r/BarOwners

Trying to figure out a full suite of new systems to replace the previous owners paper notes and folders before I implement them and manage them remotely.

Backstory: My wife and I inherited a local bar (out of state for us) from her parents after they passed. It pulls in roughly $30k/wk and has been operating for 15 yrs. I have 17 years experience in the industry (private dining capt, server, bartender, bb, host, kitchen, dish, trainer, etc) and have turned a few mgmt positions down over the years bc... Ya know, high tips and low responsibility. I stepped away from the industry for a bit and went back to school for Software Engineering and focused on CRMs, ERPs, and payment gateways.

I have millions of questions but for this post I will only ask one. How do you guys handle HR type tasks such as employment apps, food handlers cards, etc. without looking over an excel spreadsheet everyday?

Paychex, APD, etc seem pretty pricey based on the number of employees I have but I could be wrong. 20 employees, 3 salaried.

Currently we are using paper apps but I cannot manage this from across the country. Should I consider JotForm (familiar with their stuff bc I manage a few accounts for web development clients I picked up in school)? Or what advice would you give someone in my shoes on this topic?

Planned POS: SpotOn.

Planned Workspace: Google

Planned PC onsight: Win11 Pro (remote configs/main)

Planned Network/Cams: Unifi

Planned Accounting: QBO

Kind of like an AMA, here's a weekly post where customers can ask questions. This is for anyone including market research, app developers, people who watch too much "reality" TV about bars, and general industry bullshit. Maybe a bar owner will have an answer for you, maybe not.

If you are already in the industry your question may get better responses if you post your own thread instead of commenting here.

For those of you who are on the smaller side, do you find it necessary to have a bar manager or do you just pass those duties to your GM? We are currently resurrecting a well loved local bar. Between us, we have about 60 years combined experience in the industry and a strong background in the financial industry. None of us have any experience actually running a restaurant though. We are planning on hiring about 5 servers, and 4 bartenders. We do plan on having a kitchen manager and about 4-5 cooks.

Second question for those who started with no staff: how far out from your forecasted opening date did you start hiring? How many hours of training did you provide before starting?

And lastly, for those who had a soft opening, did you just jump in feet first the next day or did you take time to review your performance and add more training.

We are ready to take on Karaoke ourselves after using a few different companies the last few years.

Karafun or Singa ?

I currently pay BMI and ASCAP

What kind of speaker/microphone set up should I get for under $500 if I can’t connect into our existing sound and video system?

Thanks!

If you're like me you just found it's apparently your responsibility to pay for every single cover band at your bar. To have a music license. Is it bullshit is it predatory 100%. You can ignore them as my bosses did for years. But, you can also get hit with massive fines because technically they are correct. I thought I was nonsense until I did some research.

Turns out advertising my band on Facebook opened a can of worms I can't close. In the age of AI why can't we have a device in our bars that listens to the music and pays the actual royalties that should be paid.

I pay over 2k in fees for playing $500 worth of copywrited material. And the artists aren't getting any of it because those licensing companies are not distributing it.

We have to figure something out or the garage band and dive bar will die.

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Hello I’m looking to open my own mobile bar business. I have done some research but still confused about a few things. A mobile bar is legal in Ohio? And im also thinking of just being a dry hire so no selling alcohol to the clients they would have to buy their own, I wouldn’t need to apply for a liquor license if I do it that way correct?

Hi! Everpass is asking for our FCO form. I played dumb and said somewhere between 90-120 which is obviously a huge price difference. I’m thinking of altering the form…thoughts? It’s not a huge difference, just right over the 100 cutoff. Already called the city and they won’t change it for me.

Hi, we own a sports bar with a 200-seat capacity. Previously, we always got Sunday Ticket from DirecTV. Now the NFL owns Everpass and is quoting us $ 13k for our 200-fire-capacity business.
We also have to totally rework our headend unit.

What kind of pricing are other people getting from Everpass?

We are seriously considering not renewing this year

We had someone interviewing for a bartending position last night. When he arrived, we asked him to give us a few minutes before the interview started. One of the owners sat him at a table and said, "Can I offer you a drink?"

He answered, "Yes, a whiskey highball please."

Some of us think him drinking before a job interview might be a red flag. The owner who asked is kinda blaming herself for offering. (But she thought he’d ask for water or refuse.) Should we be more relaxed about this given that the interview was in a bar and for a bartending position?

Edit to add: The job interview started on time. He arrived early.

For anyone who owns a mobile bar and owns their own glassware- any advice on what and how much to purchase? I own a mobile champagne cart business- we serve sparkling wine, still wine, beer and champagne cocktails.

Trying to figure out what glassware to buy and how much- really stuck on how I would transport and store a ton of glass in racks to events. I

I drive a prius and the cart, coolers and decor take up a good chunk of space in my car and I could never carry racks of glass even if I had the space. Any advice is appreciated.

I know that you're supposed to hit around 20-25% pour cost..but should you apply the same percentage across all portion sizes? Example 12oz vs pint vs 20 oz. ?

Thanks

Kind of like an AMA, here's a weekly post where customers can ask questions. This is for anyone including market research, app developers, people who watch too much "reality" TV about bars, and general industry bullshit. Maybe a bar owner will have an answer for you, maybe not.

If you are already in the industry your question may get better responses if you post your own thread instead of commenting here.

I’m looking to leave the industry to focus on other businesses and relax a bit , we are about to finish our 5th year in business .

We are a hookah bar & lounge / nightclub late with a hookah license in nyc (those don’t exist anymore …) rent is below market price and landlord would extend the lease etc…

I would say the bar is established and we have a brand I guess ?

Furniture /sound system / lighting has held up well and is still in good condition , whoever takes over can make $ right away . We are still profitable etc…

I’m looking to throw some offers soon but I’m just not sure on how to value it …

We have family gatherings with up to two dozen adults and children a few times a year.

Getting tired of buying a pack of disposable cups every time. Yes I know I could reuse the Solo/Walmart party cups but I'm looking for something with a wider base and much thicker plastic. I'm also.looking for cups with lids for the kids.

I'm looking for 20oz opaque or light colored reusable thick plastic dishwasher safe cups. These should also come with lids for the kids. Something I can use a permanent marker and write everyone's name on.

These cups should be stackable/nested but have a wide bottom to help prevent tipping over as well.

Of course I want to spend as little as possible but I'd be willing to invest up to 3 dollars per cup.

Thanks...

Is alcohol markup really that profitable? I'm thinking of opening a cafe that sells both coffee during the day and alcohol at night. Are alcohol sales so profitable that they will overshadow coffee?

Im in NYC if that helps

We are thinking of putting wrestleMania on at our bar but it looks like it’s on a streaming app? We’ve never done a pay per view event before so we don’t know the legalities of it. I know UFC charges you per chair to show their fights? Is this going to be the same? Also as a business where do we go to get a business stream for this? Our worry is how do we do it legally because we want to promote it. Also we have 24 tvs so if it is only streamable for businesses as well then that is definitely not feasible. We mainly rely on our cable boxes still. We have Comcast and are located in PA if this helps.

Is anyone planning on showing this? If so how?

We have a system with numerous Bose speakers and a soundboard that we inherited, but it is not working right and way too many wires and all for us to figure out. We need a Pro Audio Engineer; any referrals appreciated

One of my bartenders posted a Tiktok of someone getting told to leave the bar. They captioned it with derogatory comments about the person calling them a w+-re. They even had derogatory music playing. The other employee in the video was entirely unaware the video was posted.

When I called demanding they take the video down they sort of laughed me off. It took a second phone call to get it taken down. I still don't know if they just hid it from me or actually removed it.

I took away their shifts for the weekend and decided today to terminate. The rest of my employees seem happy okay with the decision. I started hearing many stories about how they were a not great coworker.

I feel like I made the right choice and that this person fired themselves. I still feel like crap that someone lost their job and it was my choice. At the end of the day everyone else has stepped up huge to help me be successful since I took over in January. I feel like they were just the weak link taking the entire team down and everyone has been working way to hard for me to allow that.

Does anyone think I overreacted?

I just read that NFL Sunday Ticket will no longer be offered by DIRECTV for businesses and will only be offered by EverPass, a streaming only platform. Does anybody know anything about this or any info on EverPass?