i want to open a club. help?
today i decided i would like to, one day (in the distant-ish future), open a small club/bar. pointers? where to start?
i am not naive; i understand this will take quite a bit of time for it to actually happen (if it ever does).
any club owners?
Get a shit load of $$
lol. I wouldn’t open a club if I had a shitload of $$.
I’ve no idea. I’ve never owned or ran a club so the following advice is to be taken as such. Just purely personal preference (PPP).
vvvvvvvvvv
Promote promote promote!
^^^^^^^
Clubs take a lot of $$ to own, operate, and function. That’s why you need LOTS of it.
Do you have any experience as a bar manager? Same stuff later hours, plus a bit of event management thrown in for good measure!
My friend is opening a club in our small college town ~7k people.
Its probably gonna be right up there with very nice clubs.
My friend is 23…he inherited millions from his grandparents.
Those millions came from 2.5% of their total worth, LOL
See, you gotta have a ton of $$!! lol
Hi,
Start to buy this. This little book is completely amazing!!! It has all your answer.
I don’t know about the States, but here in the UK, the 3 types of businesses where it is most difficult to make money and the easiest way to lose money are running a pub (bar), running a club and running a restaurant.
You either have to be super talented, really lucky or preferable both.
I read somewhere that only 30% of bars make their first year. The local bars around here have different names/owners about every few months. Not trying to discourage you, but something to really think about.
My cousins actually own Playhouse in Hollywood CA, and all I know is its expensive, but hell you get it all back real quick. Also, I don’t think its something that can be done by yourself your going to need partners (investors). Its definitely worth it in my opinion, I hear their opening a new one in Hollywood im trying to get my dad in on that action.
Asking poeple on the internet how you should open and run your club is surely how all other successful clubs owners have started too. 
Get a degree in business, and more importantly, entrepreneurship. Then learn about finance and accounting and finally, operations management. Then, and only then, will you have more than a 1% chance on making it.
Good luck
+100 on Gryz’s post.
If you don’t have any experience in managing a club and every aspect of the operations, local laws, health code, taxes, vendors, hiring, accounting, insurance, etc. adnauseum; you have a lot to learn first. Also hiring experienced management and book keepers, and lawyers, consultants, etc.
Then a business plan has to be done based on real demographics and statistics for the area, and knowing the cost of every little thing you will need to purchase, have contracted, etc. and much more.
If you just open one because it would fun, then you’re just flushing the money down the drain. Your business will probably fail. A business has to be treated like a business 100% of the time.
I own and operate 2 small businesses and have learned too many things the hard way. The crap I have to do for city state and federal governments, number of employees, insurance, etc. that I have to do is nothing compared to what a club would need.
Not trying to discourage you in anyway, just trying to help. Knowing exactly everything about everything in your venture will make the work much less stressful, the losses at a minimum, the lawsuits down, etc. The old saying is true “Businesses that fail to plan, are planning to fail”
If you REALLY want to do this, you should start working in a bar/club. Period. Start as a bar back, then bartender, and then eventually bar manager. I’ve and ran a number of clubs over the years and it’s a LOT of work for very little pay and recognition.
At best, you’ll make enough to break even with a little bit to put away and invest back in the bar/club when you need to. At worst you’ll be done in 5 months.
You don’t open a club to make money, you open a club because you already have a lot of money.
There’s so much that goes into running a club it can easily be a 70+ hours a week job for a 40 hours a week salary, and this is before we start talking about the music policy and so.
The real question is WHY do you want to open and run a club in the first place?
Do yourself a favor and take a short business class, and do some market research in your area. Does your area even need a club? Does an area near by need a good club?
You also have to be ready to work every day of the year for 4+ years before you think about taking days off.
You are also going to need a good amount of money (depending on the size of club you want to open) to get started because there is a good chance your club wont be an instant hit.
and that is just barely scratching the surface, there is a lot of work involved.
Funktion One’s.
Important matters to consider:
Good…
First of all, you should study the nightlife market in your area, and see it’s opportunities/threats. Then, if you still think you can make it :
4P :
Product
What kind of bar/club ? Small/big ? Any dominent style of people/music ?
Place
Will it be at the right place ? Any other popular club/bar around ? Are people around your area interested in a new club, really ?
Promotion
Do you know the people to know in your area (the influent people) ? What kind of people do you aim at ? 21-25, 25-30, 40+ ? Then what’s the best way to communicate about your club ? You don’t advertise the same way for a 21yo fluo chick or a 45yo businessman who wants to relax on a friday night.
Price
Well that’s the last step, but what are the entrance fees in other clubs around ? How much do you want to sell drinks/bottles..
If you are really interested, then think about these 4 P. Define them for your club.
If you do that “marketing mix” well, then your night club will satisfy the customers needs, hence, will pay the bills.
Why not just put on a few events and see how that goes
sounds like a pretty terrible idea at the moment. it’s generally a pretty dirty industry with extremely low success rates. add that to the fact that you apparently have zero experience in running or working at bars/clubs equates to a disaster.
if this is really something you want to do, you need to fully dedicate yourself to learning everything about the scene where you live, get to know everyone in it, and work in it full time in some degree.