HOW TO OPEN AND RUN A BAR

Are you planning to open a bar or to run a bar activity? Well, you should take into consideration a few things. Here are some advises you need to follow in order not to take a misstep.

It is not hard to open a bar but it is also a choice not to be underestimated: we are dealing with a real business activity and therefore it requires total dedication, at least in the beginning, commitment, motivation and sacrifice, since you will be working quite all day long. That is why you need to have a clear idea and a well-defined project.

First, you need to find the right location, as it is the most important step to take according to the kind of bar you wish to run. Those who wish to open a breakfast bar will make a different choice than the ones who are prone to an ice-cream parlor or a night bar, or a cocktail bar or even a lunch point.

In order to identify the best location, one should consider some basic features, such as interior visibility, outdoor spaces, and downtown position or on a popular road.

It is essential to make an overview on costs and incomes: that means you need a business plan in which you put investments, financings, incomes and managing costs. Local trade associations offer support in drawing up a financial plan with the perspective to request for a financing to banks or holding companies.

The name you give your own bar, as well as furniture and equipment, are accurate choices that one should make a priori. For this reason, it is important to give an identity to your own bar and to be able to stand out among competitors, by diversifying one’s offer and choosing a specific clients’ category to address to. Workers? Your focus should be on morning coffee, coffee break or on offering something special for lunch break. Mommies? You should focus on breakfast time soon after they have taken their children to school, or afternoon snacks for both mothers and sons. Students? You should create an offer for school breakfasts and expand your snack line.

Besides, there are some personal and professional requirements you need to have in order to manage a bar: the former REC course (Owner Register for Commerce) and the new courses SAB (Food and Drink Administration). If you wish to manage a bar personally, you should attend a HACCP course too.

From a bureaucratic point of view, you need to verify that the end use of the place is commercial and that all urban and construction requirements imposed by your own City Hall are observed. You will need to turn to a surveyor or to an architect or at least a technician in charge to draw a DIA (Declaration of Operations Start) or a SCIA (Certified Warning of Operations Start) and present it to the City Hall. Furthermore, you will need to obtain a Sanitary Notification from the Local Sanitary Service and, within 90 days from the bar opening, to get your business in order with all regulations regarding occupational safety (by asking for help to a technician in the field).

Among all choices, there is one, which combines and is valid for all the others: the choice of a good coffee supplier is no matter how crucial for the success of your own bar.

The enterprising spirit of the new generation of Caboto Caffè coffee roasters has developed a series of opportunities in the service of entrepreneurs, who would like to open a bar or simply to renew their coffee supply.

Caffè Caboto supports you in opening and managing your own bar. You will have at your disposal an only spokesperson, who may help you not only with a good coffee supply, but also in enhancing your bar through our merchandising and by offering you specific courses for barmen.

The choice of a quality coffee blend is crucial for the success of any bar. However, that is not enough. Behind a simple action, such as a coffee brewing, there are the so-called “secrets of the trade”, which can be improved though courses of Coffee Bar and Latte Art. The customization of the bar with a brand, visual identification is important too.  For this reason, if you choose Caboto Caffè, you will have a complete merchandising line at your disposal: from coffee and cappuccino cups to glass and plastic glasses, sugars and sugar caddies, small towels and dispensers, wall clock and nice black and white prints