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Today's Featured Biography

Ty Christensen

In 1988 I finished my Associates Degree. I was married with one child and couldn’t find a good job for the life of me. I came face to face with a choice, either to manage a bar or further my education. Because of my wife and a child, I chose something that would give me a moderate income, managing a bar.

While managing a bar I became very good at building a small customer base into a large profitable business. I didn’t have many rules but the few I did have were very effective. My most important rule was “Keep it Cleanly and Friendly “, and “It’s All About Keeping Smiles On Peoples Faces “. If you can make a customer smile, they will be back again and hopefully with a friend.

After 13 years of management I decided to purchase the business, not knowing all that it entailed, such as bookkeeping, budgeting, etc. I recommend that anyone wanting to start up a business should have a good business plan. Because without a plan, strategy, and a good set of goals, the business will just coast along making a small if no profit at all. At the time I purchased the bar I was going through what most people call burnout. After thirteen solid years of working so hard at keeping customers entertained and happy, I lost my wife, my family, and myself.

The stories in the bar business are amazing. Some stories should almost be published and some stories should stay in that closet where all the bad and nasty things are hid, only to be brought out to make a story more interesting or in all humor, after seven years in most states you have statute of limitations, then you can talk about it.

The bar business is different than most any other business out there in the world today. Not only do people look at the bar industry as a place of sin, the owners, managers, and employees are led into temptations you just don’t see in other organizations such as drinking, smoking, gambling and men and women flirting more than you can shake a stick at, temptations that can destroy your business, relationships, and your financial state.

It’s funny how a lot of the management ideas and styles I learned in college came natural for me. Other things I learned could be put into the category of that old saying “If I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t be in this mess”.

After four years of ownership I sold the bar with nothing to show for it but a good learning experience. The choices people make are all learning experiences. If people would just learn more in the form of education, they would be able to make a more educated choice in what could alter the rest of their lives.

I am now 43 years old and I have one more semester left for my Bachelors Degree in Business Administration. I am currently working as a bartender 25 to 30 hrs per week.

With a good education, I would have no problem with any business venture except for the bar business. Now you know the rest of the story.

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