| Opening a new bar will involve many decisions | | | | confident that you can have all of the licenses you |
| throughout the planning stage. Take care to avoid | | | | need by that intended date. If you start the process of |
| these three big mistakes during the pre-launch phase | | | | getting your liquor license and other licenses too late or |
| to better set your bar up for success. | | | | without contingency time built in, you may find that any |
| Making the Business Plan an Afterthought | | | | hiccup in the process throws off your opening date, |
| Try to start preparing a draft of your business plan | | | | causing you to waste money on more notices to |
| from the day you considering your bar's opportunity | | | | explain the change to customers. |
| and allow it to evolve with your thinking. Do this by | | | | Forgetting to Ask "Why My Bar?" |
| being familiar with the business plan format or working | | | | Simply knowing that there is extensive foot traffic of |
| with a business plan template. This ensures that | | | | potential customers going by your intended location is |
| whenever an opportunity to pitch to an investor arises, | | | | not enough. If no other bar operates in the |
| you can buckle down to make the plan | | | | neighborhood where such a great opportunity exists, |
| presentation-worthy with a little focused effort. If you | | | | you can be relatively sure that other businesses are |
| haven't put pen to paper at the point when someone | | | | planning to open as well. You need to not only defend |
| asks to see your plan, you can spend a lot of time | | | | against any existing competitors, but against these |
| putting your ideas into business plan format while you | | | | new entrants into the market who you have no way |
| could have been doing so all along. | | | | of knowing about. By thinking through a clear brand |
| Starting the License Process too Late | | | | image that you want to project for your bar and how |
| Before you announce an opening date and spend | | | | you will do it, you answer the question of "why my |
| marketing dollars to make sure the community is | | | | bar? |
| aware of that launch date, you should be extremely | | | | |