Small and medium businesses are the cornerstone of every economy. From brave people on the path to entrepreneurship, entire economies thrive and bloom. The road to success has plenty of challenges and obstacles. The more you can overcome at the start, the better for you. Trust us when we say there will be no shortage of challenges ahead, but we are here to lighten the load. Entrepreneurship begins with the first step, so the sooner you start, the better!
1. Be wary of your surroundings
Where you choose to place your future beverage business is the foundation of your entire operation. As in real estate, location is king and the most crucial aspect of your brewing endeavour. By doing diligent research on your potential places, being mindful about property investing and scouting ahead of the competition you can place your brick-and-mortar store at an ideal location. Look for thriving locations in your city that are filled with high foot traffic and look for your target demographic (we will cover this in a second). You know your city the best so feeling its pulse won’t be difficult.
2. Do research beforehand
To whom do you wish to sell? What does your customer look like? What are some proven practices in the past? Who are your competitors? Do you have a five-year plan? A ten-year one? These questions and many more are just the tip of the iceberg and represent trade secrets you need to delve further into. Every piece of information will help you shape your business and decide the next course of action. Never forget that you are building your brewery and its products for the customer, not you, and then you will realise how important it is to know as much as possible. Every piece of info you gather is one more piece of the puzzle that will click right in.
3. Outsource what you can
You are starting small, but are dreaming big! As you will mostly be a one-person team, you won’t be able to juggle all those responsibilities and roles at every time. Don’t be afraid to seek counselling or to outsource your needs to any department. You will be specialising in brewing, just as someone is specialised in accounting. You can even consider to buy an established and successful franchise and skip a lot of busy work. Franchises have established names, practices and procedures, where you only need to provide the location, which was step one.
4. Get to your customers!
The recent pandemic has shown us how important it is to be mobile when running a business. Customers won’t always be able to reach your place, and logistics are necessary. The better your logistic network is, the more ground you have to cover. With that comes scores of new customers that you would otherwise miss. Transportation and logistics can provide the product to the customer’s doorstep, and are also doing you a favour, as they are creating sales that otherwise won’t exist. You can even opt for specialising in them, where your physical location becomes secondary in importance. Whatever suits your ideas and vision, stick to them!
5. Contacts
There is no going around this because contacts are everything in every part of our lives. Everything comes down to who you know, and now is the time to pull those strings. Use every trick in the book, reach out to anyone you know that can help and call-in favours. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a whole lot of people to start a business. You are not doing anything bad, as contacts and favours have been there all this time. You just haven’t properly utilised them. After all, what are friends for?
Entrepreneurship is a rare talent these days. Having the guts and money to invest in your dream is admirable. By researching and preparing, you will see how your dream manifests into reality. Each obstacle you clear will help bring that idea to life and to flourish before your very eyes. Rome was not built in a day, so be prepared to wait and preserve as all great endeavours take time. After all, is done, you can toast to a job well done! Cheers!
