The rotation of clubs in the metropolitan market is impressive: out of almost a hundred nightlife venues, approximately one fifth part is closed and reopened annually. According to rough estimates, the annual market turnover is about hundreds of millions of dollars. True, at the same time, it practically does not increase: an avalanche-like growth occurred in three post-crisis years.
Pick your recipe
The average amount of investment required for the full operation of a night club in Moscow is estimated by specialists at $ 500 thousand, profitability - 20-50%. Interestingly, the profitability of such institutions is often not related to the volume of investments: a club built for $ 50, 000 may turn out to be super successful, and one in which a million is invested will quickly burn out.
How to choose a room?
In most cases, it is the right choice of location that determines the success of a nightclub or disco. A fashionable metropolitan club, designed for middle and upper class, must be located in the city center, within the Garden Ring, and for simpler, more democratic establishments, the city outskirts are quite suitable (residents of neighboring houses often visit them). And one more important condition - it should be convenient to get to youth clubs not only by land transport, but also by metro.
When choosing a room from the list, the first floors of residential buildings should be excluded from the very beginning. If local authorities allow you to place a noisy nightlife there (which, for example, is impossible in Moscow), then indignant tenants will not give you normal work. And even provided that your sound insulation is perfect, there will probably be a couple or other active grandmothers who can ruin any party by simply calling the police outfit several times. Therefore, from the very beginning, you should focus on detached non-residential buildings.
The room itself must satisfy a number of criteria: have a sufficiently large area (experts advise making a main dance hall with a size of at least 250 sq. M) and high ceilings suitable for hanging light and sound equipment (from 4 m).
In the early 90s, an interesting trend was observed: for the organization of clubs and discos, former or still working houses and palaces of culture, the lobby of cinemas and concert halls were actively used. Until they were all taken apart. But in the regions you can still find similar buildings vegetating without a master. From the mid-90s, the former workshops of non-working plants began to be actively rebuilt. Their main advantage is a large area at affordable prices (in Moscow - from $ 200 per 1 sq. M). Such options, unlike building from scratch, require much lower costs: you just have to dismantle the machines or old chairs, equip the locker room and bar, develop a modern design, and most importantly - install lighting and sound equipment. For a small or closed (for casual visitors) club, a basement is quite suitable.
As practice shows, five years ago it was relatively easy to find a room in Moscow. And now - this is already a serious problem, holding back the development of the club business.
As for the interior, then there are no general recipes. You can spend $ 2 thousand per 1 square. m, creating an ultramodern design, but no one will come to you, but you can limit yourself to just a hundred dollars per meter, and the club will always have a full house. The fact is that such establishments primarily sell their atmosphere, and only in addition to it are the interior, dishes, drinks, etc. For example, the fashionable (and, by the way, economical, which allows not to buy expensive furniture) trend of recent years is the use rough wood.
Before embarking on the organizational and construction work, it is necessary to draw up a competent project. And here you can’t do without professionals. And you need to start with the development of a common concept. This will avoid unnecessary costs, constant miscalculations and alterations that repeatedly increase the estimate. In addition, experts will analyze the place you have chosen for compliance with its location of the chosen concept. They will help to get a list of all permits required for the normal operation of the club. Consultants usually take from 2 to 5 thousand dollars for their services.
But organizational functions can be assigned to the main club person who will be responsible for the whole concept of the institution (and not just for his program, as many still mistakenly think) - the promoter.
The main club man
According to many experts, it is from the promoter that the success or failure of any entertainment institution depends on 80%.
And in fact, the majority of club closures (and this is not so rare) is connected precisely with the unprofessionalism of the administrator. The specialty "promoter" cannot be obtained at any institute; this can only be learned in the process of work.
The main task of the promoter is to attract visitors. For this, he should clearly direct the activities of the institution in line with the developed concept. According to Andrei Fomin (a prominent promoter and showman in Moscow, founder of the annual Night Life Award ceremony, which determines the best night clubs of the year), it is the promoter who is responsible for the club’s concept, from the musical style to the organization of special parties. And the main task of this person is to create a holiday every night.
According to Garry Chaglasyan, one of the most famous Russian promoters (organizer of the "XIII" club), "in the West, the club is considered to be the only place in which every new promoter has a party every night. In Russia, they just don’t understand how it is "On Tuesday, rap can play, on Thursday - trip-hop, and on Saturday - progressive house. Now in our clubs the owner is often the managing director, art director, and promoter all rolled into one, and this doesn’t contribute to business at all.".
Club Orientation
According to statistics, up to 70% of profits are brought to the club by regular visitors. Therefore, at the first stage of developing the concept, it is necessary to determine who your institution will be designed for: “golden” youth or teenagers from the outskirts, respectable businessmen or rockers, representatives of sexual minorities or straight people. The interior, music, drinks, prices and even the level of service entirely depend on the target audience.
The main visitors to night places are young people under 35 years old. But she also varies in age, wealth, hobbies, outlook on life. Conventionally, all clubs can be divided into three main categories: expensive, affordable youth (more like discos) and narrowly thematic. The latter usually differ in musical directions: jazz, rock, pop, etc. There are also clubs for women, gays, etc. If you are planning to open a nightlife, you should keep in mind that if you try to do something foreign to yourself (for example, a convinced straight man wants to organize a gay club), then it is difficult to hope for success.
"Golden youth
To work with bohemian and “golden” youth, the most attractive visitors to expensive clubs, is the most difficult. In addition, the creation of such institutions has its own specifics. Unlike the opening of elite restaurants, where a lot of money is spent on repairs, interior decoration, and the purchase of expensive furniture and utensils, a night club for "golden" boys and girls does not require special financial investments. This statement perfectly confirms the success of the Jazz Cafe, which opened in 1998, a club organized by the Yugoslav promoter Sinis Lazarevich, who has extensive experience in promoting such establishments in Belgrade and Italian cities. The organizers of the "Jazz cafe" greatly saved on repairs, furniture and equipment, and the advertising item of expenses was generally omitted. They focused all their attention on creating an atmosphere of mystery, bohemianity, selectivity, and elitism around the institution.
The second example is the club "XIII". According to his promoter Harry Chaglasyan, "comfort, novelty, the desire for unobtrusive luxury and decadence, as well as a dynamically changing atmosphere when one evening is not like another, are important for our visitors." In such clubs, it is not accepted to take money for admission, and the profit is only due to the bar. The prices are appropriate: a cup of coffee - $ 10, cocktails - starting at $ 50. The main principle of such a club is this: I bought, for example, a bottle of tequila for $ 20, and sold it on tap already for 400. With a large number of bottles sold, the profit may turn out to be huge. The average visitor in such places spends $ 100-200 per night, i.e. only with a hundred customers (this is the average number of visitors to one party) does the institution help out 10–20 thousand dollars
An interesting feature of expensive clubs is their short life (no more than two years). When the place is "boring", the owner simply closes the club to open it in a new place and under a new name. Another option: the club closes for reconstruction, and then reopens in the same place (usually this is due to a lack of space). True, he will most likely never repeat his former success.
But the institutions tailored according to the principle of elitism have one significant drawback - a small number of potential customers, especially in the provinces. And in Moscow, the target audience of expensive clubs, according to some estimates, does not exceed 5 thousand people.
Noisy place
The broadest target audience for democratic youth clubs. According to experts, only in Moscow it is about 100 thousand people, mostly from 15 to 25 years old, i.e. schoolchildren and students. Usually they are not inclined to get a drink at the bar, so the fee is taken for the admission ticket. Its ceiling is 150 rubles. This money is the main income of youth clubs.
And here such subtleties as the personality of the promoter and enhanced face control at the entrance no longer matter. The success of a "large-format" institution depends on the lighting and musical equipment, the size and capacity of the room, and most importantly, on the volume of advertising. If the music sounds loud, the lighting equipment sparkles brightly, the entrance fee is around 50-60 rubles, and invitation flyers with advertising are distributed on the streets, then an influx of visitors is provided. Some, of course, are ready to leave 100 rubles in your bar, but you need to come to terms with the fact that the main dose of alcohol enters the body of customers before the doors of the club.
Here, as in the first case, an expensive design is not required, the bulk of the costs are borne by the purchase of sound and lighting equipment of the appropriate power. As for the monthly expenses, then the main share falls on the payment of invited DJs (DJ): from 50 to 150 dollars per evening. Unless, of course, this is a star who can earn up to $ 500 per speech.
In managing such establishments, the main thing is to adhere to a flexible pricing policy. On weekends, there are many more people who want to relax and have fun, so the maximum entrance fee should be set on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, after a stormy weekend, the influx subsides, and most clubs either arrange a day off or make entrance free. Experts say that an institution working according to such a scheme has a profitability of 20-50%.
Unconventional profit
In the largest cities of the world, specialized gay clubs are actively opening and promoting. The first such institution in Moscow began its work in 1995, and today there are five of them. According to experts, every year clients leave in the capital's gay clubs up to $ 1 million in cash.
According to statistics, 7% of the population prefer to have sex with people of their gender. Another 20% practice bisexual relationships. All of them, as a rule, lead an active lifestyle and are inherently quite curious. To find a suitable partner, relax and just chat, these citizens often visit nightlife venues. It is also noted that among people with non-traditional sexual orientation a rather large percentage of people are well-off, which makes them interesting clients for sharks of the "night" business. In addition, the atmosphere of freedom, fun, a permanent holiday and carnival reigning in gay clubs attracts up to 50% of straight visitors there. Some owners of such establishments try to artificially filter visitors by gender, setting a price for admission for women twice as high as for men. However, in practice, this does not stop anyone.
Despite the fact that the sequence of steps when opening such a club is generally traditional, it has its own subtleties. The main requirement: to manage the club you need to look for an administrator who is in the circle of potential customers and knows the "specifics of the genre." Expenses for DJ performance are added to the expenses of DJs, the performance of a travesty show and the equipment of the so-called dark room - places where visitors can retire.
Striptease is not cheap. Show "with a name", male ballet, etc. work on a fixed payment basis: from 400-800 dollars per speech. The upper bar depends on the popularity of the invited team. The loners of the club dictate conditions alone. Typically, they are paid between $ 50 and $ 150 per exit. At the first time of the work of such an institution, an influx of visitors is guaranteed, since people with a gay orientation love visiting new places. And your main task is to keep them.
Light + sound
It is impossible for an inexperienced person to independently select and install the lighting and sound equipment suitable for the club format. When choosing, experts are guided by such parameters as area, perimeter shape, ceiling height, as well as the location of tables, stages and a bar; Of particular importance is the style of music that will sound in the club.
When creating high-quality light and sound in an institution with the size of the main ballroom of 150-200 square meters. m, it is quite possible to meet $ 15 thousand, of which two-thirds will be in the light, and one-third in the sound (lighting fixtures are more expensive, and it’s more difficult to install them).
If the ceiling height is limited to four meters, you can save on the purchase of equipment: devices that illuminate a maximum of 4 m are almost a third cheaper than more powerful ones that can "overcome" 8 m. If your club is planning to perform various kinds of show groups, the stage will require a special lighting. For the full operation of the entire lighting system, you need to pay attention primarily to the number of hours of uninterrupted operation of the lamps.
If the club provides for the performance of both "live" musicians and DJs, the power of 7-8 kW is enough. The minimum set of equipment in this case includes 2 broadband speakers, 2 two-way, 4 low-frequency, crossover (controller), processing unit (equalizers, compressors) and DJ equipment (remote control, turntable). Experts do not advise (especially where there is a "live" sound) to install its digital sources: full-fledged sound reproduction is possible only on analog equipment.
According to Nikolai Hovhannisyan, director of X-Light, installation of lighting and sound equipment should be carried out at the stage of rough work. However, many customers begin to select it after all the main work is completed, which is fundamentally wrong. Moreover, even the famous and expensive clubs suffer from such hindsight.
10-15% of the cost of equipment is usually spent on installation, and it takes a week to complete the time. The main lighting devices that no club can do without: the so-called "central" (1.5–2 thousand dollars) with many effects, attached to the ceiling; scanners (500-1500 dollars); rotating heads (from $ 700); strobe lights ($ 70–250); UV lamps ($ 20); smoke machine (in the smoke produced, the most clearly visible light rays - from $ 80); mirror ball for disco music (40-100 dollars); lasers (from 2 thousand dollars). And having become rich, you can buy soap bubble devices or artificial snow generators (500–1000 dollars).
Now, only in Moscow there are about a hundred firms specializing in the supply of lighting and sound equipment. When buying a large batch of equipment, you can count on a discount of up to 10-15% of the total cost. For trusted customers who have paid their first purchases regularly, supplier companies can offer an installment plan without interest.
Success Basics
The price of admission is only the visible part of the club’s profit iceberg. Most of the money, though not in democratic institutions, is made at the bar, because the margin on drinks can reach 200-300%. But people are willing to pay for the opportunity to "hang out" and listen to music.
Today, many beer manufacturers provide bar equipment for bottling in unlimited free rent in exchange for the fact that you will only buy beer from them. As a result, you can save a lot on buying a part of bar equipment.
Now the average bill in a nightclub bar is $ 10-50 per person, i.e. per night it is from 1 to 5 thousand dollars of income, it all depends on the audience. The main person in the bar, of course, is the bartender, he largely affects the profitability of the institution. In the absence of the owner, the bartender can sell drinks, cigarettes, chips and nuts for beer from under the floor. As a result, the owner’s lost profit. Another way to cause damage to the owner is an incorrectly broken check. This problem is solved by installing a video camera and the merciless dismissal of all unscrupulous employees.
You can get additional profit by attracting a sponsor: when advertising of alcohol and cigarettes is prohibited on television, many manufacturers direct their advertising budgets to advertising at points of sale - to where it is still allowed. Sponsorship can range from a few dozen to $ 100, 000 per party.
For clubs playing live music, the issue of inviting musicians remains a very urgent issue. Performance of beginner groups is very cheap: you can get off $ 150 for a party. But among them there are very rarely those who stand, and bad music will simply scare the audience away. Position can save the invitation of the stars. True, they will have to pay up to $ 10, 000 for a performance, but all expenses will surely pay off: for example, an entrance ticket for a star in the popular Moscow club “16 tons” costs $ 15–20, and the club accommodates 600–670 people. But in the province, the performance of a promoted group will cost 1.5–2 times more expensive.
One of the main points for any club is a reliable security system, because visitors are very different. Some institutions prefer to create security structures on their own. But it’s more profitable to invite professionals, besides their work is not as expensive as it might seem ($ 2–5 per hour, and 5–6 people at night is enough). The security tasks include not only protecting the premises and all visitors to the club from external intrusions, but maintaining order in the hall, identifying drug distributors and neutralizing them.
Promotion Stages
One of the most important stages after the opening of the club is the “promotion”, which usually takes from one to several months. Its specificity again depends on the orientation of the institution. If your main audience is student youth, then advertising campaigns should be carried out in institutes, places of parties, underground passages (in the capital, the passage under Pushkinskaya Square is used for this purpose). One of the most popular types of promotion is the distribution of flyers (printing such a mini-flyer will cost $ 40 for 1 thousand units), giving their owners all kinds of discounts on certain days. As a rule, distributors receive a percentage for each flyer used for their intended purpose, but the main incentive for them is free admission, especially if the ticket price is high. Advertising on popular music radio stations is also quite effective (but also significantly costly).
However, all experts unanimously argue that in terms of effectiveness, nothing can compare with advertising "by word of mouth." Youth "word of mouth" instantly spread all the information about the new institution.
In order to be able to quickly find you in the darkness of Moscow streets, order an advertising sign shining with all colors. In this regard, neon is the most popular, a running meter of which costs $ 10–40 in a specialized advertising workshop. However, some clubs don’t spend money on advertising or on a sign - it can even hurt them (for example, an undesirable audience will come, and theirs and so everyone knows).