5 Mistakes New Pub Owners Must Avoid To Survive

The UK is not short of pubs. If you want yours to survive, it’s going to take a lot of dedication and innovation. While there are many customers ready to buy a pint from you, you may want to keep your wits about you when it comes to the competition.

Obtaining your personal license is easy enough, but making your pub work for you long term is a different matter altogether.

It’s easy to fall into the following five traps of complacency. Try to avoid these by staying proactive in running your pub.

1. Leaving management to someone else

Buying a pub is a great way to invest your money in something that will pay you back over the years. It’s the type of investment someone might make once they’ve quit their day job. A business to prepare you for a comfortable retirement.

What most people don’t realise is that owning a pub can become a very stressful endeavour—even more stressful than working for a boss. The main reason for this is because most people see it as a business that someone else can run, while you sit back and rake in the profits. This is a mistake.

If you are investing in a pub, invest time in managing it for the first two years at least. No one has more of an invested interest in your pub than you do, which means no one will manage it as well as you will.

2. Avoiding menial tasks

Since you’re at your pub regularly, you may as well learn how to do everything. Yes, EVERYTHING. Don’t shy away from doing tasks you felt were beneath you. If you expect others to do it—and are able to do them yourself—do them.

An important leadership skill in business is being able to instruct with the absence of ignorance. As a manager, you’ll have more authority telling others to perform tasks if you know how to do them yourself. Here are some tasks your staff should see you doing:

• Preparing the food
• Working the bar
• Waiting on the customers
• Cleaning
• Packing the fridges

Earn the respect of your staff and lead by example. You’ll be amazed at how this will increase morale and build up your employees.

3. Hiring unqualified staff

Applicants wanting to work for you must have experience and/or qualifications. Make sure anyone serving alcohol has had some form of bartender training. Waiters should have some form of experience dealing with pub customers—or at least have undergone training for such a designation.

Remember to check references. You may get a good feeling about someone, but that does not mean they are easy to work with. After you’ve conducted a thorough interview, don’t neglect to follow due process in finding out what type of a person you’re exposing your customers to.

4. Doing the same as everyone else

As mentioned earlier, you’ve got competition out there. LOTS of competition. It’s important to distinguish yourself from your competition by thinking outside the box about how to draw in customers.

Here are a few ways to get creative about selling yourself to the public:

• Make sure your pub has its own website
• Use social media to build an audience
• Blog occasionally to optimise your site for local clientele
• Create a signature drink that customers will remember you by
• Host competitions, quiz nights and themed events on a regular basis

Always keep things interesting. Get passionate about your pub. If you don’t, neither will your customers. If you can create and maintain a great vibe, patrons will choose your pub over others every time

5. Thinking customers are happy

Never assume your customers are satisfied. Check in with them regularly. Most people will not complain if they’ve had a bad experience. You must ask their opinions if you want to retain your clientele and encourage regulars to stay.

Talk to your customers. Since you’re involved in serving them, ask them what they think of the service, the drink options and the menu. Just talking to them will show your customers that you care, and this is often enough to bring them back.

Even if you’ve had your pub for a few years, avoiding these mistakes and proactively reversing them can have a positive effect on your pub’s profit. If you’re thinking of owning a pub as a way to invest your money, be sure you protect that investment by doing everything you can to make your pub a success.

How to get a Personal Licence

Thinking of applying for a Personal Licence? The Personal Licence Training Course teaches individuals about the law and legal responsibility of being a licence holder and is part of the process for obtaining a Personal Alcohol Licence.

Once you have passed the Personal Licence Course, you will then be able to apply for a Personal Licence.

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