How much money does a dance club owner make in a year?

Answer 1

How much money a club makes depends on a few of these factors:

1) Location:

- Is it in a small town or a big city?

- How much foot traffic is there? Convenient parking?

- Is it in a high-end or poor section of the city? Nice neighborhood?

- How much space do you have?

- Are there other options/clubs nearby? How will you differentiate your club from the others? How much will it cost to advertise/establish this image?

2) Revenues:

-How much traffic do you get on a typical night? On the weekends?

-How much can you charge for a drink? How much do your competitors charge? If you charge less, will you sell more? What sort of specials do you run?

-Cover charge? Will you turn away/draw more people with a high one?

-All bar, or will you serve food?

3) Entertainment:

- Loud music? Blues musicians? Classic Rock? Light elevator music?

- Dancers? Strippers?

- How much space for dancing and how much for tables?

- Live stuff or canned? Karaoke?

4) Expenses:

- Liquor is not cheap. Even in bulk. For the good stuff, you have to buy lockable cabinets and such to protect it.

- Liquor License, and associated payoffs to politicians to make sure they don't bother you about it. Yes, politicians will demand bribes.

- Cops, and associated payoffs to make sure they bust people OUTSIDE your club, not inside. Yes, the cops will demand bribes.

- Protection money from mobsters. Yes, they will demand bribes.

- How many employees do you need to have on-hand each night? What percentage salary/tips?

- Taxes, taxes, taxes. Taxes on liquor, property, income, etc.

- Regulatory expenses. The politicians will always find something new to impose on you. They change railing height every three years, acceptable flooring materials every four, etc.

- Insurance against liability, fire, theft, people injured by your bouncers, etc.

- Theft by employees/thieves.

- Breakage of glasses/bottles/mirrors. Random damage to tables, chairs, seats, etc. Plan on replacing a toilet at least once a week. Toilet seats once every other night in a college town.

- Maintenance and janitorial services.

In other words: This is not a question that can be answered readily, but it is one you can work out for yourself, given time. Do a little research in to the area around where you wish to locate, and find out what cover charges/foot traffic/drink charges are like in the area. Consider your clientele, and what their behavior is likely to be like, then assume they are much worse than that. Also, assume you will need 20% more employees than you think at any given time. Many of them will be sick/will not show. Those that do will often be lazy/incompetent or, if competent, they will be thieves.

You can clear a good 10-20% profit margin at a big dance club, but it involves a LOT of hard work, and requires time to establish a client base.