How These Organizers Negotiated Bar Deals That Made Their Events Profitable

A solid bar deal can make or break your event’s profitability. While many venues rely on alcohol sales as their main revenue source, savvy event organizers know how to negotiate deals that benefit both parties—lowering upfront costs and securing a cut of the profits.

Through strategic planning and leveraging relationships, you can secure deals that significantly reduce financial risk while maximizing revenue.

1. Understanding the Power of a Bar Minimum

Most nightlife venues make their money at the bar. A bar minimum is a powerful negotiating tool that can allow organizers to eliminate or significantly reduce venue rental fees while ensuring venues still make their profits. This strategy aligns the interests of both the venue and the event organizer, making it a win-win scenario—the venue secures guaranteed bar revenue, while the organizer gains access to the space with lower upfront costs.

Many successful event brands, including Souled Out Dates, have leveraged bar minimums to drastically cut expenses and make their events profitable.

✅ Let's quickly revisit the basics:

• A bar minimum is the agreed upon amount that an organizer commits to selling for the venue.
• If the minimum is not met, the organizer must cover the difference.

✅ How Souled Out Dates leveraged this—and so could you:

• Instead of paying thousands upfront for venue rental, they negotiated a bar minimum deal that aligns their goals with the venues goals, shifting financial risk away from their brand while ensuring the venue still profited.
• Their data-driven approach, based on previous bar sales at similar events, gave them confidence they would surpass the minimum easily.
• To encourage more bar spending, they also negotiated exclusive drink specials and discounts for early attendees, increasing overall spend per guest.
• This eliminated upfront costs and ensured they only paid if sales didn’t hit the target (which they consistently exceeded), making it a zero-risk venue model for their events.

💡 Pro tip: If you can provide venues with past bar spend data, they are more likely to agree to favorable terms. Use your previous events as leverage.

2. Securing a Percentage of Bar Sales

A game-changing strategy is negotiating a cut of the bar sales after the minimum is met. If you’ve proven you can bring a crowd that spends, venues are more likely to offer a bar percentage split.

✅ What this means:

• Once the bar minimum is met, the organizer receives a percentage (typically 10-20%) of sales.
• This ensures you’re making money on every drink sold beyond the minimum.

✅ Example—How Souled Out Dates structured this:

• Negotiated a % cut on bar sales after hitting the minimum.
• Their packed events consistently exceeded bar expectations, making them a valuable partner for venues.

3. Building Strong Relationships

Venues prefer working with organizers they trust. A history of successful events at the same venue can open doors to better financial deals, priority booking, and more flexibility in negotiations. Instead of one-off negotiations, focus on long-term partnerships with venues that align with your brand and audience. This approach ensures venues see you as a reliable partner rather than just another renter.

✅ How to do this:

• Host multiple successful events at the same venues to position yourself as a preferred partner for future collaborations.
• Built a track record of reliability (paying on time, filling the venue, delivering a great experience).
• Ensure venues made consistent profits from their crowd:
  • Actively promote bar specials
  • Encourage early arrivals with happy hour deals
  • Create high-energy experiences to keep people entertained throughout the night.
  • Work with the venue to optimize bar placement and improve service efficiency
  • Introduce exclusive drinks tied to your event theme.

💡 “If you can prove you’re bringing a venue money, they’ll work with you every time. Our job isn’t just to throw a party—it’s to show venues why working with us is good business.” — Keith Haynie, co-founder of Souled Out Dates.

4. Timing Your Events for the Best Deals

Prime-time weekend slots (Friday & Saturday) are in high demand, making bar deals harder to secure. One of the smartest ways to negotiate better terms is by booking events on off-peak nights, when venues are more eager to fill their spaces. Weeknights and Sundays often come with lower bar minimums and more flexibility in revenue splits, allowing organizers to keep costs down while still delivering a packed event.

✅ Example—How Souled Out Dates leveraged this:

• They strategically scheduled events on Thursdays to secure better deals with venues.
• By proving they could bring a strong crowd even on an off-night, they gained leverage in negotiations.
• This led to lower minimums, reduced costs, and more favorable bar revenue splits, making their events highly profitable.

💡 Pro tip: If you’re just starting out, target off-peak nights to lock in a deal with a venue that might not otherwise be available to you.

5. Getting the Terms in Writing

Even the best verbal agreements can lead to misunderstandings.

💡 "If it’s not on paper, it doesn’t exist. We’ve learned the hard way that venues will promise things verbally and then switch up last minute. Now, we make sure everything—from bar splits to security fees—is locked in a contract before the event." — Fahn, co-founder of Souled Out Dates

✅ Key things to include in your agreement:

• Bar minimum amount and terms.
• Percentage split on bar sales (if applicable).
• Timeline for payment and reconciliation.
• Venue’s responsibilities (e.g., staffing, drink specials, security).

A contract protects both you and the venue, ensuring everyone sticks to the agreed terms.

The Takeaway

Souled Out Dates has turned bar deals into a profitable event model by negotiating smartly and providing consistent value to venues. Their approach proves that with the right strategy, you can eliminate rental costs, secure a share of bar profits, and build long-term venue relationships.

As an event organizer, you have to negotiate smartly, prove your value, and lock in a partnership that benefits both you and the venue.