How to Buy a Bar or Night Club

A bar or night club business can be very profitable but it actually is one of the more dangerous businesses you can either buy or sell. You might see a lounge, disco, or sports bar for sale and decide to try your hand at this type of business. You will probably say to yourself, "How hard can it be?" More than likely, you will draw a lot of customers at first as people in a festive spirit with a little alcohol part with their money much easier. But running a lounge, sports bar, or other night club can be very difficult if you do not know what you are doing.

In fact, experts in this business recommend that you learn the bar business first from the bottom before ever attempting to own one. Do you know how to handle the violent drunk? Do you know how to handle drug dealers making transactions in your club? What about the spouse who is trying to get her husband to come home and holds you responsible? And how do you protect yourself if one of your patrons drives home drunk and kills someone?

Usually the best way to get experience in handling the situations above is by starting at the bottom of the ladder in the bar or night club business. Then, after many years, when you see that bar or night club for sale, you will be ready to handle these risks when your doors open.

Consider also that when you buy a bar or night club for sale that you probably just gave up each night, weekend, and holiday for the duration of your ownership. You could hire a manager but initially this could be more expense than you would like to handle.

Bars and night clubs are usually based on some type of theme in order to draw a certain type of crowd. Many like to have a sports bar theme to draw the business crowd gathering for drinks, snacks, and to watch some sports before heading home. Some of the larger cities in the western and southeastern United States have better potential for a bar or night club with a Country Western theme offering western dancing too. Bars around colleges and universities have more of a pop or rock theme to them. There are even the non-alcoholic teen clubs that will have music appealing to that age group. Not picking the right theme could quickly cause your business to fail.

Also consider that a lounge, sports bar, or other type of bar or night club is a business. While the business is the entertainment business, it must be treated as a serious operation nonetheless. You, as an owner and more than likely the manager too, must be very prudent and take care of the important details while the bar is open as well as when it is closed. This means you are going to need efficient point of sale system that reports receipts. You are going to need security systems to keep from getting robbed (most robberies happen after the bar closes while the owner is counting money). You are also going need some bouncers to take care of matters when they get out of hand.

The bar and night club business can be prosperous but it can be dangerous too. Make sure you really want to get into it and when you do, make sure you are careful to take care of all the critical details. Treat it like a business and not a hobby and it will more than likely do you well.

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