Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2010, and its prices, including entry fees of 2-4 euros, rent and wages, are from 2010. Tuenti, the Spanish social network cited for organizing botellones, closed in 2016.
Continuing with our most profitable business ideas, here’s a great idea that is already being put into practice in some places and that doesn’t take much work or dedication. All it takes is a bit of mental sharpness to recognize business opportunities.
The business idea
If the botellón (large gatherings where young people drink outdoors, sometimes in designated areas known as botellódromos) is popular in your country, entrepreneurs have found ways to make money from this form of youth entertainment. Turnout peaks on Fridays and Saturdays. In cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Granada, around 3,000 people can gather in the street, and at certain festivities up to 20,000 people have been counted.
Some city councils have set aside open spaces to hold these crowds of young people who choose to drink in the street, although these designated areas don’t seem to be enough.
How can you make money from this form of entertainment? Simply by giving young people a covered venue with music and toilets. You let them into the venue with the drinks they’ve already brought from the street.
All you need to make this idea work is:
- A venue or covered space: Look for a very large venue, or an industrial warehouse, and negotiate a rental for just two days a week, or only one day (Saturday) if you prefer. The venue or warehouse needs to be spacious if you plan to hold more than a thousand people inside.
- A very cheap entry price: Entry will cost between €2 and €4 per person, bearing in mind that you won’t have bar staff costs.
- Music: Either rent a sound system for the night or, if you decide to make this a long-term business, consider buying and installing a permanent sound system.
- A cleaning service for the day after: Inevitably, after a night of debauchery and alcohol, the empty venue will look like a battlefield after a great war. You’ll need to hire cleaners by the hour.
- Related side businesses: Some young people won’t have planned their drinking well, so they may need more alcohol, soft drinks or ice. You can also offer good deals so they buy their supplies from you, which would give you a second source of income.
- Advertising: Above all, social media advertising. People usually organize their mass botellones through social networks such as Facebook or Tuenti. I’m sure word of your business would soon spread around your city.
As you can see, the business would be thoroughly profitable once more than 500 people turn up, although it’s designed to bring in more than 1,500.
Let’s run a detailed, conservative estimate.
800 people × €2 entry = €1,600 (not counting sales of drinks, ice, etc.)
Expenses:
- Rent for the night: €300 (and that’s already too much)
- Sound system rental: €200 (it will never actually cost you that much)
- Cleaning: 5 hours × €15 = €75 × 2 people = €150
- A bartender, if you decide to sell something: €100 (and they’d better be good)
- One person to take the entry fee and act as security: €150 (no comment)
Total expenses for one night, estimated on the high side, come to €900. Subtracted from the €1,600 in entry fees alone, estimated on the low side, that leaves a net profit of €700. Not bad for one night. Given that a month has four Saturdays, the profit for four days’ work would be €2,100.
The real profits of an entrepreneur who is already running this kind of business in Spain come to €21,300 a month. So go for it.
Further reading
- Renewable energy businesses
- If you have a good business idea, how to make it happen
- Why new businesses fail
- The entrepreneur’s mindset
- How to start a business with no money
Featured image: Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
