The Ideal Way to Open Up a Bar: Plan Every Single Detail

Since this is the century of entrepreneurs, given the fact our nation has become known as the nation of small businesses as of late, the thought of being one’s own boss is attractive to many. One of the most frequented ideas when deciding to take one’s financial future into one’s own hands is of course opening up a bar. As a person who’s gone through the same, I have certain things to say about this matter.

It’s an idea that works, because now in the world of social networks, people love going out, socialising, drinking a nice beer, or a savoury and nicely decorated cocktail, taking pictures of themselves with those drinks, socialising, and showing it off on their social network profiles. If you want to make your business idea work, you have to think differently.

Along with getting on the quest to find the ideal location, the one that’s very frequented and where people often mingle, where there’s considerable competition but not too much, and away from blind corners, you have to have the picture of the ambiance, the whole setting in mind. In other words, you have to think everything into detail, from industrial bar stools, the bar smallwares, glassware (wine, champagne, highball, sherry, port, cocktail glass) and glass racks, blenders, mixing accessories, the bar coolers, and how you’d arrange them all.

When I say everything, I mean everything, décor has a lot of say in how many guests enter your bar, how long they are willing to stay and spend their money, and whether they’d want to come back, spreading a word about the place. Décor can be from the choice of industrial bar stools you make, the materials they are made of, the design, the shape, to the types of glassware you have, the lighting fixtures, and the wall decorations.

Other details you might want to pay attention to are the sink, keeping it close to the bar as you’d need it for when mixing drinks (preferably under the bar), the beverage dispensing equipment, like the variant of dispensing different drinks through a single nozzle, and refrigerators if you have food which brings us to an important decision you’d have to make: defining well beforehand the kind of bar it is you want to open. You have to think well whether it is solely a beer bar you want to get (brewery), a neighbourhood bar, or a nightclub, for instance.

As soon as you’ve taken all this into account, make sure you get a team of people who’d be your helping hands in various fields of this particular business; someone has to do the books, plan the investments, suggest the party ideas, and organise those parties. Then again, it all revolves around your budget, and the costs you’d be willing to cover, as well as planning long-term, not just living for attracting customers during weekends, but every day of every week.