How Much Value Should A Bar Consultant Add To My Bar Business And Is It Worth It
A bar consultant has to add value to your business or they are not worth your time, we get it. The main focal point is who you are hiring to be a consultant. Are you paying someone $20 an hour for their previous experience in making drinks or managing staff or are you hiring a previous bar owner who has the experience for $50-$100 an hour? This matters because the saying "You get what you pay for" is true.
We believe that this question should be looked at on an annual basis because of the fluctuation from within the industry based on where you are located. On average you should expect 25% in additional revenue from your consultant at their peak during their process on an annual basis. With that being said here are the disclaimers: Your bar is only so big, your occupancy only allows so many, and there are only so many people within 5 miles from your bar depending on location. Our point is that while some might think "wow, 25% sign me up" we will break it down like this...
For a consultant to truly find success it will take 3-6 months to see if they are going to truly deliver value. After this honeymoon time, you will clearly know if they are going to be a good fit or if it's time to look for someone else. In a perfect world we would expect to see the timeline + revenue track like this, 3-6 Months 5-10% growth, 6-12 Months 10-15% growth, year 2 15-20% growth, year 3 20-25% growth. What happens when you reach your cap? what happens when we aren't seeing any more value truly added and we are just maintaining solid sales week after week? Then you need to have a group discussion and decide on your path, what are your goals? Is there any interest in another location? A consultant will help your business but unless you are looking to continue growth via expansion then you might not need a consultant monthly, it might be time to go to every 3 months or maybe even 6 months. There is also another reason or avenue to make a change. Your consultant has done a very good job for you and has truly earned every dollar they have been paid but you might want a change and another set of eyes and there isn't any issue with that. This happens at times, again, people like change.
At this point you have options but as you can see we believe that there is a very clear value when working with the right consultant and in our opinion, the right consultant is a previous bar owner who has success and failure if they said they didn't fail then they never succeeded.
