Learning how to run a bar is not an easy task. Although there are many schools that teach people how to bartend, there aren’t any that teach people how to run a bar successfully. Most people learn the hard way – by jumping in with both feet and making a ton of mistakes along the way (and hopefully learning from those mistakes).
This article is not written for people deciding about whether to open a bar or not and does not get into the aspects of bar ownership like finances and legalities, but instead takes the operational approach, focusing on what a bar owner or manager needs to do to ensure long-term success.
How to Run a Bar – Tip #1
Start Décor-ating
The first thing you’ve got to look at is the first thing your customers look at when they step into your bar. Give your customers something to see and talk about when they come to your bar. People go to bars for relaxation and entertainment. And part of that can be achieved simply by the way your bar is decorated. In addition to ensuring that your establishment is always clean, make sure that your décor matches with the theme of your bar. If it’s a country bar, would someone know by walking in and looking at the walls?
Make sure everything from the color of the paint to the pictures and other paraphernalia adorning the walls of your bar are in line with your theme and the customer you’re trying to attract. Give your customers some eye candy by hanging interesting things on the wall, painting the walls an inviting color, hanging mirrors in the right place, putting up vertical blinds or curtains or blacking out the windows – as long as it fits with your theme.
How to Run a Bar – Tip #2
Create an Eye-Catching Menu
Your menu is your bar’s resume – it tells the customer what kind of experience they are going to have when they order. When it comes to menus, a picture really is worth a thousand words. Take the time to have your menu professionally made – both your drink and food menus. Your menu has to have pictures and it should highlight high-profit items. It should be easy to read and easy for customers to locate items but it shouldn’t be too crowded. A professionally designed menu can increase profits all by itself. After you get your menu designed, post it outside so passers-by can see all the wonderful items your establishment offers – even when you’re closed.
How to Run a Bar – Tip #3
Set the Right Prices
Both food and drink prices should be in line with the experience that your customers get from ordering said items. Stay away from the mentality that you can simply increase profits by increasing your prices. This is a short-term fix at best and it will likely leave you with less and less customers as time goes on. Look at it is from your customers’ perspective. When they wake up and count their cash the next day after partying at your bar the night before, will they be pleasantly surprised or floored at how much it cost them? You don’t want your prices too low as people tend to associate low quality with low price. And you don’t want your prices too high either – as you’ll get people in the first time but you won’t get them back.
How to Run a Bar – Tip #4
Get Your Managerial Hands Dirty
As a manager or owner, you’ve really got to know what you’re doing. From how to cook each and every dish in the kitchen, to how to bartend with speed and efficiency during the busiest of times. If you don’t know how to do something in your bar, how are you going to train your staff to do it? And if it’s not you training the staff, how are you going to know what procedural changes and systems to implement if you never get your own hands dirty? A bar manager or owner has to lead by example. This is not a job where you get to sit in a glass office and watch over the little mice working below you. Earn your staffs’ respect by doing their job better than they do it. If you aren’t familiar with some area of your bar – schedule yourself shifts in that area until you become proficient. The best way to know what works and doesn’t work is by jumping in and experiencing it firsthand.
How to Run a Bar – Tip #5
Hire Top-Notch Staff
It is absolutely essential for your establishment to have good staff if you want to achieve lasting success. People visit a bar as much for the people behind the bar as for the bar itself. Start off by hiring personable, outgoing, professional-looking staff. You’re looking for someone who has the ability to entertain people – someone who is easy to talk to and quick to smile. Whether they have experience or not is secondary. Bartending skills can be taught on-site but social skills can’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment