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Thread: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

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    Question Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Hi there,
    I have been a lurker for a while now and I have been thinking about starting up a club. Dancing just became legal here and no one has opened a club as of yet, so I thought I might try to get a head start.
    I am going for a medium class club. I am trying to attract the construction workers in my area because there are a lot, they get paid well, and they are not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I would try to go with a laid back theme (obviously) that is similar to the Earls restaurant franchise or a toned down Moxies. These places are Canadian and I am unsure of the American equivalent, but they are relativity nice places with decent food. Here are some pictures to get an idea, my place wouldn't be as upscale, because I think these places are pretty fancy, but something similar.
    Earls02.jpg earls_restaurant_interior_550x310.jpeg

    I wanted to ask you guys a couple questions about things you would like to see in a club, how it runs, etc.
    Keep in mind the ladies can not be fully nude, which means no exposed nipples.
    So, here it goes!
    1. Do clubs usually serve food and if so, do people order or do they find it awkward?
    2. I was thinking about a 5 item menu with delicious appetizer like things such as; Peel and eat shrimp(wings of the sea), wings, pork tacos, and something else in this field. Would this appeal to customers or would it be awkward?
    3. Are there waitresses that take care of all the customers drinks for the night? (The customers that sit at tables)
    4. Do clubs usually have wine menus?
    5. Do clubs have those tiny flip book menus of all of their cocktails?
    6. Cloth or paper napkins? (I'm thinking cloth because it is cheaper, but is it too fancy?)
    7. What kind of uniform would a waitress wear?
    8. Should the bar be able to serve margaritas and other things "exotic" like that?
    9. Should lap dance rooms have poles? What are these rooms called? I don't think touching as allowed, I am looking into it.
    10. Should a middle class place have a champagne room? What exactly is a champagne room?

    I think these are all the questions I have for now, I am specifically worried about the food issue, because I would really love to serve food, but I don't want people to be put off by it because it is from a "stripclub". Though I have heard that there are many successful places that do serve food. I am NOT talking about an all you can eat buffet, this food would be made to order and fresh

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    1) Some do, some don't The clubs I've worked in this area that do serve food, tend to be a little more dive-y.. Food's good, but not a necessity. One of the busiest clubs I work just has a vending machine and popcorn.
    2) Having a menu at all means having a kitchen. So just consider that.
    3) Yes
    4) No
    5) Not usually
    6) Paper, because cloth napkins means they have to go through a linen service.. which costs money. and most of the clubs I've seen have linen service only for their bar towels.
    7) Plain black or black and red usually, with closed-toed shoes minimum, but I've seen them wear anything from vans to work shoes to platform boots.
    Fancy drinks don't matter and may not sell. Dudes go in and drink beer. They drink shots. The odd customer will come in for a glass of chardonnay or martini but generally it's beer, shots, or mixed drinks (jock/coke, vodka/redbull etc)
    9) This is a relatively trivial detail, but I'd say probably not. The lap dance area, or room, depending on the layout of the club may not have a name, may not be enclosed, may be called the VIP, etc.
    10) I'll leave someone else to answer this one because I'm not really sure.

    The thing about food in strip clubs is that it CAN work, but if I were to open a club I wouldn't bother. People generally don't come to the club for food. If they "come for the food", they think they don't have to spend money on the actual profit-turning items- alcohol and ladies.
    I suggest you go visit some of the clubs that are closest to you, and get a feel for how things work. Your idea and questions seem more in line with opening up a bikini bar.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    I take it you're in Saskatchewan? If so, someone beat you to being the first club: http://globalnews.ca/video/1104259/f...ral-community/

    It sounds like you've never visiting a strip club or run a bar/restaurant before, and I really recommend getting some experience in the latter before even considering opening up a strip club. You're totally focusing on the wrong things that will end up being rather minor details in the grand scheme of things when you're running a strip club.

    Your first questions should be about location and dancer recruitment. It's all well and good that dancing is now legal, but are there going to be any local women willing to do the job? Will the job even be accessible, or are there severe restrictions on where these clubs will be able to open (ie. very rural or industrial areas)? Will you have to entice dancers from other parts of Canada to come work for you? What do you have to offer them? It doesn't matter if your club has the nicest flip book menu of cocktails in the country -- if there aren't any dancers, you won't have any patrons.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    If you don't know the answers to those questions, don't open a strip club.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    I understand what you are getting at, I am asking these minor questions because I understand most of the major ones. In order to open up a business I need to create an extremely detailed business plan and I do not want to miss anything! I have a lot of restaurant experience, but I am still unclear about a few things that happen in the front of the house. I did see the new club that is attracting customers from the city I would like to start one, I am not too worried about the competition there. Thank you for the concern I really appreciate it I have been thinking about dancer incentives and I have come up with some really awesome ideas. My city is filled with university students so, I honestly don't see too much of a hassle attracting dancers. I just wanted to get opinions from people who are currently in the industry.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    An oldish thread you may find useful to attract & keep happy dancers.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rinky View Post
    I am asking these minor questions because I understand most of the major ones.
    3, 9 & 10 are most certainly not minor. It seems to me you have never even been to a stripclub, please do correct me if i'm wrong? Honestly if you don't even know how waitressing works, the way "lap dance rooms" work and what a champagne room is, you are not equipped to open a club. But read the thread Aniela linked, do a search on here and find the shit ton of threads where people have asked all the same questions (and i'd bet $1000 that none of them have opened a strip club after asking on here), do some research and then give it a go if you still want to. Good luck!

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Where is "here"?
    How do you plan to finance a club, when you have no experience in the hospitality industry?
    Consider working in a club and learning the business.
    Unless you rent, you will have a significant investment in your facilities:

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Saskatchewan. I have a lot of experience in the restaurant industry and my partner has lots in the front of house aspect of things.
    I would work in a club, except there are none because it just became legal. Hence that there are no clubs that are open here yet lol. The nearest club, except for a hole in the wall a couple miles away is 8 hours away, so I do not have access.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Guys, I know what I am doing for the most part, I am not going in completely blind. I thought I would save the whole spiel of my ENTIRE BUSINESS PLAN. I am asking the questions I don't know the answers to because how else will I find out? You guys are the most experienced in the industry, so why not ask for help here? I was trying to get further insight into the industry because you guys know first hand. I am sorry if I have offended. I really didn't mean to! Peace and love <3

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    The reason most of the responses are echoing the sentiment that you don't know what you're doing, is that your questions indicate that you don't have the foundational know-how and expertise to open a business that doesn't have a whole lot in common with a restaurant. Since you're discerning between "restaurant experience" and "front of house experience" you may be trying to build this from the kitchen up, and the fact of the matter is that food has little to do with strip clubs.
    And even your "restaurant experience" is questionable if you're asking about cloth vs. paper napkins- bars in general use paper napkins. Cloth napkins are in no way cheaper to use than paper. Furthermore, if you've already decided you're wanting to cater to construction workers, you could have asked yourself if a construction worker who just got off the job and is walking into a strip joint, probably still in his work clothes, is going to want to eat shrimp, use cloth napkins, and drink margaritas.

    I don't want to discourage you, and I think that having ambition is the best thing you can do for yourself, but you need to pursue this dream in smaller bites. Start with actually working at a strip club. If there's only a hole-in-the-wall place nearby, go work there. There's probably a reason that's the only place around, and if you actually go there you will most definitely gain some insight.

    I also just want to reiterate that a strip club is in no way a restaurant. Men will not generally go to a strip club for dinner. They (especially working class guys) go to a strip club to get their little weenies rubbed on, as one of my DJ's so eloquently puts it- they want to kick back, have a beer, and enjoy the company and contact of beautiful women without feeling like they need to wear a collared shirt. The food offered at a strip club is usually just meant to satisfy drunk-munchies, help guys sober up, etc. There's actually a really genius reason behind a club serving popcorn but I don't feel like giving away every trade secret in the book.

    Going off of personal experience, my advice to you is to go to school with a focus on the career you'd like to pursue, take a bunch of different classes, give yourself opportunities to change your mind ten times, and work while you do all that. If you think you might have an interest in the adult industry, totally go for it, but try it out as an entertainer before jumping feet first into business ownership or even a management position for that matter. Before I ever danced, I would have imagined that owning a strip club would be frickin' awesome. The first few months I danced, I thought maybe I could be a manager someday. And then, after dancing for another few months, I realized that no reasonable wage could possibly entice me to manage a bunch of strippers. The whole industry is conducive to unreliable characters. Which is great for someone who is in school and may not want to stick to a schedule or set hours. It's also great for a host of other situations, such as drug addicts, thieves, rats, etc. My point is that it takes first-hand experience to know if you're really cut out to be involved in the strip club scene, and no amount of advice on SW will ever accurately portray the reality of this industry. It's a dirty, bleak world and most of us on SW represent an extreme minority within the industry.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Thank you for your heart-felt post.
    Cloth napkins are cheaper in the long run because linnen service would already be needed for the rags used in bar and resturant. While with paper you would have to keep ordering and destroying the environment! Hahaha, but thank you.
    I was actually thinking about serving popcorn as the "bowl of nuts" for the same reason they overly salt popcorn in the cinema.
    I am going to school right now, but then I decided that I didnt want to go to school for 8 years and end up at a shit job <-- which is going to be my future and I can't really do anything about it haha.
    I don't think owning a strip club would be awesome. It is an insane load of work. It is stress 24/7 and it is hard. I am a hard worker and I am up for the challenge though, I mean.. haev you ever worked in a kitchen? High pressure high stress everything xD Although the bar would be raised immensley.
    Thank you for your concern. I appreciate your insight, it really has helped.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rinky View Post
    I don't think owning a strip club would be awesome. It is an insane load of work. It is stress 24/7 and it is hard. I am a hard worker and I am up for the challenge though, I mean.. haev you ever worked in a kitchen? High pressure high stress everything xD
    Props for the graveyard humour, which goes a long way toward keeping your sanity in this job, but I would alter this quote to 'High pressure, high stress, high everyONE.' In sm clubs that is one of the core problems, & no matter how cleanly/legally-straight the place is run, every club I have worked at (around a dozen different ones now) has had one or a few of 'that girl' who comes in high & may or may not cause major drama.

    I have to ask -- & this is sincere curiosity, not me looking to have a go at you -- it doesn't sound like you have had much if any firsthand exp in the industry. Where is this interest coming from to open & run a strip club, & what is your end goal?

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rinky View Post
    Guys, I know what I am doing for the most part, I am not going in completely blind. I thought I would save the whole spiel of my ENTIRE BUSINESS PLAN. I am asking the questions I don't know the answers to because how else will I find out? You guys are the most experienced in the industry, so why not ask for help here? I was trying to get further insight into the industry because you guys know first hand. I am sorry if I have offended. I really didn't mean to! Peace and love <3
    You learn the answers by spending some time in existing clubs. Get on a plane if you need to. Maybe find a friendly club owner in another province who might take the time to share his wisdom. Just a thought. A strip club is not something you want to open if you don't have the first idea about what is really involved. The devil is in the details.

    I realize that you have a lot of experience in the restaurant business, but it is completely different. Guys go into a restaurant because they are hungry. Guys go into a strip club, however, because they are horny, lonely,etc. The operating environment is completely different.

    Good luck!

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Well, the interest is from having an opportunity to open one. I have wanted to be a dancer, but hell why not just run one? The money is obviously some kind of incentive and I would employ my mother has the "house mom" and it would become a family run business xD. There is great opportunity here for a thriving business like a club, so why not start one up? My end goal is to retire! Or, run the club to its peak and the sell for a good chunk of money. Just gotta think of something to tell my grandmother. Can you imagine? Hahaha that conversation is going to be recorded its going to be that epic! xD There are plenty of resources here that specifically help women begin their own business venture. I am going to talk to one of their representatives on Monday. My mother works for a construction company right now, so there will be wiggle room enough to cut a deal. I mean... everything is lining up for me to take this leap! I really think I should take it... even though its going to be so hard that I will end up losing my mind.. it will be worth it in the long run. There is a club in Vancouver that is known for their amazing food and people go there to eat frequently. This is why I am so interested in the food aspect.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    I want you to know that I'm on your side and I actually fully relate to your ambition and I love how you are setting a goal that's out of the ordinary. I have come up with more elaborate ideas and plans than I can count, and I have changed my mind just as many times.
    The thing I think you're overlooking in your plan is that if you have no experience in the industry, you also won't have the networking that comes with it. It's challenging to staff any brand new business and especially if you have no reliable people that you trust to run an establishment (and operate in YOUR best interest, rather than their own) that's very nature is quite volatile.
    The adult industry is intimidating to enter even at entry-level, and there are many, many MANY aspects that can only be figured out through actual experience. The last thing you want when pursuing a career in this is to sink all of your capital into a business that ends up eating you alive and leaving you with overwhelming debt.

    ETA sorry if I'm not making sense.. I've had a long, tiresome day of working two shifts at two separate clubs and I'm mentally drained, but I really wanted to add more to your topic.

    PS- yes, I have worked in a kitchen, I've done catering, prep, line, serving, hostessing, expediting, bussing, and I have my culinary arts degree.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Actually some clubs have a pretty nice buffet, and some have a menu.


    Menu:

    http://stjamescabaret.com/menu-item-...tured-entrees/
    Last edited by slowpoke; 06-08-2014 at 04:28 PM.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rinky View Post
    Well, the interest is from having an opportunity to open one. I have wanted to be a dancer, but hell why not just run one?
    It would be wise for both you and your mother to spend some time in a strip club, not just as a patron or even a dancer, before committing to running one. One would think it'd be the same as running any other business, but it's quite a different industry, and your focus on food will mean that the patrons will be focusing on food rather than the dancers, and that won't make for a successful strip club.

    It sounds like you're more interested in and actually knowledgeable about the food/restaurant aspect, so why not put that asset to use (instead of, quite frankly, wasting it on a strip club when that's not what's going to make it lucrative) and take advantage of the new legislation by having topless (well, pastied) servers? So, a bit more scandalous than Moxie's/Hooters, but still not requiring a whole different knowledge/experience set than you currently have.

    It will also likely be much easier to recruit local talent, and the university will likely prove to be far more useful then -- contrary to the stereotype, I would say the majority of dancers are NOT actually in university, so it won't serve as quite the hiring pool you seem to anticipate it to be. There are certainly some, but I'd say more are single mothers or simply have no other career, be it through personal choice or not.

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    Look at kahoots in hartford ct.

    Kinda similar. Billed as "lunch with a view"

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    Default Re: Welp. I'm thinking about opening a club.

    You are absolutely right that there is an opportunity right now to open a club in Saskatchewan. I know there are a lot of customers with money there, because I have seen them when they travel to my club occaisonally.

    However success=opportunity+preparation for said opportunity+luck and timing

    A lot of the other girls don't think you have the experience neccessary to start a club, that doesn't mean that you can't learn if you really want to do it. Do you know what the liscenscing costs are to open a club? The building costs? Decor/Materials costs, not to mention liquor liscense and booze. The costs for opening a club are in the 6 figures with all the liscenses. Oh, and don't forget that a lot of club owners have to pay off the local organized crime syndicate "in charge" for "protection" from their shenanigans and the shenanigans of others and god knows how much that would cost you. Don't forget insurance, in a province like Saskatchewan, home of two of the cities in Canada with the highest per capita crime rate, getting insurance for a strip club (in a gang-ridden city) is going to cost you. And the place will inevitably attract some of your regions minor criminals (drug dealers, pimps, etc) as well as neighbourhood drunks and other problem people, AND it will be on YOU to keep them out. If you don't, you or someone at your club will get hurt. And you make enemies of criminals when you kick them out of your bar. Maybe that's why so many clubs pay for protection? See I've been a dancer for 4 years and I don't even feel I know enough of the intricicies of the business to start a club. One day maybe.

    I highly suggest you think about what kind of baby steps you could break this down into like maybe you could rent space from an existing bar for one night a week and do a burlesque theme night that you can promote? Promoting will be a huuuuuge share of work in starting a strip club, and the network you would build from promoting similar events at existing bars around your area would be excellent for if you decide to open a club in the future. Since you specificed clubs would need to have nipples covered anyways, this is really just about the same thing, with waaaaaay less overhead and complications. You can organize the line up, find a dj, a bartender or two, make some posters, do some social media marketing, hire a door and coat check girl and kabam insta-club. And no need to deal with any shady characters is also a bonus. Seriously girl. I feel your dream, I secretly share it, but if I was actually for reals going to take a shot at doing this, that is what I would go for first. It will make the transition so much smoother as well and look good for getting funding (if you are able to--this isn't usually the kind of business that banks like to finance, finding an investor would probably work better) because you would be able to prove that you have an existing customer base and successful business model.

    As for the food, that's a minor issue. I think good food is a really good perk for a club to have, but most importantly is that the food is healthy. If you're going to have food, make sure there is lots of salad options as well as other vegetarian, and possibly vegan and gluten free options because that seems to be important to more and more people these days. I think good food could definitely set you apart from any other competition, but do keep in mind that buffets are often popular with the strip club crowd so you may want to offer that as an option as well...not a huge extra cost and it would bring in a lot of customers when paired with other events.
    "We can't expect you to just know all the secrets of our top-secret-titty-club!" --Jenna Marbles

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