Start up questions. Projections, liquor license,etc

[jcfl]

I am in the process of doing a business plan for a night club. In the Tampa Bay area. I have already chosen the location and I have a good idea on the theme but I need a little help in other areas.

Cost vs. Income.
I've already figured out what most of my fixed cost will be (lease, utilities, insurance, etc.) but how do I project how many people I can expect to come? Is there an average or a good guess formula. I have the demographics and all that good stuff. To give you a little more info. I'm looking to open a upscale club in St. Petersburg (Tampa bay area) not many upscale clubs in this area but we have the income and people to support it. I would play various types of music and I would look to appeal to young 24-45 middle to upper class. How can I project/estimate income??

Liquor License.
My county is not offering anymore liquor license so if you want one you have to buy it from someone else. This can be very expensive. Is there such a thing as leasing a liquor license from someone that is not being used instead of buying it?? If so what's the average cost.

Mentor.
I have been reading several of the post and I noticed many people recommend working in a night club before trying to operate one. I agree with this suggestion and I was wondering if there was any one in the Tampa Bay area that would be willing to let me work with them? It doesn't have to be in St. Pete I will travel to avoid learning from potential competition. I have owned retail businesses before but nothing like a night club. I'm very smart and I could offer some free helping hands in exchange for some knowledge.

[advancemellc]

If you ever get in a situation were you need working capital I can help. I represent AdvanceMe Inc. nationally. We advance up to $125,000 per location to help grow your business. Please contact me at advancemellc@aol.com for questions

[G-Dog]

Liquor License
I don't now the FLA laws about licensing. In AZ I searched the liquor lic board's website to find inactive lic then started calling. I got two hits out of 43. Yeah it's a pain but I saved over $10,000 from what a broker wanted.

[keithd]

JCFL:

As per your cost vs income question, there is really no set way to figure out how many people will come. This will depend a lot on promotional spending, your concept, and your ability to turn customers into regulars. That's ok though -- what you need to worry about is what your costs will be at different sales levels. For instance, it might be usefull to draw up a spreadsheet to try and estimate what your variable costs will likely be for monthly sales of $30k, $35k, $50k, $85k and so on. This way you'll have a better idea of where your break even point will be.

You might want to include things such as utilities, payroll, liquor tax, and pour costs in the variable costs column.

Then if you really want to get into it deep, you can work your way backwards and try to figure out how many people you need to get in on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis to hit the numbers you're shooting for given your bars capacity and drink prices.

Well, that's it, I can't be of much help on your other questions as I'm not located in FL.