What Are ‘relevant’ Offences?

Relevant offences that could result in an application for a personal licence being refused include:

• those involving serious crime;
• those involving serious dishonesty;
• those involving controlled drugs;
• certain sexual offences;
• offences created by the Licensing Act 2003.

 

Please see Chapter 5, Licensing Law, for more details.

Your Financial Resources

Your Money

Establishing your current financial situation is an important first step in acquiring your own pub. Don’t put this part of the process off until later. To do so may result in a great deal of wasted time and, ultimately, disappointment. The aim of this is to realistically calculate how much money you have to invest in your venture. To do this you need to carefully and honestly look at your assets and liabilities. In other words, what you own (assets) and what you owe (liabilities). When looking at this, it is useful to put the details together in a table, like the example below. You must establish accurate values of your assets and liabilities for this to be meaningful. Note that any liabilities relating to the asset are listed next to it. For example, your house is valued at £ 100,000 and you have an outstanding mortgage of £ 60,000. Liabilities are shown in brackets, as this is money that you owe.

This example shows that you have assets to the value of £ 142,000 and liabilities that total £ 69,000. Your ‘net worth’ can be established by subtracting your liabilities from your assets: ie £ 142,000 – £ 69,000 = £ 73,000.

So, how does this help you? Well, the example shows that if you sell your assets and added the money raised from these to your bank funds and ISA, you would have £ 142,000. However, you still owe £ 69,000, and clearing these debts leaves a balance remaining of £ 73,000 for you to invest.

This is a simplified example and you should take professional financial advice before making any major decisions of this kind. Selling assets and clearing liabilities, may not be the best course of action and indeed, may not be necessary. You will need to take into account any penalties that may be charged, tax implications and the ability to sell assets at a realistic valuation. Your personal circumstances will influence your decisions too. You may not want to take the risk of selling your house, and it may not be practical to sell your car.

However, following the process does give you an overall picture of your financial situation, which will help you to make decisions about funding your business.

Raising Additional Funds

You may need to borrow money to help set up your business. Careful consideration needs to be given to the following:

• Borrowing money adds cost and risk to your business.
• Lenders may only fund a small percentage of the total ingoing costs; you will need to find the rest.
• Lenders may require a comprehensive business plan.
• Use only reputable, established lenders.
• Compare interest rates.
• Some lenders may not be willing to consider pub finance.
• Seek advice from a reputable financial adviser and accountant.

Your Bank

The relationship with your own bank is important. If you have dealt with them for some time and have a good reputation, they are likely to be more approachable than a lender who does not know you.

Friends And Family

You could have other borrowing options, such as friends or family. These arrangements can provide low interest borrowing and are the only way of securing additional funds for many people. A few words of warning about these options: make sure that you have a written legal agreement drawn up for any arrangements, and be aware that borrowing money from people close to you can put enormous strain on these relationships.

Funding the business is covered in detail in Chapter 4 of this book.