It's hard to open a brewery. It's easy to make it successful.
Why then, do brewers only choose the first part??
I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record: Spouting the same themes over and over again. But somehow in my head I got the idea that brewers help brewers (and this has been born out as long as I’ve been in this businesses) and I have taken it upon myself to present my ideas on how to succeed in this wonderful way to make a living.
But the point of this article is to push folks who are either opening a brewery or maybe have even already opened and are wondering how to become more successful. That is, make a profit.
When we take on a student in our Immersion Course, we are essentially becoming a mentor to the student until they open their brewery and beyond. We also ask the student to help future students as well, and so far they all do. It feels good to see all our past students on our Immersion Course forum answering each other’s questions!
But when I survey past students, and other people who have opened their brewery, in most cases they have given little thought into their operating system that actually runs their brewery on a day to day basis.
This got me thinking about energy allocation and the 80/20 concept. To build a brewery takes sometimes years of work, learning the trade, raising the money, designing the physical plant and coming up with recipes. Countless hours of preparation, sweat and sacrifice. When it’s all said and done, you have a shiny new beautiful brewery. What happens next?
You open the doors, hoping customers come in, then start your day to day operation, making deposits and coming up with solutions to the problems that arise from running a business.
So building the brewery is the 80% of effort that gets you to the starting gate. How much does it contribute to the over-all success of the business however? Other than being in place - not much. The success comes from how you run the business.
Here is where we get to the 20%. To install an effective operating system into your brewery would take you and your partner a good week at the most of work doing this:
Identify positions - brewer, manager, server, etc.
Make training checklists for each position
Make daily checklists for what people need to do when they show up for work
Make side-work checklists to keep the place looking great
Create a General Maintenance book to remind you of all the little things that need to be done
Create an internal audit sheet so managers can take care of the areas they are in charge of - all self-regulated
Create an external audit sheet where someone from outside your organization comes in at least once a month to make sure all systems are being adhered to
Have a weekly manager meeting to address all the little problems and opportunities that arise.
Create a Scoreboard, that tracks your most important profit centers on a daily basis so you know in real time if you are making a profit.
Actively manage your Oyster so that the brewery has the look and feel you want your customers to experience.
Compared to what it takes to open your brewery (80%) which contributes 20% of your business success, your operating system only takes 20% of your effort but will contribute 80% to your success going forward.
So why would you work so hard to build a brewery and then stop there? It would be like running a marathon and finally getting close to the finish line and stopping. If you are going to do this, you simply have to go all the way. It truly is the best path to success. It means success to your ego, to your investors, to your employees and to the community you serve. You build a brewery to last for decades. That is only going to happen if you have a solid business structure behind all that really nice stainless steel. Hear me now or believe me later.
