Questions for Experienced Club Owners

[TheEntertainer]

For those of you who have purchased existing clubs..Here are a few questions..

1. How much were the clubs that you bought?
2. What were the sales, expenses, and profit margin?What justified the price you paid?
3. Did you purchase the club in order to continue the brand or with the intention of completely changing the club concept?
4. Has anyone tried buying clubs for 10-30 cents on the dollar from very motivated sellers?

[ofatcats]

I owned a bar for 6 years, and my biggest tip is not to shut down and remodel unless you have a lot of capital. I bought it and used the income to slowly change it to my concept over like 2 years. I've met so many owners that rip everything down and spend a fortune on construction (which always takes 2-3x longer than expected and costs more than you think) and have no income during this period.

If you can keep the money coming and and upgrade slowly, you won't find yourself paying rent on a construction site for a long period of time.

[alchemybar]

For those of you who have purchased existing clubs..Here are a few questions..

1. How much were the clubs that you bought?
2. What were the sales, expenses, and profit margin?What justified the price you paid?
3. Did you purchase the club in order to continue the brand or with the intention of completely changing the club concept?
4. Has anyone tried buying clubs for 10-30 cents on the dollar from very motivated sellers?

1. I doubt many people will give you this info willingly
2. See above
3. It's dependent on whether the place is already successful or needs rejuvinating
4. If you can buy something for 10-30% of asking then its a dog. Most business people or agents handling a sale will tell you where to go and most likely refuse to deal with you again.

[SusanMart]

I owned a bar for 6 years, and my biggest tip is not to shut down and remodel unless you have a lot of capital. I bought it and used the income to slowly change it to my concept over like 2 years. I've met so many owners that rip everything down and spend a fortune on construction (which always takes 2-3x longer than expected and costs more than you think) and have no income during this period.

If you can keep the money coming and and upgrade slowly, you won't find yourself paying rent on a construction site for a long period of time.

thanks, I abslotely agree!

I want to help my brothe open a bar

so will probably have to forward this post to him.

thank you a lot!

[Ruben]

I owned a bar for 6 years, and my biggest tip is not to shut down and remodel unless you have a lot of capital. I bought it and used the income to slowly change it to my concept over like 2 years. I've met so many owners that rip everything down and spend a fortune on construction (which always takes 2-3x longer than expected and costs more than you think) and have no income during this period.

If you can keep the money coming and and upgrade slowly, you won't find yourself paying rent on a construction site for a long period of time.

If the previous place you bought is a dying breed are you going to try and keep it alive? No you go and shut it down. And redo everything and check what your competition is doing and what you can do better to put yourself out there for clients to come and have a good time. If you have the funds of course. sometimes a paint job or a remolding and name change helps a lot because names have bad reps but you have to mention its new ownership etc

[SusanMart]

to continue of you your Qs, The Entertainer,

if the place was NOT succesful before you bought it- will it really matter?

[MartinL]

I owned a bar for 6 years, and my biggest tip is not to shut down and remodel unless you have a lot of capital. I bought it and used the income to slowly change it to my concept over like 2 years. I've met so many owners that rip everything down and spend a fortune on construction (which always takes 2-3x longer than expected and costs more than you think) and have no income during this period.

If you can keep the money coming and and upgrade slowly, you won't find yourself paying rent on a construction site for a long period of time.
If you're any good I say shut down and start with a new name. Unless there is good business already going there.