BIG changes have occurred.

Hi again everyone.

It has been a while since I have posted any business information for everyone to enjoy, but there have been a lot of changes that happened in my life.   Bartender Vince was started in 2011 out of desperation to make ends meet and just survive with this side hustle.   As fate would have it, my passion was ignited by this pursuit and now I have taken it to heart.

Well about 4 years ago I met an incredible woman (who was my bartender on the fateful night we met) and the two of us started on our adventurous road. Visit this page to read about how we met ( https://www.fuegococktails.com/fuegoteam )  As fate would have it we would end up getting engaged, I moved to Arizona to be with her, then we tied the knot and got married.

Now we have decided to also join forces in our bartending lives.  So Bartender Vince has now become Fuego Cocktails.   The joint venture of my wife and I to better unite our passions and deliver the doubly incredible service of this power team.

While this decision was a joy to make, it has also made us have to begin the process of building our business all over again.  Meaning, new logo, new business cards, updating our lead funnels, changing website names, and much more.

So as of July 1 2017, the process of phasing out Bartendervince.com began, and the transition into Fuegococktails.com began.

I'll keep you posted on the process we have gone through in order to rebrand, and re-establish our bartending business.   Stay tuned.

Do you have a question?  Leave a comment or send us a message: vince@fuegococktails.com or angila@fuegococktails.com

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Customer service on the fly.

Yesterday 2-1-17, I received a filled out form from my website requesting bartending information.   As I read it, I realized that it was someone that had already inquired last year for their wedding.    This potential client filled out my online form after she had gone through some major obstacles in getting her wedding date confirmed.  Turns out the venue is under construction and it has been delayed past her original date.

Now 3 months later, she is reconnecting with us to get more information.  Our original contact was was through Thumtack.com.  Then we had an over the phone discussion about her event and needs.   Whats more, she is actually living out of the state of Arizona.

After reviewing and updating my excel spread sheet.  (Click here to read more about it.) I called her to see how I could help her.

Well, we talked for about 45 minutes.    Going over what her wants were and her ideas for drinks and all the details that go into a wedding.

Toward the end of our conversation she asked about how much she should budget for the alcohol.   In most cases this a a bit of a trick question.  But wit the help of my handy spreadsheet I could roughly give her a ball park cost.  We agreed this is by no means concrete, but it is a realistic approach to starting to get an idea of the cost.   Since here wedding is now pushed to Feb 2018, she has time to plan.

Here is how I approached this with my spreadsheet.

First, we know the guest count, we know how many hours of bartending service she wants.  So the spreadsheet calculated how many drinks are needed for the night.

Next we can enter in how many of the guests are wine drinkers as a percent.  This will tell us how many servings of wine are needed for the night.

Now the spreadsheet will calculate how many bottles of wine are needed because I know that 1 bottle provide 4-5 servings of 5-6 oz servings of wine.

Next we enter the same information for beer drinkers to find out how many servings of beer are needed for the night.

Now the spreadsheet will calculate how many kegs are needed for the night.   We know how much volume are in each different size keg.  The large ones are 15.5 gallons, and we know that 12oz are one serving of beer.   So the now the spreadsheet will tell us how many kegs are needed based on the size of keg.

Now that we know how many bottles of wine and kegs needed, we do a price search on google or on Beverages and More website to find out how much they charge for each.  I found a large 15.5 gallon keg is roughly about $120.00 average, and I just guessed on a reasonable wine bottle is $15.00

So based on this information I could estimate that 2 kegs would roughly be $240.00, and 8 bottles of wine would be roughly $120.00.

Now since I know how many guests are attending, how many drinks are needed for the whole night, how many of those drinks are wine and beer, I can now subtract those numbers and find how many cocktails are needed for the night.

Since my client has no idea of what drinks they want yet. I selected some  basic cocktails just to start a rough idea.  I picked 6 common one to get a variety of vodka, rum, tequila, etc.

So with this information this spreadsheet calculated how many bottles of liquor were needed.  I estimated that a 1.75L bottle of inexpensive booze is about $15.00.  This is low but just a starting point.  You can estimate how you like.

So for hard liquor if figure 5 bottles were needed at 15.00 per bottle, would be $75.00 to $100.

Just of the top of my head I estimated that mixers would be about $100.00 to last the night, even for the non alcoholic drinkers in the crowd who just want soda or juices.

Now we know that total ballpark estimate would be for all the supplies is $560.00 to get the ball rolling.  This does not include things like ice, or cups and napkins.  But this is a good starting point at this time, till we get closer to the wedding date and know a more exact head count and time frame.

When we get closer to the actual wedding date I will update the information and to provide a better shopping supplies list.   While this spreadsheet does not calculate the costs of the event, it does provide some basic information for you to use in order to deliver some great customer service on the spot.  With a little web searching, some creativity, and some quick thinking you can truly deliver a quality customer experience that will truly show your client you care and are willing to go the extra mile to help them.

Do you have a question about running your mobile bartending business?  Send leave a comment or send me an email at vince@bartendervince.com.


Did you find this information helpful?  Can you use this information for your business?   If you would like to say Thanks, please leave a donation of $1.00 by clicking the donate button below.

Back of house - Bartenders event calculator workbook.

I have been private bartending since 2011.  I have come to have a passion for it and truly love all the people we meet and experiences we share with them.   I have come to make some friends that I still keep in touch with as well and business colleagues that I send referrals to.

Pen ultimate lets you place images on lined paper pages and use your own writing.

When I first started I struggles to develop a system of capturing client contact information, their event details, and their desired outcome for their party.   I used my Iphone and iPad for most of this.  I used an app called PenUltimate.  I program by the people who make Evernote.   I like it because I could actually write on my iPad in my own handwriting.  I could pull it up when I met with clients face to face or on the phone.   I could impend pictures and screen shots of emails.   It was handy because I could then also refer back to it to recall what we agreed on and clarify any mis understandings.



I still use this app today, but not as religiously.  Since my full time job is working in the automotive science industry, I use excel a lot for crunching numbers and analyzing data.  I came to realize that the business side of private bartending was similar in that I needed to capture client data, then in order to create shopping lists for them, analyze and calculate their information.

So I started a quest to create a spreadsheet to help me with what I wanted to do.   Capture client contact information, capture their event details, capture what drinks we agreed on for the menu, then calculate how much of each ingredient they were needing to purchase.   I also decided I wanted this to automatically create the shopping list in a printable format, and create an invoice.

While it sounded great, actually creating this on my own proved to be a bigger order than what I was able to create myself.  I was able to create something that I could capture the client information, record their event details, calculate how many drinks they needed for the night and calculate how many servings of beer and wine were needed.   Even to convert the wine servings to bottles needed, and kegs of beer needed.    The ability to have the spreadsheet look up each cocktail selected, then calculate how much of each ingredient needed was more than what I could create.  It required the use of Lookup, if/then statements, round up functions, match functions, etc.    All above my abilities at the time.

So in order to get the functionality I wanted, I decided to contract this out to a vendor I found on Fiverr.com.   Since I was very clear on what I wanted, and had a partial built spreadsheet already created.   It wasn't to difficult to communicate to the vendor what I wanted.

After contacting him and sending my poor version of what I wanted along with notes and comments in the file.  He built the spreadsheet in Apple Numbers format for me.  This was my request since I was using my iPad to handle my bartending business activities.  He delivered exactly what I wanted and even what a little above and beyond by making a few little revisions I requested.

After a couple of months I contacted him again to make a couple of changes that wanted added in.  The coast was cheap for the quality of his work and the fast turn around time.

If you need spreadsheet work done this guys rocks.  Nate Voelker is a genius.  https://www.fiverr.com/natevoelker

I have just recently converted my Apple Numbers version to a Microsoft Excel version.  I had to fix a lot of formulas that didn't work after the conversion, but not it is working as I expect.  However I have to say I am no programmer or excel master so if there are some errors, well I gave it my best.   

You can download this workbook for your private bartending business here. 

Excel version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtjbt9wh2yuzpub/Free%20Event_Calculator.xlsx?dl=0

Numbers version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2bf213dltox5xau/Free%20Event_Calculator_2.numbers?dl=0

It is the basic workbook and not the full version I purchased from Nate.  It has the core of what I use, and you are free to add what you need for your business and client needs.   

I have recorded a youtube video to help explain how to use it and how it works.  It isn't high quality but I used what I have to work with.   

New the video here - https://youtu.be/5PB5LBk-26U

Hopefully it helps you with your business.  Remember, it is just a basic version so use it as a starting point.  Add to it, build it and use it as you like.   If you need some advance functions built into it, I suggest higher someone like Nate above to help out.  Again, I'm not all that good at formulas.  

Was this post helpful?   Let us know at Vince@bartendervince.com.   

Do you like this content?  Is it helping you with your business?  Did you download the workbook? If you would like to say "Thanks" feel free to make a donation. 

A Boisterous Birthday Bash! 1/14/2017

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

     So, our last event was a lively birthday party in Cave Creek located in the North Valley in Phoenix.  The hosts Michelle and Kevin graciously welcomed us into their home, they were so friendly and accomodating.  They had us set up in a perfect little nook in their dining room right off of the kitchen which seemed like it was designed just for us.  Set up was a breeze and we were serving drinks in no time!

     The hosts had a beautiful courtyard home.  I mean...the courtyard was situated in the middle of the home and the house was built all the way around it.  Brilliant!  What a perfect outdoor spot for relaxing or entertaining!  Most of the party was inside as it is still cold here in Arizona.  Still????  I know right?!?  We were situated right inside the back sliding glass doors and while we were inside the weather from outside still snuck in and got us!  Well, it got my toes at least.  They were like ice cubes by the end of the night!

     But you didn't come here to read about my toes!  When we arrived we found that most of the beer and white wine and sparkling wines were already being chilled, which makes us very happy!  It's always a plus when the hosts have the foresight to chill the items that need to be served cold.  We set up 2 back bar tables for this party, one 6 foot and one 5 foot.  We typically put risers under the back bar that holds the bottles and mixers for easy accessibility.  We used the side back bar table mostly for the glassware that the hosts supplied for wine and martinis.   Under the table is where we keep the big coolers that house the ice we use for building cocktails and keeping things cold for the duration of the party.  Michelle and Kevin already had most of the beer on ice in a couple of small coolers which meant we didn't have to use our big round plastic bucket totes.  It was so helpful and made for a lot less clean up at the end of the night.  We like that a lot!!  In the front of the picture above you can see the tray of vodka soaked gummy bears the hosts put out for something fun for guests to nibble on!  YUM!  Now that's my kind of snack!

     There was a nice variety of selections on the cocktail menu.  Michelle had requested her favorite drink which was Deep Eddy Peach Vodka topped off with Cava.  Bubbly and delicious!  There was also a margarita, lemon drop martini and basic mixed drinks like vodka tonic or soda, and beer and wine.  The Birthday Girl cocktail and the Lemon Drop seemed to be the hits of the night.  One of the guests had a special request of something fruity and Bartender Vince got to show off his very own, ever famous, special creation...The Berry Cocktail!  Yes, it's on almost every menu at almost every event and when it's not we always make sure we have the ingredients to make it.  And of course she LOVED it and even had other guests ordering it!  What we usually do for that cocktail is puree fresh raspberries for it, but the original way to do it (and slightly more labor intensive, for me anyway) is to use about 5 fresh raspberries and let the ice pulverize them while we shake.  Then strain and enjoy!  YUM!

     Michelle and Kevin had hired a DJ who played a great mix of popular music.  The guests had found out somehow that Salsa dancing is what Bartender Vince and I enjoy doing so they put in a request for us and we got to show off our moves once again!  So fun!  My toes were frozen solid by that point so my moves weren't quite a smooth as they could have been lol, but Vince is such an amazing dancer he can make any partner look like a pro!  I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we build a reputation as the Boogie Down Bartenders!!
                                                                                                       
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Cheers.
Bartender Vince and Bartender Angila.