Thursday, September 15, 2005
Sanescientist - IT consultant!Well, maybe a slight exageration. Nevertheless, it seems that my messing about with Excel at the sport centre has been noted. One of the duty managers has just taken over the tenancy of a bar, and is willing to pay me to put together a spreadsheet to help him manage and monitor his stock and sales. He already has a proper business plan and an accountant (and I've made it clear that this spreadsheet should never be seen by a professional!), but basically he wants a spreadsheet for his own purposes.
The plan is relatively straightforward. At the end of each day, he wants to be able to take his till receipts and enter the sales figures for each drink sold. He has 2 aims. First, he wants to monitor his wastage. Basically, if he has sold 230 shots of vodka, and each litre bottle holds 40 25ml shots, then he should have about a quarter of a litre left in his sixth bottle of the day. If there are 8 bottles in the store room less than there were the previous day, then either he has very clumsy barstaff or a bottle or 2 have exited the premises up someone's jumper.
Second, he wants to be able to monitor how he is doing against his pre-determined business plan and take measures to increase business sensibly. If he is down on plan, then he may need to consider a drinks promotion to part more punters from more money. However, if Bacardi Breezer is flying off the shelves, then he doesn't want to offer those on a 2 for 1 - perhaps he may try to shift a few more pints of Carling. He's the business man so that's his decision, however my spreadsheet will hopefully give him the necessary information to make that decision.
I proved my skills last night, when I helped him format a simple spreadsheet to calculate how much money he wants the bank to give him to spruce the place up (new sinks, a new speaker system and a lick of paint and varnish). So later this week, I shall be taking my laptop and a pen and notepad down to his bar to get a detailed plan of what he wants.
My source of advice (as in all things) is my old man. He has some experience in this, and so when I have the plan I will show Dad what is needed and between us we will come up with a fair estimate of the time and cost. I'm not trained in this, so I won't be able to charge the going-rate for a professional obviously, but it should net me a little pocket money. Dad has also offered to "try and break" the spreadsheet as quality control. And fingers crossed, it'll at least ensure me free entry into the bar on a friday night ahead of the queues (something I've always wanted to do heh!).
I'll keep you all posted.
# posted by SaneScientist @ 1:07 am
|
|
