Friends, Family, Visitors and Your Business in Spain
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Dealing with Family and Visitors Whilst Running Your Spanish Bar or Restaurant
When you first leave the UK and its cold windy climate with its short winter days, you’ll be inundated with family and friends who want to come and visit you in Spain. They’ll want to combine their visit with seeing the sights and soaking up our wonderful 3oo days per year of blue skies and sunshine.
As you cannot run a business unless you are able to focus, some of the tips I’ve learned over the years may be very useful to help you to deal with this inevitable situation.
During our first year in the bar we had no experience of separating our business commitment from our social life and consequently we received a lot of visitors in the summer and ended up waiting on them hand and foot. Visitors never appreciate just how important it is for you to work hard at your business during the main season, so YOU have to educate them.
- Firstly when you get your first call.” We have found a cheap flight and would really like to come and stay with you weeks. You must say straight away without hesitation:
- I think we are pretty much booked up for that period. The last 2 weeks in October would be great. (You are not doing this to be nasty, but just like running an office or any other business, you will need all your time and effort to run your bar restaurant.)
- We don’t cook at home, as we have a restaurant so we suggest that you’d be a lot more comfortable in the local hotel, which is only three star and you can book it really cheap if you do it well in advance through the Internet.
- You’ll need to rent a car from: www.carjet.com, as you can’t do anything here without a car and they are really cheap. (And as we work long hours we just won’t be able to run you around.).
Now you’ll almost certainly want to put this to your family and friends with a greater degree of subtlety, but beware, as subtlety can and often is seen as synonymous with weakness. Let you no be no!
Never ever agree to receive anybody in July or August, as this is your really busy time and you won’t have a spare minute to devote to them.
When your visitors come to your bar always make sure that an employee serves them they are given a bill just like anybody else. Of course you can invite them occupationally, but your regulars will take umbrage if you operate a dual system where most people are expected to pay whilst some people that you value more are not. Never forget that your regulars perceive themselves to be your best customers and they are in the context of your business. You cannot mix business with pleasure; it will get you into deep water every time.
Nobody wants to have to put their business before the people that they love, but if you want your bar to succeed you must. You can make the odd exception to this rule, but please, please never in August.
Follow these guidelines as best you can and you won’t go far wrong.
