Bar Management Services and Solutions started life on the eBay site and quickly developed the need for its own website. Initially we wrote and sold software to help busy landlords or indeed landladies run their back office, and thus, their pubs more efficiently. With over twenty years experience of the licensed trade, from working for local beer wholesalers to Matthew Clark's, to managing pubs then to owning our own we fully understand the needs of the licensed trade.
The first pub I ever managed I took from turning over £240,000 per
year to turning over £500,000 per year; in just one year, and in my last
pub I took the turnover from less than £1,000.00 per week to £4,000.00 per week
again within a year. We know how hard it is to run a pub or bar and even
harder to make a decent living from one. Long hours, endless red tape, all
your customers' problems to deal with, tighter margins, competition, smoking ban
and bills, bills and more bills are just some of the drudgery that faces the
modern landlord.
We also know how great it is to run a pub, fantastic social life, no commuting, being your own boss, being a pillar of the local society, instant respect and the chance to help local charities just to mention a few.
There is only one thing every pub has in common, they all sell beer etc.
the main difference between pubs in particular is the Landlord and Landlady. And
what a difference they make. I could quite easily cry sometimes when I
visit some pubs for the first time in sheer despair for the attitude of the
hosts. Very rarely it is because they are just not suited to the trade (and
never will be). More often than not it is because the tensions and stress
of running their bar is showing and in their "front room" this is
spilling out for all to see.
I therefore designed and wrote my software which can be downloaded instantly from this site to help ease the management of the pub and save my customers money on things such as stock takers fees.
After selling loads of software, mainly my stocktaking software, and
because I offer full email support I quickly found my self advising my customers
on matters to do with the trade that were beyond the realms of my software
support service. I also found myself helping newly elected private members
club committee members (many of whom had little or no experience in running a
bar) yet they were thrown in a the deep end often with massive problems to sort
out, which were left over from the previous administration.
The next obvious step was to offer my services to the trade as an
independent consultant offering friendly but professional advice following a
full review of their operations. From offering this service I have
found that many pubs and bars are not realizing their full potential and
that the reasons for this is often poor or bad advise, or no advise at
all, stuck in the mud attitudes, fear is a major cause of under achieving ?
quite often members of the licensed trade are afraid to act to such an extent
that they will not even set their prices to the correct margins, preferring to
hemorrhage money until their business dies a slow and agonizing death.
Without the correct action being taken; a pub, bar or even club can take up to eighteen months to realise that it is not viable and close, more often than not being forced to close by creditors. Most of these closures can be avoided if caught early enough, quite often just by being looked at with fresh vigor and through eyes that aren't covered by rose tinted glasses.
I firmly believe that almost every pub in the land is viable!!!