Diary of a Club Guy Part 6
Club Owner
Club Owner - Their role is of course to make the club successful and a good work environment. If the club is profitable, people have a place to work, and a place to party, while the owner can feed his family. An overly glorified position, as many people believe it is all fun and games. Being a successful club owner requires a lot of work, a high stress tolerance, and quite often, a strong liver.
In 2015, after 2 years in the nightlife industry, I was ready to open my own club, however, I figured it would be unwise, and far too expensive to do this on my own.
I approached the best club owner in the city (who will remain anonymous) and let him know that the next club he opens, I want a part of it.
At the time, he had just opened a new club, 441 Main, and suggested that instead of waiting for him to want to open a new one, he should just sell me some of his shares. I thought that was a great idea, so, a few months later, we became business partners.
November 1st, 2015, at the age of 23, I became a club owner. That’s where the final part of “Diary of a Club Guy” begins.
The Journey
A lot of people immediately assume that being a club owner is very simple. Put some good music on, make it look “cool”, some cheap drinks, call your friends, and make some money.
Being a club owner is actually extremely difficult, and often not very profitable. The amount of effort, time, and load on your health is for most people not worth it. (One of the main reasons I likely will never do it again)
What can be said about owning a club, is that it is very fun, and if you do it well, it is also very rewarding.
The average age at 441 Main when I started was around 28 years old.
That meant I was 5 years younger than the average age. Being aware of this, I had to be careful who I brought out because bringing people my age (or younger) would be detrimental to the success 441 was currently having.
For the first few months, I continued being a club promoter at Reign Nightclub on Saturday nights. At the same time, Stephen Hua and I started promoting the Friday nights at 441 Main, as there was still room to grow the Fridays.
I wanted to slowly ease into ownership because although I knew a little bit about management, bartending, hosting and promoting, I didn’t know everything it took to run a successful venue. I was eager to learn, and I made sure my partners and the manager knew that.
After about 6 months, I felt it was time to quit Reign Nightclub and move over to 441 Main completely. This way I could promote my own nightclub all weekend long.
At the same time, I made a deal with my partners to let me be the VIP host and start to do some targeted promoting. This would ensure that we could get great service while allowing me to get to know the patrons who were a little older than me.
This worked exceptionally well.
Over the course of the next few years, I would get to know a lot of our customers while making sure the VIPs were well taken care of.
There were a lot of hiccups along the way.
The way the lifespan of a nightclub works is that you aim to get an older demographic off the bat. You want young professionals, those who just started making money. Doctors, lawyers, realtors, young business owners, athletes, hairstylists, and car salesmen typically.
However, as you continue to market to that demographic, over time younger people start to discover your hot new club.
As the younger people flock in, the older people no longer enjoy your club as much as they once did. The younger demographic while they love to party, have a lot less disposable income, and fight more. Eventually, your club gets so young that it struggles to survive.
There are some exceptions to this of course. Some clubs thrive off the younger demographic. 441 Main however, was not one of those clubs. With our low capacity, and high overhead, having an older demographic was much more ideal.
For 2 and a half years we managed to keep the older demographic in our club. This was not easy. A lot of other clubs for example struggle to keep them for 6 months even.
Over those 2.5 years, we barely had any fights, had great sales, and won the best nightclub of the year in our city.
As our age demographic lowered, the club was still a lot of fun, and worth keeping open, but the first couple of years were truly the glory years. I made so many memories, with so many amazing people, that I will be forever grateful.
We had a lot of great performers at 441 Main as well. Some of those include Knife Party, Kaskade, Brody Jenner, and Nora En Pure. It was crazy because we even had numerous celebrities reach out to us asking to come to the venue because of how beautiful the room was.
That is something that I need to double-click on. The club was absolutely beautiful. My partner designed it and did an incredible job. The art in the venue actually went on to be on Armani shirts, and a lot of it sold after we shut down.
I got caught up in the “club owner life” and perhaps had a little too much fun. Some nights I got absolutely blackout drunk, and one time I even ended up on stage in my underwear. When I look back, I don’t regret any of it, but I am happy that I no longer drink alcohol.
If I didn’t drink as much alcohol back then, perhaps I would have more money now, made better decisions, and still be in that industry. But, if I didn’t drink as much, I certainly would have had less fun, and probably connected with fewer people. So, I have no regrets in that regard.
The highlight of it all was working with amazing people. From my partners to the DJs and the rest of the staff, I was truly blessed to have had the opportunity to hustle every weekend.
In a video for promo we filmed, I was asked, “What’s your favourite part about 441?”. I responded with, “I love staff, clientele. I love everybody.”
And that was the truth. It’s why I continued to do it right until the end.
In March 2020, we were unfortunately forced to close down due to the COVID lockdowns. In April, we made the decision to close down permanently because we knew that it would be months before we could reopen.
We figured the best-case scenario would be we pay rent for months and reopen. When we reopen, who knows if we will be busy again? The risk was not worth it.
We had no idea if the government would help the businesses that were forced to shut down. All that we knew was that we did not want to pay rent for months, just to hope that we could one day reopen and remain successful.
Shutting down was very hard on me for multiple reasons.
Aside from the fact that the majority of my income came from the nightlife industry, it was also my home. Every weekend for over 7 years I was in a club - 5 of those years I was in my club.
I missed the energy and money, but most of all, the people.
Lockdowns truly revealed who was friends, and who was just drinking buddies.
Over the course of the nearly 5 years we were open, we won nightclub of the year twice. We had hundreds of amazing parties, staffed hundreds of different people, and helped tens of thousands of people create amazing memories.
It was a great time, but over the covid lockdowns, I grew a lot. I realized there is a lot more to life than just partying. And, as I mentioned earlier, I realized the effort, time and toll on your health, is simply not worth the reward.
So, although I loved it, and am forever grateful for my experiences, I believe that is how the diaries of a club guy end.
Memorable Experiences
There were many busy nights, but some of the busiest were the F*ck Cancer nights. It was incredible to see so many people out for a good cause.
Our block parties. We would block off the parking lots surrounding the building and bring in a couple thousand people over the Canada Day weekend.
The staff parties were always a good time.
One night the first customer who walked in, walked up to our ATM, got mad at it and kicked it. It broke and cost him a few thousand dollars.
Every single one of my birthday parties at the club was just ridiculous.
The club got turned into a movie set (Nobody on Netflix). We continued to operate normally with the set they made which was a cool temporary change.
Time after time, people from other cities and countries would compliment the beauty of our club. It felt great.
I was often threatened by angry patrons, saying they would get me fired if I didn’t let them in immediately. They didn’t know I was one of the partners. It was hilarious.
A business student got mad for charging him cover saying he could teach me how to run a business, charging him isn’t smart as he will one day have money. They don’t teach you how to run a club in business school it turns out.
Takeaways
Running a nightclub is not an easy business, and honestly a little overrated.
Club ownership is not all fun and games, but you will for sure have fun. Don’t open a nightclub just for the fun of it, or you will be disappointed, and lose a lot of money.
Work with incredible people, and you will have an incredible work experience.
Having great business partners will increase your chances of success, and lower your workload.
Conclusion
Owning a nightclub is not as fun as people would imagine. It’s hard, takes a lot of work, and is extremely risky. One bad fight could finish in your nightclub closing.
I’m super happy to have been able to own a nightclub that was successful for 5 years. That is much longer than most clubs in the city of Winnipeg, and I’m truly blessed for that.
I met incredible people and made incredible memories over the course of those years.
For the same reasons I won’t go back to promoting nightclubs, I won’t go back to owning clubs. The risk, effort, and time, are simply not worth the rewards. If you are thinking of owning a club for the fun of it, or as a career, I would advise you to think twice.
Thanks for reading!
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