How to Start a Public House Business

One of the most important decisions to make when considering starting up a public house business is whether you are going to start completely from scratch in a new venue, or take over an existing pub and re-branding and refurbishing it entirely.

Alternatively, you can apply for a lease or franchise on a pub that is owned by a brewery or ‘pubco’, such as the Wetherspoons chain. Once this has been decided, you need to think about how you are going to operate and run the business - will you hire yourself and manage the pub as a salaried employee, or employee someone else to be in charge of the day to day running of the business?

The business plan is an essential part of your start up strategy, and is something which any potential investors, such as a bank or Business Angel, will scrutinise heavily - so it needs to be able to stand up to any questioning. Projected sales, revenue and profit need to be accurately budgeted, as well as your strategic positioning within the market, so you have a clear idea of how you want to business to develop.

Once the venue has been decided and the set up completed, you need to give consideration to the type of pub you want to run. This involves selecting your target market; do you hope to attract families, young people, city professionals or tourists? The location of your pub will help to make your mind up; if you are a pub situated in the countryside you are not going to be attracting professional businessmen for working lunches. The facilities you have to offer will also go a long way to influencing the type of customer you are going to attract; whether the pub has a beer garden or outside seating, or whether you will have pool tables/gambling machines on the premises. Obviously, the size of the pub will have an effect on what range of extra facilities you can offer. The products and services you will offer from your pub will also have a big influence in its popularity. You need to decide what types/brands of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks you will stock, whether you will incorporate any food sales (this can be snack food or restaurant meals), whether you can offer accommodation, etc. The actual attractions you offer will go a long way to differentiating yourselves from your competitors, so it is worth thinking about quiz nights, live music acts, televised sport, and whether to apply for a late license to compete with other bars and clubs in the area.

As with any new business, the pricing strategy is key to its success. Are you going to enter the market charging premium prices? If so, you need to make sure your unique selling points and service quality are good enough to support the high price levels. Will you offer discounts to certain social groups, such as students and OAPS? Or release meal vouchers for Sunday lunches?

Investors such as Business Angels need to see evidence that your business will have clear advantages to the customer of using your services, rather than visiting your competitors. You need to have covered every angle possible before presenting your start up idea to an Angel; remember it is their won money that they are investing, and whilst they are know for their risk taking at the same time they are not going to throw money away if the business plan/projection is poorly prepared and thought out.