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I'm planning on opening one and just have a few questions.
How many parking spaces would be ideal? My capacity will probably be around 700 people.
Will my liquor license be a personal expense that I'll have to pay myself back for later or can it come from my business fund once I have my investment money placed in the business account?
I am not sure about Atlanta but where I live you would need several million in startup money. You would need to consider 300 or so parking spots. Don't worry about the license. The attorneys will handle that. You will need to be incorporated...way too much risk otherwise. Your biggest issue will be finding and hiring a couple hundred trained and experienced employees.
Sorry a bit of a different issue but Liquor liability insurance is a biggie. Dont go less than $1,000,000. Saw a buddy almost get burned when 4 guys left bar drunk and buddy/owner called a cab for them and told them not to drive. They ignored him and drove off. They were involved in a bad accident and several died and i believe one was seriously injured.
Of course he was sued. IIRC his limit of liability wasnt enough but court settled for that amount. Could have been disastrous for him.
I am not sure about Atlanta but where I live you would need several million in startup money. You would need to consider 300 or so parking spots. Don't worry about the license. The attorneys will handle that. You will need to be incorporated...way too much risk otherwise. Your biggest issue will be finding and hiring a couple hundred trained and experienced employees.
I don't plan on having more than 30 employees... And there's no way I'll have 300 spots, I'll bbe lucky to get half that so I assume I'll have to contract with a garage and have valet. I am of course getting incorporated, already filled that with the state and waiting to be emailed back. Reason I worry about the liquor license is because I was told this is out of pocket money that I can write off, but still will not be ableable to use corporate funds for it.
I'm planning on opening one and just have a few questions.
How many parking spaces would be ideal? My capacity will probably be around 700 people.
Will my liquor license be a personal expense that I'll have to pay myself back for later or can it come from my business fund once I have my investment money placed in the business account?
You need to make sure you qualify to get a liquor license before you invest any money into anything.
If you can't get that license there is no reason to invest. What sort of club are you looking for? That seems to be a lot of drunks all in one place with a very high risk of under age drinkers.
Also, if you are a drinker and all of your friends and family show up, do not put their alcohol consumption or yours "on the house", all that does is take away from your profits.
You need to make sure you qualify to get a liquor license before you invest any money into anything.
If you can't get that license there is no reason to invest. What sort of club are you looking for? That seems to be a lot of drunks all in one place with a very high risk of under age drinkers.
Also, if you are a drinker and all of your friends and family show up, do not put their alcohol consumption or yours "on the house", all that does is take away from your profits.
I must not have mentioned it, I'm trying to buy a liquor license from another business that had recently renewed it. My problem that I have is my investor told me since the license will go in my name that it'll have to come out of pocket on the cost and not out of the corporate budget.
I don't plan on having more than 30 employees... And there's no way I'll have 300 spots, I'll bbe lucky to get half that so I assume I'll have to contract with a garage and have valet. I am of course getting incorporated, already filled that with the state and waiting to be emailed back. Reason I worry about the liquor license is because I was told this is out of pocket money that I can write off, but still will not be ableable to use corporate funds for it.
So if you have 30 employees, count on 25 working if you limit the bar hours to 40 or less/week. With breaks you will be down to barely 20 actually working at any one time. You will need reception, bouncers, bar staff, kitchen staff, and busboys. You will be lucky to have 8-10 servers on the floor. That should handle about 100 customers, certainly not 700. Lucky you, now you only need about 50 parking spots.
Thought parking spots was a ratio of max capacity in some cities. So 1 spot for X number of people. Asking city hall would be easist since you want to get it correct.
What type of bar and clientele are you looking for? Sports bar? Gay bar? Straight, Saturday night meat market? Convention/visitors? Bikers bar? Jazz, bands, or other music? Before, after show? ??? Obviously the facilities, parking and service requirements can vary greatly.
Where I live most bars are in the downtown area and only about 10% of them have parking lots. Most of our downtown bars rely on foot traffic from bar to bar and street parking. I couldn't imagine a bar that isn't stand alone that needs 100+ parking spaces.
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