Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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I have a pretty no BS atitude, and they know that if there are improprieties they will be fired or worse.

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Could you expand on this plz? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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I have a pretty no BS atitude, and they know that if there are improprieties they will be fired or worse.

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Could you expand on this plz? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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If your buddy slept with your wife, and you gave him a beating, would he run to the cops?

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

"Run your business super paranoid"

-Andy Grove

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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If your buddy slept with your wife, and you gave him a beating, would he run to the cops?

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Probably. Most of my friends are pretty dumb.

Mind you I'm not married, so it'd be pretty hard for them to sleep with my wife. I'm sure they'd find a way...

Hypothetical schmetical. I was jokin around.

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

quids,

"Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble)"

WTF? You have Tiesto booked at no cost to you?!

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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kick backs from vendors, we will be taking "kickbacks", camel will write us a huge check at the end fo the year if they are allowed to sell there, our liquor distributors are paying from construction work in exchange for their logo (red bull) being up there, and Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble) in exchange for letting them advertise the event and put up signs, which blows my mind as we get to keep the cover charges, pretty sick imo.


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That's not what I meant by kickbacks. We took every promotion from sponsors we could get our hands on. Kool brought in some major acts for us, we did the Camel thing and were a stop on the Budweiser concert tour.

I'm talking about taking things personally outside of normal promotions offered to the club that could come back and be used against you later by a rejected vendor or reported to the liquor board.

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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quids,

"Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble)"

WTF? You have Tiesto booked at no cost to you?!

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Happens all the time.

Marlboro brought us Run DMC at no charge
Budweiser brought is Sevendust, Megadeath and others
Depending on the liquor laws in your state you could not have to pay for entertainment for a year.

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

Guids,

I know exactly where you are and what you're feeling, mate. It sounds like you've got all the bases covered. I'm jealous as hell that you can still get tobacco companies to advertise over there, (not allowed in Italy goddamit!). You obviously know the business well so I'm not going to presume to give you any advice there. Just a few things that I went through if you like.

The feeling of impending doom, WTF have I got myself into, was gone after a couple of weeks. I suppose as I just didn't have any time to scratch myself, plus the fact that I quickly got into a routine. I think that this feeling is the fear of the unknown that we always have with new stuff, only magnified a thousand times. You go to bed thinking about your new baby, you dream about it all night and as soon as you open your eyes it's the first thing in your mind.

And this for me has been the major difference. When you run a place for somebody else you work like a bastard but you don't worry about it out of work as much. At the end of the day it's just a job and you can always get another one. You take a lot of things for granted, namely people walking throught the door. If you have a quiet night then it's just a quiet night. When it's your baby a quiet night is another matter entirely.

This leades on to my next experience, try not to emotionally ride the highs and lows. If you get depressed whenever it's quiet and really happy whenever it's busy then you're on an emotional roller-coaster ride to mental anguish. Try to keep yourself detached from the short-term and concentrate on doing your job right and making it happen.

On staff; be quick to identify your top staff and start delegating as many responsibilites as you can to them. Likewise, be quick to identify your lazies, thieves, etc and get rid of them.

Suppliers; I got offered a lot of money, (which I really needed at the time), to go with one liquor supplier. I managed to resist this enticement and it's paid off. I use three suppliers and play them off each other. As I didn't sign any exclusive contract with a supplier I'm free to buy my booze where I want at the price I want. A couple of times I've been in the supermarket doing my grocery shopping and noticed a good deal on something and purchased every bottle they had.

Promotions; You haven't touched on this. Before I write out a stack of useless advice, just let us know what you're doing on this front.

Last thing that I'll mention is your vision statement. Very important to have this written down before you open. Whenever you make a change to your establishment you need to check to see if it follows your original vision. It's easy to get swept away in the day to day running and lose track of what you originally had in mind. I'm not going to post mine here but PM me if you want to talk on this further.

And I know you said not to say it but best of luck dude.

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

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quids,

"Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble)"

WTF? You have Tiesto booked at no cost to you?!

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yes, tentatively, we have skribble booked for the grand opening at least, and bacardi/AB are splitting the cost, we talked to tiesto, and will probably be doing the same thing w/ him.

Re: Getting in over your head......job related
 

Promos

Lots of radio spots, Im good friends with the main DJ at the big top 40 station here in stl, everyone between the ages of 18 and 25 listen to it etc, and basically he is going to plug us for free during drivetime, and when he is doing his live mixes, also we will have them probably do a live spot from our place a couple of times a month, we are paying for spots on 1 other radio station. Mondays- industry night, this is going to be a big nigh because between me and my partner, we know just about everyone that works at every bar/club in the whole city, and there arent too many other clubs open mondays, Tuesdays will be a little more laid back w/ some live stuff from a group that sings ratpack type stuff, wed- ladies night, thurs- not sure yet, fri/sat will be heavily promo'ed on the radio. I actually havent been dealing with the nuts and bolts of promo'ing just yet because it would have been hard for me to contact any connections until this point because I didnt want anyone knowing that the spot we are getting was on the market (we found out about it 3 days after the old place closed, and that place was tehre for 11 years).