Change of career

Not sure this is the right place to post this

So I've just taken early release from my job and will have around £30k in my pocket as a thank you. So I'm thinking of investing and starting up a business but not sure what yet. Currently I'm looking at a bar in my local town which is up for £55k pa and I know it has a lot of potential. Fully refurbed just under a year ago but I known nothing about the pub business really.

Does anyone have any advice on this industry? Maybe someone with some past experience of running a bar? I do know the old owner of the bar before the refurb but he's on holiday at the moment so I can't speak to him but he did really well and made next to no effort in running it (Used to close at 7pm on Mondays and Tuesdays even if there were customers - and even then it would be sometimes that he did this so no consitency).

Running a bar is hard work mate - you have to attract and maintain a clientele. But also you kinda feel tied to it all,day so even if you only open at 2 or 4 you're looking at being there for the close/clean up which will be 12 at least on a quiet night if you close at 11:30. Then there's always staff calling in sick, stock not adding up (easily happens with barrels as staff think nobody will notice the odd pint).

Youre re saying its a lease - is it tied to a brewery, will you have to take their beer at their prices, run their promotions etc - if it's yours free and clear and you've got a decent manager who knows what they're doing, decent staff etc and you can choose supplier (play them off against each other) it can be ok (still long hours, feel tied to it won't want to take a holiday etc). Otherwise it's not something I'd do (used to run several bars for someone and that was bad enough let alone owning it).

As blacksheep has said if it's on a lease with beer tie then initial advice would be to walk away. The big leaseholders - Enterprise, Punch etc are absolute bastards at times and will push people to bankruptcy to make sure they get their money. If it's a free house then potentially you can make it work subject to the usual problems with attracting enough customers but it will still mean hard work and long days.

Was the old manager closing early because their weren't enough customers to cover the overheads to remain open - staff, electricity etc?