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my mom and dad have been working the last few months in this bar. dad doing karaoke and DJ and mom bar-tending.
they are trying to come up with ways of bringing more business into the place. the smoking ban has kinda hurt them. they did build a nice little deck out back tho.
they do the karaoke on Thursday Friday and Saturday nights and i think they have pool tourneys on Wednesday. i think i have them talked into starting a dart tourney also. I'm not sure on steel or soft tips. myself i HATE soft tips but we dont want any "accidents" either. for some reason the owner dosent want live bands tho.
but what I'm asking you fine people is other ideas.
the place is pretty decent sized has a small stage and decent dance floor. one pool table and they are gonna get the dart board set up. most of the people that come in are average working class types. so i dont think a rave/club type setting will go over. but they may have to try something like that to bring more people in.

so come on guys...hit me with them ideas.

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I like my steak like I like my women, young, tender and bloody.

All I need is my weed, women, and wine. -Edge City Outlaws

STRIPPERS

Half way through reading your post I was thinking stripper poll. Then I read what Ugot wrote.

I've never been the bar type. I was a dad before I was old enough to hang out at the bar.

This probably isn't the kind of ideas you were looking for, but there are a couple of steak houses with a bar in them, here that have a light layer of sawdust on the floor and free bowls of peanuts. Then when people eat, they throw the shells on the floor. It's a log cabin type setting and I always got a kick out of it.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

I'd say the Karaoke machine needs to be put away and only brought out on "Karaoke" designated nights. take out the pool tables around 8:00pm.

Set up a good sound system, hire a disc jockey, get some dance lights. Basically, throw a party!

may want to make some fliers and such, get some people to hand them out to bring in business. If you pull off the whole Party atmosphere, you will get people returning the following night.

One of the bars I used to go to had drink specials on thursdays between 8-11pm, all house drinks and draught domestic beer for a dollar (premium drinks and beer were regular price). It really brought a lot of people in on an otherwise ho hum night.

My advice is to try and make it as fun a place a possible. Make people want to come back, and hopefully they will bring thier friends with them the next time.

My uncle owns a tavern in WI. Some of the things he does include:

-Sponsor a bowling team. Beer, bowling and blue collar go together, and after the bowling is over most everyone comes to the tavern. (My grandpa and uncle were both there when I bowled my first 200. ) It's sort of a rivalry between taverns too, so it's fun...

-He has two pool tables and an electronic soft tip dart machine

-Theme parties -> Obviously St Patty's, but also 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines. His tavern has a sort of 'hunter' theme. So they give out fishing gear, knives, lottery tickets for door prizes.

-Sports pools

I'm sure there's more. He's pretty involved in the community. I think he's sponsored a deer blind and an ice fishing shack, too...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Hmmmmmmmmm....

Gonna need a little more info.

Do your parents want/plan on staying there for any length of time?
If not,don't worry about it,not worth the time,effort and stress.

How long has the businesss been there,and how long has the current owner been in posession?

How much influence do your parents have,and how deep are the owner's pockets?

What kind of neighborhood,Residential,industrial,etc..?



What sort of clientele spends the most money on a regular basis?

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"You can't please everyone,so you've got to please yourself"

Back when I was still bartending, the owner of the restaurant/bar where I worked and I came up with a great way to get people to come out and have fun with Karaoke. Basically, it was a podunk version of Chuck Barris's old "The Gong Show".

We bought an old chinese gong, set up a table, and picked our judges from the crowd by drawing tickets that were given out at the door to everyone but the contestants. Then we took all of the corniest worst songs for a woman to do and put them on a numerical list for the guys, and took all of the corniest worst songs for a guy to do and put them on a numerical list for the women. (But later we changed it up a bit and mixed in a bunch of other songs to both lists that are damn near impossible to sing, or that are like fingers on a chalkboard when they are sung...lol)The contestants all signed up, and drew their songs out of a bowl. They had no idea what they were singing untill the title came up on the screen.

They all gave it their best shot (unless they really sucked and got gonged), the judges had their say after each song, and at the end after all contestants had done 2 or 3 songs, the winner was picked by crowd applause. Usually there was a simple prize - free dinner for 2, a t-shirt and a hat, free movie tickets, free music CD's, etc - and they varied for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We had monthly contests, and a yearly big winner too.

The crowd loved it and it really packed the place. Plus you haven't lived untill you've seen a 250 weightlifter sing Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man", or a 60 year old grandma sing Sir Mix A Lot's "Baby Got Back", or a redneck cowboy trucker sing an old broadway show tune...lol

We did it on every Saturday night - and we advertised it online, in the local paper, and on local cable access TV - and we had people coming from over a 40 mile radius of the place just to get involved. They liked it because they might get to judge, and they also liked to give it a try and see if they could truly sing anything.

Instead of a gong you could use a bell, an air horn, or whatever you want - and instead of tHe Karaoke GongShow you could call it Karaoke Suicide, Singer or Sucker, etc.

Eventually I quit bartending there, and the owner sold the place and retired, but a lot of people around here where I live still talk about it and laugh their butts off.