26 Degrees in the Shade . . .

Relations with Other Bar and Restaurant Owners

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When you first start a bar, you’ll get at lot of interest directed your way from other bar owners.

Don’t be intimidated by this snooping and prying. We are all a bit insecure if the truth be known and bar owners are no exception to the rule.

All they want to know are simple things like; where you are from, whether you are nice people and of course whether or not you intend to compete directly with them (by this I simply mean are you going to have the same menu as one of your neighbouring businesses or not?)

My advice is to go and introduce yourself to all the nearby bars and restaurants and have a drink with each owner. This is the perfect occasion to establish yourself and get on good terms with your neighbours, right from the start.

After you have been round and introduced yourself, and by the way don’t worry if the odd person gives you a bit of a cool reception, as other owners will quickly warm to you.

Here are a few guidelines when making first introductions. I have presented my tips in the form of questions and answers:

What type of bar restaurant are you going to open?

Make it clear in you answer that you are going to be different from them, even if you are going to have a few items on your menu that are similar.

Which day will you close?

Give the truth; either: we are not sure yet or we’ll be closing on Tuesdays etc. in any case it’s good to make sure that your closing day tessellates with those of other nearby owners.

What did you do before?

Just be truthful.

Lastly . . .

A very good way to start a bar is by having an opening party, with plenty of small eats as well as some wine and when you go to see all your neighboring bar owners make sure that you invite them to the opening do with great enthusiasm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Business. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.