How to Open a Swing Club?

[BLACKMALE]

How do you go about opening a new club?

[fun_pairTX]

Hire a lawyer, have him investigate pertinent crimminal laws and zoning laws and ordinances that would pertain to the community or county where you want to open the club. Be sure that every possible scenario is covered. It doesn't do any good for instance to open a huge club and then discover that you can only have a 10 car parking lot. Find out if the location has to be modified to meet zoning and building codes and if it will bear up under fire inspection and the Americans with Disabilities Act. If it is to be an off premise club, you need to contact your State Alcoholic Beverages Commission and see if it will be possible to get a liquor license for the site. There are 10 million bases to cover and its best to do so before you spend any money on anything but information.

[remox]

As a club owner, I have to ask why you want to start a club. Had I done my homework properly, I probably wouldn't have (although it did turn out pretty well). As a profession it is not glamorous and with rare exceptions it is not particularly profitable. Carefully examine your motivations before doing this.

But with that being said ...........

Make sure you have plenty of liquid capitol. Expect to personally lose money for at least 2 years. Do not count on the club making even a fraction of expenses for that time. Clubs grow very slowly.

Please, please please, hire an attorney and make sure that he does a thorough job. Be sure you are zoned properly and obtain all of the proper licenses, permits etc.... You would be suprised what requires permits and licenses (vending or cigarette machines, pool tables, hot tubs, Dj's etc... all usually require licenses or permits). Make sure you comply with your licenses at all times and that the licenses that you obtain do not then prevent the club from operating in the manner you wish.

EXAMPLE: in Providence, RI you need an entertainment license for a DJ. However, nudity violates the terms for holding an entertainment license. Nudity is allowed with an adult entertainment license, BUT adult entertainment licenses require specific zoning AND 2 adult entertainment licenses cannot be held with 2000 feet of one another. When the city was rezoned, no zone that allowed an adult entertaiment license was big enough to allow for 2000 feet between businesses.

Best of luck and welcome to the wacky world of swing club ownership.

[Vjklander]

You can also get some advice from the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
NCSF
www.ncsfreedom.org

J

[remox]

While I love the NCSF. They will only give some basic information. They save most of their effort for legal battles after you are in trouble.

[Tom & Bonnie]

Why open a new club?

Make me an offer on mine.. LOL

Actually, there are no set rules on how to open a club. As has been said repeatedly before, hire a lawyer familiar with the loval codes and do your homework.

Avoid a Sexualy Oriented Busines (SOB) License like the plague. Make it a private, members only association. Associations come with a Constitutional guarantee. In most cases don't sell alcohol, make it BYOB.

All of these steps make your association a private place with no government regulations to run afoul of.

Even those clubs that must have dance hall licenses should seek out a ruling on being an association. Does your local church sponsor dances and if so do they need a permit to do so? I don't think so.

Remember, if you can outsmart them you'll win, But do your homework because they'll check up on you.

[passion8]

Never having looked into opening a swingers club, there's probably a very good reason why this won't work, so please tell me why!flamethrow

What if you opened a guest house/hotel possibly for members only. You could probably have a bar and other entertainment and while you might not want to allow nudity there, there should be nothing wrong with lingerie. Then upstairs, or wherever the bedrooms are surely it's up to the guests if they want to leave their doors open or not.

[EternallySingle]

The first thing you have to do is make sure you will have little or no public opposition to opening your club. Taking care of the legal issues is all well and good, but if the public learns what you are doing and decides to shut you down, you will be shut down, even if you do everything correctly.

I know this first hand. I tried to open a rec center with the help of the police, sherriff, and several churches, but was shot down by a group of old rich women who didn't want teenagers gathering in one spot at night without parental supervision. Didn't matter that the police and church was fully behind the idea. They didn't want it, they had money, so it didn't happen. THAT is going to be your real opposition: public opinion. Your second order of business, after making sure you can open the club legally, will be to make sure the public won't shut you down before you get a chance to make a profit.

[remox]

They didn't want it, they had money, so it didn't happen.

I read this to mean that you didn't have sufficient funds to fight them. Did the center really fail because they had money? Or because you didn't?

In reality, I am sure that it was a combination of the 2. Which just reinforces one of my earlier points. Make sure you have a lot more liquid capitol than you think you need.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally posted by passion8
Never having looked into opening a swingers club, there's probably a very good reason why this won't work, so please tell me why!flamethrow

What if you opened a guest house/hotel possibly for members only. You could probably have a bar and other entertainment and while you might not want to allow nudity there, there should be nothing wrong with lingerie. Then upstairs, or wherever the bedrooms are surely it's up to the guests if they want to leave their doors open or not.

It still falls into the same thing as above. I've actually seen more attempts at "swinger hotels" crash and burn than swinger clubs. Again it goes back to types of licenses you have to have an in order to operate as a hotel, in most cases, you wouldn't be able to operate on a members only basis. Not to say that you couldn't (and some don't) set up a small hotel/inn and just only advertise it to the swinging communities.

[fun_pairTX]

For overnight guests in many states you have to have a "Common Innkeepers" license. This means you have to be open to all (no discrimination) and it also opens you up to the board of health enforcement people who can inspect without warrant or warning 24/7/. It is easier to play by the rules than to try an easy circumvention.

[passion8]

Thanks Julie & fun_pairTX

We were sure there were going to be some very good reasons. We love how informative this board is!

Thank you!

[Close Encounters]

Originally posted by Tom & Bonnie
Why open a new club?

Make me an offer on mine.. LOL

Actually, there are no set rules on how to open a club. As has been said repeatedly before, hire a lawyer familiar with the loval codes and do your homework.

Avoid a Sexualy Oriented Busines (SOB) License like the plague. Make it a private, members only association. Associations come with a Constitutional guarantee. In most cases don't sell alcohol, make it BYOB.

All of these steps make your association a private place with no government regulations to run afoul of.

Even those clubs that must have dance hall licenses should seek out a ruling on being an association. Does your local church sponsor dances and if so do they need a permit to do so? I don't think so.

Remember, if you can outsmart them you'll win, But do your homework because they'll check up on you.

All very valid points.

We operate three clubs. Two are hotel socials, one a full scale nightclub. All have liquor licensees. Depending on local regulations BYOB can cause more problems than it cures. Florida for instance requires a Bottle club license, not only do BYOB clubs still have to adhere to liquor laws but they introduce a whole new set of reporting problems.

The bottom line is find out with the help of a competent attorney what the laws are that will affect your operation and obey them.

[Tom & Bonnie]

Originally posted by Close Encounters
All very valid points.

We operate three clubs. Two are hotel socials, one a full scale nightclub. All have liquor licensees. Depending on local regulations BYOB can cause more problems than it cures. Florida for instance requires a Bottle club license, not only do BYOB clubs still have to adhere to liquor laws but they introduce a whole new set of reporting problems.

The bottom line is find out with the help of a competent attorney what the laws are that will affect your operation and obey them.

Here in Texas, it's just the opposite. The TABC ( Texas Alcoholic Beverage Comission) can only excercise authority over licensees. A Private BYOB Club is just like your home. No entry by authorities without a search warrant. Of course that does not include the fire dept., but we never see them either.

But, the most important point is, all states have different laws so check out yours first and do it thoroughly.

[meowkittyhascla]

I think it would be fun to open a swinging club. We live out in the sticks of NWMO and the closest club is in Kansas City. It's a disadvantage to be over a hundred miles away from a great party. After getting home from work, dealing with homelife...it's hard to get my better half to want to go out to a club. Has anyone opened up a club and how did you do it?