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 Message 3875 of 22774 in Behind the Bar
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Subject: Re: Opening a new bartending staffing agency
From: SwizzleStick
Posted: Tue Jun 15. 2004, 13:04 UTC
Followup to: "Opening a new bartending staffing agency"  by Caper  (Tue Jun 15. 2004, 03:02 UTC)
Interesting idea,

My wife has worked in Human Resources for many years and worked as the 
administrator of Express Personnel for quite awhile. I myself have been a 
bartender, bar manager and bartending school instructor for over 12 years.

Here are my insights;
1. I would first hit the pavement and findout how the bars in your area are 
currently finding staff and whether or not they perceive any problems with 
their current policy. I have seen many an idea fail because the initiator 
tried to solve a problem that didn't exist.

I would assume they will tell you they have plenty of applications on file or 
simply run and ad or ask another bartender to recommnd someone.

2. How would you convince a bar owner or corporate chain that your method is 
more reliable than theirs?

3. Findout if they are really willing to pay for your service. I assume you 
will charge the bar for staffing. The owners I know would not be willing to 
pay much for such a service. So, can you make a profit or not? 

4. Based on the fee charged, how are you going to advertise for your base of 
bartenders and will that cut too deeply into your profits?

5. At the bartending school I work for, we act as a staffing agent for many 
new and established bars. Some are locally owned and some are chains. They use 
us for the following reasons;
- We do not charge a fee to anyone for placement.
- We have a large base of qualified bartenders (new grads and veterans).
- Bars can call us and tell us exactly what they want in a bartender 
(something they can't do in a newspaper ad (male, female, big boobs, country 
look, biker look, etc.).
- Being a school, we can actually do a bars training for them. A bar calls us 
and tells us they need 4 tenders, we teach them their house drinks, pricing 
and basic operation before their 1st day at work.

6. Bartenders can be notoriously flakey (sorry guys, but I'm one too). They 
quit without notice, drink on the job, steal, call in sick and tend to go from 
job to job. Not all, but the ones that are stick out in the profession and 
give us all a bad name. How are you going to address those issues with your 
staffing. If you can't curve that for me then exactly what are you offering my 
bar?

Like I said, sounds interesting but as a degreed marketing professional I find 
it hard to see much (if any) of a profit in such a targeted business.

Interested to see what others think. 


-- 
Brian
Bartender, bartending instructor, videographer and graphic artist.
http://www.batescreativeservices.com

Q: "So, if I serve you a Cape Cod in a cocktail glass does that make it a 
Captini?"


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