[Chaostracize]

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1. I think you absolutely need at least one manager that knows the area (people) better. College kids go out to bars because they know their friends are there, drink specials (hear from friends working at places), and because places are the "cool" place to go. Places don't start out being cool, you have to make people believe that. You need staff that is well connected in the social scene, preferably a manager that has an incentive to get business at the bar (maybe manager gets a small cut of revenue on his shift).

I could be wrong, but I thought I read awhile ago that you hadn't talked to this English guy in months and when you last spoke with him on the phone it was hard to understand him. If this is true, imagine him trying to communicate with drunk people at a crowded bar with loud music.

All this means I think you should have one "Student manager" to go along with this Stu guy.

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This is really helpful, and a great idea. It works because we essentially start training another manager for when Stu leaves, so we won't be in a rush to do so. The synergy between someone who understands the system of running a successful bar and someone who doesn't, but knows the clientele could work really well.

Regarding understand Stu, it was much more an issue of talking to him on my craptacular Razr on cingular...when we talked on Skype I could understand him just fine.

I'm also definitely a major proponent of profit sharing. I think for the first few months, I'm going to have to see how it goes...tips should be great for the managers (I plan on having Stu do some bartending, although it's certainly not his entire job description), so until we see how profitable we are I will hold on on profit sharing.

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2. You are going to need to be putting SERIOUS hours into this business for the first year. First of all, you are going to get robbed blind if you aren't there that often. That's just the way it goes in the bar industry, especially on college campuses.

To avoid getting all of your drinks given away for free you need to create an incentive for employees to not give too much away (incentives or penalties) and you also need to have good enough specials that kids will actually come out even if they can't get drinks for free from their bartending friends. This isn't easy, and requires you to be there to make sure it works right.

After a year or two, then you might be able to only come in a couple nights a week, but I'd plan on being there 6-7 days a week for the first year.

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My plan as of this moment is to be there every night for the first month so I can get a very good feel about how the business will be run, and so I can formalize a systems op manual with Stu (plus the newbie manager as well, which should help with integration further down the road). Once that initial set-up has ceased however I plan on being there no more than 4 times a night, but as you said, this may be pushing it. Having 2 managers for this place is most likely going to end up being a necessity, so we'll see what happens.