Your Skills And Experience
Mark S. Elliott has spent 25 years working in various management roles within the tenanted and leased divisions of the UK's largest breweries and pub companies. His extensive knowledge and day-to-day involvement with pubs and publicans make him well qualified to know what is required to run a successful pub. He shares his knowledge and many 'insider tips' with you in this book. Mark is based in Cockermouth, Cumbria.
YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
What do you do well? What are you skilled at? What kinds of work have you been involved in? Hopefully, you will find that a number of your skills can be used to run your own pub. These are often called ‘transferable skills’ – you can transfer them to other types of work. Examples of these would be your customer-service skills gained during your time as a shop assistant or your administration skills gained while working in the office. Both of these can prove useful in running your own pub. Again, it is worth listing your skills for the following reasons:
- It highlights your skills when applying for a pub.
- You can feature them in your business plan.
- It will identify any skills that you lack and need to gain.
- You can use them to plan your pub responsibilities.
It is essential that you gain some experience of running a pub before taking the plunge. Fortunately, there are often lots of opportunities to work behind a bar. As well as bar jobs, many licensees welcome showing you the ropes in exchange for a few hours of unpaid assistance. Get as much experience of bar work or running a pub as you can. Practical, hands-on experience is the best way of gaining and improving your skills. It is also the only real way of finding out whether you may be suited to a life in the pub trade.
