If you’ve just bought a pub and you’re looking at what you can do to make the best of 21st century marketing techniques, then read on.

We’re going to look at pub table booking software and other tools to ensure that you make it through that critical first year of business. You should then be in position to continue to go on and make a great financial success of your venture.

Although nobody can guarantee a successful first year for any small business, by following our tips, you can be sure that you’ll be on the path to ‘growth-ville’.

The government regularly release figures on the small businesses, and they say that 20% of new ones will fall down within the first 12 months. That’s not going to be you just as long as you know where the dangers lie. If you read the reasons why businesses can fail, you can avoid them.

Business Failures

Here are the main reasons why small businesses fail according to the UK insolvency website:

  1. Failure to identify a niche market on which to focus
  2. Carrying too much stock and making supplier payments too fast.
  3. Unable to apply ruthless control over costs.
  4. Not adapting offerings to meet interests of customers
  5. Not doing strong market research.
  6. Not employing a team who can market, produce, sell and finance effectively.
  7. Not paying taxes such as business rates, VAT, income tax, PAYE etc.
  8. Not pushing to grow the business, just aiming for stability.
  9. Inability to gain new markets.
  10. Not having funds to invest.

Here’s what to do to proactively avoid business failure:

  1. Keep an eye on costs to understand if you can minimise them by changing supplier. However, you do need to ensure that you buy quality products. Nobody wants to buy and then eat a sandwich with poor ingredients.

  2. Wage expenses can be optimised by employing a lunch time helper who does not stay on for the quieter mid-afternoon periods. You may also be able to do cleaning yourself as opposed to hiring a cleaner.
  3. Study the local market. Check the offerings of other pubs and keep yourself in line.
  4. Keep an eye on stock levels to keep wastage minimised. To do this most effectively, change menus to match what you have on hand.
  5. Maximise profits with available resources. If you have a function room, offer it to local groups on your quietist nights, ie often this is Tuesday night.
  6. Watch other successes. The beer festival of Long Itchendon started out with 3 pubs who agreed to run their own beer festival events at the same time, now it’s an event that attracts thousands.
  7. Make the best use of online systems. Pub table booking software can make all the difference when it comes to reservations. Customers can book a table on their schedule and they are more likely to arrive because of it.
  8. Be passionate. It takes energy but with passion you can be sure you have the best when it comes to food, ales and entertainment. Make it a goal to tell 5 people a day about how great it is. Marketing isn’t just for other people.

By applying some of these mindful business growth techniques, you’ll soon have customers enjoying your offerings and the pub table booking software will be your biggest ally. If you’re interested in how to use modern technology to support your pub’s first year, call us for a no obligation chat. We’re here to help and happy to do so.