Our first business venture - The Red House
- Thread starter wez130
- Start date
Haha, of course i have plates!
May has been the worst month so far, barely broke even, not worried though as this month and July are looking promising with big party bookings, with a couple of them potentially enough to bring in a whole weeks takings in one day. We have a party booked in today of around 40 people which is needed! Can definitely tell winter is coming now though. Without these group bookings i'd probably be worried, but we just need to get through to September when it'll start picking up again. We decided we would close for a week in August and treat ourselves to a well deserved holiday, a 4 night cruise and 4 nights on the Gold Coast!
We have been developing the business over the last few months to be more of an entertaining venue, we have our own PA system now, we've just bought our own bouncy castle, as our ethos is to be the best family friendly place in our area, also bought a projector and 133" screen for the rugby world cup in September, we purchased the rights to show every match too. Hopefully that'll get more drinkers in. We have our new open mic night starting next Saturday from 4pm, we did trial it on a Wednesday night for a few times, it was quite popular, but people wanted it to be on a weekend, so we changed it.
Next year i want to concentrate on getting bigger events here, i'd love to do something similar to the 'Stand up to Cancer' thing in the UK, get some comedians in for a charity event. I also want to plan a big 80's party complete with a light up dance floor, lava lamps and loads of 80's memorabilia lol. We are also planning an Oktoberfest event for our first birthday, that should be fun.
It is apparent now though that we are a destination venue rather than a 'local', nobody just comes for a drink really which is a shame. However, in the next 2-3 years, that shouldn't be the case as in the direct vicinity, over 7000 homes are to be built within walking distance, and the new Northern motorway ends about 600m south of us, bypassing the whole of Warkworth, meaning we will be the first stop off the motorway! The future is looking bright, we just need to survive the present! We do have contingency plans in place if things do look like they might fail in the next 3 months, but to be honest, i'm happy with the buffer of parties we have booked in the next 2 months! Might be tight, but we'll get through
May has been the worst month so far, barely broke even, not worried though as this month and July are looking promising with big party bookings, with a couple of them potentially enough to bring in a whole weeks takings in one day. We have a party booked in today of around 40 people which is needed! Can definitely tell winter is coming now though. Without these group bookings i'd probably be worried, but we just need to get through to September when it'll start picking up again. We decided we would close for a week in August and treat ourselves to a well deserved holiday, a 4 night cruise and 4 nights on the Gold Coast!
We have been developing the business over the last few months to be more of an entertaining venue, we have our own PA system now, we've just bought our own bouncy castle, as our ethos is to be the best family friendly place in our area, also bought a projector and 133" screen for the rugby world cup in September, we purchased the rights to show every match too. Hopefully that'll get more drinkers in. We have our new open mic night starting next Saturday from 4pm, we did trial it on a Wednesday night for a few times, it was quite popular, but people wanted it to be on a weekend, so we changed it.
Next year i want to concentrate on getting bigger events here, i'd love to do something similar to the 'Stand up to Cancer' thing in the UK, get some comedians in for a charity event. I also want to plan a big 80's party complete with a light up dance floor, lava lamps and loads of 80's memorabilia lol. We are also planning an Oktoberfest event for our first birthday, that should be fun.
It is apparent now though that we are a destination venue rather than a 'local', nobody just comes for a drink really which is a shame. However, in the next 2-3 years, that shouldn't be the case as in the direct vicinity, over 7000 homes are to be built within walking distance, and the new Northern motorway ends about 600m south of us, bypassing the whole of Warkworth, meaning we will be the first stop off the motorway! The future is looking bright, we just need to survive the present! We do have contingency plans in place if things do look like they might fail in the next 3 months, but to be honest, i'm happy with the buffer of parties we have booked in the next 2 months! Might be tight, but we'll get through
Keep it up fella! When starting out I was living hand to mouth and having to dip in my credit card more often than was comfortable.
If you can grit it out until those 7000 homes are up and built you should be laughing!
If you can grit it out until those 7000 homes are up and built you should be laughing!
It's over and we're getting screwed over 
We've had nothing but bad luck over the last year. We've tried all sorts of different things to try and grow but nothing has worked, about the most successful thin we tried was open mic nights, which started great, but soon fizzled out. It's so frustrating because we get so many comments saying 'wow, what an amazing place' and 'we'll definitely be back', backed up with great reviews on FB / Google maps, there's definitely nothing wrong with our product!
It all started back in March last year when a major roadworks project started on the road we are on, we immediately saw an impact, we went from sales of $50k/month straight down in April to half of that, and it has steadily declined since, not even rising for summer. We've ridden the wave for as long as we could but finally, we're at a point where we cannot sustain it. We've done a lot for the community, we've been very selfless, not taking a pay packet at all since we opened, yet we've held fundraising events for local charities, (one evening we purchased food for a full 'pay what you want' menu out of our own pockets and gave all the money they paid to the community trading post, a local charity). We gave 10% of our Waitangi day proceeds to the recent bush fires charities etc. Yet here we are, really struggling financially with nobody to turn to. Not a problem in itself, however, we still have 6 months left on our lease, we have found somebody willing to take over the lease meaning that the landlady wouldn't be out of pocket, but she is insisting that we can't pass it on to a new lessee, but she is insisting that we forfeit our $10k bond as we will be inevitably breaching our lease, she said that we will have no other obligations but we will be liable for any legal fees. Then she's said that she will negotiate a new lease with the people we have found to take over. Basically, being very awkward with us, sticking the knife in and twisting till she can't twist it any more. We don't want to go down the bankruptcy route if we can avoid it, but they way she's going, it's looking inevitable, we're gutted!
We didn't want to make a fortune in this business, we just wanted to provide a service to locals, somewhere for families to spend time together, nothing made us happier than being able to give over $1000 to local charities and bush fire aid. It's true, giving is just so much more rewarding than receiving. Yet some Chinese investor is trying her damn hardest to seep out every last cent that she can from a young & naive couple who had a dream.
RIP The Red House
We've had nothing but bad luck over the last year. We've tried all sorts of different things to try and grow but nothing has worked, about the most successful thin we tried was open mic nights, which started great, but soon fizzled out. It's so frustrating because we get so many comments saying 'wow, what an amazing place' and 'we'll definitely be back', backed up with great reviews on FB / Google maps, there's definitely nothing wrong with our product!
It all started back in March last year when a major roadworks project started on the road we are on, we immediately saw an impact, we went from sales of $50k/month straight down in April to half of that, and it has steadily declined since, not even rising for summer. We've ridden the wave for as long as we could but finally, we're at a point where we cannot sustain it. We've done a lot for the community, we've been very selfless, not taking a pay packet at all since we opened, yet we've held fundraising events for local charities, (one evening we purchased food for a full 'pay what you want' menu out of our own pockets and gave all the money they paid to the community trading post, a local charity). We gave 10% of our Waitangi day proceeds to the recent bush fires charities etc. Yet here we are, really struggling financially with nobody to turn to. Not a problem in itself, however, we still have 6 months left on our lease, we have found somebody willing to take over the lease meaning that the landlady wouldn't be out of pocket, but she is insisting that we can't pass it on to a new lessee, but she is insisting that we forfeit our $10k bond as we will be inevitably breaching our lease, she said that we will have no other obligations but we will be liable for any legal fees. Then she's said that she will negotiate a new lease with the people we have found to take over. Basically, being very awkward with us, sticking the knife in and twisting till she can't twist it any more. We don't want to go down the bankruptcy route if we can avoid it, but they way she's going, it's looking inevitable, we're gutted!
We didn't want to make a fortune in this business, we just wanted to provide a service to locals, somewhere for families to spend time together, nothing made us happier than being able to give over $1000 to local charities and bush fire aid. It's true, giving is just so much more rewarding than receiving. Yet some Chinese investor is trying her damn hardest to seep out every last cent that she can from a young & naive couple who had a dream.
RIP The Red House
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Apr 2003
- Posts
- 3,351
- Location
- South North West
What a shame. It's almost inevitably pressure to cover rent and rates which stop small businesses thriving. If it's your own property you can cut corners, tighten your belt hard and make it work somehow. But landlords seem incapable of acting like human beings, helping their tenants thrive, rather than pure businessmen. Perhaps the sad, difficult truth, is that there's rarely a shortage of folk with a dream, and landlords don't care which one succeeds.
I'm heavily into the idea of cheap council housing for a very basic living option, and council 'business-housing' where genuinely small businesses (not franchises) pay very little in overheads because they're busy putting the heart in local communities. I'm also in favour of fleecing companies like Starbucks and McDonalds to pay for it, but it's probably breaking about a bazillion human rights act edicts. Come the revolution, etc. etc. Power to the People! </Wolfie>
Best of luck moving on to your next adventure. I'm not into the whole 'everything happens for a reason' rubbish, but failure is all part of the journey. Well done for trying; you've already stretched yourselves harder than most of us, and you're not done yet.
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 17,315
- Location
- Bristol
You could easily argue landlords are small businesses too. They have no reason to be 'charitable' same as any other business... though for all anyone knows they donated all their profits to charity as well. The richest people I've ever met are the biggest donors to GOSH.
It's too easy to shake your fist at the 'man above', whilst being in an equivilant position to everyone below you.
Sorry it didn't work OP.
Sorry to hear that but at least you can you say that you tried.
Sadly in business everyone wants a cut and is happy to screw over someone else to get it so good on you for trying to give something back.
Talking of bad luck I think many restaurants / entertainment venues are really going to struggle this year
Sadly in business everyone wants a cut and is happy to screw over someone else to get it so good on you for trying to give something back.
Talking of bad luck I think many restaurants / entertainment venues are really going to struggle this year
Last edited:
True, and if landlords gave tenants a break all the time then unfortunately the net result would probably be higher rent.
Hats off OP for giving this a shot, and it sounds like it was a fun journey even if it didn't turn out how you wanted.
Can't you keep it going for 6 months knowing that you'll get your 10k back? Maybe just open it as a bar to reduce costs?
Guessing you've already considered options.
At least you had a go, lots of people wander what if etc! I appreciate that's not much of a consolation and I hope you don't get screwed over
Guessing you've already considered options.
At least you had a go, lots of people wander what if etc! I appreciate that's not much of a consolation and I hope you don't get screwed over
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 Mar 2004
- Posts
- 15,985
- Location
- Fareham
Keep it open for 6 months, just do takeaways and beer in house
Get 10K back that way, unless you'd lose more by keeping it open.
Get 10K back that way, unless you'd lose more by keeping it open.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Apr 2003
- Posts
- 3,351
- Location
- South North West
Yes, you could. It's just not a parasitic business anyone with any moral fibre should be in. This is obviously not a fashionable viewpoint in this age of zero interest rates and housing shortages that promote rentier capitalism and the selfish society.
Sorry, I appear to have accidentally fallen onto my hobby horse. I'll move along, muttering giddy-up under my breath while trying not to look foolish.