Will this work?

[Jman]

I am seriously considering opening an all age dance club here in central Pa. There are only a couple of clubs here that offer all age nights, but it's usually only one night a week, and usually a Tuesday. Besides, the closest club is 30 minutes away. My idea is to provide a smoke free atmosphere, and I am toying with allowing patrons to bring their own alcohol. I definitely don't want the hassle of selling alcohol. I could get a home equity loan for $100,000 to finance it. It wouldn't be a large club, as the available storefronts on main street aren't big enough to accomadate that, but I want it as high tech as possible with quality sound and light/lasers. I figure it would take about $20,000 to renovate a place, and the rest could be used for the technical stuff and to finance the venture for the first month or so. What I need to know is first, would something like this fly in a small town with a medium size university within walking distance? And two, if i charge $8 for guys and $4 for girls, would I be able to pay the loan, expenses, and still make some profit? Also, what type of expenses would I be looking at? Any info would be appreciated.

[David]

Jman:

When you say "All Ages" dance club, what ages are you referring too? I would stay above 18 if it was me. There are just too many things that can go wrong when you mix younger individuals with of age patrons.

The other clubs that only offer the one night of week "Teen Nights" do this because of the problems that will arise if you do the night more then once a week. There are laws like curfew, consent and moral issues that you will have to deal with. But, the main reason is that they probably can't draw enough of a customer base to do it more often.

$100,000 isn't a lot of money to start a club. If you are going to do lasers, a good reliable one will cost you ~$10,000. Also, you will need to have more than a months cash reserve to carry you through the first few months. My rule of thumb is this. You'll need to figure you gross operating costs for one month, then times this by at least three. This way you will, hopefully have enough money in the bank to carry you through the lean times when you open.

Another thing I've learned over the years is this. Put more of your budget into your sound system then the lighting system. People will notice the lighting but if the sound system is junk, they will notice the lights from their seats and not the dance floor.

When you dropped the figure of $20,000 for remodeling, how many Cocktail stations are you going to have. Each one costs ~$3000 to $5000.

Is it legal to have a Bottle Bar in your State and Town?

Don't let this discourage you. Everyone has a dream.

[Jman]

What I meant by all ages is 16 and up, I am not planning on serving any alcohol, and I doubt they would allow me to do a bring your own alcohol thing, so hopefully there wouldn't be any conflict between the two. I am not really concerned about getting a huge amount of people to attend this club, I figure I could make about $1,000 a week if it's only open 3 nights and brings in at least 150 kids a night. That amount may not seem like a lot, but I'm not looking to get rich. My main goal is to provide a safe place for kids to party. Everyone here complains about how the kids congregate on the streets, but no one wants to give them a better alternative. I am not looking to attract many adults to this, however if I make it a smoke free setting, I am sure there will be people who come here just because of that.