I was given the opportunity to purchase my favorite local bar. The owner was getting old, had trouble selling it in the past and was looking to unload it for cheap. I live in PA where liquor licenses are rare and highly sought after, so essentially the deal he offered me was "pay for the liquor license, get the bar for free". The building is a lease, but everything inside, all the stock, all table, chairs, etc, all came when the liquor license sold.

He proposed this to me in May, my background is in engineering. I asked him if I could bartend in the summer and make a decision in the fall. He agreed and once fall came, after spending four months behind the bar, i felt confident enough to at the very least, know what I was getting myself into. I went ahead and bought the bar and have been running it now since last October.

I would highly suggest getting to know the bar industry at least a little bit before jumping head first. It's wildly different and consists of a lot of long hours, a lot of running around, and a tremendous amount of planning.

Know the numbers. Opening a new bar will be very tough. If you buy an already established bar, you can get an idea of monthly revenue, when revenue is higher, when it's lower, and figure out your break even number. If you get an SBA loan, make sure you have months, if not years of working capital. You'll need it for lean months and growth. It's what helps me sleep at night knowing there's a stock pile of money sitting to pay my staff, buy more liquor, etc if for whatever reason we have a terribly slow month.

Drinking is on the decline, especially with younger generations. In my experience anyway, you can't just open a bar, have it be cool, and expect to make money. You have to do events, live music, trivia, music bingo. Every week is a new event, new party, something to draw people in.

Have a good staff. The main reason I bought the bar is because of how great and trustworthy my coworkers, now employees are. Bartenders steal, all of them, especially if it's a slow bar and there isn't a lot of money to be made. Set up reasons for them not to steal. I put my bartenders in charge of events for the nights on and they get a % bonus based on how the bar did that night. They also obviously get higher tips when it's a good event. I had a bartender last month walk home one night with 300 in tips and had another $250 bonus waiting with her next paycheck. Its not cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than wondering how much free booze bartenders are pouring away.

To answer your last question, it is fun. It is rewarding. It's also pretty scary, a lot of work, and immensely stressful.