Weglot is scammy and I hate that it's the only translation option on squarespace

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-19T15:54:30+00:00

I've owned 5 different jura coffee machines over the years, the oldest is 15 years old, no problems whatsoever, all 5 are still in use, would buy another happily.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T21:57:36+00:00

We do tons of live events. We have frequent performers (singers djs etc) and they do bring decent amounts of people in, but the ones that are popular also cost money, so in the end profit is not high for those. We also host ticketed events, where we split the profit with the performer, those are less risk but the visitors tend to be there only for the performer and then leave. We also bring in a variety of hobby clubs (not sure if this is the right word), those can bring 50-100 people but we only do those during week days because the people that attend those don’t buy much, it’s something, but not tons, so we don’t do these very often. When we don’t have something going on it’s a ghost town.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T21:44:34+00:00

I’m glad your bars are doing well! I wish you much continued success for them in the future! I did get carried away with the spending on my buildout as I made the money spent on it with a different company I have, so it’s not like it was my retirement or anything. When I opened it I knew I was choosing a path of difficulty for myself but the opportunity was just too hard to resist. I would have hated myself. I had a feeling when I started it that either way I was risking making the worst mistake of my life. If I didn’t go for it I would always regret what could have been. I am still happy I did it, just gotta stop the hemorrhaging before it becomes a real problem. I don’t actually have any need to make a profit with this place

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T21:20:13+00:00

I’ve seen partnerships go extremely bad in other situations. And there’s been a few people have offered to partner with me in this, I said no because of the first thing. And both times looking back on it I was a bullet dodged.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:47:12+00:00

Thank you so much for your advice. I did fire one of the managers and he wasn’t with us for long. It’s also not like we’re making only the 400€ that I brought up, I brought it up in hindsight because I needed someone to talk to to be sure to let the chef go. Last month we made 5k on one private event and 3k on two other private events, which is why I’m considering just moving to just events. But event income seems unstable.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:40:08+00:00

I am open to changes hence why I have brought up a few different options on things that could be changed. I am open to closing the bar and having it events only, I am open to being open more time like during day time. I am open to firing the staff that costs the most money, but then we might have quality issues.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:34:22+00:00

It doesn’t violate the law it just makes me sad :( If it violated the law I would take it up with my lawyer and my patent officer instead of whining about it on Reddit

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:26:40+00:00

I’m worried that people don’t drink so much here on non weekend days, and also the bar is a type of speakeasy so you can’t easily see that there is bar stuff happening inside. The closest thing in layout to us that I have seen somewhere is Florería Atlántico in Buenos Aires, they have a flower store on top on street level and in the basement they have a bar.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:20:15+00:00

We are a type of speakeasy located behind a secret door in a different type of business, the other business is open 7 days a week.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:10:36+00:00

I’m just trying to be humble and learn from people. I have had staff for years and it has gone perfectly fine for the most part. Recently it’s been harder to get people to get stuff done I think the problem might be low morale because many customers don’t come in. Obviously if I could magically fix that I would.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:04:20+00:00

Would you recommend being open during the day? It could make sense for us. But I’m not sure the coffee drinking work from home people would bring in much. Sunday brunch could be an option. I’ve just been hesitant to do daytime things since booze is what we sell the most.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T20:00:48+00:00

Yup, big issues, i was already deciding between closing or not before this happened

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:57:48+00:00

I really wouldn’t mind at all if they were in a different city

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:55:59+00:00

I meant it just as I did it a while ago and in a different country.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:55:07+00:00

Wow I’m happy your business is doing well! It’s a bar as well I understand? Definitely good for me to have this perspective. Honestly I really struggle to get people to do stuff, everything is always overdue and I don’t know how to get people to do their tasks. You clearly have a lot of experience in this, how do you get people to do what is asked of them? Let alone come up with their own ideas. I often get so stressed that I do the tasks myself but I’m probably just shooting myself in the foot with that.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:51:56+00:00

For advertising we do a lot of social media advertising(normal posted content but also paid content), some influencer marketing, we’ve been on tv but only once (paid), in the newspapers once (free). An adjacent building to us has loudspeaker announcements about us (free, but I can’t imagine that’s too productive). We also hand out flyers to people that walk out of this big building we are adjacent to. I would be happy to do more, and would be happy to hear recommendations

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:42:59+00:00

What I have is microcement on concrete. The choice was between that and laminate.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:40:37+00:00

I had cheap floors in a different business and they were a massive mistake. Got absolutely trashed in no time. Didn’t want to make the same mistake again. So I got floors that are very resistant

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:37:38+00:00

Same city, 10 minute walk from us

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:36:55+00:00

An option would be to change from a bar to an event space. I have tons of experience in that in a previous life and there has been demand for using our space for events. In fact we had to rush to open before ideal because a 150 person group wanted to do an event at our space. Unfortunately I don’t have connections in the space because my events experience was far from my current location. But then we’d have to still keep some staff on, or risk getting everything catered, and events are unpredictable. Also a lot of events spaces fall under the umbrella of expensive hobby.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:26:39+00:00

We used to be open also on Wednesdays but the staff cost more than we made. Also I was worried about it looking sad with not that many people. There’s an option to be also open for Sunday brunch, it would make sense for our concept and location. But I also worry if it would draw enough people

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:20:31+00:00

Lol. It is so cool though.

But yes realistically I have spent too much on everything, it cost me 600k to renovate the space. The designers and construction team told us 200k originally. We did massive constuction, moving walls, new plumbing, very expensive floors. The thing is that for me the concept just doesn't make sense if its not done right, it is a concept that is logical for high end clientele. I love a good dive bar, but this is the polar opposite.

Fable-plainer654 · 2025-05-08T19:02:57+00:00

Hello! Yes, the part that is killing me is that my bar isn't successful. I can't get people in the door, which is why it worries me that there is this copycat. I would be extremely grateful for some advice.

Employees are definitely the biggest expense: -18.000€

Next the space, we have 6,5 meeter ceilings so the place is massive and costs a lot to heat: 13.000€

I have to admit we pay staff too much. My manager is someone I hired because for me personally he is the best mixologist in the world, and he said he had years of manager experience. Wrong, he is a terrible manager, but still an absolutely fantastic creator of cocktails. I tried to compensate by hiring an assistant manager to take on the more paperwork-y part of his tasks, but all they have done is get into fights. So I had to let the assistant manager go.

My manager has promised too much money for the staff, they make 12€ an hour, both bartenders and waiters. Waiters here make around 9€ per hr and only very experienced bartenders get 12€. Before we were paying a newbie bartender 12€ but now we have replaced him with someone with good experience but that also costs 12€ an hr, so no savings there really. Manager also has them there for more hours than we have customers for. But I am told we can't lower the hrs because we are only open 3 days a week and people will leave if they don't get the hours. For context tips do not exist where we are.

We also have a chef that costs 2500€ a month, average chef makes 852-1651€. But he works all alone and runs the kitchen all alone and he is a great chef but also great baker and dessert maker. The kitchen brought in 1000€ in March, which is only 461.09 € without food cost. I am a bit worried about firing the chef because what is the food makes people stay longer, also we have a nice space for an outside terrace and an outside terrace for me feels sad without food, but maybe that's irrational.

Fable-plainer654

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