brewpub business plan

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AlTheGud1sRtaken

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just finished my last semester of school :mug:

as a business major i've had to write a few business plans throughout college, and my most recent --and best-- one was for a brewpub. I headed a team of 3 other students in a competition which had us develop these plans and then pitch them to a board of actual investment bankers, venture capitalists, and other business professionals. our team made it to the final round and our final version of the plan received an A, so while there are a few things i would do differently if i were to actually start this, it's a pretty good plan.

anyways, this site was an incredibly valuable resource and i wanted to share the plan with you all since many of you have unknowingly helped create it. for others with similar aspirations who may find it helpful, or anyone else who is just currious, here it is: Fantom Brewing
 
Great Job. From the beer point-of-view, I wonder though how realistic it is to propose to start out offering 6 different Fantom beers? Will the Golden, Amber and Brown really seem that different from each other to the typical drinker? I would have thought a lighter-sounding or lighter-tasting brew would have been a popular option with many, (e.g., Blonde).
 
Very nice, I will be a freshman attending college beginning this fall, (I got a late start at 33 years old) and I am thinking of pursuing a business management degree with the sole intention of possibly going into business for myself. What type of business?...You guessed it a brewpub!

Anyhow, very professional paper congratulations! Do you plan on going through actually opening a brewpub, or was this only an excersize for school?
 
any chance you can pm or email me the paper?

the file can be downloaded from that link (top-ish, towards the left in the window that opens)

also feel free to ask me any questions if you're working on something similar. i sure could have used a go-to person and have already done all the research.
 
Good Luck I loved working in Richmond at the VCU and with Henrico Fire! That city is beautiful and fun
 
I'm sure you would need to rename your brewery with Fantome' being a well established Belgian brewer, but you never know. Thanks for the plan. I look forward to reading it.
 
Very nice, I will be a freshman attending college beginning this fall, (I got a late start at 33 years old) and I am thinking of pursuing a business management degree with the sole intention of possibly going into business for myself. What type of business?...You guessed it a brewpub!

Anyhow, very professional paper congratulations! Do you plan on going through actually opening a brewpub, or was this only an excersize for school?

nice, what school will you be attending?

and are you going for the full program, or just trying to get a few classes in or one of those condensed/2-year degrees? the reason i ask is because the restaurant industry is very competitive with small margins, and getting a degree is very expensive. if your end goal is to open a not very profitable business, paying that much for a degree may not be the best investment, although it will look good on a loan application so that could be worth it alone.

you might be better off getting a job at an existing brewpub in a management or brewmaster position and just taking a few classes, such as intro to accounting, intro to marketing, several management classes, a few econ classes, and a few entrepreneurship-oriented classes that focus on things such as exit strategies (this is critical! and under-stated in my plan), sources of financing, growth management, and just an "intro to entrepreneurship"

while this is still a lot of classes, it's no where near as expensive as a full degree. with all that said i've learned a lot in getting my degree and it's been a great experience and i'm glad to have gone through it, especially since i'm very uncertain of what i'd like to do in the future. but if you've already got your dream business in mind and know that your profits will be small, i wouldn't say that it's absolutely nessesary.

carne- hahaha i'll keep that in mind
 
the file can be downloaded from that link (top-ish, towards the left in the window that opens)

also feel free to ask me any questions if you're working on something similar. i sure could have used a go-to person and have already done all the research.

Thank you, looking at it now. I was on a cell phone earlier and couldn't view the file and didn't think you would have the whole thing available. Now I see you do, thank you very much!
 
nice, what school will you be attending?

and are you going for the full program, or just trying to get a few classes in or one of those condensed/2-year degrees? the reason i ask is because the restaurant industry is very competitive with small margins, and getting a degree is very expensive. if your end goal is to open a not very profitable business, paying that much for a degree may not be the best investment, although it will look good on a loan application so that could be worth it alone.

you might be better off getting a job at an existing brewpub in a management or brewmaster position and just taking a few classes, such as intro to accounting, intro to marketing, several management classes, a few econ classes, and a few entrepreneurship-oriented classes that focus on things such as exit strategies (this is critical! and under-stated in my plan), sources of financing, growth management, and just an "intro to entrepreneurship"

while this is still a lot of classes, it's no where near as expensive as a full degree. with all that said i've learned a lot in getting my degree and it's been a great experience and i'm glad to have gone through it, especially since i'm very uncertain of what i'd like to do in the future. but if you've already got your dream business in mind and know that your profits will be small, i wouldn't say that it's absolutely nessesary.

carne- hahaha i'll keep that in mind

I'll be attending the University of Arizona, my wife works in their Family and COmmunity Medicine department, and because of that we qualify for tuition reduction, $25/semester, all I have to do is pay for books and supplies, I can't justify not taking the opportunity to get my degree for a fraction of the cost of what students pay!

So I will be a run of the mill Freshman student, but it's been over 10 years since I've taken any college courses, so I'm starting over basically.

Regardless, we'll see where it takes me.:mug:
 
I'll be attending the University of Arizona, my wife works in their Family and COmmunity Medicine department, and because of that we qualify for tuition reduction, $25/semester, all I have to do is pay for books and supplies, I can't justify not taking the opportunity to get my degree for a fraction of the cost of what students pay!

So I will be a run of the mill Freshman student, but it's been over 10 years since I've taken any college courses, so I'm starting over basically.

Regardless, we'll see where it takes me.:mug:

well that sounds like a fantastic opportunity! don't pass it up.
 
First of all, great job on putting together a nice paper. Very comprehensive.

I see you utilized Porter and that is a smart thing to be doing when looking at a topic like this.

If you are looking at this as a serious base for future business plans, there are 2.5 main things that are being overlooked. These are not things that are easily understood, so please do not take them as a jab at your effort - not at all!

I say '2.5' because there are two things that fall under marketing that are often missed, but one of them does not feel like traditional marketing.

First is the need to invest very heavily in some form of advertising and/or promotion. This can not be underestimated. This also affects the Cost of Capital impact on the business.

The '.5' is actually the marketing aspect of distribution on both sides of the suppley chain. This is often more complex than people understand.

The other point is that the cash flow analysis is often understated from an outflow standpoint. There are tremendous Cost of Capital and Working Capital needs for a startup, as well as a need for equipment calibaration and product prep (think fermentation and conditioning). There also should be a risk factor that is integrated into the cash calcs.... something like a 20% chance of startup, recipe, insurance issues. There are many more things that could impact operations, but in essence, there is a need to look at overstating cash outflows and understating cash inflows.

Nice job! Very well laid out.

:mug:
 
First is the need to invest very heavily in some form of advertising and/or promotion. This can not be underestimated. This also affects the Cost of Capital impact on the business.

The '.5' is actually the marketing aspect of distribution on both sides of the suppley chain. This is often more complex than people understand.

The other point is that the cash flow analysis is often understated from an outflow standpoint. There are tremendous Cost of Capital and Working Capital needs for a startup, as well as a need for equipment calibaration and product prep (think fermentation and conditioning). There also should be a risk factor that is integrated into the cash calcs.... something like a 20% chance of startup, recipe, insurance issues. There are many more things that could impact operations, but in essence, there is a need to look at overstating cash outflows and understating cash inflows.

Nice job! Very well laid out.

:mug:

thanks, but we have budgeted over $2000 per month for advertising as things get rolling. we also have budgeted to sponsor several local events per year up to $5000 per event, which we will sell our beer at. this is dramatically more advertising than most of our competition combined.

what do you mean about marketing on both sides of the supply chain? we're the end of the line and sell directly to our customers, whom we advertise to extensively.

we have budgeted to operate for 7 months without taking in a penny, and have an extra $80,000 cushion to cover unforeseen costs and expenses
 
Great job!! I'm actually about to begin writing a business plan for a brewpub for a competition.....and if all works out possibly someday for real. This is a great template though to base mine off of. Can easily see why you got an A
 
sorry but it doesn't exist as a word document, this was several word documents and excel files merged together with powerpoint
 
Wow this is well written! Shows me that my business plan that is in the works needs a serious overhaul before I let anyone else see it. Good work and thanks for sharing.
 
haha I find it funny you have exactly the recommended 20% for the SBA loan. I work at the UMD Center for Economic Development and we do quite a bit of business planning so I wanna go through this and just point out a few things I would Change of beef up if others are looking to use this as a plan. Overall the plan looks great and I can tell your team put in a lot of quality work. The layout is really close to the template we use here at the center. The difference between business plan competitions and real life application is that business plan judges know what a business plan is and how they "should" be written. Banks and investors all have their own criteria for judging business plans so it is important to know who you are approaching and what they like in a business plan.

Target market could be refined further. The 25-55 age range is quite large. This range of people have very different consumer tastes and when you are trying to sell your business to a bank for a loan or potential investor they want to know how your competitive advantage is marketed towards your specific target market.

your competitive advantage section is a little confusing. you have one small section talking about your competitive advantage to the customer but a lot for the porter's forces you identified. most bankers and investors' eyes glaze over when they see that stuff.

The initial beer menu looks quite extensive. I would be worried, as an investor, about the viability of this sort of selection.

I don't exactly have the time to look over this with the time it deserves but those are just a few hints of things someone else writing a business plan could work on.

If I go out of my work background and into the brewer background I say open this restaurant next door now!
 
LOL toy around. Yeah, right, new guy who joined just to have a copy of someone's A paper in Word.

You can get copies of business plans pretty easily. Not to disparage the OP but obviously a business plan written for a college class is not the business plan one would use when actually starting a business. The amount of research for a real business plan is absolutely staggering and far outweighs what a reasonable person would want to put into a college assignment. I also wrote a business plan for a brew-pub last semester and I had to cut many corners and make a lot of guesses, and it still took me a very long time. It's just a place to start from.

I can make one pretty good suggestion for your plan. Don't sell anyone else's beer. The profit margin on brewpub beer is super high and there's no reason that anyone inside your doors should be spending their money on any other beers than your own.

Other than that, I decided to go with a smaller location and set-up, for a few reasons, but it's just personal preference. There's a lot lower risk/reward with a smaller restaurant, but restaurants are risky to begin with, and you could always relocate/expand/open another location. Start-up costs are really high, too.
 
Skimmed the plan, did you state your expected profitability within 5 years? Additionally, the salary's of the employees seem rather low... Especially from the business end. If you are offering benefits the 40k that an employee sees is closer to 50-60k that it costs the employer.

I had to do a business plan in school, and after doing all the research, basically realized the business model would not be profitable :( - Surprisingly Im pretty sure there are companies that offer what I had thought up - A mobile automotive service repair.

Anyways, SOLID JOB!
 
First off - congrats on getting an A. In college, that is all that really matters.

As for the business plan, it is good. For those looking to grab it as a template, remember it is written with the college feel. Like the previous poster mentioning the Competitive Advantage. No college business plan is complete without a SWOT analysis. And you put it in, as one would suspect, and I'm sure was required for this paper. Not a bad thing to have, just...eh.... (There is a good book on the merits of this type of work, denouncing a bit of Porter and other science of management folks. The Management Myth. Good book). It is important to do a proper market analysis, and that is what should be emphasized. How many beer drinkers in your region? Percentage of craft brews sold in the region? Growth rate over the past 3-5 years for this market?

Again - nice plan, but a few pointers:

*You went into the average revenue per seat. But is that averaged yearly? What a bank and a financial planner (i.e. your account) would need is a monthly cash flow forecast. There is certainly going to be seasonality to your sales. As well as week day versus weekend. Tough to forecast, and probably too much detail for many college business plans, but for a real startup, forecasting how much cash you have on hand, means how much cash you need per month, so you can pay people and plan appropriately.

*It seems the revenue increases quite a bit. But, the amount of employees doesn't increase. I'm not spending too much of my time here, but with a 10% or 11% increase in revenue, that tells me you are getting better seat utilization (more clients). I would assume you aren't jacking up your prices at a rate 3 times higher then inflation, so with the increase in clients, you'll need to increase staff. Not a huge hit, just something to think about. (Maybe there was an increase, I didn't see it though)

*The founder being the BrewMaster for free doesn't really fly. That would be a full time job, with probably 2-3 others on staff on the brewery end. I don't believe you went into the rate of beer consumption. If you did, you could better forecast alcohol sales (which is where most of the good margin is for a BrewPub) then forecast a pipeline for brewing, and thus a staff in the brewery.

*I'm not sure your brewery cost really accounts for brite/storage tanks for the aging beer. Thus, I'm not sure your brewpub is sized to handle this. If you had a quote from someone, you should have attached that as an appendix. (Surprised your Prof. didn't ask for this)

Brewing is my new found hobby. Business processes and management is what keeps me tied to my cubicle and pays the evil bills.
 
Also, I hate re-reading my posts. Far too many commas and parenthesis. Apparently my brain pauses a lot and that translates to my typing fingers.
 
Target market could be refined further. The 25-55 age range is quite large. This range of people have very different consumer tastes and when you are trying to sell your business to a bank for a loan or potential investor they want to know how your competitive advantage is marketed towards your specific target market.

I disagree, It's about the beer, but I don't have a couple weeks to go card everyone at my local microbrewery to get stats.

The initial beer menu looks quite extensive. I would be worried, as an investor, about the viability of this sort of selection.

Agreed, Start with a limited strong selection.


If I go out of my work background and into the brewer background I say open this restaurant next door now!

Now you're talking!
 
I've been getting several emails lately asking for me to change the permissions to share it with others (I guessing it's that time of the semester again for many students). I've just double-checked and they should be able to see everything as long as you send whoever you're trying to share with the orignial link.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-4KintQ0DLKNGQwZjU2MDYtMjIwNi00MDM1LWE1ZWItOGQzZWUyNzI4Y2U5

And to address a few concerns I've seen on the thread, payrole was in line with industry standards. Yes, the brewmaster working for free as the founder is cutting a huge corner, and my beer really isn't good enough to get away with it. If you're serious about starting a brewpub you should have a better solution for this. We did have tanks for storage and serving. We did somewhat glance over certain minimum production and sales requirements in Virginia (they may have changed in the past few years, I'm not sure) that would have made this plan more difficult and I'm surprised that more people haven't brought this up. Yes, I can tell many of the people who critisized portions of this plan didn't actually read it as most of their concerns were covered.

Bottom line, I doubt you could take this plan, use it verbatim, and have an incredibly successful business. But it's fairly thorough, covers almost everything, and a decent place to start. I hope that it's been helpful to people with writing business plans for school and if anyone does go out and start a brewpub I'd love to hear how it goes.
 
Regardless of how old the post is, I found reading through your plan to be rather enjoyable and I commend you on your hardwork.
 
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