Business Goods & Services

In my many years of helping people buy businesses, I have noticed something interesting about people who are selling their liquor stores. They’re almost always suffering from severe burnout!

If you tour a number of liquor stores that are for sale, you’ll discover what I mean. The places are usually poorly taken care of, and there are bottles on the shelves that could have easily been laying around for years. The lighting needs replacing, the walls need a fresh coat of paint, and boxes of really old stock are stacked up in storage rooms. I have even seen injection-molded plastic signs on the walls for brands of beer that aren’t even available anymore.

Sounds dismal, right? Well, not really, because all those factors can spell opportunity just for you, a smart buyer.

Right here are the essential steps to change that underperforming liquor store into a money machine!

Step one: Make sure you buy the right store!

First things first… You need to purchase a store that has a lot of untapped demographic potential. It could be a well established “mom and pop” liquor store in a neighborhood that has just recently been converted by the arrival of younger, upscale professional consumers. It could be in a section of the district where new office complexes are planned for development. Whatever it is, it has to have growth potential.

Avoid buying a liquor store in an area that’s in decline. Occasionally such stores can be pulling in positive cash flow by selling half pints of liquor and flask-style bottles of low cost wine, but let’s be real about this point; a store in a district which is improving will always provide you with more potential for expansion and increased profitability.

Step two: Cater to a more professional type of clientele!

If you’re in an region that’s bringing in an increasing number of professional people, begin building an upscale inventory that will appeal to these customers. Don’t wait for people to ask for more exclusive wines, get those products on your shelves in anticipation of popular demand.

Then we arrive at the issue of customer service. If you want to capture an upscale customer group, you’ll have to be able to answer questions about various wines – which wines are highly rated, or which go best with a particular kind of food.

One method for providing this service is to employ experienced salespeople. Another way is to hire enthusiastic people and train them, or perhaps become a wine expert yourself. Your choice of strategy depends on your budget, your sales and the size of your establishment.

Step three: Make your store appear to be the part – from day one.

If your store needs renovation or freshening up before it can appeal to your new clients, make sure you budget for this – and always reserve a realistic amount of money for fix-ups. Come to a reasonable figure for how much the entirety will cost, and make this a key factor of your calculations as you negotiate with the Seller for a fair price. Keep in mind that you can’t get any new business from upscale clientele by slapping on a new coat of paint on broken down old shelves. Look at windows, lighting, floor areas, wall coverings and more. Even your cash registers have to be brand new and perfectly clean.

Step four: Expand your product offerings beyond alcoholic beverages.

Over the last decade, upscale liquor stores have begun to offer gourmet cheeses and other food products. It makes sense to expand in this way. Use your intuition, and if people are looking for a good bottle of wine, or some really great beer to have with a evening meal, why not provide a choice of cheese, olives, crackers and other interesting appetizers? Remember to check local ordinances and zoning to be sure you can sell foods at your location.

Step five: Hold in-store events to attract more of your target clients.

Hold wine tastings, cooking classes and cheese seminars in your store. If a well known author has recently published a popular book on wine or cheese, have a book signing at your store.

Events do more than sell products. They give your store the feeling of a community – and a destination.

Step six: Build an Internet presence.

Construct an eCommerce Internet Webpage Store where you suggest wine, liquors and beer. On this Webpage, be sure to build in a sign-up form where customers can subscribe to your state-of-the-art professional email newsletter, in which you send out comprehensive information on your products.

Also, in your newsletter, add in coupons for rebates on wines, beer and a variety of other products, and make an effort to be creative with discovering new ways of making it as simple as possible for your customers to recommend new subscribers to you.

Always present your Website visitors with the opportunity to order products strait from your Website store. You can offer local delivery if you have a vehicle, or low cost shipping to a wider area. Be aware, however, that you may be prevented by law from shipping alcoholic beverages to other states, and make sure to check this out before you buy your store, so you can get a realistic idea of the business’s true overall profit potential.

Richard Parker is the President and founder of the Diomo Corporation – The Business Buyer Resource Center. His inspiring materials, seminars and consulting have assisted thousands of business buyers with achieving their life long dream of buying a business.

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