Bigger TIPS!
Teach your customers how to tip you right. Don’t use words, use psychology. If they drop change (quarters, dimes, nickles, pennies) on the bar be like lightning and get it OFF the bar as fast as you can – don’t even let it hit the bar if possible. However, when your customer leaves you dollars – let them sit. In all my years nobody has “stolen” my tips from the bar.
I do everything possible to get the bar ready for the next person who is going to sit down before I pick up my green cash tips. I take away the glasses, wipe the ash tray clean, wipe down the bar etc. and when someone new sits down and just before I take the order – then I take the tip away, AFTER the new client sees what’s expected.
NOTE: I used to wonder how well the above technique of not letting change hit the bar actually worked. So one day I was assigned to banquets where I worked along side another bartender. Each of us had our own tip jar with the word “TIPS” written on it.
The other bartender simply made drinks and allowed the customers to throw in their tips. I made sure only dollar bills and five dollar bills were in mine. Every single time someone threw in change, I quickly turned it upside down and removed the offending little beasts. Soon my tip jar was filled with nothing but dollars, and the guy next to me looked at my jar with envy.
What to Do With Your Change
At the end of your shift before leaving take all of your nickles and pennies and convert them to dimes and quarters (they’re the most compact in value). Then take all of your dimes and quarters and you get all night long and when you get home, throw them all into a five gallon jar (called a carboy) and at the end of each year see if you have enough to afford some plane tickets to a foreign country. I did. Every year. I won’t say just how much it was, but I will say that it was definitely enough to pay for my airplane tickets and my rental car.
Site Author, David Jonathan Curtis: David Jonathan Curtis, a seasoned professional in his fifth decade of bartending and bar management, began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in both iconic Midtown clubs and Wall Street bars, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
