Rented Pub Struggling!

Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

My 2 rivals both do have the commercial sky. There is a hefty €5000 fine and you could lose your licence also if you get caught, but then again if you get away with it for a year €5000 is cheaper then €24000. I think I will go with Setanta as it works out only €50pw and it is paid monthly its not a yearly contract and there is loads of sports on this month
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

dieselhead said:
Thanks everyone for your ideas/help and please keep them coming, if anyone has any ideas for fundraising or even wild or wacky ideas dont hold back
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Wild and wacky? How about a stripper? Wonder do you need a special license for that?

Function room - any chance of running table quizes? Charge for the table, use some of that to buy prizes and then let them buy drinks for the night themselves.

Karaoke was very popular in one of my locals at one point - they had a cheap karaoke machine and the drunk punters loved it.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!


Have you actually got a quote off sky or are you just basing it on their website?
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

I actually got a quote back when I first opened in April it was something like €1768 per month
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

I am not in the pub trade but I think you are banging your head off a brick wall with such a small population of 2000 people.Sorry
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

You have the right amount of rooms available could you look into organising hens /stags offer a package with some activities organised locally ?
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

Dance classes are wildly popular in Dublin. Especially salsa. Girls love it and a young colleague was telling me his friends took it up to meet girls. If you could get a local teacher and split the class fee it might be worth looking at.

Some friends did set dancing classes in autumn in Churchtown - about 40+ people a night upstairs in a pub. 10 euro each - 1 teacher and taped music. Don't know what the split was between the teacher and the pub.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

How do you calculate the amount you have to pay to sky?
It seems like extortion to me. I know sports are a big draw to a pub but this just seems ridiculous.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

Considering you're in a small enough town it would be tough to get any sort of a decent crowd in during the weeks but I suggest a poker night or something similar to this, a quiz or karaoke either. You could also try bingo for a laugh. If you had a quirky enough angle it could get a younger crowd. A DJ or a band would also be good. You could also do deals for 21st parties where you supply the food or the DJ or something for free.

It's good to see that you are actively looking to improve as many landlords aren't and they will suffer as a result. Best of luck.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

How about sponsoring your local soccer/GAA team,initially it would cost a bit but from my experience it would pay long term. Generally if a certain pub does this then all the players tend to support the pub more,ie 15-20 fellas after most matches which in turn might bring in supporters of the team.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

dieselhead said:
The other pubs serve late (and dont get a bar extention and get away with it!!!) when the nightclub is open so the people dont leave their place to come to mine.
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This is something that must be tackled .................This is destroying businesses in many towns through-out Ireland .................

You need a level playing field , and it is not fair that some pubs can have an advantage over you due to lack policing ...etc

Also , could you possibly increase your profits by going to.............NEWRY for those soft drinks !! ..............It a popular suggestion here on aam
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

dieselhead said:
But I saw there someone said ''Curry and a pint night'' this sounds like a good idea I will prob give it a go. Has anyone any more ideas on this topic?
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I know of a small village pub that does a steak/beer for only €7 on a Tuesday. The place seems to fill up pretty good for a Tuesday night.

Here are some other thoughts:

Smoking Room

Make your smoking room the best one in town. If you don't have one, create one - put candles on the tables and give it atmosphere - and put a tv with heater out there as well !!!

B&B/ Accommodation

What's your occupany percentage of your B&B rooms? Try different price points for your rooms:

  1. bed only;
  2. bed and breakfast;
  3. bed and breakfast and evening meal
Also, have you considered converting room to apartment(s)?

Marketing

Promotions: can you reciprocate business with any nearby trade? For example, if someone spends €10 euro in your pub, they get a €2 voucher for the local video store.

Customer Retention: Make sure your existing clientele don't leave, or will always come back. Give out free sambos and cocktail sausages at "strategically hungry" points in the evening. Leave complementary popcorn/snacks available at all times.

Differentiation from competition: sell something the competition doesn't have. How about some local micro-brewed beer? Bottled imports? Polish beer? Or how about something completely radical...convert part of your premises in to a small wine bar/bistro. More boringly, but essential: get the best coffee machine in town - get a coffee connoisseur to certify it for you! In the summer, get a juicer (and advertise it on a hoarding/ or on the window).

Scan the environment and make a list of all groups. See if they'll respond to offers. Some have been already mentioned (e.g. residents' assoc). Any others? Local choir, teachers, local businesses....

Good luck!!
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

As a long time user of pubs and long time employee of Sky here is my two cents:

The main things I and my fellow drinking pals look out for in a pub is as follows:

1) Warm building with a solid fuel fire in there somewhere. Everyone loves the warmth and just the look of a nice warm fire blazing in the background. Definitley get your heating sorted.

2)Clean toilets...this is a must. 90% of the pubs I go into have bad or neglected toilets. Nothing as bad as lifting your jeans up when heading into these places.

3) FREE finger food given our randomly every few nights, at weekends a must. its a nice surprise and puts you in good numour. Its not gonna cost anymore than €100 for a few cocktail sausages and chicken wings.

4) Music on a WEDNESDAY night. There is a pub in my town as big as yours and they always have the same guy in, just one guy, signing and doing a bit or Karaoke. Believe it or not, it draws in as much as a Saturday night.

5) No football is like having no beer. I believe this is one of your greatest problems. Go back to sky again and get a new price, they calculate your monthly subscription in conjunction with your yearly takings.
Give Chourus a call, they are a lot cheaper too.

6) Dont be so strick at closing time, you dont get anywhere in this country unless you bend the rules a little bit.

7) Poker machine, not essential but a help too.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

'Dancing for pleasure' or 'Club Solo' nights? These are a huge hit with the elder lemons of the surrounding hinterland in county areas, usually on a Sunday night.

Many county pubs in the middle of no where run these if they have any bit of a function room. Most are frequented by tee-totalers so you wouldn't need to provide a bus. CD's with an old time dj who prob wouldn't cost a bomb or a one man band would suffice.

You have decent mark up on minerals and could charge a nominal door fee (2 - 4 euro) to cover the dj or one man band costs, and no need for extension either. The ones I know of have 'decent' guest live bands now and again (to suit the crowd, with higher cover charge) I know people in Cork city that travel to a pub outside Mallow for these nights and my 77 yr old dad goes twice a week to 2 different places along with about 10 of his cronies, the places are jam packed. He also plays cards (45) on at least 2 other nights a week they have tournaments and competitions with pubs in neighbouring towns, so are there other like minded publicans that you could start a bit of banter with to give you a good night one week and them a turn the following week or something? Ye could split the cost of hiring a mini bus or something?

You could target the gaa pub in that area to partner with and that would help draw the gaa crowd to your pub for the bit of craic and rivalry. The same with gaa themed pub quizzes, stick in local gaa trivia or offer to do a fund raiser for the club, chances are they are getting funding of some description from the other pubs to merit their support. Jerseys, etc.

You might think of sponsoring the underage team jerseys - again with the teen discos as means of support, you could call it a fund raiser. Parents/ club members would be willing to support if it was in aid of themselves!

HTH and best of luck, it ain't easy out there.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

This topic has really struck a chord. Irish people love to drink.
If you owned the business and had capital you could invest it to improve the pub. Improvements require money and that is the bottom line.
Apart from that, customer satisfaction is the cheapest and most effective way to improve turnover. You really need to lick some customers hole, others just want a smile and recognition. No doubt you know that already. I have been in the trade for ten years and i have observed many publicans who do not appreciate their customers and staff.
Happy customers = higher turnover. Unhappy staff = unhappy customers.


dieselhead said:
Sky calculate it for you by ''non-residential rateable value'' check out this link
http://business.sky.com/page.asp?name=pricing_pubs_and_clubs
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Thanks. I seen the link. I think i understand rates(Basically a local council tax depending on the annual rental value of a commercial property) but what is meant by the non-residential part?
Is the OP charged so much because the business includes a BandB and a nightclub? This seems unfair because the nightclub will not have use for a sky tv package.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

Possibly for one or two nights a week.

There's a very loyal niche of people that will travel long distances to see house/techno/minimal DJs practice/learn their trades. There's no shortage of djs around the country who would drive to play, and you could charge at the door and strike a minimum ticket sales to play type deal with them.

Mabye devote one of your slower nights to it, e.g. Thursdays and Fridays are popular with this crowd.

You could expand your remit to neigbouring towns and offer cheap rooms to interested parties. Or if you're within bussing distance of a university town, as mentioned before, contact the university student union and offer a student night once a week?

With respect to football. Of late Setanta has been showing all the Saturday games on Setanta Ireland ( part of basic NTL pack ) coupled with champions league tues and wed ( also on RTE ).

However, don't underestimate the popularity of other sports and TV shows e.g.

Boxing - Can never find a pub to see a fight
X-Factor / Strictly Come Dancing / Big Brother
NFL ( American Football )
Spanish Football

You could possibly do some promotion around these too?
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

My local ran a pub lotto where entry was free, you signed your name and became a member of the pub and your name was included in the weekly draw. Week 1 was for €100 and the draw was friday night if the person pulled out wasn't present they couldn't claim their prize and the money was added to the next draw and so on. It proved a great draw with the prize money capped at €1500 there were some gasps when a name was pulled out only for the guy to have left the pub 10 mins earlier and it created a great crowd and real buzz. It will only cost you €100 per week and have a set time i.e draw takes place between 9-12pm on Friday and draw it at differing times each week.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

I'd certainly choose your pub on the basis of "guest" beers being something of a beer fan. Too many pubs just go for the boring standard.

Couple that with say a poker night and you can have my money.
I'll skip on the X Factor thanks, sports or news only and I don't mean Sky News either.
 
Re: Rented Pub struggling.......Please help!!!

dieselhead said:
I actually got a quote back when I first opened in April it was something like €1768 per month
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If sky costs that much forget it...thats one ero per month for every man, woman + child in your catchment area !
I know many people who will not go in to a pub if there is a tv in the corner. Its a killer of conversation. Get rid of it. Get a real good open fire going.
 
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