5 Tips for Restaurant Owners for Running a Bar Franchise

The market for Bars across the globe is ever-expanding. Taking a Bar franchise is one of the safest routes for starting an entrepreneurial journey in the Bar business. A franchise system gives enormous experience and expertise in every single part of owning the Bar business. This helps a Franchise Owner take safer routes of owning a Bar business wherein each step of the business is verified, tried, and tested and has a validation of success which the Brand gives the Franchise entrepreneur, who would otherwise be susceptible to errors in the business. Thus, the success rate of Franchisee businesses in India has always been much higher than that of standalone bars and restaurants.

The Studs, India’s Most successful Sports Bar Brand and one of the most profitable, and well-supported Franchise outlets networks - having a presence in over 7 states in India and Outlet presence across 15 locations – operates a successful Bar Franchise model for the last many years. Today, we hear from their Co-Founders – Miten Shah and Abhilash Menon, what are the 5 most important tips for Restaurant owners when taking a Bar franchise.

As a brand, there are several tips we can share with restaurant owners who are interested in taking up our brand's bar franchise. Here are some suggestions:

Understanding the Concept:  Before taking up a bar franchise, restaurant owners should thoroughly understand the brand they will be joining hands with. This includes understanding what and how is the brand having its unique business proposition and its innovative concept, along with the brand's values, mission, and menu offerings. They should also familiarize themselves with the brand owners, brand operations manual, and brand standards. Once the owner is acquainted with the brand – they can easily understand the modalities of business and its operations, helping them decide on the Bar brand easily.

Location: The success of a bar franchise largely depends heavily on its location. Restaurant owners should carefully research potential locations and ensure they are in high-traffic areas that are easily accessible. The right bar brand is the one that can guide the prospective franchise owner on the market area to target, its adaptability, and the right real estate costs to bear. Also, the brand should assist the owner in the screening of location agreements, and paperwork to help protect the owner from the risks that he can mitigate due to the experience of the Bar brand and their expertise. The Studs brand assists each of its Franchisees in location guidance, the right selection of property, license guidance, agreement assistance, and much more.

Support: Entrepreneurs looking for a Bar franchise are seeking not only the brand but also its constant support and guidance to run the business successfully. To achieve the right experience at the outlet level, the entrepreneur should join hands with the brand which believes that each division of the Bar shall be highly functional and efficiently, be managed with the right expertise for each department, and be monitored to achieve the desired departmental objectives. In this endeavour – The Studs Group helps each outlet with a Large Scale operational management Planning, execution monitoring, necessary supervision, training and troubleshooting to help each Franchise run the business in a smooth manner, thus enabling to ensure each outlet delivers the Studs experience at the end of the customer endpoint funnel.

Investment: Understanding the investment of the Bar franchise is another important aspect of choosing the right franchise. Bar franchisees investment can range from 1.5 Cr to a stooping 10 Crores as well. Depending upon various factors such as brand, size, scale, area, location, cost of license and such other aspects such as what and how much area of flexibility does the brand provide each individual owner in the process of setting up the bar. 

Brand Standards: Bar franchise industry is wide and has been a mix of professional and un-professional brands in terms of having standards of operations and management. A right bar franchise selection has to undergo a lot of study into how the brand manages each department of Food, Drinks, Inventory, Staffing, Billing, Software etc. and how they operate and manage the SOP’s of each of the departments. SOP’s, Recipe Standardisation and following best industry practices by the brand’s is one of the important decision making factor in selection of the Bar franchise.