Our best event ever. 290+ guests scanned. Bar rang $4,162 on a $4,000 minimum. The dancefloor was packed from midnight to close. Every DJ delivered. The energy was unreal.
And we ran out of beer.
Not at 5am when it wouldn’t matter. At 1:30am when the night was peaking. Staff on the bar wasn’t stocking properly. Nobody was watching inventory. We had the crowd of our dreams and we couldn’t serve them.
The first 15 events were bleeding me dry, and this was supposed to be the turning point. We cleared the bar minimum by $162. That should have been $2,000+ if we’d actually had product behind the bar.
Lesson: the dancefloor is the art. The bar is the business. You can have the best party in Brooklyn and still lose money because nobody counted the White Claws.
Now I store event supply at a trusted ally’s garage. Four bottles liquor, two 12-packs White Claw, Pabst, Red Bull, sodas. Counted. Tracked. Never again.