26 Degrees in the Shade . . .

Income Generator for Your Spanish Bar or Restaurant At New Year

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A New Year’s Eve Party

If you have an English bar or restaurant in Spain you can make a great income in the low season, when cash flow is less abundant, by putting on a good New Year’s Eve party.

The most profitable way to achieve this is to create an all ticket affair where you advertise the types of food, drink and entertainment you will be providing. To maximize ticket sales you should promote your party by word of mouth. You can also place a small box ad in the local press around mid-November. However, this may not be necessary once you are established - for example we normally sell out by word of mouth only, well before New Year’s Eve.

You’ll need to tell people if you’re going to have a sit down meal or a buffet. The buffet is in my opinion the most profitable option, and the least work intensive.

Make it clear which types of meat and seafood you’ll be preparing and make sure you mention that you’ll have plenty of vegetarian dishes too. If you do a really excellent buffet the first year, you will quickly establish a reputation and people will be ready and waiting to buy tickets when it’s time for your next party.

The entry ticket price should include all food and drink up to say just gone past midnight. Don’t forget to cost some Spanish Cava (Spanish Champagne) into the price of the ticket. I normally allow 2 glasses per head. It is important to have a few spare bottles of Cava in reserve just in case there’s more demand than anticipated.

A lot of large restaurants will be putting on very expensive cabaret dinners. This leaves a big gap in the market for smaller establishments to fill. Lots of people on the Costa del Sol want to go out to a restaurant on New Year’s Eve; some will want to spend wildly, but there are plenty of people including a many of your regulars who will prefer the smaller less expensive celebrations, in your bar, where they can party with a crowd that they already know.

The Importance of Sound Systems and Music In Your Spanish Bar

Music Keeps Your Customers Happy

One of the main goals you must achieve with your bar or restaurant in Spain, is to get your clients to want to remain in your establishment as long as possible and not move on to another venue. There are various ways in which you can entertain your customers and achieve this goal and today I am going to talk a little about the hardware side of audio entertainment i.e. sound systems.

I have had my bar for 20 years and during that time I have tried a whole range of sound systems. There have been times when I have had simply a little home CD unit and other times when I have spent out on a powerful, professional system driving a battery of speakers.

We run a family business and whilst a lot of the time we can get away with a small sound system, you can never predict when a crowd will want to take over your bar to party and celebrate a special occasion or other. When this happens you can take a lot of cash at the till, but and it’s a big but, you must have a powerful Hi-Fi system where you can play music to create the party atmosphere they seek.

If you have a small domestic system, there will come a time in the evening when it becomes drowned out by the noise of the people and that’s usually when they decide to ask for the bill and move on to a disco bar.

Home systems aren’t loud enough in a party situation. They are also prone to overheating, causing the sound quality to deteriorate radically.

Through experience, I have found the best system for Graham’s Pizzeria. We have a powerful “MX Onda” cinema system, which gives me total control over all aspects of my sound output and also has the capacity to drive several small discrete, but powerful speakers, which you can locate in all areas of your bar.

Whilst it is illegal to have speakers outside on the terrace, I do get away with small speakers mounted discreetly on the periphery of the bar outside which can be unplugged when not required.