Last week I opened my very own LHBS and I wanted to share some pics

[brew_ny]

very nice thanks for the look

 

[Conan]

I love the weigh your own grain station. I wish my LHBS would do that for specialty malts. Looks good, and congrats! Kyle

 

[xandersaml]

Nice setup! Best of luck.

 

[Clankenbrew]

Nice setup, best of luck.🍻 cheers!

 

[thatfatbastard]

Very nice looking store! I'll probably stop by there sometime this week. There is a store about 1 mile from where I live, but it has very little amount of ingredients.

I had a guy from BBurg come in last week saying the same thing. When you come in make sure to introduce yourself, I'd love to meet you.

 

[DoctorMemory]

Looks cool, but if you want to grow you need to replace that nifty grain dispenser with something much more substantial. I rarely buy less than 10# of anything, and that would drive me nuts.

For counterpoint, I have probably close to a dozen Mason jars of various specialty grains because I only needed 4 or 8oz, but my LHBS only sells 1# (or bigger) bags. I'd love to be able to just buy 4oz of Special B or crystal 120.

 

[1977Brewer]

For counterpoint, I have probably close to a dozen Mason jars of various specialty grains because I only needed 4 or 8oz, but my LHBS only sells 1# (or bigger) bags. I'd love to be able to just buy 4oz of Special B or crystal 120.

My LHBS sells grain all the way down to 2 oz..

 

[DirtyPirate]

Get a Facebook page for your business if you don't all ready have one. Many people are social media dependent now. When you have sells or bring in a new product it is a good avenue. Congrats on your new business.

 

[thatfatbastard]

My LHBS sells grain all the way down to 2 oz..

I sell ounce, pound, and sack. I don't buy any grains in smaller than 10 pound quantities.

 

[fusa]

Get a Facebook page for your business if you don't all ready have one. Many people are social media dependent now. When you have sells or bring in a new product it is a good avenue. Congrats on your new business.

He already does.

 

[passedpawn]

For counterpoint, I have probably close to a dozen Mason jars of various specialty grains because I only needed 4 or 8oz, but my LHBS only sells 1# (or bigger) bags. I'd love to be able to just buy 4oz of Special B or crystal 120.

Touche! But, assuming he's doing this for profit, which customer should he try to satisfy, the guy who wants 2 ounces of a grain or the guy who wants 20 pounds?

Even if he had bigger containers, that doesn't mean he can't sell you grain by the ounces. But believe me, getting 10 or 20 lbs out of that dispenser is going to be tiring.

 

[thatfatbastard]

Get a Facebook page for your business if you don't all ready have one. Many people are social media dependent now. When you have sells or bring in a new product it is a good avenue. Congrats on your new business.

Come visit me at http://Facebook.com/southernhillshomebrew or on twitter @RoanokeHomebrew

Also, our website is http://southernhillshomebrew.com

😀

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Good work. Love the grain dispensers. Looks like you have a lot of good suggestions so far. Would love to see some high quality biab bags at the lhbs beyond the crappy ones I've always seen.

If you let them use the grain mill themselves, safety first. Also make sure the gap is calibrated regularly for consistency. Beyond that would be awesome if you offered a fine crush as well for the biabers, provides higher efficiency and no risk of a stuck sparge.

I'd suggest not offering selling any large equipment that won't move quickly, and could be found much cheaper online. (Mills, kegs, mash tuns etc) instead offer service parts (keg posts, grommets, faucets, tubing) at decent prices. Grommets are insanely cheap to buy in bulk.

 

[thatfatbastard]

Touche! But, assuming he's doing this for profit, which customer should he try to satisfy, the guy who wants 2 ounces of a grain or the guy who wants 20 pounds?

Even if he had bigger containers, that doesn't mean he can't sell you grain by the ounces. But believe me, getting 10 or 20 lbs out of that dispenser is going to be tiring.

My goal is to satisfy ALL of my customers.

 

[thatfatbastard]

I'd suggest not offering selling any large equipment that won't move quickly, and could be found much cheaper online. (Mills, kegs, mash tuns etc) instead offer service parts (keg posts, grommets, faucets, tubing) at decent prices. Grommets are insanely cheap to buy in bulk.

I have the bits that folks need to build their own equipment, but I am also trying to keep a few prefabbed units around too. I sold a complete mash tun yesterday because the guy didn't feel like putting one together. I didn't make much on it, but he didn't have to go online to get it and wound up buying a bunch of other stuff from me too.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

Good luck, looks great!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Sounds good then, you may have more space to be able to do that regularly then. My main lhbs (also liquor and cigar cellar) nearby does not, but thinks they do and ends up craming the place with lots of large things and I've never seen any of it sell. They're really good for grains, parts, extract stuff, chemicals and minerals. Yeast is decent. Hops are way too expensive though, can get 4 oz for 25cents more online than I can for an oz at the lhbs.

 

[April15Hater]

Don't mean to give a shameless plug for my profession, but invest in a good local CPA. Holding an inventory can be tricky when it comes time to do taxes. Also being servicers of one of the two known certainties in life we tend to accumulate a pretty wide network of local people to do business with.

Store really does look good though. To echo some other posts, the log cabin really is a nice touch.

 

[thatfatbastard]

Don't mean to give a shameless plug for my profession, but invest in a good local CPA.

So, I'm very interested in this and I have gotten the name of someone from another small business owner, but I was wondering, how much does a CPA usually cost for a small business?

 

[rokfreek]

How much a CPA cost is hard to answer. If you have bookkeeping software, quickbooks is the most popular but definantly not the cheapest, and you use it correctly you will save your accountant a lot of time, and time is money. I don't know how you set up your business but most likely it's just a sch C as part of your personnel return so if you keep good books it should only be a few hundred dollars.

 

[thatfatbastard]

Awesome, thanks!

 

[guitarguy6]

You're shop looks great! I like how everything looks clean and well organized. I'm also in the midst of opening my own homebrew shop out here in Canada. If you don't mind offering some advice I was wondering how many square feet your shop is and if you feel like it's to big or small. The location that most interests me is 900sqf and has an additional 400sqf for overstock in the basement. Are you running a point of sale software? My biggest obstacle right now is choosing my POS. I'm leaning towards a quickbooks POS as it offers inventory control, gift cards, loyalty points and integrates with quickbooks. Best of luck on your new venture!

 

[thatfatbastard]

The whole building is about 1,500 sq ft, but we are only using the downstairs for retail. My guess is that our retail square footage is somewhere around 900. I would like for it to be bigger.

I'm using Shopify for our POS, and I'm not all that fond of it to be honest.

 

[guitarguy6]

The whole building is about 1,500 sq ft, but we are only using the downstairs for retail. My guess is that our retail square footage is somewhere around 900. I would like for it to be bigger.

I'm using Shopify for our POS, and I'm not all that fond of it to be honest.

Thanks for the input

 

[ram5ey]

Nice shop! I have to stress a Few things.

Top of the list. Homebrew shops are a niche market. You have to keep the customers that find you.

1. Customer service!! This has to be at the top of the list. Many people are @zz wipes however they are your customers. Smile and sell `em yeast and grain They will keep coming back.

2. Customer Service! (yes again) Service and nurture the newbies. These are going to be your bread and butter customers. You just have to get them started. Give them the best advice possible and they will keep them coming in the door. I did not get this treatment at my local shop when I started. They lost my business for a very long time due to this.

3. Ensure you keep up your inventory. Nothing worse than going to a shop that is out of one or more of the ingredients you came to buy. Especially when it happens often. This is one of the reasons my favorite homebrew shop went out of business and I had to go back to my local store

4. Keep the place hospital clean. You have to be a cleaning nazi! We have a store in our area that is just plain dirty. Needless to say it really keeps people out of their store.

All of this.

 

[ram5ey]

It looks really nice. Best of luck.

And sure I'll start the why not just sell better bottles instead of glass carboys discussion!

 

[thatfatbastard]

It looks really nice. Best of luck.

And sure I'll start the why not just sell better bottles instead of glass carboys discussion!

Cuz there ain't no Better Bottles right now. I am selling PET carboys though, and I actually recommend them to my customers over glass.

Better Bottle production has been shut down for a while now, I'm not sure when they are going to get pack in to the distribution stream.

 

[April15Hater]

So, I'm very interested in this and I have gotten the name of someone from another small business owner, but I was wondering, how much does a CPA usually cost for a small business?

How much a CPA cost is hard to answer. If you have bookkeeping software, quickbooks is the most popular but definantly not the cheapest, and you use it correctly you will save your accountant a lot of time, and time is money. I don't know how you set up your business but most likely it's just a sch C as part of your personnel return so if you keep good books it should only be a few hundred dollars.

Like most answers your get from a CPA, it depends. And it's honestly something I've struggled with for some time with my own firm. It really depends on how much time the work requires, how much risk they are exposed to, and the complexity of the work. Many folks take the risk and complexity part for granted, but for every return, financial statement, or piece of advice an accountant produces, there is a malpractice risk factor involved that increases as the complexity increases.

For example, say you are a client and you shoot me an email that says you had to replace all of the locks in your building which totaled $500 and when you are putting it into Quickbooks, you don't know whether it should be a Repair & Maintenance expense or considered part of the Building (i.e. capitalized as an asset). Although this sounds like a fairly simple inquiry, a good CPA would recall from his/her continuing education class that the IRS issued new regulations targeting this issue effective 01/01/2014. Just like medicine and law, accountancy is a practice: so like a lawyer may research case law or statute, a CPA researches the IRS publication drawing on his/her past experience and knowledge (Add Complexity). Then let's say the IRS decides to audit and the CPA got it wrong (we're all human). The CPA runs the risk of a law suit, IRS sanctions (Circular 230), and increased premiums for malpractice insurance.

Having said that, it's impossible for the small business CPA to charge on a per question basis. So the approach that I have found to work the best for me and my clients is to charge based on how many forms I prepare and present and allow a reasonable amount of questions on the house. Because chances are if you have a question about your repair and maintenance, there is a good chance that I'm going to prepare a form for you on it. If not, then it's simply chalked up to the cost of doing business.

Rokfreek hit a good point too. Having your bookkeeping already done is a huge time/money saver, especially if you are keeping an inventory. Having a CPA do your book keeping is the equivalent of having a brain surgeon take your vitals. However, if you were my client, I would get you off of a Schedule C as soon as possible, and into an LLC taxed as an S-Corporation while paying yourself a reasonable salary to avoid the 15.3% self-employment tax trap. If you own the land and building you probably want to put that into a separate entity for liability purposes. When looking for a CPA, they will likely go over a preliminary game plan in the initial consultation. An S-Corp structure would be one of the minimum advisories I would look for. Most important, if he offers you a homebrew, make sure it's after you've discussed business!

 

[Grannyknot]

Very cool looking shop.
I am in Roanoke 4-5 times a year. I'll be by at some point.

 

[thatfatbastard]

Like most answers your get from a CPA, it depends. And it's honestly something I've struggled with for some time with my own firm. It really depends on how much time the work requires, how much risk they are exposed to, and the complexity of the work. Many folks take the risk and complexity part for granted, but for every return, financial statement, or piece of advice an accountant produces, there is a malpractice risk factor involved that increases as the complexity increases.

For example, say you are a client and you shoot me an email that says you had to replace all of the locks in your building which totaled $500 and when you are putting it into Quickbooks, you don't know whether it should be a Repair & Maintenance expense or considered part of the Building (i.e. capitalized as an asset). Although this sounds like a fairly simple inquiry, a good CPA would recall from his/her continuing education class that the IRS issued new regulations targeting this issue effective 01/01/2014. Just like medicine and law, accountancy is a practice: so like a lawyer may research case law or statute, a CPA researches the IRS publication drawing on his/her past experience and knowledge (Add Complexity). Then let's say the IRS decides to audit and the CPA got it wrong (we're all human). The CPA runs the risk of a law suit, IRS sanctions (Circular 230), and increased premiums for malpractice insurance.

Having said that, it's impossible for the small business CPA to charge on a per question basis. So the approach that I have found to work the best for me and my clients is to charge based on how many forms I prepare and present and allow a reasonable amount of questions on the house. Because chances are if you have a question about your repair and maintenance, there is a good chance that I'm going to prepare a form for you on it. If not, then it's simply chalked up to the cost of doing business.

Rokfreek hit a good point too. Having your bookkeeping already done is a huge time/money saver, especially if you are keeping an inventory. Having a CPA do your book keeping is the equivalent of having a brain surgeon take your vitals. However, if you were my client, I would get you off of a Schedule C as soon as possible, and into an LLC taxed as an S-Corporation while paying yourself a reasonable salary to avoid the 15.3% self-employment tax trap. If you own the land and building you probably want to put that into a separate entity for liability purposes. When looking for a CPA, they will likely go over a preliminary game plan in the initial consultation. An S-Corp structure would be one of the minimum advisories I would look for. Most important, if he offers you a homebrew, make sure it's after you've discussed business!

Ugh, my brain hurts

That's why you guys do what you do. I did incorporate as an LLC (Yay!), so I got that going for me, which is nice.