Sell Beer! How to Start a Brewery from the Ground Up
Did you know you can make real money by making and selling your own beer? Do you have a passion for brewing new flavors of beer and want to make a living selling your refreshing drinks? Are you looking for a business that is always in demand? Consider starting a brewery!
Who doesn't love to drink beer?
A startup brewery is not all about just brewing good beers. There's lots of competition out there, and in reality, there will always be people who make good or even better beers. Planning is a very big part of your beer journey.
As a future business owner, you need to be on top of a lot of things. It's not just your beer recipe and finances that you need to be worried about. - you also need to keep track of the regulations and laws of your state, the construction of your brewery, your equipment, your deliveries, etc.
You'll need a plan.
You also need to have a pulse on what is going on in the market and your demographic. This is so you can adjust or tweak your plan accordingly. Throw your pride and your stubbornness out of the window. Sure, your first plan may seem great at first, but as you steadily work on it and start to figure things out, you will find that what you initially had in your head might not work at all. Building a good business plan needs a lot of research, foresight, and understanding of the market.
It's a lot of work - trust me.
But for this book, I sat down with my wife and wrote down what we think will help you out.
Now, my wife and I haven't always had the most business-savvy of minds, and when this all began, we were just a couple of wide-eyed newbies eager to follow our passions. Of course, while they always tell you to follow your dreams and reach for the stars and all that, life isn't all sunshine and butterflies. Passion can only get you so far, and the cold, harsh truth of reality is that to succeed, you need an actual plan if you don't want to end up miserable and broke.
Follow your passion!
With all that said, and after building my own micro beer brewery from the ground up, I've decided to share everything I know to make sure you, dear reader, don't fall into the same traps I fell into when I was first starting out. This isn't a how-to for brewing beer, mind you - you'd pretty much already have that down pat if you're a real aficionado. Instead, what I'd like to do with this book is to show you the ropes and guide you through the business side of things, and no, you don't really need a Business degree to make it out of this commercial world unscathed.
How do I start creating the brewery of my dreams? Here's what you will learn in my book:
- All About the Statistics and Numbers
- What a Microbrewery is vs. a Craft Brewery
- The (minimal) Basics of Beer Making
- Creating the Business Plan
- How to Conduct Market Research and Consumer Analysis
- Finding a Location
- Leasing or Buying the Equipment You'll Need
- Finances and Startup Costs
- What to Consider with Financial Planning
- Ways to Gain Funding
- Legal Identity, Business Name, and Trademark Advice
- How to File for a Brewer's Notice in the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
- A Discussion of the Licenses You Will Need
- Insurance Advice
- Real Life Marketing Strategies
- Staffing and Boosting Morale
This book isn't a business course textbook. I want to show you from a real-world example how you can start, run, and grow a successful brewery that you can be proud of. It won't happen overnight, but with careful planning and the help of this book, you can make it happen!
