3 Bartender Strategies To Make More Money Now!
Being the top
bartender training school in the MD/DC/VA area (technically located in Glen Burnie, MD) - we know a lot of bartenders.
As students graduate from the Academy, we usually work with them to
get a job as a bartender, and often times, we end up staying in touch with them throughout their careers.
Very frequently, after some months as a bartender, former students will often ask us, "How can bartenders make more money?"
This is a great question, and there are many tried-and-true strategies for making your time as a professional bartender not only more profitable, but more fun and fulfilling as well.
- Find a better bartending gig. One of the easiest ways to earn more as a bartender is to get a better gig. Are you working at TGI Friday's or Appleby's? Could you potentially be working at The Cheesecake Factory, or Ruth's Chris? Would you be making a lot more if you worked at a more expensive bar? Of course you would. We find that a lot of bartenders for some reason assume they can't get these jobs, but that's just not true. Investigate, apply to those positions, and you will often find that you'll get them.
- Get a business card. One of the easiest ways to earn more money as a bartender is to get your own regular customers. Regulars know you and you know them. This means that you'll usually give them better service, allow for a better experience, and they'll pay you more because of it. In general, having regulars will make you more money. By getting a business card printed and giving it out to regulars, they will come back more frequently. They'll see your card lying around their home or office, think about you, and come in to see you.
- Delegate. You get regulars by making people feel special and liking you. The best way to make people feel special and like you is by spending more time with them. As a bartender, if you find yourself doing things other than making drinks and talking to customers, you need to delegate. Likely, you have some bar-backs or some bus boys around to help you with mundane tasks like cleaning and pre-bussing. They usually do a good job, but if you can get them to do more work, it frees you up to spend more time developing relationships with customers. Become known as the bartender that tips their support heavily. As you establish this reputation of paying the bills, you'll find your support becoming much more supportive and helping to free you up.
Probably the most effective (yet difficult) of these three strategies, is #1, finding a better gig. One of the best ways to qualify yourself for a better gig, is to become a better bartender. If you're one of the millions of "self-made" bartenders out there (bartenders that sort of taught themselves), why not invest a little in yourself to become a certified, professional bartender?
This distinction will put you up there with the best-of-the-best, and allow you to get any bartending job you want! If you live near Maryland, DC, or Virginia, think about
enrolling in professional bartender training at The Maryland Bartending Academy - you won't regret it!
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