bar that presents live music as an attraction.

• A dive bar, often referred to simply as a "dive," is a very informal bar which may be considered by some to be disreputable.

Entertainment in Bar

Types of bars range from dive bars to elegant places of entertainment for the elite.

Bars categorized by the kind of entertainment they offer:

• Blues bars, specializing in the live blues style of music.

• Comedy bars, specializing in stand-up comedy entertainment.

• Dance bars, which have a dance floor where patrons dance to recorded music. But if a dance bar has a large dance floor and hires well-known professional DJs, it is considered to be a nightclub or discotheque.

• Karaoke bars, with nightly karaoke as entertainment.

• Music bars, specializing in live music (i.e. concerts).

• Drag bars, which have live shows, where men dress as women and generally lip-sync to recordings of female vocal artists; often with hilarious results.

• Salsa bars, where patrons dance to Latin salsa music.

• Sports bars, where sports fans watch games on large-screen televisions.

• Topless bars, where topless female employees dance or serve drinks.

Steps:

• Create a detailed business plan. Know the demographics of the neighborhood, and the audience you're trying to attract. This will help you to secure financing, which banks are reluctant to fund and the SBA will NOT help 

• Look for the right location. Don't jump at a closed bar. Bars close for a reason. Look for the right area to be in. Preferably, find one that has a higher proportion of young adults. They hang out in bars. Highway access is crucial too, if you want to attract crosstown business.

• Create a good menu. Spend a little extra on the ingredients. Fresh is better. Have a good lunch menu, too, if you're around a lot of businesses. If you want to open a neighborhood joint, you might want to skip lunch business and concentrate on happy hour business. Hire a good cook and one great waitress for evenings.

• If you're going to have live music, know the audience you're trying to attract. There are country-themed bars, blues-themed bars, punk-themed bars, rock-themed bars, jazz-themed bars, and so on. Each type works, depending upon the area, population, proximity to college, and so on. You will also have to pay for licensing... ASCAP, BMI and a few others will come knocking on your door.

• Contract with a good amusements company for any coin operated machines like pool tables, dart boards, touch screen and arcade style games They'll also supply you with a jukebox and a change machine. Usually its a 50/50 split and they service everything. Our amusement company was awesome.

• Make sure you've got every local, city, county, state and federal liquor license up to date.

• Have city inspectors come look at the property and make the landlord fix everything before you sign a lease. You'll be glad you did. Then have the Health Department inspectors look at it.

• If you're starting from scratch, utilize contacts to help you with electrical, plumbing, sound and construction. Cut a deal for them to drink cheap forever. They're your friends and they'll bring their friends.

• Advertise the grand opening weekend and you should try to open with great fanfare. It helps create a buzz.

• Work with the local liquor and beer distributors to provide you with swag for your customers. Everyone likes getting stuff for free, even if it is a cheap t-shirt.

• Make sure you're working shifts in the kitchen, behind the bar and on the floor. Patrons like seeing the owner.

• Know that the size of your bar doesn't matter, as big ones can fail, and small, neighborhood ones often go on forever.

Tips

• Keep an eye on your bartenders and waitresses. Make sure they don't have their hand in your pocket and that they're not comping drinks for better tips. By the way, they don't make better tips on cheaper tabs.

• Check into who your landlord is and how he does business. If people say, "Oh, he's OK, just not on top of things", don't sign a lease. He's just wringing money out of the building and won't fix anything. It'll cost you patrons, business and your investment.

• Keep your business and personal assets separate.

• Don't drink on the job. You can get carried away and stuff falls through the cracks.

Warnings 

• You probably won't make as much money as you think you will, at least at the beginning.

• It's not the good times that make your business, it's the bad times that break your business.

• You need to know everything about the business and have had experience.

• Good customers are hard to come by and easily lost. Know how to retain them once you gain them.

Reference:

• How to Open a Bar