Older bar owners learn the business side of the industry way later. In doing so they all develop a fixation of maximixing business metrics. Maybe as a way to catch up for not learning business before?
COGS, RevPASH, Contribution Margin, CAC, LTV Inventory Turnover, Table Turnover...
Next they will be telling me about FCFF, EBITDA, DSCR, GMROI, Price Elasticity on Inventory, Profit per investment in Labour
All of these nerding out only to lose sight of what got them started, and what makes their business different.
Here is a business tidbit.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) analystics show 93% of business leaders agree that properly addressing customer inquiries is extremely important to organizational success.
HBR notes, empathy, nuance, creativity, and adaptability are human traits that cannot be easily commoditized or replicated, investing in human connection is a primary way to escape commoditization.
When everwhere is serving food and drinks, and everyone has food and drinks at home. No one needs to come to your establishment.
The only strategy to escape commoditization is human connection. Abstracting the business into fugayzi, fugazi numbers, makes you a commodity
How can we lower cost, maximise work efficiency, space efficiency, becomes the questions we start to ask ourselves.
It's a race to the bottom. The problem with racing to the bottom is that you might win.
When you win, your prize will be selling alcohol close to cost margins, with overworked robot staff in a cramped space serving guests without loyalty.
Or maybe you win by just renting a space and filling it up with vending machines.