Newcomers: a first venture into the pub trade

Madness

noun​ - the state of being mad; insanity

So what has possessed us to enter the licensed trade?

A couple of years ago one of us (R) left the security of full time, well paid employment to start his own business. I (C) had known R for around ten years and felt it only natural to offer a hand in any way I could feeling as I did that I could probably never be brave enough to strike out on my own.

As the business grew so did my input and at the end of last year we talked about going into business as a partnership. We had various ideas of what kind of business we could set up and had even talked jokingly about a pub.

Reckoning that it would take about a year to eighteen months to get some money together we thought we would have plenty of time to think about things but didn't reckon on opportunity knocking so soon.

R happened to know the owner of a pub who was looking to sell his lease. We knew the pub and the area well, so, out of curiosity than anything else, decided to approach the owner for more information. After taking time to thoroughly research the location, how pub companies operate and what's actually involved in running a pub, we decided it could be run as a profitable business only to find that someone, by that time, had beaten us to it.

As fate would have it, the lease ended up not being transferred and the pub then closed down. The pubco advertised the lease for sale again and we ended up approaching them to express our interest. The game was afoot and with it being in a central location it was likely that there would be more than just ourselves interested (hence our anonymity in this blog for the moment).

The few weeks after that an awful lot of hard work was put into preparing a business plan. The internet was scoured for demographic information, statistics and information on the businesses in the area, their workforces and any potential residential developments scheduled to occur in the near future.

Competition had be assessed which meant visiting all of the pubs then writing detailed reports on them. Assessments also had to be made on what we would offer in the way of food and drink, music and entertainment to attract custom. It was hard work but will be worth it if our plan ends up being accepted.

We presented the pubco with a draft copy about three weeks ago and received some very positive feedback. A few tweaks were carried out after consulting with accountants, bank managers and a whole host of business professionals and we now feel that the business plan is just about as ready as it will ever be to be formally submitted for consideration.

We acknowledge the fact there is a huge gap in our knowledge of what we currently know and what we will need to know to successfully get our pub up and running.

Any suggestions, comments, hints, tips or even money will be warmly welcomed from the vast reservoir of experience and knowledge contained within the readership of The Publican.

Stay tuned and see what happens next.

Madness

noun​ - intense excitement or enthusiasm