I might be walking into a dumpster fire

UPDATE 3 months in I spent as much time as I possibly could at the bar/ about 50/60 hours a week for the first few weeks. Hell but necessary - Thanks to whoever suggested that. I counted the liquor and did what I could with the shoddy system to understand our flow, and I got rid of sooooo much extra liquor sitting around with flash sales. I have hired and fired twice - both because they can’t handle themselves as patrons or trainees, which was not on my bingo card but you live and learn and now we have rules. Otherwise, my staff has stayed strong and only seems to be getting better. Our sales are increasing every week by about 10% and I’m too the phase of trying to really promote, and creating a standard of bar I want to run. Thanks for anyone who was interested or gave me input, I listened to all of it (almost)

OG I just started a new gig. Owner doesn’t know much about the business, it’s a legacy dive bar he recently took over. He’s over paying everyone, and barely turning a profit. I assume there is shady shit happening left and right behind bar. I’m gonna do my best to get a handle on it and see if I can turn things around.
Where would you start?? What are the first questions you are asking? I have bar managed before in very high paced businesses that we built from the ground up. I am walking into a business that has done Xyz for 30 years, “just cuz”. I don’t want to step on toes, or piss off everyone who is established there by changing things up immediately.

Any advice is cool, what’s the first thing that came to your mind?