Mastering Bar Management for Success: Time Management & Crisis Handling Tips

We actually had a podcast episode months ago called how to Spend More Time Working on your Bar and Less Time Working in your Bar . One thing that I see the question that comes up time and time and time again from bar owners , especially those looking to get into the business , is how much time should I be spending in my bar ?

How much of my effort and my time is this actually going to take ? The thing there is . Obviously this is going to vary . I can tell you there are very successful bar owners that are in their bar 10 hours a week and there are very successful bar owners that are in their bar 70 hours a week .

The thing is , if you really think about it , most of us do not want to be at work 70 hours a week . If you own one bar and you're the only owner and you're the manager and you're there 40 , 50 hours a week , great , but much beyond 50 , 60 hours a week , you're going to start burning out . You're actually going to become less effective .

The real question here is how do you maintain that 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 hour a week schedule ? I do not believe there's a bar that exists on the planet where the owner has to work more than 10 hours a week . I know that sounds crazy , but part of what you've got to think about here is time versus money .

Well , a lot of you are going to say , well , there's no way I can only work 10 hours a week . Well , yeah , you could . To hire the right managers , you might have to pay them a lot of money . You might not .

There are a lot of people in hospitality management that are not hideously expensive , that will do great , that are trustable , that are looking for an opportunity to prove themselves . Those sorts of people are available to you generally without too much cost . But if you want to work less , sometimes you're going to have to give up money in order to do it .

And I will tell you right now . The time that I made the least amount of money in my bar was when I had two managers and I was working 10 hours a week . The time I made the most money in my bar was when I had no managers and I was working 100 hours a week , but that money wasn't worth it .

The extra money I made doing it all by myself being there all the time , just burned me out . It made my life not great . It made it quite bad actually , and it was stressful and I was tired and I was not healthy .

It wasn't a good position for me to be in , and so sometimes there are things more important than money and , at least in my opinion , your time tends to be more important than money . Money is something that we can always make . Money exist in the world . We can go make it . In the world we have businesses that are meant to generate money .

We can make other investments that generate money , but the thing that you never have more of in life , the thing that you absolutely cannot control and that is always gone after it happens , is time . There is no savings account for time , so in a lot of ways , I think for a lot of people , we end up focusing too much on money .

We want a sports car , we want to go on vacations , we want to do all that , and of course , those things are great . I love vacations . I have a sports car , not going to lie . But in a lot of ways our time is more important because with time we can do more .

And in reality , if you're good at business , if you pay attention to what you're doing , and you can run one bar in 40 hours a week , you can run four bars that only require 10 hours a week and not work a minute more .

So you can make more money in the same amount of time If you're willing to give up a little bit of money to get a little bit more time on each individual project . So it's always something to keep in mind .

And another thing that's worth mentioning anytime you're getting into a bar whether you're creating a bar from scratch or you're buying an existing bar that first year , that first , especially the first couple months of that establishment being up and running , you're not going to have time . You are going to work 7 to 80 , 100 hour weeks .

But the thing is that should not be a permanent state . That should not be what's required of you month in and month out . That should be a temporary state to get your training in place , to get your team in place , to get your systems in place , to get everything the way it needs to be , so that you don't have to continue to do that in the future .

There is no benefit in the long run to working 70 hours a week every week , again . You're just going to burn yourself out . It's not healthy , it's not good for you , and you will be less efficient and less productive if you do that . That , though , is totally different than when you were starting out .

That's totally different than when you're in your startup phase , again , whether you're starting a bar from scratch or buying an existing bar , those first couple months , you're going to be working there all the time . You're going to be there every day , and that's normal . That's needed .

You need to establish yourself , not only with the team , not only making sure you have your own systems and training in place , but also you need to get to know your guests . You need to know who comes into your bar .

You need to know their dog's names and what they do , and have conversations with them and learn about them , so that you can build that personal connection that , in so many bars around the world , in so many especially your neighborhood pubs , your dive bars , places like that it's very important to build that personal connection .

That means , though , that , as you move forward , as you go along , that time should decrease . So , yeah , you might be 70 hours the first month , it might be 60 hours the second month , it might be 50 hours for six or eight months as you continue to solidify everything . You need to know everyone , make everything work the way it needs to .

But your time really is front loaded . And if I think about my own experience , when I first bought a bar , when I bought my first bar , the first couple months I worked 100 hours a week . I had no managers . I realized that wasn't sustainable . I hired a manager and then I was working 70 hours a week . A year later I was working 50 hours a week .

Two years after that I was working 10 to 15 hours a week with two managers in place . That's when I had the most fun . I could go out there , hang out . Sometimes I'd pop in Friday , saturday night just to see people , but I didn't have to be there . It's much easier to go socialize with your guests when you aren't working .

When I say socialize , I don't mean drink , I don't mean sit at their table and talk to them all night . I mean schmooze them , go around , do table touches be productive for your business , make sure that they have that connection with your bar . That's going to bring them back time and time again .

All this is to say , though , that you should start with a lot of time involved anytime you buy or open a bar , but , as time goes on , your goal should be to decrease your time dramatically . Now , with that said , there are a couple traps that I see bar owners frequently fall into , and essentially , it comes down to three things .

The first thing is the mindset of only I can do this , when thinking that you're the only person that can do something . I mean , I hate to say this , that's just dumb . One thing that I always think about , whether I'm an employer or an employee , is that every single person is replaceable .

Maybe they won't have quite the same attitude , maybe they won't get somebody with the exact same skills , maybe their skills are better when I get that replacement , but there is not a person that cannot be replaced , and I know the job market's tight still , and I know it was tight during COVID , and that seems like more difficult than it did , say , especially 2011

, 2012 , when the economy was stuck and there were a lot of people available in the market . Bottom line is you can replace someone , that's bad and that means that you can be replaced . So , if you can be replaced , if you can replace yourself with a manager , the concept that only I can do X is totally false and wrong and ridiculous .

The second trap I see people fall into in their mindset is how am I supposed to trust someone ? Well , the easy answer to that is if you can't trust them , why the hell did you fire them ? If you can't trust your manager , you should fire your manager . Now , chances are that you probably can trust people more than you do . I know I struggled with this .

I think almost every business owner struggles with this , especially when it comes to things like people are counting my money every morning . They have thousands of dollars in my cash in their hands . How do I trust them not to run away ? The bottom line is you have to trust me , and so how are you supposed to trust someone ?

Well , you train them , you put the right things in place and then you trust them to execute what you said , and , of course , you double check them . Any system we build should have a redundancy that allows us to check that that system was properly executed , and so , in doing that , you create a situation where you can trust and verify everything that gets done .

But you have to have trust , you have to have some faith , you have to be willing to let go a little bit . Otherwise you become a slave to your bar and you never go on vacation again because you're the only person that can count money every morning .

So , unless you're closed a day a week , you can't even leave town , and that's not sustainable , that's not real . That's not a good situation to be in .

The third trap that I see people fall into and this one , honestly , I sympathize with a little bit more than the first two is saying what about my customers ? People see me . I talk to people . People come to the bar just to see me . Okay , maybe that is possible . More likely than not , though . The patrons are coming to your bar whether you're there or not .

They really don't care if they see you , and when they do see you , it's great . It makes their experience better . You talk to them , you have a great time with them , but it doesn't mean they're there to see you . That doesn't mean they won't come in to see you .

Acting like you , drawing your customers , is the same fallacy of saying well , my bartender , because all my customers love him and if I fire him they'll never come in again . Alright , I've fired plenty of bartenders over the years and sometimes guess what ? Customers don't come in anymore because they really did like that bartender .

They fall out bartender to the next bar . But more often than not , what happens ? They decide that they don't like the new bartender . They bitch about the new bartender a lot and they keep coming in to bitch and after a while they get used to the new bartender and everything's fine .

Because it's absolutely true , no individual person is really a draw for a bar . Bars are draws by atmosphere . Bars are draws by location . Bars are draws by what you offer . It's not about the individual person . And because it's not about the individual person , you don't matter . Just like that bartender doesn't matter .

And again , maybe you lose a couple of customers if you're not there . As much Maybe you'll lose a couple of customers if you file a bartender , but it doesn't actually matter Because that amount will be so inconsequential that the idea that you're not out there talking to your customers all the time is going to hurt your business , is just a phallus .

Go in , talk to them . Absolutely , you need to schmooze your customers . Absolutely , you need to talk to them on a regular basis .

Absolutely , you should be there at different times throughout the week in order to engage people , but that doesn't mean they're coming to see you and that doesn't mean that if you're there 20 hours , as opposed to 60 , people aren't going to come in the door . That is just false and that is your own ego telling you you're more important than you are .

I hate to say it , but that's actually what it is . So how do we get to this point ? How do we actually establish a position where we can decrease our hours , where we can work on working 20 hours a week instead of 70 ? Where we can build this relationship with our team , where they take care of things for us ?

Well , the first thing is and I've talked about this a number of times already today the first thing is trust . You have to be willing to look at the folks you hired , say , hey , I made a good decision , these seem like good people , I like them and actually trust them .

You have to be willing to let go of the reins a little bit , and you can do that incrementally . I talked about that a few weeks ago . You can incrementally step out letting go of the reins , but you must do it .

The second thing you need to do to make this transformation happen is you need to have systems , and , like I've said earlier , the systems need to be verifiable . Trust , but verify when your systems need to be tight . There needs to be a very specific way to do things .

There need to be forms that get filled out that's electronic or on paper , it doesn't really matter but you need records of what happened .

Not only do you need data to help manage your business , but you also need the information to make sure that everything is getting done the way it should be , and so those systems are absolutely 100% integral in making it so that you can step away , because you know when the systems are there and when the systems are followed .

Your presence adds nothing to the operation . Now , the third piece of being able to step away from your borrower on a more regular basis is that you need training those systems that you've established .

People have to be able to execute them flawlessly every time , and regardless if we're talking about making a drink , or we're talking about cash handling in the morning , or we're talking about how to handle HR cases , we can still follow that tell , show , do review training framework that I like and again , I like doing things that way because it hits on all the

different types of learners , it's very accessible to people and it is a way that people actually learn . So make sure your folks are trained , because if you have the systems and people are trained and you trust them , guess what ? You don't have to go to work .

If you want to go to work , maybe you do go to work , but you don't have to , and that is how you gain your life . That's how you get your quality of life in the bar business . That is how you manage in this business and stay in this business for 10 , 20 , 30 years .

Because if you're one of those 70 hour a week guys , you got maybe three , four years out of you . If you're pulling 100 hour weeks , you got a couple of years . That's it . You're going to burn out . You're going to burn out if you don't realize it and you don't get out of the business . If you don't sell your business to get out , guess what ?

You're just going to become ineffective . Things are not going to work right . Things are going to slip through the cracks because you're working too much . It sounds counterintuitive , but it's true . So the best thing you can do for yourself .

The best thing you can do for your business is to establish those systems , do the training , trust your folks and just roll with it to the point that you only work when you want to work and , of course , most of your work is on your business , not in your business , as we've talked about many , many times Now .

The other part of this is that for most bar owners and I know this happened to me a lot one of the worst parts of being a bar owner is that you own a phone , and why that's one of the worst parts is that most bars it depends on where you are . Like I'm in Indiana so we closed at three in the morning .

That frequently meant that my closers weren't out of the bar until 435 o'clock . Sometimes they were slow , but in Indiana last calls at three . All drinks have to be off at 330 . So you're at least four , just kind of getting most of the way there . By the time you get cyborg done , you're always 430 .

And if you're kind of hanging out and dragging your feet a little bit , it's easily five , especially on a night that's been very busy . So it's five in the morning and they're leaving Guys that come in to clean and do the morning prep and stuff came in at seven .

So essentially I had employees in my business 22 hours a day , every day , and that meant that there was a lot of time when that phone was the scariest thing to me because the phone could ring at any time of day .

My phone sometimes went off at five in the morning , six in the morning , seven in the morning , four in the morning , three in the morning Pretty much any time that exists on a clock . Over seven years eight years of owning multiple bars I got a phone call .

Part of making sure that you're not spending too much time in your business and you can work on your business , part of making sure that you have time and freedom away from your business and that you don't burn yourself out working in your business is to eliminate crises , and of course we can't eliminate all crises right .

My definition of crisis is something unexpected and terrible . So because it's unexpected , we can't always eliminate it . But I will tell you right now . There are two major things that were the generation of most of my phone calls , and that's the thing .

So if we eliminate two potential problems , most of the phone calls , at least in my case , stopped , and I think this is true for most bars and restaurants . The first one is maintenance . A cooler broke , the walk-ins leaking . There's a puddle of water somewhere . Hell , once I had that , the roof caved in . Not the actual roof , it was the drop ceiling .

There was a bad the landlord had done some work on the air conditioners and it wasn't draining properly and it caused a huge water back up and I had about 400 gallons of water fall through the drop ceiling straight under one of my pool tables there were two of my pool tables , actually . It wasn't good .

Now , nothing I could do in my bar will prevent the fact that that water came through the ceiling , but what you can prevent the crisis is a maintenance you can prevent . Are this cooler is broke , the walk-in isn't holding 10 , the hood isn't working , things like that ? You can actually do a lot to prevent them from breaking . Now they're always going to break .

Sometimes you cannot entirely avoid your technology breaking right , because refrigeration , hvac all of that is essentially technology and , as we all know , technology breaks a lot . Especially nowadays when you have microchips and everything there's complex systems in everything it's very easy for things to break at any time .

Most equipment is much less likely to break if you properly maintain it . So that means that you need to schedule maintenance on every piece of equipment you have , and maybe not every piece , but I always had my refrigeration units , whether that's the walk-in , the coolers , the ice machine , all of those units I had maintenance every quarter .

I had the hood system maintenance every quarter . They did the HVAC . They also would check the hood belts and the hood fan , and then also I would have the gas appliances maintenance every year . So I had these complex maintenance schedules where I had all this different stuff laid out and that allowed me to have less crises .

It doesn't prevent all of them , but if something as simple as blowing out the compressor with some CO2 on a refrigeration unit which we did actually every two weeks on all our refrigeration unit if something that simple prevents that temperature from sneaking up a little bit , pushing that refrigerator in the temperature-danger zone or otherwise causing a crisis , then

that's one less phone call , that's one less thing you have to respond to and one more night where your phone doesn't ring and you are okay , you're left alone , you can live your life .

So , frankly , the easiest , the simplest way to eliminate some of the crisis phone calls actually a lot of the crisis phone calls that happen in bars and restaurants , that happen to hospitality order is to make sure that everything is up on its maintenance , that you do have everything serviced , you're taking care of everything , everything is running as perfectly as it

can be , so that you avoid simple issues that turn into crises that cause you to wake up in the middle of the night with a phone call . The second thing that you can do to eliminate crises and this we're gonna spend a lot more time on because this is a lot bigger , but it's customer service .

I don't know about you guys , but I will admit I have a guilty pleasure and that is watching Karen videos on the internet , right , videos of people just going absolutely bat shit because they didn't get what they wanted .

And the majority of those Karen videos most of them that exist on the internet are in bars , are in restaurants , are dealing with those sorts of situations , and if you have a real customer crisis you're gonna get a phone call . So you have to train your staff to not create those situations .

Now the internet will show you very easily , if you go look up videos , that there are some people that are just freaking crazy .

You're not gonna be able to solve those problems , but almost every video on the internet , every time you see a Karen interacting with fast food workers or with bartenders or whomever almost all of those videos it's not all just coming from one side .

So there are ways that you can de-escalate situations and if you train your team to properly de-escalate situations , then you won't have the same problems that you would otherwise . Now again , not gonna eliminate all customer service problems , you can't do that .

Some people are just freaking crazy , especially if you put booze in them , and even more so because , let's be honest , the bar business . This happens Sometimes . People are going to do drugs or something before they come into your bar .

Then they're gonna have a drink and they're gonna go from zero to a hundred in about five minutes and now you have a situation on your hand with someone that's just completely uncontrollable . That happens , right . We can't mitigate for that .

But we can mitigate for the vast majority of customer service situations by making sure that we have things set up properly and we have our team properly trained and there are known de-escalation paths and known ways to handle these problems . So one thing that always gets me that I , you know , we talk about de-escalation .

In de-escalation right , we want to talk people down from this crazy adrenaline-filled fight response that they're having . And it's definitely true that post-COVID , nowadays , people are crazier than they used to be . I used to not mind going to the airport and getting on a flight .

Now I don't want to do it because of all the crazy people that are getting on flights . But it is true too that people are still people . So even if people have a little bit short of fuse , even if people seem crazier now than they ever have been , they're still people . And so the same psychology , the same ways of de-escalating situations .

Today , work may not be as effective , but again , we want to put as much effective de-escalation procedure in our team's hands as possible so that they don't call us on the phone and they just take care of it .

The number one thing when it comes to de-escalating situations is remain calm , because almost every situation if you watch the Karen videos online , if you've been out and seen bartenders get into it with patrons , and all of that almost every time someone actually goes crazy it's because there was some instigation from the other side the other side this time being ,

your staff didn't play nice , and so you need to play nice , and what that means is you remain calm , and you have to remain calm to mean it . You don't want to be yelling , you don't want to be cussing , if anything , when people start to get out of whack at you or your team , the easiest way to de-escalate the situation is to get quieter .

Another thing that's very true people are very attuned nowadays to what constitutes assault and you know don't touch me , that's assault . Don't touch me , don't touch me . Well , okay , we can have a whole separate conversation about how you can actually touch people .

It's not assault , but that's neither here nor there , because in a lot of places , in a lot of situations , that's how it's being viewed nowadays . So one thing I always did when I would kick somebody out is I would kick them out with my hands in my pocket .

It's very hard , especially if you're on a video , but even if you're not , it's very hard to say that you touch someone if your hands are in your pockets . Now , when I say in my pockets , generally , that meant that I hooked my thumbs in my pockets and left my palms against my thighs because , well , I could quickly , very quickly get my hand out .

Now , if I had my hand all the way in my pocket , it might be a little bit more difficult and that might present an issue in my response time . But just thumbs in my pockets , it worked every time because there was no way for someone to say you touched me when my hand is clearly not moving .

Now , another thing that I noticed worked a lot with your hands in your pockets , if you just walk towards someone , most people will back up when you enter their space and if you don't enter your space aggressively , if you're coming into their space very calmly , talking calmly , walking forward slowly with your hands or thumbs in your pockets .

Generally , people aren't going to perceive that as a threat . They're going to be really confused because what they're going to find is they're backing up .

Essentially , it is an awesome way to herd humans , so keep that in your backpack , that it's a great way to move someone to your door without ever touching them , without ever actually telling them you're moving them towards the door , you're just walking and they are backing up .

Now , a place that a lot of these interactions go wrong is that people make the interactions personal , and that is to say that the customer gets in their face and they say well , you're a dick to the customer , fuck you , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . And that's not productive .

The thing is it's kind of like what you'll hear with children . Don't focus on the person , focus on the behavior . The person is not bad , the behavior is bad . It doesn't matter what that behavior is , but the person is not the bad one , the behavior is the bad one .

And when you focus on the behavior , it kind of throws people off , because people are used to folks coming after them , insulting them personally , coming after them personally , coming after their character , and in this way you're not coming after people's character .

You're coming after their behavior and just saying you know , we don't freaking allow that here and you can't do that . So you either got to stop or get out . People are not going to perceive that the same way as saying fuck you or going off the rails at them , yelling at them . You have to remain calm and just say , hey , this is not allowed here .

You're not going to let you do this . This is the reason why you have got to change your behavior Now along those lines , a lot of times it's going to be . This is the reason why you have to leave and you should never be afraid to kick someone out .

I've kicked a lot of people out of my bars and , frankly , I would tell all my clients kick people out of your bars anytime you want , because it's not a bad thing to do when someone's disrupting the atmosphere for your other customers . They got to go . They got to go now and it's not like they should get three chances , four chances , five chances .

Now you don't have to bar them permanently . I cannot tell you how many times I would look at something and go look , dude , you're done for tonight . Like you got to go right now , come back tomorrow . We'll hang out no big deal , but tonight you're going home and I'm done , so you can kick people out for a night .

You don't have to always permanently bar people , but never be afraid to kick people out . You will have people that , when you kick them out , will yell and scream and tell you how terrible you are and what a bad person you are , and all of that .

Most of them come back the next day and apologize , as long as you kept the focus on their behavior and remain calm while you were kicking them out . If you get personal , yeah , they might go a little off the rails , but if you focus on behavior again and keep calm , normally you're fine .

If you lose business because someone in your business was being an asshole and you kick them out , oh well , they didn't come back . They're not the good customer anyway . They're not helping the environment for your other customers . That's the bottom line here . A lot of times we're afraid to kick out the person . That's the problem .

But by not kicking out the person that's a problem they're disrupting 10 , 20 , 30 other guests experiencing Now . Those guests are less likely to come in . Those guests are less likely to be frequent because they think that your bar is full of hooligans that are going to do whatever the fuck they want and nobody cares . So kick that person out .

It sets a great example to everyone else there . It solidifies the fact that you care about the rest of your customer's experience . And again , kicking somebody out for the night doesn't mean they can never come back in . Now , of course , there are times you're going to want to permanently bar somebody .

I've done that plenty of times too , but that's few and far between compared to the number of times . People just needed to be done for the night , and when they were regulars , I would walk them out myself and say look , man , look , you got this happened . This happened . Somebody got in a fight with you . You started hitting on them and that wasn't your fault .

But you're done for tonight . Come back tomorrow . And people don't respond poorly to that . Some will , some people you're never going to win with , but the vast majority of people are going to be fine if you kick them out for a night . And again , they may cuss , they may yell , they may scream , they might tell you you're the worst person ever .

They'll be back nine times out of ten . As a matter of fact . I think I've told this story before . But I switched karaoke companies .

At one point I had a regular who was a great guy and between that and some he got involved in a little altercation and I kicked him out for the night and he was just cussing and screaming and yelling at me out on the sidewalk just going off on , and he did that for about 20 minutes , to be real honest , and he was pissed and he said he would never come

back again . Well , about a week later he was back and he was that every day and about a year after that he started working for me as one of my managers . So it's not like when someone that's drunk , when someone that's out of line , tells you well , this is blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , I'm never coming back in here , fuck you , you asshole .

Blah , blah , blah . It's not like they actually mean it , because A they probably won't remember it . B most people are embarrassed by that when they wake up in the morning . And C even if they do remember it and they're not embarrassed by it and they think they were right people tend to get over it . So never be afraid to kick somebody out .

But the bottom line here , on anything when it comes to customer service , obviously you have to train your team on all this . These are things that everyone that works for you should know . But the bottom line is and again , I like the Karen videos online that's where I see a lot of this because there are a lot more people that overwrite .

There are people that overreact in situations that I ever did than my team ever did , because I train them , just how I said , to not do those things . But when you overreact , you create more issues . When your team overreacts , your phone is going to ring in the middle of the night because they pissed somebody off , because something really bad just happened .

So never overreact . Always remain calm . Teach your team to do that . Teach people how to de-escalate situations successfully . Teach your team how to work with difficult customers in trying to get a good result for everyone , and your phone will ring less at night . And that's what this is all about . Right ?

We don't want our phones to ring at the middle of the night . We don't want to work more than 40 , 50 hours a week , ideally , and maybe even less than that , if that's what you decide you want to do , because you have multiple businesses , or you want to work on a different project , or you just want to hang out with your family because it's summer .

That's what this is all about actually . Once I said it , I realized that it's all about hanging out with your family because it's summer , and it's about the time and experiences in your life that are important , that are not your business . So remember , time is a resource that you never get back . You can never multiply . You can't do anything with it .

Money , you can grow , you can invest . You can make more money . All of us have the ability to go from broke to rich to broke to rich . I've watched a number of people do it dozens of times . So that is money you can get back .

But you need to make sure that you trust your team , that you train your team , that you have systems in place and that you stop those common crisis points of bad maintenance and bad customer service issues that are going to cause your phone to ring in the middle of the night , so that you can disconnect , you can relax , you can enjoy your life outside of your

bar , so that when you're in your bar , when you're working on your bar , when you're establishing systems , when you're doing training , when you're working on product offerings , you can be there , present and really rested and good for the work .

You owe it to your team , your bar , your family , everyone in your life to maintain a balance whatever that balance is that works for you , but to put yourself in a situation where there's a balance between your work life and your not work life and where you have time to do it all . On that note , I hope you guys have a great week .

I'll be back here next week to talk to you again . See you later .