If you have followed me on mastodon you will know what is happening.
Some of you may know I purchased a former pub for my home in Wales nearly 4 years ago. Not a pub now. Settling down in Wales, as are many of my children, and grandchildren (half of which are Welsh!).
But now, two of my friends have decided they would like to actually run a pub!
There is a saying: "How to make a small fortune running a pub? Start with a large fortune and work at it until it is a small fortune".
But that does not mean it is impossible, and it seems sometimes that the whole industry is run on the edge of solvency somehow. I may be wrong, and obviously there are pub+hotel and other combinations that work well, but the way some pubs are run is, err, interesting.
I have got myself involved in helping them in a lot of ways now. It started as just "we'll sort internet", but doing more and more. I'm spending most days there helping out right now.
It will be very interesting to see if they can make it work. They are organised, and experienced in related businesses. They are hard working. They take customer service seriously. I think this can work.
Lots of little things, like a defibrillator on the pub - I'm sponsoring that (well A&A are) - one of my staff died suddenly and that scares the shit out of me, more places having these will definitely save lives. And if it saves one life it is worth every penny.
And, of course, the WiFi has IPv6.
They are going for pub + cafe, with decent coffee, and choice of milk and so on, like many other "coffee shops", but also with early opening for coffee and breakfast. Do the coffee right and it could make as much as the alcohol, who knows?
But making sure they are starting it out well from a tech side is my project. They are sorting refurbishing and redecorating, and some serious cleaning. I am sorting decent WiFi/internet, and CCTV and a few other things. Even to the extent of properly registered with ICO and proper published privacy policy. I hope I can provide input on the way some of us would like a pub run. But it is their pub, not mine.
But for now - grand opening end of next week before Abergavenny food festival (only drinks for now), and then finish the refurbishment and start food as well.
I am, however, damn impressed with the WiFi we have put in. It does not just cover the front, but the whole of the Brewery Yard car park and even out the to A40. Some opportunities for take away coffee to the market traders maybe, with the working WiFi connected credit card machine... We'll see how it goes.
I'll post more on opening dates, and so on...
Sounds to me like you might be in a position to help with stock control and stock management, but tempting though it might be I'd avoid re-inventing the POS (point of sale) wheel. I used to co-own a restaurant, a bankruptcy turn-around, and an objective eye when it comes to the basic sums required to make a profit, combined with accurate reporting, are the difference between insolvency and making a go of it. PS. How about a free VOIP callbox? Something novel perhaps, like dial the speaking clock in Oz? Or a nice red, free-to-use, A&A sponsored phone box in the carpark? Patrick
ReplyDeleteor toilet signage labelled IpeeV6
DeleteWhat did you use for the WiFi ? Having looked at the map it looks tough - Costa and Greggs round the corner. And Wetherspoons behind.
ReplyDeleteJust FS.COM kit, but proper outdoor WiIf modules which are not cheap.
DeleteBetter than Unifi or Ruckus?
DeleteRuckus costs more AFAIk, and Unifi struggled with IPv6.
DeleteHaha no need to write POS, you can lol into the open source quicktill
ReplyDeletehttps://github.com/sde1000/quicktill
That's written by a pub owner who did the same CS degree as me.
The fixtures and fittings included a Square till and card machine which seems sane enough for now.
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