Being in the bartending business for a while allows you as a bartender to learn a few of life's lessons earlier than if you'd live them yourself. One of them is prepare for your future. Some bars are neighborhood bars where you see the life lesson much clearer. Some bars have a group of regulars that show up day in and day out. Those regulars maybe younger or older it's the same kind of lesson for each group. Watching a customers "life cycle", so to speak, is any customers beginning and their end.

We have witnessed the start or beginning when the 21st Birthday party (legal drinking age in US ) and seen endings to the drinking cycle in various forms, passing on from old age is one of the forms of the customers "life cycle" ending and a couple more are marriage or children are born into the lives of the customer. I know you see what I'm talking about as people come into your life and leave your life as a general rule but looking at this from a bartender's view it seems compressed and valuable lesson can be seen if you look close.

Those of us that prepare for the future are preparing for a better life in the future. An example would be a regular on the older side with or without a job and the expendable income available to drink and tip. A prepared customer can afford to live the lifestyle of a daily bar bill and not think anything of it. The customer that is not prepared ( in life ) is seen infrequently, drinks less and may tip less or not tip at all.

So what am I really getting at? Plain and simple "save some money earlier in you life", so you can enjoy the later years of your life in the lifestyle you choose. Plan to pay yourself first with a deposit into a savings account or 401k plan and NEVER touch it. The deposit can be as little as 10% of your tips, or what ever percentage you can afford. Just do it NOW. You really will not miss the money as much as you think.

Putting the money away now will assist you with your finances in future. Always remember  the future is closer than you think.

Having to work at a bar on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, is very iffy. Some smaller local, neighborhood bars may fair well, because some of the customers have no family around and of course you know the local bar is a family of sorts. You can do okay, some times the regulars are out of town or have family IN town and can't get away for a drink.

Two things to help you foster a holiday tip are :

#1 Hang stockings behind the bar with each stocking having the name of the bartenders that work there on them. Customers will leave a holiday tip for the bartender in their stocking.

#2 You as the bartender give scratch off lotto tickets to customers as a gift. These are the perfect size to carry around and you are able to write the customers name on them off to the side, so it's personalized.

A bartender / friend worked at a location that suddenly shutdown (another blog entry) and then picked up some shifts at another location. The new location is a bar within a restaurant, we talked, as it turned out there's nothing for the customers to do but drink - no games dart boards, pool tables, nothing . . . . so I'm going to suggest LRC (left right center) dice game and trivia cards. Hopfully this should help in keeping the customers around the bar a little longer. Any other suggestions would welcome!