younge owner

[f06biz]

Hello I am new to the boards and have been seriously considering renting/purchasing a nightclub here in upstate NY. There is only two real nightclubs in this town and they are located right next to each other. The other nightclub I have thrown parties at and have made record amounts of profits for the club (made the most money in one night that they have made since open). I passed up one opportunity to purchase a nightclub here for around 300,000 and now it has turned into a jewelry store.

My questions is

A. Would I be better off starting to rent a nightclub 1 night a week or purchase it (i am only 22 years old)

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

[f06biz]

Central New York area

[walawdog]

Wait, are you saying you are going to be open 1 night a week? It would be hard to answer you question not knowing anything about you, your finances, your real estate scene, or anything else. I guess I always look at it this way, if you want to be a business that last more than a few years, buy the place....unless it costs you 1 million dollars just for the building.

[f06biz]

I would open more than one night a week..an old partner of mine recently purchased a nightclub and said its a big pain in the a**! So I have been second guessing my decision and just reading the boards here.

[Havensloft]

Are you saying that you want to rent one night a week from a nightclub? Sort of renting a room one night kind of thing? if so, you have to figure out the cost of the rental, how much you project for income, if you have to sign a contract for a certain period of time. Will you have to buy your own liquor? Will you need a liquor license for this one day a week if renting for one night a week?

[emallay]

If you are just getting into the business, one approach might be to set up a promotions company first. Build a strong guest list (a following), learn / refine the ability to drive and manage traffic, and so on. If you still want to own a club after that, you can drive your existing list to the new venue. That would reduce your risk profile substantially -- and you avoid all the up-front capex associated with owning a club.

As for renting a single night, that usually isn't practical due to liquor licensing issues. Instead, you could simply do a deal with an existing club where you become the promoter (including control over the concept / show - ie, the "experience") while the venue handles beverage service and security (though put your own 'host' on the door). That effectively gives you your own night.

If you do the 'one night' approach, make sure you negotiate co-branding rights. You want guests to associate with you, not the venue, so that you can subsequently move them elsewhere when the time is right (potentially to your own venue). Most promoters do a poor job of this (little more than "MyPromoCompany at SomeVenue this Friday!"). You can -and should- do far more than that!

Good luck with it.

Eugene.

[Dynamic Digital]

Be a promoter. Make the money with out the headaches