bartending (4)

Part time jobs after school -in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and everywhere

April 25th, 2008

Our staff in Pittsburgh, in other bartending schools around the country, in a bar we have owned, and from the experience of so many grads, confirms that one of the best part time jobs after school is as a bartender.

The opportunities are even better in Pennsylvania where the legal age to bartend is 18. Its especially great in and around Pittsburgh, as one of the great college cities in the United States. Pittsburgh has a large and active bar/club/restaurant environment that hires all the time and has many establishments close to the large popular area colleges and universities.

Bartending jobs offer flexibility. You can work one to five shifts a week. They are predominately at night after classes. If you have a free afternoon though, there are a tremendous number of hotels, and all sorts of restaurants and pubs that look for day shift bartenders.

The job is easy. You never take it home with you. Its one of the few jobs where most of the time your smiling. Think of that the next time you face a mindless office job.

Far and away most of your income is tip income. In finer restaurants, hotels, and chains, the base salary is higher and the tip income is still significant.

At Barsmart’s forum we estimated there might be as many as 10,000 opportunities for full time and part time bartenders in the region. That doesn’t even include the huge volume of catering opportunities or banquet bartenders that hotels require. These catering and banquet bartending jobs are absolutely ideal as a part time job.

The nice thing about bartending jobs is that you can take the skill where ever you go. Over 25 years in running bartending schools we have yet to see a time where there hasn’t been a demand for good bartenders.

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Pittsburgh Bartending –Promote Promote Promote

February 22nd, 2008

We were looking at some information on Pittsburgh bars and noticed a tiny little fact that provides a tremendous opportunity.

There are very few bars in the region that provide Sentanta Sports.  It is a premier soccer/rugby/European sports network with either live or delayed top quality soccer matches and Rugby matches from Europe and Australia.  Its one of the great soccer channels available.  In fact we were amazed at how relatively few such bars there are relative to the population and compared to some other cities where we have operated bartending schools.

Now maybe Pittsburgh isn’t the center of fandom for British top notch soccer….but you know something there are a ton of soccer teams in the region, lots of soccer fans, overall sports fans, and people who can get intrigued by the special European style of cheering and rooting that is so different from American sports phenomena.  Its exciting.

With so few bars offering this entertainment we looked at a portion of the population to try and see where we could get customers.

Did you know there are over 40 or 50 adult soccer leagues in the Pittsburgh area.  They recruit players.  People advertise to join them.  They range in age from probably teenagers to over 40’s.  There are men’s and women’s leagues.  And that is just from a quick view.

On top of that there are 10 colleges in Allegheny County and over 30 colleges in the region.  Many of them have male and female teams and they probably have intramural teams on top of that.

These players have friends, fans, and families that probably also like the game.  That is several thousand potential customers, a chance to get them to network to other potential customers…and a tremendous opportunity to attract them to the very few bars in the region that show Setanta sports.  (by the way…we have no association with Setanta sports)

If I were showing those games I’d be marketing into these crowds and groups regularly.  They aren’t that hard to reach.  We found some of this information in about 1/2 an hour.

You know what else is great about these games, from the bar owners perspective?  The games are often early in the day.  That means that if you either operate a bar or are a bartender you can bring in a crowd at a time when the bar is often quiet.

Now if I’m a bartender at one of these establishments, or more realistically an owner, I’d be specifically marketing into these and other groups in the city and region on a regular basis.   

You can’t stop the marketing effort.  With ten local colleges and universities in the region and over 30 universities–with about 50,000 students in the County and over 130,000 in the greater Southeast PA region, there is a lot of turnover.

But with so little competition for this premium specialty sports network its an amazing opportunity.

We know there are endless promotion opportunities.  Bar operators explore them all the time.  Great bartenders learn how to promote their shifts and build business.  Frankly one of the great experiences in the business is to turn a slow shift or a slow day into a busy profitable day where the crowd is having a lot of fun.

Having operated bartending schools, bars, been bartenders, managed and owned we have seen a lot of opportunities and experiences over the years.  We just found this one to be a potential gem.  Contact us if you want to explore other ideas.   

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Bartending Jobs in Pittsburgh and every city in the Country

February 14th, 2008

We always get asked about National bartender job placement assistance.  In fact we were asked today about helping someone get a job who might move to Lancaster.

Here is what we have developed after years and years of working on this.

As an independantly owned school not aligned with any chains and also not stuck with rivalries and disagreements we have always made the effort to be the MOST cooperative school in the business when it comes to national job placement assistance.  It has worked we have established relationships with bartending schools in many many markets across the country, in Canada, and across the world.

We do several things for you if you are moving to another area:

1.  When you go through our program you will get an A-Z….how to get a bartending job anywhere, anytime, in any market for any type of place.   We have worked with owners/managers of clubs, formal places and everything in between.  In fact we owned a bar, hired, fired, built it from nothing, cleaned the bar, slung drinks, scrubbed the floor, developed promos….and built it into the premier college bar in its city  ( alot like Pittsburgh). 

Its funny, we have had people from other parts of the country come to one of our schools and mention exactly how or why the managers would hire them….and its in our review. 

We strongly urge our grads to use this system.  It has worked for decades.  One day a grad stopped by one of our schools and told us he used one of our tricks/suggestions on a Saturday….and by the end of the afternoon he had a job.  He described it in a very funny way.  Just cracked us up.  Really great to hear from grads.

2.  We will hook you into relevant bartending schools in that market that will provide cooperative job placement assistance.  We have spent years contacting other owners, emphasizing our cooperation in our markets, reported back to them, and created the environment so that our grads get the same level of service in other markets.  We never stop doing this.  It ensures a high level of service and reciprocity.

These efforts work.  By example we recently reinforced and cooperated with schools in a couple of regions including a chain of schools in Los Angelos National Bartenders Bartending School, a chain with a school in Sacramento and elsewhere Bartending College Schools, and an operator with a NYC bartending school  

In fact we first started cooperating with one of them in 1984!!!

We have worked out agreements with partial training in one school and finished training in a differently owned school in a different market. We found that if we go the little extra mile we can help our grads way beyond what they see elsewhere.

So if you want to find out about bartending anywhere in the nation….even internationally….check us out.

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Best Bartending on the Web

February 13th, 2008

We have been so active in bartending, bartending schools, operating bars, staying current, helping people get bartending jobs and promoting the bar business for decades.  There is no better way to learn and develop your bartending skills and knowledge than by accessing more information on the web.

In our opinions and experience here are the best starting points for more information and more access to better skills and knowledge than any other sources on the web.  On top of that they both offer comprehensive lists of other resources on every aspect of bartending you can think of in every part of the world.

The Webtender

The Webtender is simply the largest, oldest, very useful and most comprehensive list of bartending recipes in existance. It was established in 1995. (whoa…that is a long time for the web!!)

Beyond that the webtender features sources to buy equipment, information galore….and the most active forum on bartending commentary for every person. Have questions about new jobs, how to develop skills, new drinks, or any other issue about bartending–check out the webtender forum. In fact some of the various people who have developing popular bartending websites and have deep experience will often be found commenting in the webtender’s bartending forums. Check em out. Join and get in on the Conversation.

Miss Charming

Miss Charming simply has the most fun, most entertaining, most comprehensive bar site imaginable. Cheryl Charming is so well named. She knows this business upside down and backwards. She has interacted with the most knowledgeable experts out there. She has written books, entertained, staged shows, and of course bartended, bartended, bartended. (She estimates having made over 1.5 million drinks!!!!)

Like the Webtender, Cheryl’s site is also an enormous and great source for finding out information about bartending from around the world.  One other thing.  Cheryl Charming is the real deal.  She is lots more than a webmaster and designer of funky bar related design.  She has been bartending for years, she has interacted with the best in the business and she knows how to turn a simple bar into a vibrant exciting hot center of action. Visit and enjoy.  You can’t help but pick up valuable info from Miss Charming.

Extreme Bartending 

Extreme Bartending is the bar tenders guide for flair bartending including videos, seminar instruction (we travel anywhere), online mixed drink recipes, job listings and more. They are absolutely terrific for flair bartending. Well worth the visit. Like the sites above they also have been around forever and have a mountain of leads on the best bartending resources in the business. But when it comes to flair….go on over to EXTREME.

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Where Can I earn the most money as a bartender?

February 5th, 2008

We have probably been asked this question tens of thousands of times by students and prospective students in countless bartending schools that we have operated.  Here are our best answers based on our own experiences in running and operating bars, being bartenders and managers, operating active bartending job placement assistance programs and being interactive with our grads out at work.

Any type of place can be a source for great income….contingent on one thing;  the bar has to be busy….and you have to work during busy shifts.  In other words it doesn’t matter if its the hottest club, an ultra fancy high end hotel, a chain restaurant, a neighborhood bar, a sports bar, a biker bar, or whatever.  If the place is busy you can make money.  If its not busy….you and the owner/operators have to make it busy during your shifts.

The key, as with any service business is “customer service”.  You don’t need to be the most compelling personality in all of Western Pennsylvania, or the best looking, hottest, most amazing eye candy….etc.  You have to be nice, personable.  The biggest thing you have to do is make your customers comfortable at the bar.  Do that, and create an environment where you will make regulars, and build customers and you’ll start making a lot of money.

The type of bar depends on you.  If you are 21 and primarily comfortable with your peers…..and sort of uncomfortable with elders….don’t work in a fancy hotel or restaurant bar where the customer base is in their upper 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.

On the other hand if you are working in a mega club with about 15 bar stations, including some in the center of the action and some in the corners, upstairs, or away from most of the customers…..don’t expect to make tons of money….if you are in the corner bar.  In fact the managers put you there to see if you can make money.  Do a good job, better than their average and they’ll move you to the best locations in time.

The neat thing about bartending school is that we teach every type of bartending from the trendiest club environments to classic fancy bartending.  One of the cool things we have seen over the years is when grads shift from type of establishment that reflects their changing interests over time.

Want to find out more?  Arrange to visit our school.  Call us at (412) 921-9227 and arrange a free visit. 

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