Sunday, November 30, 2014

How to Run a Beer and Wine Bar Business

Beer and Wine Bar | Small Business IdeasEveryone wants to relax after a long hour work or mental tension, then we look for a beer bar near by to chill. The business is more on weekends but no one minds to walk into a bar on weekdays too. Beer, ale and wine bar owners make good money over a week so do you want to be one among the proud beer bar entrepreneurs?

Opening your beer and wine bar was no doubt one of the most challenging things you've ever done. You got your permits, found retail space, laid in inventory and advertised to attract customers and set about taking care of them. The challenge isn't over yet. Now that it's time to focus on running your beer and wine bar, there are still several areas to concentrate on or be mindful of to make and keep your business a success.


Establish a signature malt beverage that your pub brew business can be known of


Branding is important in the business industry and you can take advantage of branding to market your brew pubs business. You can do this by marketing a beer or similar fermented beverage that is available in your pub brew business only. While you can still offer your clients the option to brew their own drinks, it will be helpful if you can offer a set of brewed beers that people will look for especially those who prefer not to concoct their own drinks and who have been satisfied with your pub brew’s specialty drinks. Many of the well known and established pub bars have become known and patronized because of the distinct taste of fermented drinks that they offer to their clients.


Make your pub brew an entertaining place to visit


Brew pubs nowadays are not only a good place for brew beer. People basically visit pub brew business establishments to have fun. You should therefore make the most of your clients’ visit to your pub brew by not just offering them with quality drinks but providing them with excellent service as well. You can do this by offering good food and quality entertainment to your patrons. You can provide game areas where you clients can play indoor sports like billiards. You can also install a big screen TV in your pub bars premises where your visitors can watch the shows that they don’t want to miss while enjoying some drinks with their friends in your brew pub. Make sure that you hire accommodating staffs who can provide assistance to your clients.

If you want to establish a successful pub brew business, make sure that you establish a signature malt beverage that your pub brew business can be known of. Make sure that you also make your brew pub business establishment an entertaining place to visit so clients will keep coming back not just for the great tasting brewed drinks but for the great services as well.


Things You'll Need

  • Wine Crates
  • A Couple of Wine Barrels
  • Wine Racks
  • Creative Eye
  • And More


Instructions

  1. There is bound to be a bar that has closed in your area. Dive bars started failing before the economy imploded; find an abandoned commercial space with bar amenities that will save you big dollars. Also, there will be an existing liquor license granted for the premises and that is huge.

  2. The space you are looking for: It should be long and somewhat narrow, a rectangular shape and less than 1,000 square feet. It should have men's and women's restrooms. Most importantly, it should have a built-in bar. You are going to save tens of thousands in renovation costs if you find this formula.

  3. You can tear out the back bar and set it up as you need to for the purposes of wine purveying, that's an easy project. You can add and subtract refer units as necessary. Be sure to purchase all refrigeration units used at a restaurant wholesaler. Believe me, there is going to be plenty of great used equipment for sale over the next year.

  4. Don't get cute and think about creating a food prep area and buying more equipment. You can serve a cheese platter, crackers, grapes and olives from behind the bar. People will be coming to socialize, enjoy a good glass and peruse the opposite sex. Stay focused.

  5. Dealing with the overall decor: Clean up the shell of the space and get rid of all junky beer bar related furnishings. If there is a carpet, it must go. Paint the walls a cream white. Stain the concrete floors, if you have concrete floors. Add a row of wine racks directly behind the bar stools for the regular retail wine selection. Add a couple of round tables in the rear with chairs. Stage a couple of old wine barrels and display empty bottles of your best wines along with candles.

  6. Last consideration: The lighting has to be nice. Pick some beautiful pendants for over the bar and make sure the lighting plan hits the tables but not everywhere else. Make the mood. All lights must be on dimmers.

  7. Keep track of expenses. Try to keep within your projected budget to stay on track with your business plan. One strategy to do this is to keep your pour costs in check. Pour costs are the percentage of alcohol you pour in order to make a profit. The figure is obtained through dividing the expense of depleted inventory by the gross sales generated from the inventory over a set amount of time, such as monthly. A good goal to aim for is below 20 percent pour costs. So, if your pour costs are 17 percent, that means it costs you 17 cents in alcohol for every $1 you earn. Calculate beer and wine pour costs separately, since the cost of each can vary significantly.

  8. Ensure your staff isn't costing you money through theft. Some bartenders or servers might not consider it stealing to have free drinks, but that takes money out of your profit just as surely as it would if they took cash from your register. Another form of theft that can be common is when staff give away drinks, again reducing your bottom line. Some strategies to reduce employee theft are to reconcile the tills yourself, put out tip jars, use a perpetual inventory system that gives real-time results whenever you need them, use "precision pour" systems to regulate the amount of liquor dispensed per serving and require owner/manager approval for every complimentary drink.

  9. Attract and keep customers by knowing your demographic. You decided on your niche before opening, so, for example, if you started with the goal of being a brewpub that appeals to customers with a discerning taste for micro-brews, continue to maintain your core inventory even as you broaden your product lists. Or, if your beer and wine bar is a combination tasting area and retail store where customers can buy wine to take with them, it might not make sense to add a dance floor, particularly if you have a small retail space. Be flexible, though. If the business you had in mind isn't flourishing, perhaps you've misjudged the demographic. For example, opening an upscale wine bar serving rare vintages in an area with a heavy college population might not make sense. Don't be afraid to change things to attract the right customers, as long as you aren't doing something new every week or changing just for the sake of change.


Tips & Warnings:

  • These are some broad concepts that can literally save you tens of thousands of dollars and time. Molding an existing space to your needs and polishing it just so can have an amazing effect.

  • Getting a liquor license is not an easy task in any city and can be quite costly. Taking one over is a gift.

  • Hire an interior designer, not an architect, to help you put it all together.

  • Be sure to visit the building department with your plans for approval and get a permit. Make friends with the Health Department.


Reference

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