2023 has been such a remarkable year for us, I would be remiss not to post a little look back. We’ve grown by leaps and bounds and we’re heading into 2024 as a much different business than we were a year ago.
My friend Mike, who opened his bar/restaurant about 6 months before we did once told me this:
- In year one of a new business you don’t know what the hell you’re doing… all your big plans are put to the test – and many of them are a big fat failure. (womp, womp...)
- In year two, you’re figuring out what works, and things are starting to gel. Woo-hooo!
- In year three, you optimize for success. Full speed ahead!
The 443 is a 5-year-old business with only 3 years under its belt. A year after we opened, COVID-19 shut us down for the better part of 2 years, so our learning curve and ramping-up phase was a lot longer than it should have been.
If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know we’ve been in a near-constant state of pivoting, shifting, and adapting – trying to figure out what works.
But we started 2023 with most of it worked out. We had learned what made sense and what didn’t. I became better at letting go of ideas that I loved personally, but we weren’t able to get off the ground. If an event, series, or band is a financial drain, it doesn’t make sense to keep it going, right? That’s a tough one, because I hate to give up on an idea I like, but we’re just not in a position to fund “fun ideas” that aren’t financially viable – especially when I wasn’t even paying myself a salary.
Every time I figured out the best way to do something, I checked it off the list and switched gears to devote more brain power to something that wasn’t quite right yet.
At this point we’ve got most of it down, and the plan moving forward is to simply do MORE of it. Our record-shattering month of July (typically deathly slow for us) was proof that we can have stellar sales any month as long as I have the right shows booked, and enough of them.
I have shifted my focus to booking first and foremost, then putting butts in the seats – because if I don’t prioritize those two things, nothing else we do matters.
We entered 2023 in the middle of an incredible stretch of 24 sold-out shows in a row, which was CRAZY… in retrospect, it was a good indicator of the year to come.
- We finished the year +60% in sales (!!!)
- We sold out 63% of our shows, up from 27% in 2022 (+133%)
- Our VIP Patron Membership is +50%
- Our email subscribers and social media followers have grown substantially.
- We won “Best Hidden Gem” in the Advance Media Readers Choice awards, 2nd Place for “Best Entertainment Venue” and Runner up for “Best Concert Venue”.
In other good news, we’ve filled out our staff enough that the schedule isn’t overwhelming for our crew, all of whom have a full-time job somewhere else. Everyone supports each other and gets along fabulously, and it takes a LONG time to build that kind of team. They are fiercely loyal to each and the 443. I’m super grateful these people have found us and believe in our mission as much as I do.
It wasn’t all sold-out shows and glowing accolades, though… as recently as 6-8 months ago, I still wasn’t sure we were going to make it. This is the first time I’m going into a new year 100% confident that we are here to stay, and it’s EXHILARATING! I have always loved this business, but now I’m filled with renewed purpose and excitement.
Of course, I still have goals and a few things I’d like to do better:
- With our increased level of business, our teeny-tiny food prep area is just not cutting it. It’s extraordinarily difficult to pump out food for 75 people in the short time frame our guests arrive in, even with our limited menu. It’s insanely stressful for the staff. We were able to adapt to our odd bar setup by making it primarily a service bar (one bartender making drinks for the whole room), but we don’t have any great options with the food. Moving it to another part of the room would take away tables and lower our already limited capacity, so that’s a non-starter. We’ve talked about an outdoor storage container kitchen connected by a pass-through window, but it’s a pricey solution. I’m not sure what the answer is yet.
- MERCH! We need it… people ask us all the time, and we’ve been talking about it since we opened. I AM MAKING IT HAPPEN THIS YEAR!
- Our landlord and his new wife are house hunting, which will free up one of the apartments in the building. I’m hoping we’re able to move the 2nd-floor tenant to the third floor and take over the apartment directly above the club. This would give us a much-needed green room and we would be able to provide lodging for our touring artists, which is an issue coming up more often as the cost of gas, food, and hotels has skyrocketed. Plus, having a green room would allow us to do events that require a dressing room, like a drag brunch. The move *may* give us a bit more space in the basement, which would be a huge help – we currently only have a 10′ sliver of real estate downstairs for storage.
- We have used Eventbrite for our ticketing since we opened, mainly because I already knew how to use the platform and the fees seemed reasonable compared to other sites. They recently started charging venues to use the service, which isn’t the worst thing ever… I’m happy to pay if it does what I need and means I don’t have a learn a whole new technology. But, they’ve done some updates that take away functionality and make it harder to use. I need to start investigating other options.
We’re selling out so many shows these days, that people constantly tell us we should move to a bigger room…but unfortunately it’s not that simple.
We’ve got two options:
- Moving to a bigger space is probably the more cost-effective idea, assuming we could find a building that doesn’t require a crazy amount of build-out. Truth be told, we’ve been casually looking for the last couple of years. But, we want to stay in an “outer downtown” area, we need a certain amount of square footage, and there has to be some kind of reasonable parking situation, even if it’s just street parking as we have now. We don’t want to lose the charm and intimacy of the current space and moving is always a MASSIVE risk. Expanding too fast and relocating have been the kiss of death for lots of successful local places, and I don’t want to add the 443 to that list.
- Another idea would be to blow out the wall of our current space and absorb what is now our outdoor patio. The patio was only used a handful of times last summer, and it costs us more money than it makes us. We could move and expand the stage, relocate and redesign the bar, and create a dedicated food area – basically, correct all the mistakes we made when we opened. It would increase our capacity from 75 to about 125-ish, which is the sweet spot we would be aiming for. We could keep the charm of our current room and just make it bigger and more functional. But, that’s an expensive project… in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe I’ll stumble on a grant, or a fairy godmother will drop a boatload of cash on us? You never know.
With either scenario, the part I’m dreading most is dealing with the Syracuse City codes department again. When we opened the 443, I spent several months visiting their offices multiple times a week to try and get the project off the ground, and I’m NOT looking forward to doing it again.
Anyway…we’re not there yet.
We need to make sure we can maintain the level of business we’re doing now. We’ll be cleaning up the last of our debt from opening the club this year and trying to position ourselves for whatever comes next. By the end of 2024, we’re hoping we can make some moves onward and upward, whatever that ends up looking like.
NONE of this would be possible without the endless support of our community. Our people have found us. Without you all buying tickets and showing up for shows, we wouldn’t have made it this far, and your enthusiasm and moral support have helped us get through a lot of dark times when we came perilously close to throwing in the towel.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!
CHEERS to a successful 2024!
