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I am not sure how up to date my information is but last I heard, there was 4 pubs in Aberdeen up for sale. One of which was O'Donnohughs. The advantage of purchasing one of these pubs is it currently already has a crowd who go along regularly and has a much larger capacity than the likes of of Drakes. You must adress the reasons they became unprofitable if your pub/venue is to have any chance of surviving.

I am sure many people would go along to whatever comes of Drakes and I realise I am no buisness expert but I would like to point out having 110 people maximum in a pub while about 3 members of staff, 2 bouncers and a band seems a bit too many people you have to pay vs too few paying customers. Somewhere like Moshulu, has about 4-6 bar staff and 2 bouncers at the door (4 if you count the ones downstairs also). I believe it is also 650 capacity.

So you have a staff:customer ratio of about 10:650 (1:65) with Moshulu

and 5:110 (1:22) with 69 Shiprow.

I realise this is hugely oversimplified (as these places will not often run at capacity and a number of other factors come into play in the real world) but the odds do seem to favour larger pubs and clubs.

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I am not sure how up to date my information is but last I heard' date=' there was 4 pubs in Aberdeen up for sale. One of which was O'Donnohughs. The advantage of purchasing one of these pubs is it currently already has a crowd who go along regularly and has a much larger capacity than the likes of of Drakes. You must adress the reasons they became unprofitable if your pub/venue is to have any chance of surviving.

I am sure many people would go along to whatever comes of Drakes and I realise I am no buisness expert but I would like to point out having 110 people maximum in a pub while about 3 members of staff, 2 bouncers and a band seems a bit too many people you have to pay vs too few paying customers. Somewhere like Moshulu, has about 4-6 bar staff and 2 bouncers at the door (4 if you count the ones downstairs also). I believe it is also 650 capacity.

So you have a staff:customer ratio of about 10:650 (1:65) with Moshulu

and 5:110 (1:22) with 69 Shiprow.

I realise this is hugely oversimplified (as these places will not often run at capacity and a number of other factors come into play in the real world) but the odds do seem to favour larger pubs and clubs.[/quote']

Over simplified and some... These type of ratios are unfounded and just a 'tad' daft. According to your numbers about half a member of staff and a third of a bouncer would suffice... and there are minimum requirements for the amount of body that is usefull when serving the public...

:laughing:

And not to seem too, erm, telling but if you do offer an opinion on how to run a venue without having tried it, or knowing the first thing about it... Fuck right off!!!!!!!

There, that's better (I don't raise my voice often) There was many a time after shutting down Drakes that I could have happily said that over and over again...

Oh Golly gosh... I do wish I had thought and tried everything before closing it down... Duh! (extremely sarcastic tone)

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I am not sure how up to date my information is but last I heard' date=' there was 4 pubs in Aberdeen up for sale. One of which was O'Donnohughs. The advantage of purchasing one of these pubs is it currently already has a crowd who go along regularly and has a much larger capacity than the likes of of Drakes. You must adress the reasons they became unprofitable if your pub/venue is to have any chance of surviving.

I am sure many people would go along to whatever comes of Drakes and I realise I am no buisness expert but I would like to point out having 110 people maximum in a pub while about 3 members of staff, 2 bouncers and a band seems a bit too many people you have to pay vs too few paying customers. Somewhere like Moshulu, has about 4-6 bar staff and 2 bouncers at the door (4 if you count the ones downstairs also). I believe it is also 650 capacity.

So you have a staff:customer ratio of about 10:650 (1:65) with Moshulu

and 5:110 (1:22) with 69 Shiprow.

I realise this is hugely oversimplified (as these places will not often run at capacity and a number of other factors come into play in the real world) but the odds do seem to favour larger pubs and clubs.[/quote']

O' Donohuge would set you back a couple of million. The reason it's up for sale is because it went bust. The reason it went bust is because it's revenues were insufficient to cover it's operating costs. A place of that size could work, but you would need an investment of the order or magnitude that I indicated in my previous post. Lte's assume it's total capacity is 1000, then you'd need 2M of YOUR OWN MONEY to do the job properly.

On to your forumla... LMAO. Just because somewhere has a capacity of 1000 say, doesn't mean there will be 1000 people in it! It's much easier to fill a smaller place. AND worse still think of the huge overheads of a 1000 capacity club with only 4 people standing there drinking. A larger venue only gives you the POTENTIAL to earn more. Tumbleweeds are not big drinkers!

What is much more important is the efficiency of your setup. The overhead to revenue ratio. In other words keeping your costs down and your takings up. For instance if the venue has only 1 door and 1 room then it can get aaway with fewer security personnel. If the cellar is closer to the pipes you have less wastage. With barstaff the secret is to develop your trade in such a way that it is 'steady' rather than boom an bust. With boom and bust your have 6 people standing there all night doing nothing, then siddenly they are flat our for half an hour. Much better if the same volume of trade is spread over 3 hours and you only have 1 bar person on!!!

A place of Drakes size would work well f someone could raise the 250K necessary to purchase the building, refurb it, install a decent rig, and have 10K left over for cashflow. The owner could expect to pay themselves around 30K per year, and work a 40 hour week.

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When it comes to the B word' date=' familiarity does indeed breed contempt.[/quote']

Aah, now thats something we can all agree on!!!

BTW, I hadn't realised that the SRMs had come down in price so much, I still wouldn't buy them, they dont sound nice. But then you come to reliability...and theres no contest :)

My personal choice would be some Mpro 415s off Ebay for roughly the same price.

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Guest pop-notmyface
I seemed to have missed the fact that he was talking about said location... I could ramble about this that and the other but I shant' date=' too much, and there are things I can't say! Flash said it all and heed his words.

The place has been sitting empty for some months now and doesn't look likely to be used any time soon. Ask your self why? Rent, rates, insurance(s), electric, water... Just the tip of the iceberg really and we haven't even mentioned band and staff fees... My honest and well intentioned advice is to 'not do it'. There are numerous reasons why Drakes closed but a main factor is that we didn't own the building... I would not get back into that end of things without being able to raise the capital to purchase the property.

The capacity was 110! There were rare occassions when it reached this and believe me it wasn't pretty. I would tend to hold it at around 90 for safety reasons.

The room is a beautiful room for acoustic acts and was considered by some insiders to be one of the best acoustic venues in the country. That said it needs a big PA for reasons that a sound engineer will give you the specifics for so you would be looking to fork out a tidy wee sum.

The venue itself was in need of a great deal of repair and the amount you are mentioning, if this was to include a sound system, wouldn't be anywhere near enough, sorry.

I am saying these things not to be negative but in the hope that absolute consideration is given to every area of the plan as the small details are those that bite you in the ass. I would dearly love to see that building being used for what it does best, live music, but The climate is not right. Maybe a couple of years time will see audiences building to the level that is required to sustain the existing and any new venues. There are a few on this thread that know what they are talking about, and even Cloud made some good points ;)

All these things are said not to dishearten but, I would assume, dare I say it, enlighten.

All the best though... PM me if you need to hear things that I can't say on here :D[/quote']

thank you, the advice is invaluable!

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