Back in 2020, the vision for starting our mobile bar business took shape over a couple of cold ones. I believe I was having a gorgeous New England IPA while Dennis was having his traditional Ultra. Sharing a bowl of popcorn at the bar, we began sifting through Pinterest and Instagram posts about mobile bar businesses.
How would our bar look if we started one? Who would we serve? What kind of cocktails would be our specialties? Would our mobile bar fail?
Failure. That word can make a business owners hair stand and pierce right through their Costco bought tee shirt. We knew we would keep it simple, minimize our investments, create a great service and start promoting as quickly as possible. The good news? It worked. And it’s still working.
But it was important for us to pose the question of “what makes mobile bar businesses fail?
You might be very excited about the possibilities of starting a mobile bar business. If you keep a simple strategy in mind, work to solve problems, and serve your customers, you can’t lose. But let’s understand why some mobile bars do fail so you can avoid those mistakes.
The Importance of Sales and Marketing
The foundation of a successful mobile bar business lies in effective sales and marketing. It really is that simple. While mobile bartending businesses may face plenty of challenges, solving the sales problem gives you the cash to tackle the others.
Here’s a big example that will send your melon for a spin. It’s also the most common quicksand for a mobile bar: not engaging with potential customers.
You might be thinking, “Well, Eric, you can’t mean the mobile bar owner is simply ignoring people who inquire about their services. That would be absurd!” Well, I’m here to tell you Jessica (taking a guess), that you would be correct. Mobile bar owners very often wait days, weeks, or may not call their leads at all. They send over general information via email and cross their fingers.
Businesses that call their leads within the first five minutes of inquiry increase their ability to close events by 70 times. Customers looking to book a bartender for their wedding are much more comfortable handing over $3,000 after chatting with a human and feeling reassured.
There are other very simple strategies that are often overlooked by mobile bars. Where are the leads coming from, and what is going on in their minds? How will you handle leads that aren’t ready to chat yet but may be in three months? What marketing avenues give you the best leads and you should focus more time on?
It’s the little, and I should say very simple, details that will slowly but surely sink a mobile bar business. Some may call it common sense but I digress. The good part is these changes can be made over the weekend in many cases. I made a YouTube video and audited this new mobile bar business. They made a few simple changes and booked 4 events in the next week. Wild, eh? (Canadien accent).
Addressing Common Challenges
It’s a good trait for a child to attack new projects, pick up new hobbies, or simply try something new. Most of us can relate to trying to learn an instrument as a kid or giving origami a go. When it’s time for practice or learning, most kids end up playing the air guitar or folding the same origami goose they’ve done a hundred times before.
Grown adults starting mobile bartending businesses often do the exact same thing. When they encounter social media, running Facebook ads, or writing email responses, those that fail think it’ll be quick and easy. The next step for mobile bars that sink is usually to do all of these tasks at a very low level. There may be a few nuggets of success that keep them going on this path, and it’s exactly the poison that hurts their growth.
I’m not trying to hit you with gloomy skies here. The main point is that, yes, some mobile bars fail, but very often, this can be avoided with simple strategies. The primary strategy is to focus on fewer sales and marketing activities while building a skill. Simply pay attention to your effort, and success and profit will follow.
The Snowball of Delivering High-Quality Service
Providing a quality mobile bartending service is what keeps customers coming back. I know you’re thinking I’m a genius here, and yes, I’ve considered joining Shark Tank as an investor.
In all seriousness, having a great service is vital. I remember in our first year, we were so excited to get out there and start slingin’ margaritas to rowdy wedding patrons. I believe my personal superpower, and one of my downfalls, is being a people pleaser. It’s important to me that brides, families, and guests feel like they had a true experience at their wedding, corporate event, or even a divorce party (not sure why people do those). My business partner is cut from the same cloth so we had plenty of happy customers.
Were we perfect in the beginning? Definitely not. We made mistakes with the cups we bought, some garnishes we prepared, and the inventory we carried. But we focused on continual improvement and always aimed to get better. We also prioritized improving the presentation of not only our cocktails but everything around us.
Getting testimonials, videos, and images we could use on social media and our website is where the magic happens. This is where the snowball effect actually takes place. Social proof is vital in sales. If a bride is thinking of booking a mobile bar for her wedding, she doesn’t want a mobile bar that is still in the learning stage. Imagine being at a wedding as a guest, waiting in line, and not getting a cocktail while you have to sit through 40 minutes of speeches? Nightmare.
Seeing that you’ve done it a few times with customers saying “they’re not liars, they can do it” helps get money in the door. Or in your bar. Wherever you keep your money. That’s your business…..pun intended.
Mindset
I’ll get corny again here: mindset.
There’s a new energy to mobile bartending and really all small businesses right now. There are plenty of companies selling the dream of erasing your past lives and getting into a dream business like mobile bartending. The truth is that it’s a very easy business to launch. You can buy a portable bar off Amazon, a couple shakers, start a Facebook page and you have a business. Well, kind of.
Someone with a sales background can get into this business and grow quickly. Their ability to put a process in place and chat with potential customers gives them a leg up as long as they have a decent bartending service to sell. What business owners don’t see from this person is their first six months of sales training. Doing the work to understand how buyers think, writing emails and battling up hill.
I’m not saying you need to pick up the phone and start cold calling. I’m just saying you need to lay simple bricks of your business down and do them over if you misplaced them. Learn a little, take action, learn again, take action again. Do not wait for perfection and keep improving even when there is no recognition or pats on the back. Hey, look at me. I’m writing this blog at 11:18 at night on the couch. If you’ve read this far, I guess it’s worth it.
Go get in the Membership. We’ve launched more mobile bars than anyone in the US.