TOBY ELLIS IS… Cut Off – “Bottle for Hire (Part 1)”

If you’ve been bartending for even just a few months, sooner or later somebody is going to ask you if you work private parties. And if you’re like me, this will get you thinking.

Hmmm, private parties. I could make a lot of money on the side working private parties. I could take out an ad in the yellow pages, get business cards made up, build a website, buy a van, get some employees…heck, I could be catering for the White House or the Oscars in no time!

So how in the world do you go from wet-behind-the-ears rookie bartender to celebrity bottle-jockey for hire? What’s the best way to sell yourself? How do you know how to plan for an event you’ve never been to? What should you bring? What can you expect once the doors open? What are the legal issues? And the question I get asked all the time: how much do you charge? These are the questions you want answers to, and this is the guy who has the answers. Must be your lucky day.

Over the next two editions of Flairbar.com, I will share with you what I have learned from fifteen years of private-party and special event bartending. This includes:
• How to Sell Yourself for Private Events
• Going Rates and How Much to Charge
• How to Add Value to Your Events (So You Can Charge More)
• Legal Issues and Loopholes
• How to Plan and Prepare for a Private Party
• 15 Things to Pack (That You Never Would Have Thought Of)
• What to Expect Once You Get There
• The Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid

HOW TO SELL YOURSELF AS AN ENTERTAINER
First, realize that is what you are. Nobody, and I mean nobody, pays $2,000 for a bartender to work one night. But a lot of people will pay $2,000 or more for an entertainer to perform for one night. That simple distinction is the single most important piece of advice I can give you. It’s also important to give yourself the confidence that is absolutely necessary to ask people for $1000 or more a night for your talents and services. Sound like a lot of money? Think it through. I don’t know about you, but for me to travel even a couple hundred miles to bartend for four hours, is in reality, at least 14 hours of work. In fact, with most of my private programs, I’m looking at least two full 8-10 hours days of work. Any overnight event is now taking up days of my time. So while the party might only last three hours, I’m logging in somewhere around 20 billable hours. Your lawyer doesn’t only bill you for the time in court; you pay for everything he or she does to prepare for court. Have a similar mentality and you will have a much easier time believing in your own rates.

Second, think about what you are offering: two for the price of one. They can either hire a bartender and a juggler or magician… or they can just hire you. Talk about value! Can you think of any other job description in our industry that covers both service and entertainment? Also realize that you are going to be the talk of the event. It doesn’t matter who else they hire or how they decorate; flair bartenders always steal the show. I’ve been at events with every kind of entertainer, DJ, band, ice sculpture, light show and other gimmick you can think of, and yet still, we are always the runaway hit of the party. How much is it worth to a party planner to know they’ve got at least one surefire conversation starter that will all but guarantee the party is a huge hit? You are their ace in the hole. Make them pay for that.

Another thing that makes it easier these days for you to fetch a premium wage is the media success of flair. When’s the last time anybody went home after a banquet and talked about the guy cutting the roast beef, “just like they do on TV!” That’s what they’re going to do after they get a load of you. You are an internationally-marketed performer AS SEEN ON TV, baby! A surprising percentage of the general public now knows what a “flair bartender” is and because of this, we are a hotter commodity.

Most importantly, get the person who is going to book you excited about the fun, energy, and uniqueness you are going to add to their event. Paint pictures and use words that sizzle, just like you do behind the bar. As you talk, smile over the phone and laugh and get excited. Most of what planners are looking for is excitement and energy. If you convey that over the phone or in an e-mail, you’re chances of landing the contract just shot up.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: ARE YOU A SUCKER?
As long as there is a young, hungry bottle-flipper willing to take peanuts for pay, there will be a pack of slick promoters and greedy event planners lining up with their cans of unsalted cashews, laughing all the way to the bank. The people who hire you either (a) markup your rates to increase their profits or they (b) are working to keep their event budgets low to impress their bosses. So of course they want to low-ball you! That is their job. Yours is to set a firm, fair price and stick to it. How do you know what’s fair? Read on.

I hear all the time about bartenders taking gigs from major sponsors for $150 and $200 a day. Breaks my heart. Those prices are low for ten years ago! Look at it another way, if you are skeptical: a trade show model with no special skills or talent and little to no actual “modeling” experience averages $150-$300 a day in the US at any corporate trade show or similar event in a major market. A banquet bartender or cocktailer (with no special skills and often little experience) working a private party averages $200-$400 an event not including tips. A non-famous but polished, experienced entertainer (juggler, musician, magician, acrobat) earns anywhere from $500-$1000 a day. Experienced and well-known entertainers (top celebrity impersonators, recognized jugglers, semi-famous or ultra-has-been singers and musicians) earn between $1500-$5000 a gig. So what are we worth? Here’s your answer, based on what event planners, DMCs, and other decision-makers pay other entertainers and are willing to pay you and I.

THE MARKET VALUE OF “FOR HIRE” BARTENDERS
These figures are for talent only, for an event of less than six hours, does not include any expenses or travel days,special setup, equipment, rehearsal, etc.

Everyday Bartender ………………………………….$150/day to $200/day
(little to no experience behind the bar, no competition experience, some small private event experience)

Rookie Flair Bartender ………………………………$250/day to $400/day
(some experience behind the bar, some minor competition experience, some small private event experience)

Advanced/Semi-Pro Flair Bartender ……………$500/day to $750/day
(moderate experience behind the bar, some major competition experience, some private event experience)

World-Class Flair Bartender……………………….$1,000/day to $2,500/day
(tons of experience behind flair bars, multiple top 10 finish in major competition, major corporate event experience, at least some national television exposure. These are the people in the finals of Legends, Roadhouse, Quest, etc. )

Top Talent ……………………………………………….$2,500/day to $10,000/day
(Simply put: you are one of -the- most publicly recognized flair bartenders on earth with the experience, equipment, and business savvy to back it all up. People seek you out by name. Rates vary depending on difficulty of event, dates, availability, etc. There are less than 20 people on earth who command these rates. You know the names.)

If you fit in the “Advanced” level or higher, and you’re accepting less than $500 a day, you’re selling yourself short. And in the process, you’re holding all of us back. Look, as long as you’re out there taking chump change to flair, it keeps our market value way, way down. I’m not saying hold out for $3,000 and first-class airfare to work a wedding in Wichita; but just be aware, that every time a fairly experienced flair bartender jumps at $300 from a promoter, event planner, or brand manager… the same exact people who would and do gladly pay a bad Elvis impersonator or Accordion player TWICE THAT… you’re reducing the value and the demand for flair. And it goes way beyond being hired for trade shows and parties. The whole flair community takes a hit.

The slickest sales pitch that you will hear over and over is to “give us a break on this first event” because they have “dozens more coming up later in the year” that they are “definitely going to need you for.” Uh-huh. Well, even if this were true (it almost never is), you set your permanent price (no matter what they tell you) on that very first gig. So if you give them a deal as a “favor” and bartend or do a show for $100, good luck convincing them to pay you $500 after that. You are forever their one hundred dollar bitch. And if you won’t work again for that little, guess what? These type of people will gladly look elsewhere for another sucker who will.

On the other hand, if you make them pay a fair price upfront, you know you can expect at least that much in the future. You will also learn in time, as you might already have at the bar, the people who want “the hook up” are often the cheapest and the most annoying to work with. Conversely, the people who don’t haggle over fees and are willing to pay what you ask, are usually the easiest to work with. Funny how that works.

And that brings me to one last thought to chew on: perceived value. The more you charge, the more people believe you are worth, and therefore the harder they will work to make sure your show or bar is properly setup, stocked, supported, and otherwise taken care of. You really think anybody is going to give a second thought to the juggling bartender who is being paid $20 an hour? Not likely. But I promise you the entire event staff will be on red alert to help out the bartender from out of town who is getting $5,000 for 20 minutes of work. And the people watching your show, will appreciate your performance 5,000 times more, trust me.

HOW MUCH TO CHARGE
Hopefully the figures I already gave you will help you establish a fair market value. There’s more to it than this. A lot more, and it’s mainly gray area. There is no simple formula, no chart, no quick answer. You have to figure out how to structure your own fees and I’m here to help. First, you decide how you want to calculate your fees/rates and then the smartest way to break it down to the potential client.

Some bartenders like to talk about an hourly rate. Not this kid. Most events are only two to five hours and yet your total preparation, travel, setup, cleanup, breakdown time is another ten to twenty hours. Some people have tried to offer a “per person” rate just like catering companies do for wedding receptions. The difference is that they are providing a lot more than labor and talent for those rates. It’s an apples to oranges comparison, usually. Another big obstacle to this approach, is that you can’t charge for the liquor. That is where most caterers hide their profits. They offer the labor at seemingly insignificant rates and then, offer beverage service with prices as good, if not better, than your local tavern or restaurant. They make all their money there, in the markup of the booze. They also have liquor licenses, health permits, business licenses, liability insurance and everything else they need to do this and chances are, you do not. So you can’t compete on the same playing field. It takes us back to the concept of selling yourself as entertainment, not labor. You want the client to be putting you in the same category as bands, performers, and DJs. Then you just remind them how they are getting some great bartending along with it for free!

My advice is to interview the client long enough to determine just how much work is going to be involved and then calculate a flat package rate for your talent and services.

How do you come up with that number? I do it one of three ways.

1. VALUE OF YOUR TIME
Calculate how much time the entire event is going to take. Include how long you will spend estimating, contract-writing and signing, packing and traveling, setting up, bartending, practicing and performing shows, cleaning up, breaking down, overnight stays, packing and traveling back home, and finally … unpacking. Let’s say it‘s 20 hours time. how much is giving up 20 hours of your life worth to you? Even at a modest $25 an hour, that’s only $500. Did you have to take off a scheduled shift? How much money did you lose doing that? Make sure you add that amount in there too, tips and paycheck. The easy way to do this one, is to ask yourself one question: After all is said and done, will the amount of money in my hand make me feel like it was worth it? If the answer is no, you’re not charging enough.

2. PROMOTIONAL VALUE OF THE EVENT
What is working this event worth to you, personally or professionally? Being in the opening credits of MTV’s the Real World, which will replay thousands of times in millions of people’ homes all over the world has some serious promotional value, right Boogie? In a case like that, you take whatever they offer you and say “Thank you very, very much.” Bartending a family BBQ in your hairdresser’s neighbor’s backyard doesn’t have much promotional value at all. The hard ones are those events for DMCs, liquor reps, and event planners who will sell you a whole song and dance about all the “exposure” you’re going to get from it.

First, any time a third-party contracts you, you will have to sign a non-competition or exclusivity release that says you cannot solicit or accept any business without going through the company that hired you. That means no handing out business cards, no promoting yourself or your company (often you can’t even display your logo or company name), no taking phone numbers or anything like it. Second, at most events you are hired for, the last thing in the world any attendee is thinking about is “I wonder what event I can hire that bartender for.” They are there to network, teach, learn, sell, or promote their own companies, goods, services, etc. You are the last thing on their agenda, trust me. And third, even if they do remember you and want to hire you (since you can’t market yourself many times), how will they ever find you again? Chances are, they won’t. So be very wary of the “You’ll Get Tons of Jobs out of This” sales pitch. It’s not worth much, in my book. Of course, this depends on the event and where you are at in your career.

3. IMPORTANCE OF BOOKING THE EVENT
This is an approach that is largely determined by the simple question “How badly do I need this gig?” If you’re unemployed or have a crappy job, you probably could use the extra cash. If you’re in a good financial position or have regular, steady income, you can be choosier. And I will tell you from firsthand experience where in the scope of less than two years I went from one extreme to the other, the less you need a gig, the exponentially more you will get paid for it. When you don’t need a gig, you can push the envelope of the fair market value and up your stock in the process. Let’s say you are contacted to do any event you don’t need and maybe don’t even really want to do all that much, for whatever reason. So you quote a fee that you would be thrilled to get if they say yes, and you won’t worry about if they say no. Now you can’t just ignore the market value of flair, but you can explore your upper boundaries. The important thing here is that you not be ridiculous about it. If you’ve never been paid more than $1,000 for an event, you probably shouldn’t be quoting somebody a $10,000 figure just because you don’t really need the gig. But if you’re routinely commanding $750 a night, there is no law that says you cannot ask for $1,000. Once you get $1,000, you’ll get $1,000 more and more. It’s just the way it works.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Taxes. No matter which way you build your fees, keep in mind that you will be an independent contractor and therefore, in the US at least, be required to declare all this income to the IRS. Now without going into a tax lesson, I will simply pass along, free of charge, the same advice my accountant gave to me. It’s commonplace for businesses to “be aggressive” with their deductions, but do not ever hide income. In other words, take all the legitimate expenses you can and the worst thing that will happen is the IRS will say “no, that’s not a valid expense, you owe us that amount and here’s a fine too” but if you hide income from them, you go to jail. Since you have to declare this extra income, you have to pay taxes on it, which depending on your personal situation, can range from 15% to as much as 50%, with 35% being pretty typical. So make sure you figure that into your quote. That $500 you just quoted is actually only $325 in your pocket, when all is said and done. If you want to actually make $500, you need to charge around $800.

Expenses. Even when a client pays for your airfare, ground transportation, hotel, and meals and also supplies everything you need to bartend with; believe me when I tell you: you will have additional expenses. From excess baggage fees for bags of bottles, Flairco Portable Bars, and misc. equipment to taxis, tips, faxes, phone calls, courier/postage fees and more… you will end up spending money on this event that you didn’t foresee. So build that in to your estimate as well. How much? Live and learn, lol. But start at least at an extra $200 for any event that is overnight/out of town and with experience, you’ll figure out exactly what those costs are so you can plan for them in advance. Be careful not to pad your expenses because chances are, the people hiring you have tons more experience calculating such costs than you do, and will know if you’re being fair and honest with them. If you aren’t, you may lose the gig or at least, future gigs, and more importantly you will lose some credibility and character. There is a difference between being a savvy business person and being a hustler. Hustlers don’t stay in business very long; smart business people do.

ADDING VALUE
For the past six years or so I’ve been commanding probably as much as anyone for private events, shows, staff trainings, and the like. Now that may make a couple people wonder… how? I mean, I’m no Christian Delpech on the stage. By myself, I can’t match the sheer manpower of a Showtenders or a FlairDevils. So how do I do it? Added value is one way. Sure, I have as much experience in just about every area of flair and bartending as anybody out there, but there’s more to it than that. And yes, I definitely have some name recognition, but still… these two things alone don’t mean as much as you might guess. People who hire flair bartenders, on the surface, want the best bottle-flippers. Or so you would think, right? Wrong.

Ok, in some cases, they really do want whoever they can determine to be the best flair bartender in the world, which if you read my first Cut Off, you know… is me. (If you didn’t , it’s the March 2005 “Cut Off” and is archived in the FBA Members’ Lounge.) In those cases, no, I cannot compete with some of the talent out there. And I don’t try to. In fact, for the first three years I was President of the FBA, I was asked to do a lot of exciting gigs on TV and all over the world. And every single time, when the person on the other end of the phone told me they wanted to hire me because they heard I was the best flair bartender in America, I told them:

1. Put down the crack pipe
2. That’s not me. And then I sent them to… Ken, Bill, Alan, Nathan, Christian, Mig, etc.

And I missed out on a lot of great opportunities. But I began building a reputation as well. People knew I only promised what I could deliver. That goes a long way.

So if the person on the other end of the phone is looking for the best bottle-flipper on earth, you may lose out. The good news is that most times, I’m here to let you know, people who contact you for flair don’t want the best in the world because (a) they know their client won’t know the difference between you and Christian (b) the client really, truly doesn’t have the budget or (c) they have the budget, but they just don’t want to spend that much of their budget on a flair bartender. Other times, they don’t want the best talent, they want the best business person or the most experienced trainer. Especially with trainings and openings. They want people who know how business works and also the person feel will get the result they want while working within their company’s political system. They don’t always want the best player, they want the best coach… the person who can build the program, not be a cast member of it. And still other times, they want someone who brings a lot of extra value to the table. How do you do this?

1. Buy all your own equipment. Don’t show up to an event with a backpack with two Flaircos, a few tins, and a pour spout. Roll in with everything. Bottles, smallwares, straws, bevnaps, towels, bus tubs, store n pours, pour spouts, even mats if you can. And that includes a portable bar. My Flairco Portable Bar paid for itself, literally, before I bought it. I told a client who was about ti hire me how cool it was, and how much better their event would look with me behind it, and they agreed to add the cost of the bar with tax and shipping into the gig, just so I could have it for their event.

2. Market yourself wisely. Take photos at your gigs, video if you can. Get home and put together brochures, a website, a video… whatever you can so when the next person calls you, you can send or show them what you have done. If you send video, keep it short, professional, and exciting. Only you like to sit and watch yourself flair for ten minutes. This is the most common mistake I have seen from other flair bartenders. If your own promotional video is five minutes long, it is already three minutes too long. And if it’s nothing more than home video, poorly-lit footage of you behind the bar or in your garage, you’d better have some serious moves.

3. Brand yourself. Company name, logo, business cards, embroidered shirts and towels. Get your own logo’d flair bottles, banners, and anything else you can to make yourself shine. Look like someone who is serious about their business from the first phone call, e-mail, or meeting right through when you pack up and leave. The people that hire flair bartenders can tell very quickly the difference between some guy who flips bottles in his back yard and a commercial flair bartending enterprise or agency. Guess which one they hire for the four and five figure gigs? Hint: not the guy in the back yard.

4. Bells and Whistles. I’m not going to give away all my secrets, but there are dozens of little touches you can add to any event that will make you a more attractive choice than the next guy. Most of flair shows is show business a.k.a. production value. There is such a huge difference between some bartender in a t-shirt and jeans flipping empty bottles behind a catering table, and someone in costume or dress blacks on a stage, performing a fully-choreographed, planned, polished show to their own music, behind their own portable, professional-looking show bar.

5. Make great drinks. Don’t forget in all the excitement that you’re a flair bartender. Sell yourself as an entertainer who bartends; showcase yourself as a bartender who is entertaining. Keep a clean, tidy bar and provide the best service of your career.

6. Practice, Practice, Practice. I practice as much, if not more, for booked shows and parties than I do for competition. Sound strange? Shouldn’t. To make the same money at a competition that I do at most private events, I’d have to win them. It’s just smart business for me to put my time where the money is, as long as I want to be in the business of contract flair bartending.

7. Compete. Somebody recently in casual conversation said something to me about how I was “retired from competition.” Really? Says who? Competing not only keeps your flair fresh and crisp, it’s an important part of making a name for yourself. Even though most of my business comes my experience and work outside of competition, just about every potential client asks me about my competition performance. The fact that I have been a top-10 finalist in almost every major competition I ever competed in, is HUGE. You don’t need to be a world champion to command great fees as a flair bartender, but I think you do need to have a name in the sport. Making the finals of the big events is pretty much the only way to do that in this day an age.

8. Be the Worst Person on Your Team. As I said before and have said many times in the past: I’m no Christian Delpech. But I’ve hired him to work for me. Hey, I’m no dummy. I’ve also hired Mig, Ken, Francesco Leoni, Essie, Flippy, Juan Llorente, Christian Oldan, Boogie, Chico, Joe Pereira, Dean, Iceman, Stefan Notteboom, Ati and a few more well-known faces for my larger projects, events and shows. My goal with BarMagic has never been to rely on just me flipping bottles to survive. It has always been about the total package, the total experience for the client. Whether it is a three-week training project in Mexico City or a twenty-minute four-man show in Orlando; I worry about delivering value, not stroking my ego. And sometimes, that means paying extra talent more than you pay yourself. Ken and I do a lot of events together. Now I have to pay Ken a ton more than I would a lot of other talented flair bartenders, but a) Ken brings a lot more to the table than just his flair b) he hires me for most of his private gigs and c) together we have a pretty hard-to-beat packaged set of shows and bartending services. That is my goal, and should be yours: offer the best total package on the market and then explain/sell the quality of it, rather than apologize for the price. Another thing a very wise person once told me: the best CEOs surround themselves with people far more talented than themselves. (I might make a good CEO afterall) But seriously, the way I look at it, I am building a reputation for delivering only the best talent in the world for that specific project and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that promise for my clients. This commitment allows me to be the industry leader and command the highest rates.

9. Don’t bad-mouth your competition. It’s very hard to resist slinging mud, especially when you know for a fact, there’s plenty of people throwing mud your way, every chance they get. And in the competitive business world, it happens all the time. Resist the urge. But I will also tell you this: don’t be afraid to point out you and your company’s competitive edge and compare it to your competition. I always point out the things I can provide and have achieved, that none of my competitors can or have. I also make sure to point of the basic difference in approaches and philosophies we have. That is important, because not every potential client wants BarMagic just as they don’t all want High Spirits. For some clients, it has nothing to do with product or service, it’s about approach and style. If you and your company’s approach and style is a better fit with the client, you get the job, even if the other people bidding for it have more experience, talent, or resources. Try to keep comparisons as objective as possible and let the client make judgments. Focus on facts and history, not personal opinions. And always remember, we are a very small family, even when we are competing for the same slice of the pie. There’s plenty to go around for everybody, and you still have to sit at the table together after the pie’s all gone. So handle your business with class and tact.

10. Undersell, over deliver. This is a basic business principle which most people in hospitality have drilled into their heads at some point. Always deliver more than you promise so that you exceed your clients’ expectations. That way they will feel like they got more than their money’s worth. Your job is to make whoever hires you look like the smartest person in their company. Adding more value to your services without asking for more money is a great way to do this. I never show a client a video of a full show or our best show, ever. I show short clips from events. I want them to have a reasonable expectation of what my company does, but I definitely don’t want them to be disappointed because we didn’t pour a four-man waterfall with pyrotechnics lighting up the background while go-go dancers surrounded us. Tease them. Give them a taste so they want to buy the whole meal. And then blow them away by delivering more than you promised.

LEGAL CONCERNS
I am not an attorney, so I can’t give you legal advice and in no way, should you solely rely on any of the legal or tax information and advice in this column in setting up and running your own business. Hire an attorney and/or an accountant. What I can do, is help you understand the various protections and requirements out there you should look into before you decide to start working private parties. Now sure, you can “fly under the radar” and just take cash from people who ask you to work private parties for them, but there is a huge liability to this plan, aside from the risks of getting in deep trouble with the IRS.

Next to nobody who is booking for the major corporate events is going to pay you in cash. They will want to be invoiced and will either write you a check or use their credit card. And chances are they will ask for one or more of the following items:
- Business License/DBA
- EIN # (you need to form an LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp or other to get one)
- Credentials (Union Affiliation, TAM or TIPS certification, health card, etc.)
- Liability, Event and/or Entertainer’s Insurance
- Liquor License (Special Event, Caterer’s, Provisional)

My advice, again, is to suck it up and pay for a good attorney or accountant to help you set up your business. Going it alone does save some money (not that much in reality), but it’s a maze of confusing paperwork, filing procedures, and fees and all it takes is one error on your part and all you’ll end up with is a false sense of security.

There are one-day liquor licenses available and they are often know as catering licenses but the trick is you need to have the specifics of the event locked down weeks, possibly months in advance. And that’s an added expense. Getting a liquor license yourself is very, very difficult and very, very expensive. Without a liquor license however, it is illegal almost everywhere to sell, serve, or resell alcohol at any event.

What that means is that if you buy the booze and the event has any type of income connected with it, you are breaking the law. In addition, if there is any incident that ends up in legal action, you are now on the hot seat. The solution is to never purchase any alcohol. Make ordering recommendations to the client and let them purchase and supply the alcohol. Require them to provide staff for age verification and make it clear that you are an entertainer, not a caterer. If necessary, have one of their staff hand drinks to guests. It’s a loophole, but it covers your ass, because technically and therefore legally, you are not serving alcohol.

As far as insurance goes, often times you will or can be covered under the event insurance of the party that hires you. At times, they will ask you to provide insurance. It can be really, really tough getting someone to write you a policy for flair bartending at one event, but it can be done. Expect to pay somewhere between $300 and $600 for one day’s insurance. I would strongly suggest staying away from fire tricks.

The overall point here is that the more legal protection you have, the less likely you will ever have serious problems should something go wrong. Equally important, is that the more legal credentials and coverage you have, the more you can charge people who want to hire you. Everybody in business knows this: overhead is passed on to the client. So while it might seem like a lot of extra expense to cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s; it is something that will give you huge piece of mind and at the same time, pay for itself in no time.

WRAPPING IT UP
So there you have it: Part One of Two of how to get your fair share of private party bartending contracts. Next month, I’ll share with you all the real meat-and-potatoes insider info on how to plan, prepare and perform at events. I will also share with you fifteen items to bring along that you probably never would have thought of on your own, but will thank me for endlessly once you’re at your first event. Finally, I’ll go over the top 10 mistakes to avoid so you won’t walk around with egg nog on your face.

This gives you 30 days to run to the BarMagic Store to stock up on professional, commercial-grade bartending and catering supplies, including the single most important piece of equipment you must have to make it on your own: the Flairco Portable Bar. It also gives you time to figure out a simple marketing strategy and put some materials like business cards, videos, and brochures together. And you’ll have time to get all your legal concerns hammered out, too. So you go take care of all that, and I’ll meet you back here in a month to send you off with my blessing and a truckload of knowledge about the crazy world of contract bartending.

My name is Toby and when I’m not working my own style of Bar Magic behind the wood at two of Las Vegas’ top nightclubs (Tangerine and PURE), I’m doing it on the road at corporate events, VIP parties, and private affairs for a very selective group of clients. If you are looking to bring a team of the most famous, most experienced flair bartenders to your next special event, or if you’re a bartender looking to research and purchase the specialty equipment (like the Flairco Portable Bar) and other supplies top beverage caterers like BarMagic use for private events… visit www.barmagic.com. BarMagic works directly with other top organizations to provide the best in mobile gourmet bars and flair bartending shows for groups of 5 to 5,000, anywhere in the world… for the right price. Since 1997, BarMagic has been an industry leader creating award-winning beverage programs and providing a range of consultation services including staff training, concept development, opening support, mobile bar services, Las Vegas Style Flair Shows, and general nightlife consultation for a select group of clients including Caesars Palace, Jackie Chan, VH-1 and more. Find out more by visiting my company’s website at www.barmagic.com.

p.s. I can’t possibly convey how crucial it is to get yourself a Flairco Portable Bar if you’re at all serious about private party bartending. You can rationalize all you want about how you don’t have the money (stop going out every other night and drinking $100 worth of Jager), how expensive they are (they aren’t), and how that contraption you built out of PVC pipe and duct tape looks good enough (it doesn’t). The very first time you roll into an event with your roadcase bar, you will know why I am making you do this. Nothing you can do or say sends out a message that you are a serious professional than owning and using this piece of equipment. It will pay for itself in the first couple of events you book. And people at the event will admire it as much as they do your flair. I would go so far as to say the bar will deliver as much perceived value, as you do! You can buy the Flairco Portable bar at a number of online vendors, including Flairbar.com Shop Pages and the BarMagic Pro Shop. Both stores are directly affiliated with barproducts.com, offering the exact same products, pricing, shipping, and safe shopping. Until next month, cheers.