My Personal Experience and Observations

When I first came to live in Spain in 1973, my first business enterprise was to build and operate a bar in the style of a typical Victorian style London pub, in Benalmadena Costa. I, like many prospective bar owners, imagined that running a bar in sunny Spain would be the next thing to paradise – built-in social life and being able to take a drink for more or less free when ever I felt like it.

I had some basic building and carpentry experience, but none in the catering business. Before leaving the UK, I wisely started to learn Spanish and read up on the pub trade, in particular the art of mixing cocktails. I also got a good friend to construct a scale model of the interior of the bar, which proved to be exceptionally useful.

In those days, obtaining the correct permissions to mount and run a business was extremely difficult to obtain for foreigners. We were advised to contact the local sergeant of the Guardia Civil, who we told, was the local “Mr Fix it”. Sergeant Garcia did allow us to open the business very rapidly, using some very dubious methods. After the bar was up and running, Garcia tried to cash in our relationship by ordering expensive rounds of drinks for himself and friends and then leaving without paying. However, one of our best customers was the ex-mayor of Arroyo de la Miel, who quickly resolved this problem.

Fortunately, nowadays it is much easier for foreigners to obtain the appropriate licences and resorting to clandestine “short cuts” is not recommended.

The bar went well from day one and continued to do so for the first six months. At this time a large property company, Sofico, who had conveniently built 14 blocks of apartments near the bar, went broke and our “Golden Goose” died a sudden death. From then on the flow of customers reduced dramatically and we learned a very valuable lesson in survival – never take a single customer for granted. We don’t visit a bar simply to have a drink – we can do this much cheaper by staying at home. No, we are looking for company and atmosphere. The décor can assist the atmosphere, but the main factor is the personality of the owner. How many establishments have you visited on the coast where the reception is cold and indifferent? Would you return to those places in a hurry?

The bar survived and prospered and the Sofico apartments problem resolved itself. However, “the next thing to paradise – built-in social life” concept quickly dissolved. I soon discovered the downside of the business, which can be summarised as follows:-

• At times, long hours with very few customers,
• The monotony of working in the same place day after day,
• Working unsociable hours,
• Dealing with the customer who insists on relating his life story for the nth time,
• Ejecting drunks and undesirables.

On the positive side, we created a business that provided a reasonable income over many years. On selling the business about ten years later, we increased our original investment by a factor of five. We also met some very interesting people and made some good friends.

To sum up, I would say that even today, starting a bar or restaurant can be a very profitable business, with the following qualifications:-

• Choose the site carefully, ideally close to fairly densely populated areas, (don’t be afraid of competition – people like to frequent areas where there is lots of choice and atmosphere),
• Cultivate the kind of clientele that you feel comfortable with,
• Choose a very individual décor.
• Make your clients feel important to you,
• Be prepared to work hard in a very demanding environment.

John Carr, Webmaster