Diary Of A Club Guy Part 4
Assistant Manager
Assistant Manager (Nightclub) - Their role is as it sounds, to assist the manager with their duties. Those duties include such things as scheduling, inventory, event planning, cashouts, programming, staffing, conflict resolution, sales, etc. The best managers are strict but good with people - responsible, and disciplined.
From the Primal event at Stereo Nightclub
One year prior, I would have never imagined I would be sitting in an office with no windows at 6 am trying to count $10,000 in floats, peeling sticky $20 bills off each other.
It was never my plan, and although there were many moments I enjoyed, I honestly couldn’t stand this job.
I was helping with the duties of an assistant manager for close to 9 months in total, but I technically only held the position for 2 months prior to quitting.
Like I said, I couldn’t stand this job.
Part 4 is about the 7 months leading up to my promotion, and the 2 months prior to quitting.
The Journey
Near the beginning of 2014, I was taking on more as a VIP host - I wanted to do more. My hunger to work led to me slowly being given more duties.
Over time, this included planning events, helping with hiring, inventory, bookings, cashouts, scheduling, etc.
Doing the cashouts and inventory was truly an awful job. It meant staying up late to count every ounce of alcohol in hundreds of bottles and counting sticky bills.
In March 2014, I went to the Nightclub & Bar conference in Las Vegas and came back with some great ideas. Those great ideas are what led to me playing a part in helping redesign the VIP system at Stereo Nightclub and helping plan events.
Stereo Nightclub was great because we always did themed parties. This allowed us to be really creative with what we could do in that room, and it worked.
Some of the events I created included:
A pyjama party with feathers shooting from the confetti machine and a giant pillow fight.
Putting up reflecting panels all around the dancefloor to create a dome that reflected all the lasers.
Primal: an event where we rented giant dinosaurs and put them throughout the club.
A Jabbawockeez tribute where we cleared the dance floors for masked dancer performances.
An arcade-themed party
We had a different event each Saturday, so there were a lot of fun ideas that went around. Some were great, and some were awful, as expected.
By the summer of that year, I was helping with a lot of the management duties.
After threatening to quit my unofficial management position because of low pay, I finally officially got the promotion.
I sometimes worked close to 100-hour work weeks at minimum wage and yet would only be paid for 50 hours of work. The accounting department determined that it shouldn’t be necessary to work 100-hour weeks to run a club.
Needless to say, the pay wasn’t cutting it.
So I said I would quit and instead got a raise to $14 an hour.
Life was good! Right up until I realized that promoters were making $3000+ a night at other clubs. This meant that my 3-500 person-a-night guest list would make $1000+ a night if I started promoting instead.
Seemed pretty awesome to me especially considering promoters worked way fewer hours and didn’t have to stay at the club until 6 am (some nights 9 am).
I know some managers will read this and wonder why we stay there so late.
Well, we did the inventory ourselves each night for 9 bartenders. We also had to clean the bar and because the themed parties often included paint… it took a long time.
So once again, I quit. However, this time, I started my first company and became a promoter.
A lot of this sounds ridiculous and awful, but I learnt an incredible amount during a short period of time. I was paying my dues.
The management team was in charge of all marketing and event planning which isn’t always the case. We were constantly trying to be up-to-date and ahead of the curve, and that helped me further down the road.
This job also gave me a good work ethic. Later on, I wasn’t afraid to work 100-hour weeks and I was now much more motivated to do so since I started working on my own company.
On top of all that, I met some great people, and made great memories.
Unfortunately barely sleeping, barely eating and stress lead me to lose around 25 pounds of muscle in 6 months.
So here I was, very skinny and excited to start working on my first business.
That’s when I told my friend John (DJ Hollywood Hype at the time) that I wanted to start promoting, so, he introduced me to Stephen Hua.
And that’s where part 5 starts.
With Dev from The Cataracs. One of the first shows I helped with.
Memorable Experiences
We had some insane staff parties. I remember creating an obstacle course at the beach and splitting the staff into teams to race. It was ridiculous.
Although it was often awful, sometimes being overtired and cleaning up with the staff at 5 am was pretty fun.
Stereo Nightclub had some of the best shows. We brought in a lot of DJs and packed the place.
Some nights we had 1500+ people. It’s the only nightclub in Winnipeg I’ve ever seen that happen, and the energy was insane.
As with most nightclub positions, I worked with some incredible people, learnt a lot and made great memories.
I definitely caught people having sex in weird places, including the dirty bathroom floor.
Takeaways
In my opinion, managers at nightclubs in Winnipeg are some of the most underpaid people I have ever met. The amount of work, and shit they have to deal with. They deserve more.
Make sure to pay your staff for the hours they worked, or they might quit.
Nurture every relationship you make with people. You can make friends everywhere.
You can use a surprising amount of creativity in nightlife.
Nightclubs are a crazy work environment and I don’t recommend anyone does it long-term. You’ll wear yourself out and age way too fast.
Conclusion
I learnt a lot and met so many great people, but at the end of the day, management in a nightclub was never for me.
At the time, I was good at it and liked a lot of the work I was doing. However, I grew out of it quickly.
It wasn’t long before I realized that I wanted to work for myself and have my own company.
Staying up until 2 am is almost impossible for me now, never mind 9 am.
I’ll always be thankful for the time I spent at Stereo Nightclub and the work education it provided me. But, promoting proved to teach me more, be more lucrative, and much much more fun. That’s for part 5 though.
Thanks for reading.
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