Satan’s Whiskers’ Kevin Armstrong explores the commercials of working for your bar, but outside of your venue.

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Yet I would need more fingers than I possess to count how many times I have been asked to share my expertise with another business so they can profit from that information, without them ever offering up a cent.

There is still a legacy culture of unpaid work in our industry, in lieu of offering exposure or personal PR value (assuming you even want that – I do not). We need to normalise conversations about remuneration for work outside of the bar, and bartenders too should expect to be paid for their time.

Inside to out

Inside of the bar the rules to me seem well defined, especially when working with brand partners or when arranging support agreements. We need to buy product, serve it well, and responsibly, and in turn we receive financial support. How much we buy, how we represent those brands, and the amount of real estate we’re prepared to give up in our venues can influence the value of that support. Some bars leverage this better than others, but the arrangement is all relatively simple.

The water gets muddier when it comes to work that occurs outside of the bar. While some seem naturally gifted when it comes to discussions of their individual value, it’s also easy to get caught up in the romanticism of a specific project, thinking too much about the outcome rather than the amount of work that might be required to get there – and once you are committed, it’s hard to get out.

There are many variables when it comes to putting a price on your contribution – your experience, perhaps your industry status, or even your venue’s profile. The type of work is a big factor too – we could be talking about appearance fees, the sharing of specialist knowledge or expertise, the development of education programmes, consultancy, judging competitions, or even just events and guest shifts. It might also mean endorsements or the creation of content – content that will forever live on the internet. This sort of work has no obvious value metric.

Get a clear picture

Should work come your way outside of your bar, the best thing you can do is get a clear picture of the project and what is required of you. How long will you be needed? Do you need to travel? What information or intellectual property might you need to share and in what format? Who will own that information thereafter? And, the most important question – what budget is available?

Failing to understand the full scope and nature of the works can be a costly business. I have made this mistake. On one project, my hourly rate ended up as £2.27, simply because I didn’t grasp the volume of work and time commitment. The realisation that you’ve worked on a project for next to nothing is not a good place to be.

Moreover, if an email from an external agency starts with the line “we have no budget”, remember, they are absolutely getting paid – and so should you. If, however, it’s a close friend, someone you want to help, or a worthy cause, you might well offer up your time, but these are your judgements to make.

Define your value by what’s important to you

Without doubt, the things that are important to me have changed as I have aged, started a family and evolved my position within the business. Work that I won’t do now, a younger me would have jumped at.

When I am presented with a work opportunity, specifically when it comes with extended international travel as it often does, the first question I ask is how long will I need to be away from my partner and my children? This is now the thing that tops my personal list of considerations. With few exceptions, I will try not to travel unless the associated fees or benefits of that work make a significant contribution to the revenue generated by the overall business. I could stay at home, assist in driving revenue locally, work on the wider business and see my family each day – if I need to forgo those things, then I need to be sure the upsides are considerable. 

There is an argument that this type of work is just part of the business, and indeed that would be true, but some of that is driven by a specific motivation or the given stage of a career. If national or international recognition is important to you, then in many instances, unpaid (but costs covered) travel is the norm. Sometimes you just need to be in the room. Work can come simply from networking. Naturally these outcomes are hard to predict, but you might consider unpaid or reduced fees if you feel the opportunity that is being presented might come with greater future rewards – but the risk here is entirely yours to take.

Name your price

What you are satisfied with on a fee basis is entirely personal, but I am aware of quotes that range from £350 to £5,000 per day for the type of work I have outlined above. Some of this can be easily justified. For example, paying a great speaker to engage one hundred bartenders means a per-bartender investment of only £30 if the speaker fee were to be £3k. But be aware that your personal cost will not be the cost of the project; flights, hotels, venue hire, materials, and a range of expenses can easily stretch budgets.

As has been said before in the columns of this magazine, you must also be prepared to say no. If the work doesn’t suit your needs, either with regards to fees or in terms of your priorities, then sometimes it’s just best to avoid it.

It’s a two-way street

If you are charging large fees for your expertise, phoning it in is absolutely not acceptable. Your professionalism outside of the bar should be as good as the standards you aim to set inside of your venue. Whether it’s trying to sell out as quickly as possible on your chargeable guest shifts, or failing to rehearse your masterclass content – the relationship works both ways – if you’re getting paid, make sure you hold up your end or, even better, overdeliver.