We were lucky to catch up with Brandon Lawler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brandon, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
This story starts in 2018 and not with a brick-and-mortar bar. I lost my job as a car salesman in early 2018 and was unemployed for the first time in my life. I’d always wanted to work for myself, but never could figure out what I wanted to do. During my time unemployed, I’d pick up odd jobs to make some cash, and one of those jobs was helping my mother-in-law move stuff for a wedding to a local venue, The Library Ballroom. Another friend was the venue manager and she was telling me how much she hated doing bars for weddings. Having to buy all the different brands for each wedding, storage, hiring, permits, labor, etc. She as telling me how much of a nightmare it was and that she wished she could outsource that part! So, I immediately started researching how to become a special event alcohol caterer.
I started off by modeling the business off of a food caterer, which is way more prevalent but very similar. The hardest part was the legality and licensing, alcohol is very regulated. I discovered that if I operated as a “buying agent” for the client, purchased what they wanted, served in an open bar format (guest drink free, no limit), and took back the product and didn’t give any away, that was legal. Gray area legal, but legal. I got all formalities in order – LLC created, EIN, business account, business cards, contract, invoices, and a simple website. I bought coolers, bar tools, and a modified folding table to fit a bar riser. I setup the bar, staged with some drinks, and took pictures for the very simple website I created. Made everything go live, cold-emailed as many wedding venues in town, pushed some ads on Facebook, and waited.
I landed my first catering job in July of 2018 for a small corporate event. And then another, and another. Because of the legality and lack of really funds, my wife’s house turned into a warehouse for beer, wine, liquor, mixers, tables, etc. Everything was stored there and it became cramped. From July 2018 to December 2018, I booked and worked 15 catering jobs. I was figuring things out, getting a groove, and then Agent Perry of the Department of Revenue Alcohol and Tobacco Division gave me a call on December 20th, 2018. I initially missed his call, but he left a voicemail (which I still have). I was terrified but confident in my research, so I gave him a call back. “I’m sitting here holding one of your business cards, what is your state license number?” I didn’t have one. I explained to him how I was operating, acting as the buying agent, etc. After a productive and mutual call, he concluded that what I was doing was in-fact legal, but indeed gray area legal. We hung up and I realized I needed to get me actual licenses and permits in place, so I’d need a brick-and-mortar bar. That call with Agent Perry is what propelled me to open what is now known as JBA.
We opened in a small corner spot in a rather forgotten area of downtown Macon. Rent was cheap and the space was small and manageable. I knew I could have gotten a very cheap spot if I just wanted licensing off the beaten path, but figured I might as well have a go at the brick-and-mortar spot generating revenue along with the catering side of the business, so I decided to open a bar and music venue. JBA stands for Jake, Brandon, Alex. Myself and two best friends growing up. It’s where music started for me, I played drums, Alex guitar, and Jake played bass. We opened the doors on July 5th 2019 and once again, I jumped into something I had no experience or idea about, but would learn and pivot when necessary. Fast-forward to 2023 and we survived COVID, bought and moved into our own building on Cherry Street, have a staff of 20+, and we are quickly becoming a respected music venue and bar in Macon. We still operate the catering side of the business, but it’s now a minor part of the overall business. The bar and venue (JBA) is now the machine that is driving a large majority of overall business. Still, this year the catering side will work nearly 40 separate events bringing in well over six-figures.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Brandon Lawler from Macon, GA where I still currently live. I established a bar and venue in our downtown called JBA. We became established in a small ~900sqft dive in 2018 but have recently bought, renovated, and moved into our own much larger venue that is roughly 5x the size. Our bar program specializes in fresh and house-made ingredients. We juice lemon and lime daily, we make our own orgeat, ginger syrup, grenadine, etc. We have a separate lounge that also hosts an impressive lineup of rare and hard-to-get whiskeys along with a good selection of gins, rums, and tequilas. Our main attraction is the music venue where we host music five of our six days open. Those nights range from jam nights, live jazz, karaoke, to booked bands and DJs on the weekends. We pride ourselves in hosting an array of genres and not pigeonholing ourselves with any one style of music. Our venue also hosts darts, pool tables, and an outdoor patio. The building is divided into three separate bars where each can have an entire different vibe going at the same time.
The business also has a full service alcohol catering piece, Macon Bar Services, which is actually how the entire business got its start. Mainly weddings, but we’d cater any private event in Georgia. This is now a minor piece to the overall business, but it’s near and dear to me. It got me to where I am and the business is today. It was also something that I started out of thin air. Bars and venues are a dime a dozen, but at the time of starting Macon Bar Services in 2018, there wasn’t really anything locally to look at, study, ask about, or mimic.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
At the time of starting Macon Bar Services in 2018, it was mostly self-funded. It also wasn’t a high-capital investment. My at-the-time girlfriend (now wife) was working and helped cover bills early on, and I attribute a lot of the early financial success to her by helping me out.
When I started JBA in 2019, I took a $15,000 loan out from my father at 6%. That, plus the reoccurring revenue from catering helped get the original bar built out and started. Soon after opening, I cashed in my own retirement funds (~$15,000) to give myself a financial runway to get things going. COVID hit 8 months after opening shutting us down completely and dropping our total revenue to $0 for 2.5 months. We got a measly PPP loan, but the EIDL was what really helped us out. After several pivots, we reopened a new bar and started seeing numbers like never before. This finically propelled us.
To get to the building that we are currently in, we had help from a local non-profit (NewTown Macon) who partnered with us on the Real Estate. Because of COVID and the short amount of time we’ve been in business, we weren’t very bankable (couldn’t show event 2 straight years of good tax returns, etc). We were able to secure a construction loan with the building loan to pay for majority of the buildout. I started investing any and all profits from our current operation into the new building, and started creatively using 0% interest cards and low-interest financing. When I purchased the building, I also bout all FF&E, so I have tried to reuse absolutely everything that I could in order to spend as little as possible. When we made the move, we only had 2 days of downtime and saw success from day 1 of reopening. Right now I’m aggressively trying to pay debts down by reinvesting all profits. Currently have ~$1.1MM in debt on our current building.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Consistency, organic growth, and less is more. If you overload your audience with too much info, they are overwhelmed and will not grab onto anything. Nowadays I’m consistent in making a single social post each day at 4pm that highlights the happenings for that day. Either drink specials, music, or downtown happenings. Keeping it short and sweet also, because most on social media are mindlessly scrolling, so you wither want to grab their attention with a good, quality picture, or have a short enough post that they read it and don’t skip.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbamacon/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jbamacon
Image Credits
Mike Young Lou Matthews Brandon Lawler