How to Start a Bar Lounge Business in Nigeria + BUSINESS PLAN

How to Start a Bar Lounge Business in Nigeria + BUSINESS PLAN

There is a major increase in the consumption of alcohol despite the so called financial recession that is been experienced all over the nation and the rising religious beliefs that kicks against the consumption of anything that contains alcohol like beer, wine, alcoholic beverages, etc.

Every part of the nation consumes alcohol, without regards to tribe, ethnic beliefs or background and religious stand; this means that the manufacturers of alcoholic drinks make nationwide sales and recent statistics shows a steady rise in the sale of these drinks.

Types of Bars

If owning a bar is a dream for you or a passion, one thing you must consider is out of the many types of bar that exist; which will you want to start up? This question may sound not serious but it’s a determinant of how much capital you will need to have, location for your business or the types of alcoholic drinks that will be sold in your place of business.

• Neighborhood Bar

When it comes to this kind of bar you don’t may not need so much money to start or your startup capital most likely depends on the location of this business; but on average you won’t spend so much of money here because it is not high class most of the time and the beers sold here are not too expensive. In an average Nigerian neighborhood bar a bottle of beer may vary from 250-400 naira depending on the brand that is been sold to the individual. In starting this bar you may just need the following to kick start:

• Chairs
• Tables
• Generator
• Television
• Sound system
• Fridge
• Cups and plates
• Any other thing that is added on this list is just an addition

 

• Sport Bar

The major purpose of starting a sport bar is for customers to watch sports and drink so the concern is that they are comfortable to drink and watch some sport. This is like what we call in Nigeria a viewing center but the difference is that alcoholic drinks are sold while people watch their favorite sports and sport channels. You need to prepare for this as you would prepare for a neighborhood bar and much more by adding more televisions and having satellite TV and constant subscription to keep the place lively and customers wanting more.

• Specialty Bar

In this specialty bar assorted drinks are sold from beer to wine, martini and other assorted drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic; snacks and appetizers are also sold here. In this kind of bar, your sale has a lot to do with how much you can package and present yourself especially because it is not the norm in this part of the world.

• Club

The difference between a club and other bar is that it is more like a party setting most of the time, with loud music, DJ, attendants, security, etc. they all serve alcoholic drinks

Setting up a club is more expensive others because of the modalities of fixing the place up, publicity etc.

In light of these, it is clear that the pros of starting a bar far outweighs the cons especially financially. Below are some of the few but necessary steps that one must follow to start up a bar in Nigeria. We will give a fairly generalized approach to starting a bar which can also be used by others willing to start-up something with similar operations with a bar

Steps to Starting a Bar Lounge in Nigeria

• Build A Business Plan

One truth that still stands is the need for a business plan and for this to work you must do adequate study on the business, market, customers and many more. Do a feasibility report on the business to know pitfalls, risks, peak/off peak periods, pros and cons of the business before you start.

Failure to have a business plan and doing a detail feasibility study can lead to deadly pitfalls and errors that can be catastrophic that have hindered people growth and this may lead to closure of the business. There are several helpful tips to help you successfully draft a business plan; here are a few:

– Make an outline of your chosen business concept in details. Avoid a summarized business plan.
-you need to include detailed profit and loss analysis for the business, record every dime that you will spend or that will come.
– What are the benefits of your present business location above others? List them.
– What kind of help will you need in terms of staff? Write them down and how much they will be paid for their services.
– Make an outline of all possible risks that may be encountered in the business.

When putting your thoughts and plans on paper be sure to be as clear as possible on the concepts for adequate communication. Make sure you outline what you are going to do, how you are going to do it and how much everything will cost to help you plan and prepare properly.

To write a business plan on starting a bar lounge business in Nigeria, call us at 07033378184 or via email: hello@businessplan.com.ng. We will be glad to help.

• Business Structure / Type Of Bar

Before you put in money into the startup it is important to clarify the kind of structure you want to start; this means that you need to consider how big or how small you want to start and what category of the many kinds of bar you want to invest in. This will determine your location which will in turn decide how much you will spend in starting up the business. You have several choices as to how to start. Here below are a few suggestions on how you can start:

Purchasing an existing bar

To save yourself the rigors of starting afresh, you can buy up an existing bar. This saves you from the pain of failure even before you had the chance to really start up; one of the benefits of buying an existing bar is that it may come at a much cheaper rate than having to start on all over, because the person selling his business may be selling out of desperation of moving from one city to the other or other financial difficulty which will give you a higher bargaining power for a great deal. Here are a few tips you may need before buying the bar

• Do a lot of research about the business before you put your money; also research on the business owner, his personality amongst other things.
• Visit the bar a couple of time if not frequently without invitation, see how business fair there on a bad day, normal day and a good day. This will give you a fair idea of how much you stand to gain from buying over the business.
• Ask every question: ask the right question and also do not be bias about your question after experiencing first hand.
• Get contacts of other support staff like, chef, barman and so on.
• Be sure of the reason for sale of the business; you don’t want to fall into a trap of legal issues.
• Carry out a complete inventory before and after purchasing the business t be able to keep track of all that you have and the their state.

Starting one up from the scratch:

Despite the thought of starting your own from the scratch sounds interesting and fun you must remember that this process is usually a long and expensive process to go through; since everything will be fresh and done from beginning. There is a limit to which you can bargain unlike the option of buying the business over from an existing owner. All expenses here are subject to the current state of the economy not the state of the equipment and structure like the previous.

• Your Customer Base

Most of these points that have been listed so far are one building block upon another this helps to produce a finished product that will bring much financial gain and societal influence; so if one of these points is out of place it produces an unstable structure. In this point we will consider the customer in line with the location of the business. Your customer base cannot be the high and mighty in the society then the location of your business will be in a rural area. You have to be able to know who you expect to patronize your business and the proximity of these people to your place of business; putting in mind that if it is too far from them then your patronage will most likely reduce maybe by half.

You also cannot locate your business in a highly religious community and expect to thrive.

Know the alcohol trend; it is important to note the most wanted alcohol in the society so as to be up to date and attracts the nature of customers you want.

 

• Be Familiar With Your Competition

At this point it is important to note that this is not a brand new idea, so you should expect competition; possibly not so far from you. You need to know your competition and preempt them. Visit their establishment and see things firsthand for yourself; study their strengths and also weaknesses as this will help you to structure your establishment better and attract more customers and even their customer. Talk to the staff or the owner, a lot of people are willing to talk about their business even to their own hurt without knowing. Try this.

 

• Choose Your Own Winning Strategy

After studying your environment, the customers and ultimately your competition it is important that you draw out a take-down strategy. This strategy is a step-by-step approach on how to get all that you want and bring the customers that you want. Do not be afraid because the strategy may turn your competition to enemies but as far as you want to succeed in business you will hated.

Think of things to do in a bigger, better and faster way than your competition; this will give you the desired result.

Here is a list of few points:

Better customer service

Better prices for commodity

Adequate publicity

General increased customer satisfaction

Freebies

Relaxed atmosphere

Business Registration

To avoid struggling with authorities immediately you kick off is to register the business with agencies that regulate businesses like this. Contact CAC (Corporate Affair Commission) for business name registration and you can contact Local Government Agencies to register with them. If your bar is high class you may want to contact fire, building and safety agencies to inspect and approve you structure. Also install safety gadgets like fire extinguishers and so on.

 

• Purchase Your Equipment

One important factor to consider is the purchase of equipment; you don’t want to buy what you don’t really need in your bar or buy what will get bad within a very short time because of quality. It is important to save for quality equipment and not be attracted by quantity or flashiness.

These are few questions you may want to ask before purchasing any piece of equipment. 

 

1. Does the equipment improve the production and service of your bar?
2. Is there enough space to fit this piece of equipment?
3. Does this piece of equipment fit in with the concept and setting of your bar?
4. Does the equipment meet your expectations and all standards for quality for speed, volume, and quality?
5. How easy is it to operate by staff and how safe is it?
6. What is the cost of maintenance and fixing in the event it gets spoilt?

Ø  Hire Competent Staff

To keep your business from crumbling, you have to employ competent and well trained staffers; take your time to hire them and if they are not delivering or performing their task you intend be quick fire them. You cannot keep staff at the expense of your business. You can also get people that have been in the business or have experience in the field. This would help your business grow because they can preempt the needs of the customers to the growth of the business.

To get these kind of people you can make post on social media, other media but most especially referrals works well in this case, because it saves you a lot since the person in question has got hands-on skills you need that was picked up from doing this kind of job along time.

Depending on the category of your business you can visit a bartender school to pick up one or two skilled individual.

Head hunting is also another way you can get competent staff but this raises red flags and can quickly put you among the hate list of other business owners

Promote And Publicize Your Bar

It is one thing to have a great place which usually speak for itself and have a great way of also creating referrals for you but if you want this to happen very fast then you need to do some publicity. If your customer service is impeccable then you are assured of word of mouth helping your business to grow but social media can also help too.

You can have video testimonials with pictures which will be posted on most if not all social media platforms; this will go a very long way and most people will give your place a try within a short time and if it’s as they saw on the social media then you are assured of having them as permanent customers

• Security

Many times you find yourself in a hard place dealing with trouble makers; at such point you may not want to get directly involved as the business owner or put your staff in such awkward position, so the need for one or two security personnel depending on the size of your establishment cannot be over emphasized.

This security is for the safety of lives first which cannot be negotiated and the protection of properties, to avoid unnecessary loses.

In conclusion, the ownership of a bar is not a business you want to just start and go to sleep. You need a lot of monitoring to do; you can employ someone whose job is to monitor but you must monitor everything that happens there. Records all ins and outs; because this business can increase you in every way e.g. financially, influence and connection etc. it is a business that brings income to you daily, from Mondays – Sundays all year round especially at month ends and festive period.

We are glad because if you have read this, then this is the first step to becoming financially free. Keep it up.

To write a business plan on starting a bar lounge business in Nigeria, call us at 07033378184 or via email: hello@businessplan.com.ng. We will be glad to help.

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