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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.