When I worked for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, I saw a lot of people pass through the different Alcoholic Beverage Control District Offices. Yet, most people do not have any knowledge about what the procedures are to filing an application or locating the best possible location to invest in to start a restaurant, liquor store, bar and or a nightclub business.
Before you even start the Alcoholic Beverage Control Application process there are things that you can do to ensure yourself that the location you are investing in will be a profitable venture. You do not want to just walk into an Alcoholic Beverage Control District Office with the notion that just because the space you want to rent or buy is available to start a liquor license business, you can just push the application through and start making money. It doesn't work like that, you want to take your time and thoroughly research the demographics for your proposed location to make sure that it is the best possible location for you to start your business.
When you submit your application to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and it is turned over to an Alcoholic Beverage Control Investigator for review, you do not want your application to just sit on the investigators desk because it is missing important documentation which is needed to process your application and or the location has not been carefully researched beforehand pertaining to the demographics. As a former Investigator for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the one thing I noticed is that investigators did not like an incomplete, un-researched application. If the location has been thoroughly researched and the application has been filled out correctly, this in turn will allow the Alcoholic Beverage Control Investigator to expedite your application in the quickest possible manner, after all "time is money".
You as the business owner want to make sure the license that you buy, will be located in a profitable demographic area. Maybe there was a liquor license in the past at the location that you now want to open a business in but for some reason, that particular business didn't survive. Isn't it an intelligent idea to find out why it went out of business? It may have gone out of business for any number of reasons, none of which have to do with the profitability of the business itself or the demographic location.
When you do apply for your Alcoholic Beverage Control License, you need to make sure you cover all your bases regarding the demographics and the application process. After all, its your hard earned money that your investing into the restaurant, liquor store, bar and or nightclub, so you don't want to waste valuable time by not thoroughly searching for the right location for your new business, and you also want to make sure that the application was processed properly from the beginning, so not to slow the process of granting you a liquor license. Don't forget, the sooner you open your establishment, the sooner you start seeing profits and as we all know, "time is money".
