- Thread starter HUG
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Costs of opening a bar.
Running a successful business requires a number of different skills. Since hiring and retaining local people to work for the owner, the owner must understand the culture pretty well. This is harder for someone who has not lived in the culture as a rule. A colmado typically is open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. An 84 hour week is a pretty grueling job.
gas stations make good money but they also cost a lot of money to buy.
in most businesses it's not enough to open and sit back to watch the money pour in. you have to put money in before you take any money out. buy stock, pay employees, fork out for permits and documents. i know owners of successful businesses in DR, including foreigners, but they had money to start, a good concept and put in tons of work.
The key word to look for is *established.* You can buy a profitable business. In the last 10 years in Sosua, Rocky's, Britannia, Checkpoint, and Jolly Rogers have all flipped and made it... But they don't come up often and they have landlords who are working on the long term.
Amazing that someone wants you to pay $20K or more for their empty storefront or failed business that you will need to scrap and need to pump a ton of money in just to get up and running again. When the Misners took over Checkpoint years back, they paid nothing for it. They just took over the lease and they did very well with it(with both of them putting in full weeks of work, btw.)
The rents in Sosua are based on what the most naive person with deep pockets will pay, not on prior revenue, success, equipment or the value of the storefront.
When I was looking in Sosua, many folks wanted more than new retail value for equipment because they wanted a "return on their investment." In the US, used equipment will typically sell for 25% of retail to a reseller who will then try to double their money.
Has the place opened yet where Pluuto's used to be?
Amazing that someone wants you to pay $20K or more for their empty storefront or failed business that you will need to scrap and need to pump a ton of money in just to get up and running again. When the Misners took over Checkpoint years back, they paid nothing for it. They just took over the lease and they did very well with it(with both of them putting in full weeks of work, btw.)
The rents in Sosua are based on what the most naive person with deep pockets will pay, not on prior revenue, success, equipment or the value of the storefront.
When I was looking in Sosua, many folks wanted more than new retail value for equipment because they wanted a "return on their investment." In the US, used equipment will typically sell for 25% of retail to a reseller who will then try to double their money.
Has the place opened yet where Pluuto's used to be?
No. When I went by there earlier this week it appeared they were still working on the interior.
I remember many years ago the rental of a beach bar in Sosua beach was about 10k pesos a month (one year lease), sometime with a working fridge and power already connected. All you had to do was to stock the beers and turn it on.
Though even with that easy start you could not make money, still can't, may be a few months of the high season but doomed to fail all year around, won't even make enough to pay a waiteress and the rent.
Though I know some guys just rent and used it as their watering hole, pay the rent out of their pocket and drink their own beers with their friends instead of buying from other bars, now that is a concept you can look into - though that is not a business but a hobby... !?
Though even with that easy start you could not make money, still can't, may be a few months of the high season but doomed to fail all year around, won't even make enough to pay a waiteress and the rent.
Though I know some guys just rent and used it as their watering hole, pay the rent out of their pocket and drink their own beers with their friends instead of buying from other bars, now that is a concept you can look into - though that is not a business but a hobby... !?
That's what I did with my 8ft x12ft colmado in the Pacific Islands. I had a twin mattress that flipped up under the service counter during the day. I had an outhouse across the road by the ocean and for showers, and I paid a kid some gum to fetch me a couple gallons of water in milk jugs every day so I could wash. Open 7:30am-11pm seven days a week and took a two hour lunch everyday to go to town and place my orders. No drinking and no time for women and song. I was doing between $3000-$4000/week in sales with about a 15% mark-up, but coffee at a dollar a cup was my biggest money maker.
When the landlord saw how much business I was doing she decided to double my rent. After all, when she first rented it to me, there was no electric and no one could make money there. Now that I there was and putting in the hours, it was worth more. Only reason there was electric was that I had it installed on my dime including bribing the utility guys a case a beer to get it to the front of the line.
What, Me Worry ?
The cost of opening a bar is: acquiring the up front money, running a gauntlet of shakedown artists, not knuckling under the demands of vendors (you buy from me only), greasing the palms of gov't officials for permits and providing them with occasional freebies, preventing employees from ripping you off, earning enough to pay bills and make profit, no time off, looking over your shoulder while going to the bank, worry, and little sleep.
On the plus side, gaining new friends.
Regards,
PJT
The cost of opening a bar is: acquiring the up front money, running a gauntlet of shakedown artists, not knuckling under the demands of vendors (you buy from me only), greasing the palms of gov't officials for permits and providing them with occasional freebies, preventing employees from ripping you off, earning enough to pay bills and make profit, no time off, looking over your shoulder while going to the bank, worry, and little sleep.
On the plus side, gaining new friends.
Regards,
PJT
you are so right. saw a used, rather scruffy Cuisinart chopper at an embarque for 1500 pesos. brand new on Amazon; 30 bucks. the guy told me he was giving me a break. i told him he was breaking my ass.
the new one is on order. realism is not in ample supply here.
I wonder what happened with La Canoa. At one time about ten years ago, it was a Dominican bar and was really hopping. No worries about the tourist industry, occasional live music and pool tables. Mostly sold Presidente Grandes and whole bottles of Brugal. Whenever I went, I was the only gringo there. It was closed for a while then opened as another tourist bar and I think in its last incarnation was some concept restaurant named Simply Red(?). It didn't last long...
My best guess is someone saw the Dominican demo and thought it would make more money as a tourist bar. They paid a bucket load for it and promptly ran it into the ground by ridding it of the Dominicans and being too far off the main drag to get the tourists in. It was a great venue, but it may as well have been in another town as far as getting in the tourist crowd. I asked about the price once when it was for sale and got some sticker shock..
Good example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
My best guess is someone saw the Dominican demo and thought it would make more money as a tourist bar. They paid a bucket load for it and promptly ran it into the ground by ridding it of the Dominicans and being too far off the main drag to get the tourists in. It was a great venue, but it may as well have been in another town as far as getting in the tourist crowd. I asked about the price once when it was for sale and got some sticker shock..
Good example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Frank took that dive to new heights, and the only hiccup was when that American scam artist burned him for a few thousand pesos. look at the place now.
better yet; don't look at it. there is nothing to see.
I'm sure this happens to Dominicans who try to do start ups as well. It happens all over the world. The irony is often when the landlord ups the rent too much, the place can sit empty for years.
More than half of the empty storefronts where I live are owned by the same landlord. In their view, it's better to let a place sit empty for 4 years with a listed rent of $7000/month than have it always rented at $4000/month. The thought is the more the listed rent is, the higher the property value is. When they do get tenants(almost always from out of town), they don't last.
More than half of the empty storefronts where I live are owned by the same landlord. In their view, it's better to let a place sit empty for 4 years with a listed rent of $7000/month than have it always rented at $4000/month. The thought is the more the listed rent is, the higher the property value is. When they do get tenants(almost always from out of town), they don't last.
Pure BS. My wife and I have made a lot of money in the DR and we don't even "live" there. I personally know lots of folks that have done VERY well financially in the DR. It's like anywhere else. You have to do your homework. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Sure, there are tons of stories about folks going broke while doing business in the DR. There are a 1000x more stories about business' going broke in the US than in the DR. Just don't invest any money in to ANYTHING until you have a complete and thorough understanding of that business.