When looking at your venue you need to visualize the cause and effect of almost every decision being made and the impact those decisions make on the psyche of your customers. By systematically going through the multiple scenarios that could play out in a single day you will be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the venue. Ultimately, allowing you to tweak your operation in order to cater to the most important aspect, the customers themselves. 
Now, if you believe that you can just buy space and open the perfect bar or club like the one you saw in NY (for example), you’re greatly mistaking. Why you might ask, because no two venues are exactly alike. They might be similar but never exactly alike.
The questions that you should be asking yourself when opening or assessing your venue are "What, How, and Why?" So, let’s examine the building blocks of every venue, “the DNA”. These key elements are needed to not only to create life in a venue but to prolong it.
- Location: spend more on a location to save on marketing, this allows you to focus on the service and not necessarily stress about the traffic. This is a key element that will allow you to focus on the inner workings and the service portion of your business.
- Versatility: a venue that is versatile is 50% more likely to survive and 100% more likely to outlast a venue that is not.
- Concept and identity: can the venue make that all important connection with the customer. A bond or loyalty that keeps the customer not only coming back after the “novelty” wears off. The customer must be willing to continue to contribute to the financial success of the venue.
- Value: this is quantified in two segments, the intangible and the tangible or monetary. We are providing a service, an exchange for goods and services for currency and/or loyalty. The quality of these goods and services and value perception are directly correlated to success.
You might be thinking that this is only for new venues; however that is not correct, this applies to any and all venues. This runs from the physical parts and pieces of the venue to the ethereal policies and procedures that define what I like to call, “The Love,” of the venue.
Stop looking at your venue from the inside out and look at it from the perspective of the customers. Using the plurality in the word customers is the most important element as you want to appease the customers that visit your venue which is the most important factor in setting your venue up for success.