Friends, laughter, celebrations, entertainment fun! These are the things that might come to your mind when you think about owning your own bar as you imagine rooms filled with friendly conversation, music and people enjoying themselves. If you’re thinking of opening a sports bar, you might envision an exciting game on big-screen TVs with everyone cheering and having a great time. Owning a bar sounds like the perfect life to many potential entrepreneurs, but it’s not always fun and games behind the scenes.

We have several types of bar. Below is a brief explanation that will help you determine the type that intrest you:

– Neighborhood bar.
You’ll spot this type of bars pretty much everywhere around the US. They are small, cozy establishments where the locals come for a round of drinks on a Friday night.

– Sports Bar
Compared to neighborhood bars, sports bars usually offer a wider range of food on the menu. If you want to open your own bar, you’ll have to invest in a couple of wide screen TVs, decent audio and most probably satellite TV as the percentage of your revenue highly depends on the technology you use. Your customers come with a purpose to have fun together watching a sport even on big screen.

–  Beer Bar
Beer bars offer a wide selection of different beers with some appetizers and snacks on the menu.

– Specialty Bar
Specialty bars focus around a certain theme (e.g. cigar bars) or certain types of drinks (wine, martini bars)

Once you’ve settled on the idea of what type of bar you’d like to own, you should decide on the concept.

– Create a business plan
Though most commonly business plans are used by bar owners to attract additional financial aid, it could also serve you as an excellent guideline to stay focused on the most important tasks and help you grow your business.

Let me give you a head start on how to create a business plan.

– Outline your concept in details.
– Include profit and loss analysis to represent the bar’s profitability.
– Highlight the benefits of your location.
– Include a detailed overview of your staff with salaries.
– Outline the possible risks.

-Find the ultimate location
You know who your customers are and know a few places where you can meet them. Now it’s time to settle on the perfect location for your bar to be.

The choice of location should depend on the following factors:

– Your budget. Low rent and high visibility rarely come hand in hand.
– The type of client you’d like to attract
– The bar concept and design.
– Accessibility to customers.

Some say location plays a huge role, other claim that with a right approach you can make a profitable bar business at any place. For instance, an always crowded theme-bar in my are is situated in a hidden alley, in the basement without even a sign. Yet, you hardly ever find a table on a Friday night.

Secure permission from the local government agencies.
Planning to remodel or make some minor change? You’ll need to make sure no agencies object.

Register your bar’s name.
Your name should be short, sweet and reflect your concept. When choosing a name, think of the following: what will people expect when hearing it; what type of customers will it attract; how does it fit into your concept.

Stock up your bar
You are almost ready to open. There’s just a few things left on the to-do list and filling up your bar is one of them. At this point you’ll need to finalize your food and drink menu and start searching reliable suppliers.

Draft your team
Everything’s in place and your almost ready for grand opening. Yet one big piece is still missing from the puzzle – your in-house staff.

Find and hire the right candidates
You know who you need, you know how much you can afford to pay, now it’s time to interview some potential candidates.

Open your bar
At last, your place looks fab, you are fully stocked, your team’s all thrilled – it’s time for the grand opening night!

Promote your bar
You know your place is awesome. Your mom thinks it’s awesome. Now let’s make the whole neighborhood think so as well!

If you need anything else, you should let me know.