Opening a night club

[randye]

I want to open a nightclub but I don't know where to start. I have been told that researching the market in an area is important, but I never seem to get any clear instructions on how. Are there any published resources that contain surveys of the area regarding peoples' attitudes towards nightclubs, how many people attend nightclubs yearly, monthly, how much people spend on average at nightclubs per night, and what the business success rate of nightclubs are? Is it safe to use data from bars, and restaurants considering they are servicing a similar demand, or would that be comparing apples and oranges? I suspect that this information is important especially for investors who want to be assured that there is demand for services being offered. I am planning on opening this nightclub in Orange County CA either in the city of Santa Ana or Anaheim.

Thank you, Randy

[David]

Randy:

This is one of the most difficult business's in the world to get numbers and facts on.

I have relied on hard facts that I have gathered in the market that I'm researching. By this I mean, you need to get out there and visit other clubs and bars in your market. You can establish your demographics, spending habits, music prefaces and everything else that you need.

I remember seeing a report called Restaurant and Industry Reports. I'll see if I can find it and I'll post it here.

I know that this is probably a dumb question but, have you visited your States website and your local Cities site? There is quite a bit of your info there.

[randye]

Thanks for you input David. Yes I have been to both the California and Orange County websites looking for data and the best I coud find was statistics regarding "drinking places" and the entertainment industry as a whole.

I have found spending habit information related to entertainment and alcohol consumption, but I was hoping for something a little more specific, such as "how much the average person spends on a night out", how many people attended clubs last year and the year before, or statistics comparing consumer preferences for movies, bars, restaurants, staying at home, or going out to bars and clubs as an evening activity.

The problem I have with the information I allready collected is: if I was a potential investor and was handed data that said alcohol sales and the entertainment industry in general was up this year, I dont think I would be convinced that nightclubs were one of the primary causes because the data is very broad. Unless the investors were allready familiar with nightclubs personally, I think this would be a hard sell.

Everywhere I go, I get advice to conduct my own research, but no recommendations on how. Maybe I will attend all the nightclubs in LA or my target area and count heads over a few months. As for determining spending habits in the clubs, Im not sure that other clubs would be willing to share sales information with me since I will be a potential competitor.

[shawnlpeterson]

Go to www.marketresearch.com and search for nightclub

[randye]

Thank you shawnlpeterson! This is exactly what I was looking for.:)

[shawnlpeterson]

No problem.

You can also check out www.rkmillerinc.com and specifically their Travel & Leisure Market Handbook.

Good Luck