A lawyer with industry experience. Just need to find some investors.
Lottery Winners
- Thread starter Aloha Hoosier
- Start date
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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My business is wholly funded by lawyers. From day one. They’re always up for an out
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
I'm thinking of starting a Ponzi scheme. Or go off grid and start a cult.
I’m thinking of marrying a rich old man. If you like what you do you’ll never work a day of your life. I take solace in this inasmuch as I don’t see a retirement in my future. Need more revenue streams. That’s the key. Maybe get goat to start smoking again and buy into that pub. We’ll need him at his nicotine best
Sure, why not? If it happens, I'll do that. I'll even hang an old-fashioned wooden sign over the door with a cartoonish goat carved into it.
Don't tease. If I had the investors, I could rock it. I know the industry inside and out. But when I said I was 10% of the way there, that was for a hole-in-the-wall. To do it right, in this day and age, I'd probably need to put together about half a mil to open a proper bar.
Lottery tax on the poor is a very simple math equation combined with marketing data. Honestly all gambling is a scourge for the lower- middle class. And I'm a gambling lover, but we know the two biggest profits points in the industry are slot machines and scratchers. Low dollar entry point and a shot at a big jackpot are where you target the "poorly-educated" for customers.
Games like craps and blackjack have small house edges, but they are miniscule compared to the terrible odds that are a lottery system. Scratchers are the crack cocaine of gambling, I'm still amazed people buy those, almost always the people that don't have throw away money.
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That's lower than I was guessing. How confident would you be on its success of spitting out $50k/yr to the absentee owner?
It definitely depends on the location. And it varies tremendously even within a few square miles. One of the biggest costs of opening a bar is the liquor ticket, but most states have quotas for each governing body, so it's much more expensive to get a ticket inside a city than it is to get one in the hick town just a few miles outside the limits. Unless that town is dry, of course (Ohio, f*ck you).
As for profit, if you asked me five years ago, I'd say I could easily turn half a mil into a 50K return given the right location. I'm not as sure now, simply because costs have changed so dramatically, I haven't been able to keep up. To hit that level of return, I think you'd need to see some new developments in efficiency that, while already popular in chain restaurants, would still be far in the future for local pubs.
But given the right location and proper funding, I'm confident I could put together an operation that was profitable within two years, and approached that 50K within, say, five or so. Maybe less if I got lucky with the right employees.
Edit: to give some context to how much success can swing in the business, the last bar my old boss opened, which I helped him set up, was unprofitable for the first 18 months, but within three years, it was making so much money that he was pulling out 100K a year from his capital account, while the bar's cash reserves were still growing.
Any new business is going to be cash flow negative for a year or two. That's the standard risk that's expected. I'd expect something I was investing it to come close to break even by year 2.
The liquor licensing business is absurd, but is what it is. The lords of the state need their taste.
What's your vision for this pub, in the ideal world? What's it look and feel like? Why is it better than every other one in town?
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You’re far better equipped to succeed than most with your experience and background. When we started our manufacturing business we were all lawyers with zero experience in the field and it showed. That said I’ve learned a ton and if there’s one piece of advice that I can impart that I believe is universal for startups is get more money than you think you’ll need and get as much of it as possible up front. Ideally all of it. We raised money as went along and it drastically impeded our growth and delayed our progress big time
My wife's uncle won $1,000,000 from the old Hoosier Lottery show many years ago. He was the stereotypical lottery winner...unemployed and on some sort of sketchy disability, living in a trailer. He cleared around $350k with the lump sum after taxes. Not huge wealth, but could have set this guy up with a better life. It was gone in under a year, and he was still in the trailer. Lol. We all saw that coming.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
And so the delicate dance of negotiation begins . . .
I know exactly who you are talking about. He also did a lot of wilderness and camping type training with the young boys in our hood. He taught my 7 yo little brother how to field dress a sparrow. Mom got tired of him bringing them in the house.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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Internet torpedoed that biz. Can’t get good looking ones.
hey bad news too. flat bills are about to be out. lulu pants and all of it. i just read an article that we're about to get hit with a western style trend. flannels, cowboys hats and boots. all of it. people want to look like the Duttons. So we're going to have to ride this one out, obviously. sucks because father time only allows you to ride out so many trend waves. sorry.
I’ll ride it out like I have every trend in the past 30 years - golf attire.
right but with all due respect you aren't out there either. brad and i are. so i don't want him standing at the corner of the bar wearing a flat bill and white soles while everyone else looks like RIP. This pivot couldn't have come at a worse time
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your avatar (is that right) handle pic is fantastic aloha. love it
I saw a huge pair of Bell Bottoms Friday night at the Edgewwod Ball game. It wasn't a kid, it was a MOM! Nest thing, Disco comes back.
Nope. The kids are down here wear them. My wife and daughter trade cloths too. Pisses my daughter off. So how did the mom look?🤣
You spend entire evenings planning a bar you’ll only ever open if you win the lottery?
You should get out more.
I suspect Goat doesn't realize that raising funds is easier than he thinks. That said people are risk averse. Especially if you are content and comfy it's scary and takes a certain mentality. I was in the beginning of a midlife crisis and hated practicing law with a passion at that point. I had enough lawyers around me who hated it as much and were happy to subsidize a get rich scheme to make it a no-brainer. But i was going to get out of law no matter what. Until you are so unhappy, for many, inertia is hard to overcome
and i will tell you starting and running a business is infinitely more difficult than practicing law or starting a law practice. not even close in comparison to the challenge. law is easy. there's a roadmap. everything you need right in front of you. business you are out in the deep sea on a kayak
Everyone wants to own Cheers, or Nicks, or the Irish Lion. Instead. if you're smart, you'll be looking at something akin to Kenny's Tavern (Ellettsville) or the Office Lounge. You've got to thread the needle between respectable and working class hard drinkers. Cater to the lunch crowd with good sandwiches -- and have one that's your specialty that no one else does as good as you do -- and have decent fare for dinner. Then you need to be welcoming to the drunks who stay until closing time. They will be loyal and will drive the majority of booze sales.
If you're going to gamble bet on politics or sports. At least there is some skill and knowledge involved there vs just pure luck. The slot machines and scratch off thing I don't get.
One of my lottery dreams was to own a pool hall. But I know nothing other than how to play pool.
Also, nobody plays pool anymore. Sigh.
You can't have a pool hall anymore. Can't allow smoking and the poker game and slot machine in the back are legal anywhere.
I wouldn’t even care if the place made any money. Just a place to go for an old creepy codger like me. An old shotgun style. One long bar with a bit of seating, pool table, tvs, etc…
Don't need checks cashed anymore either
Simple menu with quality food. If you have a specialty that hooks people even better. Above average food. Above average atmosphere. Average prices. Sell tons of booze. And an attractive staff in a good locale. I guess it's easier said then done. or a good patio.
this first one has been around more than fifty years. staff is miserable looking. super simple menu. not a great location at all. but fantastic burger and roast beef sandwich. The food alone carries the day along with regulars. Second place has decent pub food but some classic irish pub options akin to the irish lion but it has one of the best patios in town so people will always go there just for that. and drink and drink and drink.
Home | O'Connell's Pub
www.oconnells-pub.com
John D. McGurk's
www.mcgurks.com
They had Hwy 61 Roadhouse on DD&D's last night.Simple menu with quality food. If you have a specialty that hooks people even better. Above average food. Above average atmosphere. Average prices. Sell tons of booze. And an attractive staff in a good locale. I guess it's easier said then done. or a good patio.
this first one has been around more than fifty years. staff is miserable looking. super simple menu. not a great location at all. but fantastic burger and roast beef sandwich. The food alone carries the day along with regulars. Second place has decent pub food but some classic irish pub options akin to the irish lion but it has one of the best patios in town so people will always go there just for that. and drink and drink and drink.
Home | O'Connell's Pub
John D. McGurk's
www.mcgurks.com
Ever eaten there?
Come into the bar sad and leave happy!
I'm in as long as I'm at the top of the scheme.
And you don't let MCM in... he'll screw it up if you let him in. No shit?! Ha that’s super random. I love that show by the way. And I have. It’s okay. I love the menu and wish it was better. You know St Louis. It’s in Webster
Yeah for sure. We’ll have a food poisoning event. A sexual harassment claim. Then without goat’s or twenty’s or brad’s consent I’ll convince Johnny Taffer at Bar Rescue to feature us.Come into the bar sad and leave happy!
I'm in as long as I'm at the top of the scheme.
