The Bar & The Fear.
 

Hey all,

I've been away for a bit, not that any of you lot have noticed. We opened the bar on Friday. It was a big night, a lot of girls, good music and they spent a lot. A good way to start but there is still a hell of a lot to do. The last month has consisted of my partner and I putting in 16 hour days to renovate the place and get it open on time for the summer season which has just kicked in.

The reason we started so late is that the papers and licences and all that crap took so long to come through, as is the Italian way. But we've got it open in time and it looks good and now all we have to do is make it work. Easy, right?

Yesterday I woke up with, The Fear. I've never encountered this before. I really don't want to feck this up, and there is the possibility for it to go wrong in so many ways. We have to strike a balance between keeping the locals happy so we can survive in the off-season, and giving the tourists what they want. And I'm only just realising just how tricky this is going to be. In the last six months, all I've been focused on was getting the bar open. Well, it's open and now I have to run the thing. We also have a thousand people in our ear telling us how to do this and that. If we listen to them, then we'll go mad. So we have to stick to our vision and hope we can pull it off.

It's scary stuff. So if any of you have been here, done that, or have similar experiences of your own, I'd really appreciate you throwing them down here to give me a branch to hold on to.

ads.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

ads,
I know what you mean by the fear, though mine has usually been related to music performance or gaming. Actually I think most really really successful people have learnt how to channel this, since usually how i feel is just 'well, if there is a way to succeed i will just have to work so hard that i find it'.

Sometimes this is like 'wake up from nightmare after 4 hours sleep, go back to 10-12 hour day of whatever it is i have to succeed at'. Funnily enough, without this motivator, I am actually quite a lazy carefree person, so I guess it is good in some ways.

Oh edit for encouragement; usually when I go through these phases I dominate whatever I do, probably because it seems like other people aren't motivated in the same way and it's pretty hard to work really really hard if you aren't afraid of mediocrity.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

The only known cures for The Fear is time or a Xanax, if you don't feel like waiting.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

I haven't been following this. Where is the bar, so I can show up and give you some hard-earned cash?

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

ads,

"We have to strike a balance between keeping the locals happy so we can survive in the off-season, and giving the tourists what they want."

Some more details on the types of things locals vs. tourists are looking for.

I have a lot of experience w/ neighborhood bars where you have one crowd Sun-Thurs and a completely different crowd Fri/Sat. Your profits come from Fri/Sat, but you need the regulars to stay close to breakeven the rest of the week. It's definitely a tricky balance.

Your kind of fear is super natural anytime you are taking a big risk on an ambitious project. There's really no way around it. You just have to keep making smart decisions and the more and more you succeed, the less fear you'll have. But I think just about any business owner has that sort of fear of everything blowing up and your business going to hell.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

(any chance you are close to milan?)

i think sponsoring a local sports team (made up of members who like to party) is a great way to get some 'during the week' support.

italian equivalent of kickball or softball?

i really hope you make it, i plan on drinking at your bar in about 3-5 years, when i venture to italy to find me a wife! good luck!

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

One thing that I remember from the meetings Ive been having with my uncle as of late, is that when you stop fearing failure, you are most likely going to (in teh restaurant biz).

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

I think THE FEAR is often a product of the size of our world. I know when I have most of my eggs in one basket, the pressure mounts as the walls close in. When we have options, when we risk less, it easy to not take things too seriously.

On a side note, if you want a handsome, charming, go-getter to help recruit for the bar, or help bartend whatever, I am desperately looking for a change of scenery [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

My Italian is spotty, but I did live in Florence for six months. . .

Good luck with the Bar Ads.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Are there any pictures online, or that you can put online, of your bar?

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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Are there any pictures online, or that you can put online, of your bar?

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ditto this. Also, fear is healthy, and how you respond to it is what determines success/failure imo. GL with everything.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

I'm launching my business in the next week or so, and I have experienced The Fear. Sometimes when I'm walking and just thinking about things, it hits me that I could have just wasted a bunch of my time and money on something that will be an embarrassing flop. Also scary is the fact that a year from now I could be making no money, or I could be making a ridiculous amount of money.

However, The Fear to me is more exhilarating than anything else. Knowing that I'm attempting to do something that nobody else has done is a feeling I know that I wouldn't be able to get at a normal job. I also appreciate that the only reason I have The Fear is because I have absolute freedom and control. As opposed to fearing an undesirable outcome being imposed on me, I have The Fear only because I've placed myself in a position where my own efforts will solely determine my future. I know I could be phrasing that better, but that's the best I can come up with right now.

Also, for motivation, I watch this video every time I get discouraged (not a rickroll): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pem0ZSsMQVA

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

When I opened my store a few years ago, I had a few restless nights dealing with this exact fear. Like any fear, it's a good motivator, as long as it doesn't paralyze you.

Don't stop listening to other people's ideas... they are pitching you some good ones. Never ever ever act on those ideas until you believe in them as if they are your own.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

dont tourists just go to places based on location? more details please on the differences between locals and tourists.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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dont tourists just go to places based on location? more details please on the differences between locals and tourists.

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location and word of mouth. People saying hey you have to check out XXXXX while you are XXXXX

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

El D,

"Some more details on the types of things locals vs. tourists are looking for."

The tourists are a lot more sophisticated thasn the locals, particularly as in regards to music. The locals are stuck in the 80's and they think that Friday/Saturday after 12pm needs to be hard trance regardless of the mood of the night. Last Saturday night we had a very good crowd that were enjoying themselves and drinking. We were playing a mix of funk/hip hop and medium house. At around midnight a few of the noisy locals started demanding hard trance. If we had done that we would have lost most of the room immediately. Like I said, it's a tricky balance.

In season we are open every night. The tourists are spread over the entire week and the locals come out on the weekend to mix with the tourists.

Some great advice and comments from you guys so far. Thanks very much for that, it's very appreciated. I'll get some pics up in the next few days for you all to check out.

The bar is in the Italian Alps in Trentino, about an hour from Trento. The valley I am in is called Val di Sole. It's next to Madonna di Campiglio which is a big winter ski resort.

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Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

This seems very normal and I think that's one very reassuring thing. Make sure you understand that if you didn't feel this feeling then something would be wrong.

My biggest piece of advice is to try to stay both as organized and objective as possible.

Organization - Make a schedule and/or to do list. You should have a weekly agenda of big issues to tackle and then at the end of each day check things off the list and create a more detailed list for the next day. Meet with your partner on Mondays to talk specifically about your plan for the upcoming week. If you take the time to organize what you have to accomplish/discuss it will seem much more managable and you won't feel like there are a million things to do in no discernable order (which btw is very easy to have happen when you are dealing with a large amount of clients and most of your daily tasks relate to doing things to improve customer experience).

Staying Objective -
This is something that is not always easy to do but it really helps if you can do it. Everyone loves to give their input - customers, friends, family, etc., but it is you who has to decide on all the decisions.

Customers are going to be total [censored] to you. People are going to critcize decisions. Things are going to bad. Don't take any of these things personally. Leave your emotions at home, you will have time to reflect on your success/failure (emotionally) over the years to come.

Also, when things are going great it's easy to get wrapped up in it and stop working efficiently. The opposite is true when things are tough. Remind yourself that you are in charge of making good decisions and that is your only job. No matter what just focus on making those good decisions and good results will follow.

good luck!

tc

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Taylor,

How old are you? 25-ish? That is a really awesome post and shows a level of insight and awareness that many people who have been in business 20+ years don't have.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

A few thoughts.
1. Make your staff a family. Most of the problems that will kill your business will come from internal strife. This may require some firing of the bad apples early on, but establishing a fun, sexy work environment is crucial to your success.

2. Develop an invisible partner. For whatever reason everyone thinks that they can run a club/bar. I created an invisible investor who I could blame for any decisions that I knew were important but likely to be unpopular. (It is important to not overuse this though. I tended to use it primarily with promoters whose good will I needed.)

3. Establish promoters. Even if you aren't hooking up with some of the larger promoters (who will need more input in the flavor of the night), it's important to identify people who can consistently bring in bodies. Depending on their pull you can set up deals ranging from free drinks to a cut of the door from the people they bring in . I have found one effective (and fun) twist on this is to wander around during the day and hand out business cards to hot girls. Explain to them who you are and tell them that if they come by you will give them one free drink per hot girl they bring with them. (Inviting a hot bartender to come along on these trips can be fun as well.)

Another way you can use the promoters is to help with your locals/tourists problem. Once you identify locals who seem reasonably competent you can enlist them in keeping the locals from feeling out of place.

Hope some of this helps.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

yeah i'm 23. i'm lucky though i feel like i've had a lot of business experience at a pretty young age.

the bar thing sounds really fun. please keep us updated on how it is going.

tc

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

the sponsering a team idea is a good one...

my softball team plays 3 nights a week, 2 of those, the 10-12 of us are the only ones in the bar at night, mondays and thursdays they would have literally no one in there if we weren't there..

cost them the price of a league fee ($700ish), but they've gotten that back 2 months ago...plus, we end up showing up there on nights we don't play, just because we feel comfortable there...

great business idea, don't know how it'd translate to italy, sponser a club team in soccer maybe??

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Organization is key.
The best advice I can give from a business perspective is take a whole day or at least half an afternoon [Tue after lunch? etc] and do serious medium and long-term planning for your marketing, finance, and ops/HR strategies going forward. Cover every easily identifiable contingency and some 'bad' scenarios - theft, fire, lawsuits, change in laws regarding hours, hiring and firing, ad infinitum.

Do this every week, run scenario analyses on how you would improve things, get more customers, wealthier ones, more locals, less, sell more drinks, sell more $drinks [this is all obvious to you, I know] etc. As you can guess, you can easily spend 4-8 hrs a week on all this and when things change [tourist season or reverse] you may need a whole new set of 'plans.'

That usually takes most of the sting out of fear, at least for me. And when I feel overwhelmed, I simply make the old-school 2x2 Matrix of Important to Do/Not, Do It Now/Later and prioritize accordingly.

Best of luck, sir.

Naj

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

My personal opinion (based on experience) is that the best way to eliminate The Fear is to fail badly once. After experiencing what it is that you are afraid of, you will find that your capacity for fear is obviated.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to use this truism to fashion any useful advice.

Irieguy

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Adsman,

I can really relate to your post. The wife and I are opening a women's shoe store on August 15th, and I share your same fears and worries.

Like others have said, that fear is a great motivator. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and ask myself if we will make it, then I get mad at myself for having any doubts.

Something that has helped me is talking with other business owners with stores around us. All of them had the same concerns and worries when first opeing, and when they tell me how well they are doing, it really gets me exicted and more focused.

Good luck to you.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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I'll get some pics up in the next few days for you all to check out.


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I am eager to see the pics.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

bump, hows the first few weeks going ads?

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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bump, hows the first few weeks going ads?

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Im bettin pretty good, well, at least he is doing the right thing and probably at the bar 24/7, since he has made about 6 posts in the last month.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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bump, hows the first few weeks going ads?

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Im bettin pretty good, well, at least he is doing the right thing and probably at the bar 24/7, since he has made about 6 posts in the last month.

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Yep. Actually the really tough bit is combining the rafting season with the bar. Here's a bit of a run-down on what type of bar it is and how it's going.

The valley really lacked an international style bar - all the bars here are in the tradtional alpine mould with lots of wood panaling and piano accordians. My idea for the bar was to do three things differently. An international design that could fit in any major city, top quality drinks using the best ingredients and great music. The drinks bit has been easy and we sell more cocktails than beer which is great as the mark-up is much higher.

The music has been a tough one. In the eight years I've been in the valley the music has been nothing short of diabolical. I got extremely lucky in the fact that my brother came over from Australia to help me out for the first three weeks. He was an international DJ for over ten years and had his own radio show in Australia for a while. Plus he's a sound and lighting engineer. He brought over a stack of music, purchased a bunch more while he was here, set me up a bunch of excellent play-lists and DJ'd every night for the first 3 weeks. He went back home last Saturday. He blew everyone away while he was here and we got the start that we needed. In the meantime I found a young local lad who has just recently got back from a year studying in The States. He spent a great deal of time with my brother and he played a night on Tuesday and did very well. The music is the most challenging part. Keeping it fresh, innovating and being able to give what the customers want from one night to the next is a big ask.

We are open from 8pm to 2am. The reason for this is that there are a stack of bars that are open during the day and who do the day thing quite well. We identified this period as lacking and we've managed to make it our own. At least the 10.30pm to 2am time slot. The early part of the night is quiet and we have to build that up. But things are going well. The vibe is good, the lighting works and people like it. So far this week we've had three big nights. If we can keep that up until the end of the summer season, I'll be a happy boy.

The bar is called, Liquid Club. Liquid is 'liquido' in Italian, so they have no trouble pronouncing or understanding the name which was very important. The original decor was a horrible cross between an Irish pub and an Alpine bar. Here's a few photo's to give you an idea of what we walked into.


http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/6...otos002fi3.jpg


http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/7...otos007oa3.jpg


http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/7...otos013wp6.jpg


As you can see it was pretty horrible. The Bar had been empty for five years and hadn't really worked for over ten. But it had three huge advantages. It is on the main road in the mid-point of the valley, it is isolated with no housing anywhere near it, and it is directly across the road from the main rafting base and camp ground which can hold over 800 people in high season.

Tomorrow I'll post some photo's of the renovations.

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Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Looking forward to seeing the renovation.

Just curious, do you own the space?

Thanks

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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I've been away for a bit, not that any of you lot have noticed.

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I noticed. Best of luck and I'm really looking forward to pics of the renovated version.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Heh.. I saw the pics first, then read the post. No wonder the place ran like [censored]. Hard to imagine that people with eyes actually decided to run it like that, at one time.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Has anything come of that book you were writing using the posts from that huge thread?

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

I actually lvoe the look of the bar as is, Id make some minor changes, but all that wood looks great.


gl, cant wait for updates.

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've been away for a bit, not that any of you lot have noticed.

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I noticed. Best of luck and I'm really looking forward to pics of the renovated version.

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FFK, you know how to warm a mans heart.


OK, on to the renovations. Due to complications with all the paperwork we didn't walk into the bar to start work until Friday the 15th of June. I had originaly hoped to be open at this time to hit the summer season. We gave ourselves a month to complete everything and we opened on Friday the 13th of July, which is a lucky day in Italy.

We did the bulk of the renovations ourselves. My partner, Alessio, is a young guy from the valley who has run bars for other people here for a few years. He was receptive to my ideas and so I brought him in when my original partner pulled out in mid-May. Alessio is a handyman and his father is a retired electrician, so between the three of us and a couple of other key helpers we got the job done. It was a hell of a lot of work and I wouldn't want to do it again, but we reckon that we saved about twenty grand by doing the job ourselves. Here's some photo's of the descruction.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/7...otos022xk4.jpg

First job was to free up the space by getting rid of all the horrible bench seating. As soon as we did this the size of the bar seemed to double. Unfortunatly the walls behind the benches were damaged by years of humidity.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8...otos028ej2.jpg

We got some builders to fix this up for us. Next big job was to sand back all the wood paneling. We had to do it by hand due to all the cornices and grooving. This was a bastard of a job.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2...otos038hm4.jpg

We then applied a primer to the sanded wood with the original intention of adding another 2 coats of paint. We were presently surprised by the effect of the primer on the wood so we decided to leave it at that. We went for a red colour scheme around the room with the bar being blue.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/2...otos046zk8.jpg

An idea of the destruction.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1...otos048nq9.jpg

And a photo of yours truly and my partner, Alessio. He's the one on the right, obviously.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5...otos057dr2.jpg

Tomorrow some more shots of the renovations and how it finished up.

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Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

The next part was our audio system. We invested a good 30% of our budget here, it was something that I wanted to get right. We were very fortunate to find a great sound engineer who makes and designs his own systems. He's been doing it for 40 years. We put in 8 large speakers and 4 subs. This gives us the power that we need on big nights, but more importantly it lets us keep a good volume in the bar that you can still talk over.

Here's a picture of Gianci our sound guy getting our massive amp rack ready.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5...otos063zn7.jpg

And so on to the finished product. Here is a shot of the bar. Behind the bar on the right you can just make out a DJ. We placed the DJ up behind the bar which gives him a good view of everything and lets me control the situation if he starts to play badly. Note the panals on the ceiling. We installed these due to the fact that both the ceiling and floor are very hard, which caused the sound to bounce horribly. It was quite a bit of money and effort to put them up but it was well worth it.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/8026/s077df6.jpg

A shot of the lounges. These are the originals that are in the earlier pics. We got them re-upholstered in white washable leather, which was much cheaper than we thought it would be. Note the groovy 1960's wallpaper which I discovered by chance in Milan.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/6383/s081ea9.jpg

A shot of the entrance with the external stairs coming down from street level.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/1482/s084ox9.jpg

And the reverse shot looking from the entrance.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7...otos086sa0.jpg

So there you go. We had a big night last night, the season is kicking in and it's going to be a crazy month. My apologies for not being here, I'll be back in my normal capacity of loud-mouth sarcastic guy in September.

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Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

That looks awesome. Congrats on your big night!

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

Looks awesome! Can't wait to check it out next month (brag). The lighting really makes a difference, you guys did a great job.

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Wow. Looks like a great place.

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Wow. Looks like a great place.

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Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

does Italy allow video poker machines?

Re: The Bar & The Fear.
 

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does Italy allow video poker machines?

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Now here's a man that's always a step ahead [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]