We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Clarissa Keller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Clarissa below.

Alright, Clarissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge would be consistent volume. There have been many times where Social Stir Bartending has been booked and unable to take on additional bookings, and there have been moments where we have struggled to find viable leads. I’ve worked in sales, so I understand that is the risk we take in this field. Low volume can affect the survival of the business. Another challenge to the field is the lack of knowledge on the benefits of hiring a bartender and or full bartending services. There is a misconception that we’re just there to pour, when in fact, it takes a great deal of preparation and skill to bartend an event, no matter the size. This lack of knowledge causes many to stray away from hiring services such as ours, which of course, decreases sales and affects our profits. I can recall a customer who wanted her sister to pour drinks, but her daughter insisted on hiring a professional. The mother was still not convinced, so the daughter decided to cover the expenses of hiring a bartender and today her mother has booked our services four times in the last 3 years.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Clarissa Keller and I own Social Stir Bartending. I graduated from Louisiana State University in 2008 and I am currently working on my master’s degree in higher education. I enjoy working in higher education so I wish to remain in the field for the foreseeable future, but I also wish to continue operating my bar services because it brings me a great deal of joy.

Before starting my business, I found it extremely difficult to break into the bar industry as a bartender. I found that many bar owners and/or managers were requiring a great deal of previous experience as a bartender or, and I find this to be the most disturbing, the candidate needed a certain “look.” I doubt many will admit this, but many employers prefer women to be possess physical attributes that will drive liquor sales, and ignore the lack of skills.

I remember taking on server positions with the promise that I would eventually be trained as a bartender. While performing the duties of a server, I would chat up the bartender on my shift and I often found that many had little to no prior experience, This, of course, was disappointing to me and I found myself believing I didn’t have the look needed. I would go on interviews for bartending positions and more often than not, the interviewer would try to convince me to take on a server position. Eventually, I grew tired of this and decided to go out on my own. I started Social Stir Bartending with the goal of creating my own job and expanding it so that I can train and hire based experience. My goal was to ensure that each cocktail my customers taste is made by the hands of someone who deserves to be behind the bar and not by someone who is there based on physical traits. I take pride in creating crafted cocktails, providing amazing customer experience, and teaching inspired bartenders the craft. What I want people to know is that my pride is tied into this business, so rest assured, working with us will be an experience like no other.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that you cannot satisfy everyone. When I first started my business, I would often have customers try and negotiate my prices and I caved in ALOT. I would convince myself that I was overcharging and the customer suggested price was reasonable. I would take extra measures to cater to the customer’s budget even if it inconvenience the business. I can recall an event in New Orleans, La where I severely undercharged a customer, which resulted in me using my personal funds. It was my error and the customer had no knowledge this occurred, but it was perhaps the biggest lesson I learned on my pricing. As I grew professionally and personally, I became more confident in our services and the prices remain firm. We do our best to work with all budgets, but if we are unable to reach an agreement, I can rest easy knowing we tried our best to reach a mutual understanding.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele is word of mouth. Of course, this is difficult in the beginning, so we used third party services such as Thumbtack to find customers. Once we book a customer, we ensure to provide a top tier bar experience and direct guests to the website and social media to attract news customers. Currently, we are looking to expand our social media platform which will entail us hiring professionals of that field. We believe this may be more or at the very least, just as effective as word of mouth. We hope the readers follow us on IG and Facebook!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.socialstirbartending.com
• Instagram: @socialstirbartending
• Facebook: Social Stir Bartending

Image Credits

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