This is a great question. The good news is that if you are already successful, consider yourself a winner. 8 out of 10 business fail in the first 18 months. Think about that. There a few things that we would look at before opening another bar. Those areas include clientele (aka population) and whether or not your bar has the capability of becoming a franchise.
How big is your city? Are you in a suburb or urban area? If your area is under 20,000, you could run into a problem. The market may just not be large enough. We'll talk about a few things that could help you make that determination below.
Find out a few things about the city in which this 2nd bar would be operating.
1. What is the amount of bars per capita in your area? (If you can't get this info, get as close as you can)
2. Next, determine the genre of bars in your area. (pub, sports bar, etc)
Then find out who your perfect client is.
1. Why are they coming into the bar?
2. Where do they come from?
3. How did they find you?
4. What do they like about your place?
These things will give you a peak into the actual market of your bar.
Now, you’ll have to find out why you've had success in the first place. We feel that finding your perfect customer will do that.
If you know your perfect customer, you can find out where they live, and use that as a starting point to figuring out your next location. Each city will have different clientele. Your bar might be doing well because you’ve figured out who your ideal customer is.
What are some other things that might be giving you the edge? Food, location, perhaps price? All of these are important when determining why you’ve been successful in the first place.
You need to determine whether your market will be able to handle another bar. This can be done by knowing more about your clientele and their relationship to you. Then you can focus on branding.
We’re assuming that you will want to continue the success of your first bar by playing off the brand that you've already created. So here is a list of branding tips to consider after you've addressed the areas above.
1. Can you simply explain what your brand is?
Franchises are all about systems. Bar entrepreneurs need solid, organized outlines for operations, communications, and methods for franchisees to attract new customers. What does your company do? Why does it exist?
2. Can Your Bar be replicated?
This is an obvious one, but not easy to answer. That's where the research will come in to play (finding your perfect customer and your relationship to them).
3. Am I willing to team up with multiple experts?
Many solo proprietors are great and often perfectionists. However, that also might make them terrible partners. Think about how you can handle working with others and listening to the advise of other people. Some people aren't good at that and really should stick to one establishment/location.
4. What is the true cost of opening your new bar?
Starting a franchise has costs that need to be considered. Operations, systems, training, and branding. You can try to budget, but these things tend to be a little more expensive than we expect.
5. Is my vision for expansion realistic?
What's your plan? Is it to open a second bar then just keep growing and growing? Or will are you simply wanting to expand to this new area and keep a run a tight ship with 2 locations? Based on all the collective data you should be able to know whether or not your second bar will be feasible.
Here’s a good point of reference from Forbes when it comes to franchises.
Good Luck!
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