Management Guide

Welcome to the Bar and Nightclub Management Guide. This subject is one of the most requested subjects on my web site.

This guide talks about actually managing a bar or nightclub. Whether you are a current manager, want to be one, or need the education to operate your own place, you will find the guide to be invaluable. The information provides you with proven techniques that work. Learn it all. Read and re-read until you have it down pat. Then, refer to it once in a while to refresh your memory. This guide will enable you to operate your business professionally.

Remember, this is information. Your personality will be the part of you that delivers the information. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes that’s not. If you are a real easygoing person, you need to put a part of that away and bring out a harder part of yourself. And if you are a straight forward, dry person, you need to find a little outgoing personality. You see, it’s a balance.

You need to be cordial, and respectful to your staff and customers, but you need to be tough enough to get the job done and eliminate staff and customers from taking advantage of you. It’s a mix. Whatever the type you are, remember that you have to find the opposite half to bring to your personality in order to work.

Let’s face it. If you are too easy going, everyone will take advantage of you, and the general public will look at you as unprofessional. If you are too hard, you won’t be able to keep a good staff, and customers won’t like you enough to patronize your business. Get it?

As I provide you with the skills and education you will need, you will find this “management style” to be easier to understand and comprehend.

Take all that you learn here seriously. Put into action all what you learn in this guide. Don’t take short cuts. Just using the pieces you want, will not make you a good well-rounded manager.

The bar and nightclub businesses are considered risky investments by financial institutions, not to mention the average person. Common sense would tell you that when you see so many of them close down, or continuously are up for sale as the years go by, there must be a reason.

There are many reasons that places close actually. But many of them close for bad management. You see, people in general go into a bar, nightclub, or restaurant and say, “this looks like fun”. Or “anybody could do this”. The average person has no idea what it takes to manage your own bar or nightclub.

Of course they think they do, but they are only kidding themselves. For many it’s their ego. Why in the world would anyone think they are able to manage a business, no matter what the business was, without training and experience? I don’t know either. But for some reason, many people seem to have more money then brains.

This business requires you to be educated in the business, have experience in the business, and have management experience. Now many people believe that because they have experience in the business, they can also manage one. A huge misconception.

You need to be educated to understand why you do the things you do. There really are reasons. When I am asked about consulting, I always say to the people, consulting is expensive. But look at it this way, if you make ten wrong decisions in opening your business, and each of those decisions cost you five thousand dollars, you would of wasted fifty thousand dollars! More then the consulting would cost. Get it?

It’s the same with management. If you don’t know how to manage, each decision you make costs you money, staff, and customers. Your business won’t be around very long if you stay on this track. Now do you understand?

I know it may sound like I am dramatizing this, but it’s true. You may say, how hard can it be? We’ll get into all that as we go along.

When you manage a bar or nightclub, you are managing your own money or someone else’s. Managing your own money and not doing a very good job, is one thing. It’s your money and you can do what you want with it. But if someone hires you to manage his or her money, your responsibility is tremendous! They are trusting you with their livelihood. That’s huge!

Either way, the whole idea is to manage your business correctly, responsibly, and securely, and to make money. After all, that’s why we are doing this, to make money.

The leading cause of failure is the fear of failure.

Getting Started

OK, let’s get started. First of all, let’s talk about the hours of work required by you as a manager. They are many. Please don’t think you are going to be working a forty-hour a week job. As the manager, the buck stops in your lap. Every part of the business you manage is your responsibility. You will need to be the first one in and the last one out. Always! These types of businesses are inherently full of problems. You have to insure that you are there early to make sure everything is working and there are no problems that will stop you from opening your business.

It gives you time when no one is there to inspect the place, check that there was no problems that happened overnight that would hinder your operation for the day. In addition, these places will keep you busy and running most of the day. So come in early, and take your time to get set up. Rushing will only cause you to make mistakes and forget to do things.

Many people like to put things off till later. They call this procrastination. Why, I don’t know. But in this industry, that’s a huge mistake. You have to learn to restructure your life. This industry will require a great deal of your time, and you need to learn time management. Sit down and plan a schedule for yourself. I used to make Mondays my bookwork, and ordering day.

Like clock work, and without fail, every Monday I used to go to work early, do my banking, finish up my paper work for the week that just passed, and placed my orders to come in on Tuesday.

On Tuesdays, I would receive and check in my orders, and this was the day that I gave the place a real good cleaning, and addressed any repairs, and performed any items that needed done on my maintenance schedule. I called it my “in day”.

You see what I mean? Make yourself a schedule and stick to it. There are many tasks to perform, and you as the manager, have to insure that these things get done. Now I’m not saying that things happen sometimes and throw off your schedule. Such is life. But you need to get back on track, without fail, the next day. If you allow yourself to put things off, this will be the start of your demise. Management is about responsibility. So take the time and put together a schedule for yourself.

Be Nice

Paper Work

The next thing we’ll talk about is paper work. I know, many of you hate it. I know it’s not the most interesting thing to do, but look at it this way. This is the part where you see how much money you made. So paper work should be fun.

First you need to set up an office. I know in many places, all the space is taken up and many are left with just a cubbyhole. Small or large, as long as it has enough space for you to do your work, file, and have easy access to it, it’s not a problem. But if you are putting one file on the floor, one next to the phone, one by the garbage can, etc, you need to fix this.

This doesn’t work. Your paper work is extremely important in all that you do. You will need to file your schedules, weekly reports, warranties on equipment, insurance policies, employment documents, and this is just a few items. There will be much more. Don’t let this take a back seat, as it will come to haunt you. Keep your office neat and organized and you will always feel in control.

If you are one of those people who want to store everything on your computer, and scan in all your documents, that’s fine. But, you need to back up your computer in the event it goes down. And honestly, actual paper files will never go away. It’s still a part of how we do business in this world.

Since we are talking about paper work, let’s talk about taxes. Not your personal taxes, but sales tax, corporate taxes, and employment taxes. Get yourself a good Certified Public Accountant and they will compile all the necessary paper work for you. They can give you estimates of taxes you will owe. Put that money aside in a special checkbook every week, without fail, so the money is there when your taxes are due.

Many business failures, fines, and jail time are the result of taxes owed. The government doesn’t fool around with this. Take this seriously. If you are spending the tax money that you owe the government, you are already losing money and you need to correct this problem immediately.

It’s never short sighted to think long term.

Gathering Information

The next topic we’ll talk about is weekly reports. This is valuable information you need to keep religiously. You need to compile all the information that happened financially to your business on one report, weekly. You list the days of the week, the amount you made each day, with a total at the end so you know how much you made for the week. Then in a column right next to it, add a column that says – or + from the week before.

This way you can see if your business has increased or decreased from the week before. This is for your benefit to reflect on how you business is doing. Also, you are going to want to add a spot where you can put down percentage figures of COGS (cost of goods sold). Your liquor costs, your food costs, and your payroll costs, so you can see if you are where you need to be.

In addition, you should add what the weather was, if it was holiday, or anything else that may determine you sales. So when you do go over your reports and you see you had a real bad Friday, and you don’t remember why, you’ll have a note that says “bad snow storm”. Get it? Information to reflect on is important.

Also, it is important to see where your costs are weekly! If you don’t look at your costs, then you don’t know if you are operating correctly. If your food or liquor costs are up and climbing, and you don’t look at you costs weekly but monthly, it will be a month or more before you see a trend of theft or waste. That can be an extreme amount of loss. Catch your problems early before they turn into disasters.

You need to get some file folders and mark the tabs with the week ending date. That date is always a Sunday. You need to put your weekly report in that folder, along with any and all receipts for goods purchased or bills paid that week. This way, when there is a question of when something was paid, or you need a receipt to show proof of purchase, you just go to the week ending, and all that happened in that week will be there for you.

You’ll never have to say, “I wonder where I put that”, or “I wonder how much money I made last year at this time”. See what I mean? Your weekly folders will become invaluable to you. You’ll end up reflecting on the information in these folders more then you think.

I think you understand the importance of keeping good records. Don’t slack on this, please. This will become your best friend.

Being a good listener is more important then being a good talker.

Maintenance

Keeping your place well maintained is another subject that needs addressed. The condition of your place also reflects you professionalism. Keep the outside clean and well maintained. If a light is out in your sign fix it. If you have a board or shelf loose, repair it. If your bathrooms need repaired, do so.

And then there’s the maintenance schedule. Yes, you need a schedule for this so you don’t forget. The compressor coils need cleaned every month without fail on your refrigeration units. That is beer coolers, draft boxes, refrigerators, freezers, etc. If you don’t, your compressors will over heat and then you’ll be replacing them. Your emergency lighting needs to be checked every week too.

You may not pay attention to the emergency lights now, but one day, if the power goes out, you’ll have wished they were working. Just imagine your place is packed and all the lights go out. Or the lights go out and your staff in the kitchen is in the dark. Can you imagine how dangerous that would be?

Get a notebook and log in every week the lights checked, when, how long, and by whom. There is a test button on the side of these units. Don’t just push it in, and see the lights work. Turn off the breakers that these lights are on and leave off for ten minutes. It will give the battery a good drain.

Also, by checking your emergency lights every week, you will drain the battery in the unit, which is good. Therefore, the unit will go into a charge mode and bring up it back up to full charge. The draining of a battery and the charging up extends the life of the battery. By not doing so, the battery will go bad and won’t be there when you need it. Trust me on this one.

Kitchen hood cleaning, along with general grease removal on equipment, needs to be kept up weekly too. Also, about every three to six months, or whatever your local code requires, you need to call someone in to clean the vents pipe that are attached to your kitchen hood. There is grease in there, and it can and will catch fire.

Touch up painting, gluing down a piece of rug, and many more items are a part of keeping your place well maintained. I call the time to do these things my “in day”. This is the day that I come in and address these things. If your place is big, you’ll want to schedule staff in to help, especially in a nightclub setting. Tear down the bars and clean everything top to bottom. Flush out all your drains with plenty of hot water to avoid drain back ups.

Yes, this is a part of bar and nightclub management. You as the manager are totally responsible for the facility.

Remember, this is not a job, or a career, but a life style.

It is different then anything you will work at. But because of its differences it will be a choice of lifestyle rather then a choice of career. And general maintenance is part of it. If you have pride in your place, your staff will.

If you treat it bad and don’t take care of it, they and your customers will treat it as bad. Taking care of your place is all a part of responsibility. If you want to be a manager then you have to take the responsibilities that come with it. Your job can be fun but it’s not all fun.

What goes around comes around, eventually.

Relationship with your staff

Before we move on, and since we are talking about fun, you are not here to have fun with your staff. You are there to manage them. You will have to earn their respect and you do that by your actions. Keep your distance, socially. You need to get along with your staff, but don’t get chummy with them. Don’t go to parties with them, or out to dinner, or go drinking with them. You need to keep your distance. Once you cross that line, then you will loose their respect, and they will expect you to give them breaks on duties they don’t perform, and should.

Then, they will come in late and expect you to forgive them. In the end, they will be running the show and not you. Don’t mix friends and family with business. Don’t. It will stop you from performing the duty that you are there to perform. And inevitably, the friends and family you were trying to help will turn on you.

Another thing that you will be tempted to do with friends and family is to pay them in cash. Well you know, everyone does it. Wrong! Everyone doesn’t do it, and nor should you, for anyone. Period! First, it’s against the law and it’s serious. Second, just about the time you pay a friend, relative, or lover cash, and there is a falling out between you and them, they can turn you in for tax evasion. Ask yourself, is it worth jail time?

And since we are talking about the relationship between the manager and the staff, don’t date the staff! An old saying goes, don’t shit where you eat! Get it? Have your own life outside your business.

Attempting to carry on with your staff in any way will result in your demise. Remember that.

I know you want to get to the meat and potatoes of nightclub management, but this stuff is all a part of it. I know it may not seem that exciting, but all these things combined will make you a good manager.

Your Staff

The next topic we will discuss is your staff. Your staff, and their competence reflect on you. It is your responsibility to hire the people, train them, and insure they do their job correctly, at all times. Many people hire someone and neglect to train them correctly. And many managers fail to enforce the rules and regulations of the company.

Management is a big babysitting job. You tell the staff what you expect, and then need to check on them at all times to make sure they are doing it. If they don’t perform, be ready to let them go. You should always be ready to fire someone. I don’t mean every day. I mean always have staff or people that are ready to jump into that position immediately.

As a manager, you will get to know the different personalities of your staff. And some will defy you to test you to see how far they can push you, and how much they can get away with. Start right out and be strong. If someone doesn’t do their job, don’t get along with other staff, are troublemakers, and are insubordinate, get rid of them. Don’t think you can mold them and turn them into a good person or employee.

You job is not to fix the problems of the world. Get rid of the trouble. So always be prepared. Don’t let a couple of people take most of the hours. If you fire them, or they quit on their own, it’s too many hours in most cases to cover all at once.

Not everything is the same in every area. Some States you don’t have to have a reason to fire someone. You can just fire them. In other States, you have to document. You have formally reprimanded them, in person and in writing and with a witness. You have to do this three times to get rid of them. If you don’t know how your State functions, call the Department of Labor and Industry in your phone book.

If you have ever worked for a franchise or know of someone that has, you may find that many franchises don’t give any employee more then a certain amount of hours, except management. They don’t want any one person to hold them hostage. Understand?

So if they lose a person for one reason or another, they only need to fill say fifteen or twenty hours a week. With all the shifts there are, there is plenty of staff to ask to take those hours, until they fill that position again. Is this the right way to operate? That depends on allot of things.

In your area, is the labor market tight? In other words, are there plenty of good people out there that would interested in your line of work? If not, you will need to find those good people and give them hours so they have a livelihood. Generally, smaller towns don’t have that many people that will want to work in this type of environment.

Mostly because younger people leave for jobs, or go to college, but don’t return because they’re aren’t many jobs in that small town. In larger cities, there are more people, more to choose from, and many are looking for that part time job on top of their day job, to make a few extra bucks.

So you have to know your market. Many choices you will have to make depend on the choices you have. You will also find more then once in your career that you will have to “deal with the devil”. Which means that you as the manager will have to take a little gruff from an employee because you don’t have anyone to fill that position.

If you let that person go, and don’t have anyone to replace that person right away, you will be the one to suffer, along with your business, until that person gets replaced. Get it? Dealing with a staff is on ongoing process. Once you find a good crew, make sure you take care of them. Your business will only be as good as they are, and you are there to insure that your business does well.

Give bonuses, take them to dinner on a night off, give them tickets to a concert, and stuff like that. Believe me, they will tell everyone what a great boss they have. Which will draw more people to apply for positions with you.

Another part of dealing with your staff, and your business as a whole is to say very little, especially about your staff. You will find some regular customers that may become friends, but you will also find that some people like to “stir the pot”. Which means they like to start trouble.

They will talk with you and may say that your one security guards is mean, or has no personality. If you agree with that statement, and that customer goes to that security guard and tells him, you will probably lose an employee. See what I mean.

Stay neutral. You know all the different personalities. You don’t owe anyone an explanation of why a person is working for you. Always speak nice about your place and staff in public. Trust no one with the real truth. No one but you needs to know anything.

Training is another huge issue. You can’t expect a good performance from your staff unless they are trained properly. If you fail to train them, then you can’t expect much from them. If they do a bad job, and they are not trained, it’s your fault.

As years have gone by you will have noticed that franchises have done a good job with this. They have trainers, watch videos, and even get tested. Now I’m not a fan of franchises in general. They usually under pay and over work their staff, and prey on the weak and the poor, in my opinion. Plus, their places, although managed right, lack personality. But, the way they are operated is great. If you notice, they all operate basically the same way with the exception of a few minor differences.

Professional mangers know what they do is right. And you see that very rarely you see a franchise go broke. Why? Because they make money. Stick to the basics and you will make money. Think you know better then everyone else, you will sooner or later fail.

This is why at the start of this guide I was telling you about running a tight ship. Be strict, hold everyone accountable, and add your personality for a personal touch.

Don’t tolerate lateness, coming to work dirty, sloppy, stinky, or people using drugs or alcohol before they come to work. Remember, you are here to make money. This is a job, and not a playground. If you are looking to make friends, join a club. This is business.

Many of you who are just starting don’t know what duties to put in place. I have included some basics for you to read. They are general, so you need to adjust to your own business. I don’t think you’ll have to change what’s here, but depending on your business, you may want to add a couple things.

People want to have fun.

Training your staff

As we have discussed many times, education is the key. In franchise operations, they have people that come in and train and new staff for their openings. Their training encompasses everything in their operation. And everything is “a matter of fact”. In other words, they now what works, just like any other experienced manager or owner.

This is the type of education that is required for your staff, and your ways and rules need to be enforced. This along with many other issues in this industry sometimes requires confrontation, of which is discussed in this manual.

There are no choices, it these rules are not up for debate. That’s why it is so important to train your staff. You need to keep in place the way you want your place of business to operate. Period.

So, it is your responsibility to educate and train your staff. Once you have done this for your opening, it is imperative to insure that every new staff member is trained.

Ideally, you will find one staff member in each department that you can use as a trainer. This person you should pay more then the general staff as you will come to rely on this person continually.

Without your staff being educated, your business will fall into decline. These tried and true measures, although common sense to people educated in this industry, have to be instilled for you to always operate efficiently.

Franchises are not smarter then most people. There are just people behind the franchise name. But, you will also find they operate almost identical. These same principals work for many educated business owners. The only difference is a franchise does it many, many, times over.

So appoint trainers. Insure everyone is trained correctly on how to do everything. Employees that fight the system, get rid of. One bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.

Always treat people special.

Confrontation

If you have problems with confrontation, this is not the job for you. You will confront sales people, customers, and your staff. So as you see, it is a part of management. You must confront your staff when they do not do their jobs correctly. Many managers feel that’s being mean. It’s not mean, it’s managing.

You will confront sales people, companies that give you bad service, customers, especially unruly ones, and a host of other circumstances that will arise where you not only need to stand your ground, but will have to be “as a matter of fact”.

A person with a passive personality generally is not cut out for this type of position. I’m not saying that you can’t have a nice personality, you have too. But, you have to be able to be able to defend and protect your business at all times. So you need to be able to turn on the hard side of you when the circumstance arises.

You will find that many people will attempt to trip your trigger, get a rise out of you, and attempt to take advantage of you. This is usually a customer or a staff member. You need to be approach these people with “a matter of fact mentality”. In so many words, it’s my way or the highway!

If they don’t like it, leave!

You know the rules you put in place. Stand by them and don’t waiver. If you cave, you will be looked at as weak, and you will lose respect from you customers, staff and your piers.

Some people have the personality for this business as they are very friendly and accommodating. But to manage, it requires the tough side also. If you get nervous, or tend to cave in an adversarial situation, management is not the profession for you.

Many people feel that they have what it takes to be a manager. Now they may do their job well, but managing people and a business are completely different. Just because you are a good bartender, doesn’t mean you are a good manager.

So, do you have the personality? Do you really? You need to reflect on this and be truthful with yourself.

Never take “maybe “ for an answer.

The customer is always right

I don’t think so! That’s a myth, believe me. That statement was born years ago when this world was a very different place. That statement has prompted unscrupulous people to take advantage of a business today.

Customers that throw that saying in my face and say the customer is always right, I tell them “I don’t think so”. No customer is always right. The purpose of them doing that is to take advantage of you. If they complain long enough, and loud enough, and ask to see the manager, they think they will wear you down. Don’t let them.

They will go on to say, “I’ll never come back here again”, or “I will tell everyone I know never to come back here”. Tell them, that’s fine, but the answer is still “no”.

If you are wrong. Fix it. But you will find the average person will come to a staff member or you as a manager and tell you what’s wrong and ask to have it fixed, politely. When they start the complaining, becoming confrontational and loud, I can tell you that they are looking to get their way.

Stop them in their tracks. Once you let one person take advantage of you, you will get a barrage of people coming in to do the same thing. It’s like they have a pipeline. Once one person gets away with something, it seems they call all their friends and you’ll have nothing but problems.

I don’t care if they are mad, never come back, or tell all their friends. You don’t want them, or their friends, as customers.

There’s always a catch.

Keys to the castle

Usually, to make it convenient for yourself, a manager will give a key to the business to someone. Maybe to more then one person. For the most part, this is a practice you should not do. This is a no no.

If you are the owner-operator, it is your job to open and close the facility. I don’t want to hear about, “I need a day off”. Whiner! As I mentioned earlier, being a bar or nightclub manager is a lifestyle. The more keys you give away the more problems you will have. Believe me.

You, and or your partner can take turns opening and closing. You can use your parents of relatives to help you a day or two a week, although I wouldn’t suggest as just because they are your family members, don’t mean that they would be responsible.

If you need to provide a key to someone other then yourself, you need to have a security system that records who came in and times in and out. In addition, you will need to install a good surveillance system too so you can record what someone is doing in your place.

They key is a symbol of power. To some, they have to brag they have a key. Some people will go in after hours and have their own party, on you of course. There is always a theft issue, and irresponsible acts that can be performed without your knowledge.

Take heed! This is a serious subject. The temptation is too great for many. It will usually start with, “I just went in to get my coat I forgot”. Then, it will go to “I was having a party at my house and need to borrow a bottle”. And the excuses go on and on. Some of these unauthorized entrances can be devastating.

If you don’t position yourself in the market place, it will position you.

Drinking on duty

The answer on this is absolutely not. You will find more times then not you will be making decisions many times on any given night. You need to be in full and complete control of yourself in order to make good decisions.

These decisions can determine the safety of your staff and patrons. You need to be in full control at all times. Remember, like any other place of employment, people don’t go to work and drink alcohol. Just because you work in a bar or nightclub, doesn’t mean you can drink. You are still at work.

If you own your own place, of course you can do what you want to. Many owners will either not drink, or they will sip on a couple of drinks for the whole night. They will stay sober.

Then there are those who sit at the bar and drink heavy all night long. These are the people who will generally fail in business and in life. Period. If the alcohol is tempting, you probably should find a new line of work. Alcohol is a very powerful drug.

One day, there will be no “next time”.

Inventory Control

Your inventory control is very, very important. To set up an inventory, you need to establish how many of each thing that you carry that you need to get you through for a week. Use this for everything that you carry. There is one difference between all of you items and you liquor, but we’ll get to that.

For example, if you know that you need one case of napkins a week, that would be your par. Par is the amount of the item you need for the week. So, your par for napkins is one. When you do inventory, every week, you may see that your par for the week for vodka is twelve. You have ten left. So you order two.

By doing this correctly, you will find that you will order only as much as you need. Not too much and not where you will run out of something. You will always have enough. Now, your cost of goods for the week will be relevant to what you actually used. No guessing here.

For liquor, you establish a par for all the liquor you carry. The difference is, the bartenders are not permitted to throw away the empty liquor bottle. You supply them with a full bottle of liquor when they give you a full bottle.

If you have room behind the bar, establish an inventory there. When a bartender empties a bottle, they go to the shelf and get a new one. At the end of the night, you take all the empty bottles of liquor, and replace the inventory behind the bar with the new bottles you get from your main storage room. This way, your inventory behind the bar will always be right.

The next thing to do is on Monday, when you check your inventory behind, if there are any bottles short, someone is stealing. Because that’s all your doing is replacing a full bottle for an empty. So your inventory behind the bar can’t be wrong. If the bartenders say the accidentally threw a bottle away, and didn’t save it. Tell them they will have to start paying for the bottles they “accidentally threw away”. I’m sure they will start to remember to save the bottles.

The most powerful Management Tool is a well-placed “Thank You”.

Entertainment

Dealing with entertainment is usually a pain. Honestly. But the most important thing you can do is a contract. No, not from a lawyer. But one you draw up yourself. Stipulate in this contract the date of the contract, the date they are supposed to perform, the times to begin and end, amount of money to be paid, along with any other items you need to insure. Don’t take their word for anything. If they don’t adhere to the contract, state in it they will lose some portion or all of their pay.

In addition, add a clause if they cancel out on you that they will owe you what you estimate that you will lose in money for that night. This usually keeps them from last minute cancellations. Also, make sure there is someone there to witness the signatures.

Remember, in order for a contract to be binding, you must show what each is giving. So you write that they agree to perform along with all the stipulations you list, and for them playing, you agree to pay them whatever the amount is. Each person in a contract has to get and give something. It will be binding.

Never trust anyone who says, “Trust me”.

Removing patrons

In nightclub settings, there are times when a customer needs to be removed from the premises, fast. You’ll find that most people will leave quietly but if you have a fight that needs to be secured, don’t have your security try and get these people to the front door if in fact they are in the middle of the club somewhere.

Large nightclubs will have many exit doors to use in case of an emergency. Use them. Don’t have your security try and get unruly patrons to the front door to remove them from the premises. Use the nearest exit door.

The idea is to get the problem solved without any harm coming to your other customers. Safety is a big concern here. Don’t just shrug this off. Tables and chairs are heavy. If that all that happens is a table falling on someone, they can get seriously hurt.

Remove the problem as fast and as quietly as possible. You can deal with the situation outside where no customers can be hurt.

In addition, security people should be placed at each exit door. This stops people from letting people from the outside in. Or, for them to go outside to perform some illegal acts, but can come back in without anyone knowing.

I know, you are going to tell me you have a panic bar alarm on the doors. Well, shut them off for the night. Just for fun people will push the panic bar, the alarm will sound, and everyone will go crazy. Well at least the people sitting by the door. Nightclubs are so loud that no one else will hear the alarm go off.

These alarms are not designed for nightclubs. They are for smaller, quieter places.

If you are at this point of removing a customer, you need to establish rules for being barred or banned from your place of business. The rule should be, if you start a fight, for any reason, you are permanently. Period.

I don’t really care about the reason. If a person starts a fight in your place once, they will start one again. Believe me! This rule applies to everyone. I don’t care if it’s a woman who is mad at her boyfriend, or the other way around. I don’t care if it’s a friend or relative.

After ejecting this person, insure you get their name and post on a permanent sheet of people that are banned from entering your place of business. This enables your security to review, new security to know, and customers to see that will tell you if that person got through the door one night. You can’t believe how many people like to tattle tell.

Once you establish the rules, and you enforce them, you will get a good established crown that will continually come back.

No one wants to go to a place where the odds of a fight happening are good. Most people want to feel safe and have a good time. If you get the reputation of having problems that you seem not able to control, they will start leaving and they won’t come back.

After a while, you will be known for having a nice fun place to go. This is a serious issue. Don’t compromise. And don’t let the perpetrator talk you out of banning them. They’ll say, I was drunk, my girl broke up with me and I’m just upset, I was mad because I lost my job, etc.

I have heard it all. Stick to your rules. Your rules will become your best friend.

The best time to look for another job is when you are ecstatically happy with your present one.

Managing the front of the house

Walking the floor seems to be every ones dream. That’s where it looks like you area manager. Actually, you have put in more time behind the scenes as a manager then you will ever do on the floor. But that’s what people see and understand. No one ever sees all the behind the scenes stuff.

Most people, even maybe you, always wanted to get into this business because the job on the floor looks cool and fun. Many people don’t understand how much work this business really is. Trying to explain it to them is fruitless. They will always think that you have a cake job, so don’t get offended.

This duty is not all about letting people in the door for free, and giving away free drinks. The people who do that are not competent managers.

This is the part where everything you do is visible. And, people will judge you on what they see you do and how you actually react and manage your business.

First, you need to dress correctly. You need to dress a little better then your patrons. You are the manager. Dress for success. Be confident. You have dotted your i’s and crossed you t’s. You have you place looking good, things aren’t in disrepair, and your staff is trained.

The respect you get from your staff and customers is earned. Yelling at people, being loud, and showing off, does not make you a manager, just an asshole.

Get on the floor and check with all your departments. From the bathrooms to security. Does everyone have everything that is needed for the night? Is everything working? Get a little conversation going. Ask the staff how they are doing, and find out what’s been going on in the town.

When you first open the doors, it’s quiet and you have the time to catch up a little with the staff one on one. Who wants more hours, a friend of theirs may be looking for a job, etc. This is good quality time for you and your staff.

Be friendly to your customers. Engage in a little conversation and be humble, not a show off.

This is the extreme in multi tasking. While you are on the floor managing your night, you have to keep in check many things, without your customers knowing you are really working. You are the host.

When you are having a conversation with your staff or customers, your eyes have to be continuously scanning the room and the people for something wrong, or is the music too loud or too low, is all the staff at their positions, is their a problem at the front door, etc.

You always have to be moving. Don’t stay in one spot too long. Have the bathrooms checked frequently, talk with the guests, touch base with your entertainment, and stop in the kitchen and make sure things are going ok in there too.

You need to do this for the entire night. Leave no stone unturned. You have already done all the behind the scenes work. So feel confident everything is working and is in place. Now you are on the floor to insure that everything works well while you have guests in the building.

If you don’t do your job here, everything you had done before is wasted. You need to manage how the operation functions. You did all the back work for operating while you’re open for business. No you’re open, so manage. Manage everything. Is everyone doing his or her jobs correctly? If not, correct it.

Never confuse arrogance with intelligence.

Keeping your tables cleaned

I know you know that the wait staff is supposed to keep the tables wiped off and clean. But there is a better reason. The glass beer bottles, ashtrays, and the glasses themselves. These items can be used to throw at someone. And they do a lot of damage to a body.

Insure you wait staff keeps the tables as clean as possible. Don’t keep anything on those tables that don’t need to be there.

All of these things can be purchased in plastic. Yes they can. Beer companies make a plastic beer bottles, and yes the beer tastes the same as if were in a bottle.

Never use glass ashtrays. The make plastic ones in all sizes. Black is the best because they don’t look dirty. And, if you look around, there are companies that make a nice looking, pebble finish, plastic glass. You won’t be replacing glasses anymore.

Does everyone have to do this? No. But if you have a place, not upscale, that has “that” crowd, I would change out these items immediately. At least the glasses and ashtrays.

It’s not a sin to say, “I don’t know”.

Competition:

Competition is something we all deal with in business. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were a monopoly? Everyone would have to come to us. Even if you live in a small city and there isn’t much there, and you decide to open your own place and are successful, it is the nature of people to copy your success.

These kinds of people never had an original thought of their own and need someone like you to come up with the idea, and then to gamble on opening it to see if it is successful.

Then, and only then, will they become your competition. If you have managed your business correctly, you will survive. It’s when you become complacent, you will lose. If you are the only game in town, most owners neglect their places. They say; why put money in to the place? Why not charge allot, where else are they going to go? So what the bathrooms need remodeled.

This is what is called “raping a place”. They will take and take without ever giving back.

Even if you are the only game in town, you never know what tomorrow will bring. Keep you place nice. Have pride in what you have. Do great promotions, have fabulous holiday parties, and share your wealth with your customers. After all, they are what is making you successful.

Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's put it this way, "My way of fighting the competition is the positive approach. Stress your own strengths, emphasize quality, service, cleanliness and value, and the competition will wear itself out trying to keep up."

Always give it your all. Don’t lax on quality, entertainment, and offering your customers the very best you can be.

Never invest in something you don’t understand.

Old and Stale:

Does this sound like your place? Looking back on the previous article does this sound like you.

Sometimes through competition, and just plain age, you need to reinvent yourself. Most do it out of desperation and it usually works.

But I don’t know if I would brag to my customers that “this place has been here for thirty years and hasn’t changed a bit”. I’m assuming you are proud of that statement?

Unless you are on the Historical Register, you are due for a face-lift. Life is all about change. You better embrace it, instead of hating it, because it is a guarantee, just like paying taxes.

It doesn’t have to be radical. Just update things. If you aren’t a decorator, ask for some help or ideas from someone that is good at that sort of thing. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Keep up with life so it doesn’t pass you by.

This goes for the new nightclub too. After you open, you should make a change once a year. Keep the place interesting. Not the same old place. People get bored easily. It doesn’t have to be a major change, but make it noticeable. And no, that doesn’t count putting in a new air conditioner!

These types of changes will keep your place new and exciting.

Practice management by walking around.

Trust or not to trust:

Trusting another person in this day and age is a fleeting commodity. I’m not a negative person, but the days gone by of people making deals with a hand shake, or someone giving their word and sticking to it, are far and few between.

Trust No One! Seems harsh doesn’t it? In this day and age, and especially where money is involved, watch your back. Someone always wants what you have. Or at least a piece of it.

This includes everyone. Not salesman, not your staff, not your banker, not your real estate representative, not your landlord, not anyone.

All these people want something from you. All of them. Many will go to extremes to get at least a piece of you. Remember that! Oh they’re nice, and will tell you what you want to hear, but they want something.

A true friend or business partner will prove himself or herself over time. Let a lot of time go by before you begin trusting. A lot of time.

I know a couple of businessman who actually lived in a different city then they had their business in. People are generally nosey, and like to gossip. They drove to their business every day.

It seems like a pain to have to drive that much to go to work, but people all over this great country of ours commute every day.

These people wanted out of the gossip mill. They didn’t even do their banking in the same town they had their business in. They just opened a small account at a local bank so that they could get change to operate everyday.

The local banks had no idea of how much they were worth. And that’s how they wanted it. Bankers, and even tellers have access to information about you at their fingertips. And although they are not to repeat these types of things, they do.

Is this extreme? I don’t know if I would call it extreme, but it worked for them. Their privacy was most important to them. If everyone in that city knew how much they really made, everyone would know their business.

In the town they lived in, sure they had to do business with a bank, but for the most part there was no local gossip as there was no store to relate them to. They were just another member of the community.

Do I suggest this? There are pros and cons to it I guess. I like to live close by myself. But if you are extremely successful, you may pay the price.

Some trends are just fads with a longer shelf life.

Be Humble:

No one likes a show off, not even if you are a show off yourself. Be humble. If you have personal security issues, see a doctor.

Be nice to all. What’s it hurt? Go out of your way for all your customers, not just to the hip or rich ones.

If you flaunt your money and power, you better have a ton of money saved, as there will be people that would like to knock you down a few pegs.

Pay attention to people who are good listeners.

The Management Walk:

Managers are famous for walking around. The people who aren’t in management think “what a job”. But walking your facility is very important. You must be aware of everything in your facility at all times, and be prepared to remedy the problem if you find one.

Not once, but frequently through the night. What are you looking for? You name it. You need to know what is out of order. Are the emergency doors pulled shut? Are their any bathroom problems, like leaks, soap and towels out, or something spilled on the floor?

Is there a table that is wobbly that should be taken out of service for the night? Is the staff doing their job? Are they walking around the facility? Are your customers being taken care of? Is there a problem at the front door?

Is the entertainment too loud or too low? Are the lights dimmed correctly? Are all your games working? Do you need to put an out of order sign on one of them?

Is a garbage can full and need replaced? Does the bar need a hand because of a quick rush? Do you need to get a little ice for the bartenders?

Did you have a big group come in and need to put some tables together for them?

All these things should be automatic. You shouldn’t even have to think about them. They should become second nature. If you find yourself not noticing these things, maybe you need to change professions, or take your job more seriously. You have to be able to see something is wrong in order to make it right.

These items and more are common sense. If you are insuring that everything is right, then you won’t miss these things.

You have to know enough to ask an intelligent question.

Customer Service:

This is not an expression. Going out of your way to insure that every customer has a good time. And people love when the owner or manager talk to them and help them in any way. Power is a funny thing. Most people are attracted to it.

And customers see the owner or manager as powerful. Don’t abuse it, but use it to make happy customers.

Remember, treat your customers as if they were guests in your home. And they will come back for more. And if your staff doesn’t have that same mentality, you need to provide more training to them or get rid of them.

Life is full of choices. And your customer has the choice to frequent you or someone else. Remember that. Make their trip to your place a fun one.

Buying Drinks:

This is something you do rarely and for a reason. If you buy a customer a drink, it should be special. When customers know that you just don’t go around doing that as a normal part of what you do, it becomes a special act. Then, the customer who receives that drink feels special.

If you always do that, when you do buy the drink, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

You’ll reach a time when you would rather go down in flames, then to work for another idiot.

Promotions:

If you are going to take the time and schedule a promotion, make it memorable. Honestly, if you are going to be a cheap skate, don’t bother. You’ll look ridiculous. Make it memorable. Make it different. Go all out when you do promotions. Your customers will go crazy and tell all their friends. Word of mouth is good advertising. Give it that “wow” factor.

“Someday” can be today.

Equipment Leasing:

Managing your business will also involve leasing, and or contracts, regarding equipment or services. You will probably have to sign a contract with a linen company to get weekly delivery of bar towels, table cloths, napkins, and alike. There are many companies in this industry and they are going to try and sign you to a five year contract I would bet. It never used to be that way. It used to go year to year, or even two.

But these companies are trying to insure their income for years to come, and will want you to sign a contract. These contracts are valid and hold up in court. They are very well written and next to impossible to get out of unless you can document and prove they have not provided the service they were supposed to. And they have clauses in the contract that you have to give them written warnings and thirty day notices, and on and on.

But they do want and need your business, and generally will let you sign a shorter term contract. You need a short term to protect yourself. If they end up as having bad service, or if they have good service and decide to sell their business and it becomes bad service, you need not to be tied up with them for any length of time.Yes, you should shop around and compare before you sign anything, but also keep your leases or contracts short term.

You will face the same thing on items like credit card terminals, dish washers, Pepsi and Coke, mechanical service contracts, janitorial, and the list goes on. If you are on a short term lease or contract, they will always be working to keep your business.

Checking in Supplies:

Life is busy when managing a place, no matter what type of business is. You will find that when orders are delivered, you will want to pass this task along to a worker in your place. And unless you can totally trust their work ethic, you better do it yourself. We are all human and yes we all make mistakes. So you place your order for supplies and not get what you ordered in full. Everything needs to be checked in. You can then feel confident that what you ordered in fact came in. Sometimes when food orders come in, a mis-pick happens. This is where the label on the box will actually have the name of your product on it but the case will be something completely different. Just an error. I had a beer company try and deliver empty kegs in place of full kegs once. Can you believe it? Stay on your toes and trust no one. NO ONE !

The Web Site:

Mine, not yours. If you have purchased this guide, I hope you have spent time on my web site www.nightclubpros.com.

The information on the site is very important and covers many areas of this industry. Don’t just pick and choose what subjects you want to read. Read it all!

As far as your web site goes, if you don’t have one, get one. You can do many things with a web site. I know you are not selling a product, but you are advertising yourself. If your customers know you have a website, they will go on to see what’s happening for the week.

And it goes further then that too. You can add a live feed to your web site so that anyone that’s home can log in and see what’s happening “live”.

You can collect email addresses from customers and send out a monthly ”what’s happening” newsletter, create a blog, and tons more. You can talk with a Webmaster about all you can do, and decide yourself.

Honestly, you can do it yourself. Or, get a staff member to help you with it. Many young kids in high school know allot about this. Pay them and let them help you. You’ll save money and probably will get a pretty good site. It’s the 2000’s. Jump on board.

Profits:

The previous topics I have written about are all important. However, please realize that nothing takes the place of experience. I can write and write, and you can read and read, but the on hands experience is the true answer. The problem being is that where you get your experience from does matter. And each bar owner does it a little different. That’s ok if they are on the right track but I can tell you from speaking to many bar owners that they don’t know how to figure costs out? I know that doesn’t make any sense, but you will find that many people think that this business is so easy, they just open a bar up, and they charge what everyone else charges. They have no idea what their profits are, what their food costs are or what their food costs are. Can you believe it?

It goes back to the idea, “how hard can it be”? Well, it’s a business and it has to be operated like one. You have expenses like most businesses and everything has to be taken into account to be profitable. So let’s talk about your responsibility and desire to make profits.

One of the most frequent questions asked is how to price drinks. That is coupled with how much do you pour, or what is a shot.

So let’s get this settled so that you can operate successfully. A “shot” was described many years ago as an ounce of liquor. But as years passed and people were starting to use different size glasses, and trying to establish a niche in the market, the definition is different now. A “shot is what “you” decide you want to pour in your establishment.

Let me put it this way. If you pour a one ounce shot, and use an eight ounce glass, that would be a good drink. But if you poured a one ounce shot in a twelve ounce glass, the drink would be very weak. And you would probably get many complaints. The idea is to pour an appropriate amount of liquor in the glass you use, to get a good drink that is not too weak or not too strong.

Ideally the combination is one ounce for an eight ounce glass, an ounce and a quarter for a ten ounce glass, and an ounce and a half for a twelve ounce glass. So a shot is what you are pouring. If you are using a ten ounce glass, the shot you are pouring is an ounce and a quarter. Get it?

Now to the money. Everyone uses about the same percentage of profit but the term “about” makes a huge difference in your profits. Bars and clubs located in smaller towns are generally running a 25% liquor cost as they don’t want to be too high priced for what the market will bare. Ideally you should run a 20% liquor cost, or a tad lower, and that will give you a good profit and not be too high priced. And then you get into franchises, hotels, and larger cities, where they will run an 18% liquor cost.

The percentage of you liquor cost will determine your profitability and your success. My advice, stay with a 20% liquor cost. The other thing is the terminology of “liquor cost”. I use that term as a total of alcoholic beverages, to include liquor, beer, draft, and wine. Now some operators like to run a different percentage for each of those. I think it is silly. That is just my opinion. If you are running a 20& liquor cost across the board, you are doing well.

Now, how to figure this out. Let’s say you have a bottle of liquor that costs you $26.35. What do you charge for a drink? Well. What is the size of the bottle? Is it a 750ml, or is a 1 litre?

A 750ml bottle will give you 25 plus ounces in a bottle. I don’t worry about the fraction of an ounce past the whole ounces as I let it go and determine it as spillage, as there will be some. In a 1 liter bottle you will get 33 plus ounces in a bottle.

So lets say you have a 1 liter bottle that costs you $26.35 and you pour an ounce and a quarter shot in a ten ounce glass.

33 ounces divided by 1.25 ounce you pour =26.6 drinks can be poured from that bottle.

$26.35 per bottle divided by 26.6 drinks per bottle =.99 per 1¼ ounce shot

Formula: Take the cost of the shot, .99 , and divide it by the percentage of cost you are using, .20 = $4.95 price per drink.

The Formula: cost of 1 ¼ oz shot = .99 .20 cost percentage =$4.95

Easy right? But now comes some common sense pricing. You can use this formula for most everything, except for bottom shelf (rail liquor). If you use some real cheap stuff, of which I do not advise, you will have to establish a minimum price for a drink as the cheap rail liquor, when using this formula, will come out to be like a dollar a drink to charge, and you can’t charge that! So make your minimum, like $3-4.00 or whatever will be competitive. It’s your call.

You will make a ton here on rail liquor, but this will offset what you won’t make on wine, as it will be so expensive. You can drop your wine to a 25% liquor cost, so you don’t scare away those who drink wine by pricing too high. By raising the percentage number, it lowers the drink price, as the percentage of actual cost is higher.

Also the high percentage of profit on rail liquor gives you the flexibility to lower the price you charge on expensive top shelf liquor, or mixed drinks. Is this mandatory? No. Some people will charge this price no matter how much it comes to. I was always flexible here, as I wanted to make a good profit, but also wanted to take care of my customers who would drink more expensive liquors or wine.

If they can afford to drink this top shelf liquor and wine, then charge them, some people say. Yes, and no. Yes, make money, but no one like to be raped. Make it expensive, make money, but make it affordable. That’s my thought, but you need to do what you need to do.

Kegs. A keg of beer has about 2000 ounces in it. If you pour a 16 ounce draft: take 2000 and divide it by 16 ounces and you get 125 glasses of beer.

But by the time you drain your system every day by pouring out a couple glasses of beer in the lines left over from the night before, and add in spillage, hopefully very little, you will end up with 120 glasses of beer. An average keg will cost $65.00, so a draft will cost you about .54 cents a draft.

The longer the keg is on tap that you have to drain out the old beer out of the lines from the night before, and poor pouring habits, you very well will not end up with 120 glasses of beer. So your ideal cost of .54 cents per glass may end up more like .60 cents per glass.

So do you remember the formula? It’s the same for all products when you are trying to figure out what to charge for an item based on the percentage of cost you want to work from. We’ll do it again here.

We know that a glass of 16 oz draft beer is going to cost you about .60 cents from a keg that costs you $65.00. (see above)

Formula: cost of 16 oz draft = .60 .20 (cost percentage) =$3.00 price

Bottled/Can Beer. An average cost of a case of beer is $16.00 and like all cases of beer there are 24 servings per case. Take the cost of the case and divide it by the number of cans/ bottles, 16 divided by 24 = .66 cents per unit. We’ll round off to .67 cents each. Divide .67 by .20 and you should charge $3.35 for that beer if you are working from a 20% cost.

The Formula: cost of beer per can/bottle = .67 .20 (cost percentage) =$3.35 price

This formula, Cost divided by Cost Percentage = Sales PriceWorks for all items you want to price out.

Food works on the same premise. You have to break down the cost per meal. For example, if you are selling a chicken sandwich take the cost of the case and divide the number of pieces that come in the case and this will give you the cost per piece of chicken.

FOOD: So now that you have the cost of the piece of chicken, you need to figure out what else goes with that meal. You need to add the cost of the roll the chicken goes on, any produce, or any sides that come with this meal. For the sake of argument, we’ll say that fries comes with it too.

For instance, let’s say your piece of chicken costs you $1.10, and add .60 cents for the roll, add another .30 cents for the vegetable topping and condiments, and .35 cents for the portion of fries you give. We have a total of $2.35 in cost for this meal. And let’s say you are working from a 30% food cost, so what do you charge for the sandwich platter?

The Formula: cost of the food = $2.35 .30 (cost percentage) =$7.83 price

But booze cost may run from eighteen to twenty five percent, depending on what you want to work on, and your area.

Food is different and runs higher. The food costs percentage run from twenty eight to thirty five percent, and sometimes forty percent. Of course the lower your costs the more money you make.

OK, we are done with how to price your products. Now we have to see how you did at the end of the week to see if you are staying within the percentages of cost. Are you making the money you are supposed to?

You are at the end of the week, the dreaded Monday’s with all the closing of the week prior, and all the paper work. But look at it as a good day as this is the day you see how much money you just made for all your hard work. So we’ll do an example.

Example:

Opening alcohol inventory last Monday morning $ 7,252+ Purchases $ 3,872

Total available for sale $11,124

-Closing inventory value this Monday morning -$ 7,051Liquor Cost $4,073

$7,051 Liquor Cost (COGS – Cost of goods sold)$30,255 (Gross Liquor Sales) =23.3% cost

So for this example, you are working on a 20% liquor cost and your cost for the week was 23.3%. So you are over, and have lost 3.3%. Something happened. Your bartenders are giving drinks away, over pouring, or it has been stolen. There are no other reasons!

You use this same formula when figuring out your food costs to see where you are. This in mandatory and has to be done every week! Without you doing this every week you will never know if you have problems.

In Closing:

I hope you have enjoyed this guide. The experience you acquire, and the more educated you become, will make you an excellent manager. Without experience and education, no one would be able to manage any business.

Today, we live in the “now generation”. Everyone wants everything now. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. You have to “pay your dues”. Which means you have to put in the time learning before you can grow.

The more knowledge you have the better you will become.

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