[Dixielandjazz] Heads up Sacramento Groups

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/28/05 10:02:17 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
sign.guy at charter.net writes:

> 
> I wish everyone well and this is a wonderful opportunity for bands but the
> bar owners should know what they are doing or they will fall flat on their
> faces.  I have heard all this before and sometimes they will expect instant
> change.  I worked for a club that the owner expected this to happen in one
> night.  As the patrons filed out going to the bar down the street, leaving
> an almost empty house he came up and said I thought you guys had a following
> you are running off my customers. (DUH!)  This is a week after we had the
> discussion about how much he wanted to change his clientele and get rid of
> the C&W crowd that was trashing his place.  He expected me to bring him
> customers with absolutely no advertising by some sort of magic.
> 
> So been there done that.
> 

Excellent scenario Larry:

It is a widely known fact that is often forgotten that MOST BAR OWNERS are 
not in the music business, they are in the Alcoholic Beverage Business and the 
Only reason most of them have a band is to try and attract or keep drinking 
customers in the bar.

What I am suggesting is that some of the Musicians & Bands get their 
collective acts together and go open their own Club in OLD Town and run it properly 
like a music venue and not just an alcoholic beverage joint with music.

This country has lost most of the good nightclub operators who really knew 
how to tun a club and make it successful, and yes many of them left because of 
the AFof M and ASCAP and BMI, The Insurance Co., and the IRS, & State TAX man 
all trying to be their partners without putting anything into the business or 
taking any of the inherent risk for it's operation.

I have seen far too many guys go into the Bar business just to have a place 
to go drink with their friends for free and get all their friends to come there 
and pay them for the drinks they were buying down the street. :)) 

It is a very tough business and not one to be entered into lightly, if you 
plan to open a club you need to have enough money to operate it for at least one 
year without taking any money out of it to get it firmly established and 
profitable.  Too many club owners open the doors on a shoestring and draw salaries 
out of the joint to live on and bankrupt their own business quickly by not 
having a real business plan and sticking to it.  Most do nothing in the way of 
advertising and promotion, and certainly not after the initial announcement 
that they are open simply believing that now everybody knows we are here so they 
will come every night and buy our booze because it is better than the booze 
across the street.

Some of them start music because the guy across the street has it, not 
because they know anything about it or how to promote it and their own business.  
When it does not work out as they immediately expected it to do they of course 
blame it on the band, the music, or anything else except their own fault for 
not knowing what they are doing.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins