Living the dream?

[matthewgardner]

I know this has been broached here before, but has anyone ever opened a HBS? I am considering a move once my wife becomes an RN and would love to know logistics. I have investors, I have space, and I have the support of SWMBO to pursue a dream. Who wants to help?

 

[huntingohio]

Well all I can say is good luck. Bussiness is rough, its up and down so much that sometimes you get a small steak other times you eating ol'roy.
The only real way to exist is to keep a finger in all bowls and never commit the whole hand. Oprn a small storefront with plenty of storage and start an e-biz to support it. Try and find a sideline for your bussiness that can do pretty consitant business, like my lhbs is also a winery.

The biggest tip is take what you think to open a store [capital wise] and triple it, then add in the cost of what it will take your family to live on for the next 3 years, It most likely will be atleast a year, and in most cases more before you turn a real profit.

I'm all for living the dream and opening your own bussiness but do a good 6mos-1 year or so of research before you cash out the 401k and jump in.
It's a huge combonation of things you have to take into consideration.

 

[matthewgardner]

Thanks for the advice...we are moving home and will be living in a family home with next to nothing for housing expenses. Wife will be an RN and will be able to give us the health benefiits we need, my desire is to combine a lhbs with a craft beer outlet and liquor store, but I believe the start up costs for just the HBS are attainable.

What were the inventory start up costs?

 

[45_70sharps]

I don't know, if you can live off of the wife's income and have financial backing it might be worth pursuing.
I agree that you better be diverse though.
Wine, mead, pop extract. Anything else even remotely related that you could put in there.
Maybe some steady income from something not related like basic Quickie Mart inventory.

I have no idea how knowledgeable you are on brewing, but you should be able to give your customers a lot of information when they come in.

You might actually have a situation where it could work, but I have never seen any of the brew stores I've been to that were busy.
Be ready to work 70 or 80 hour weeks since you won't be able to afford to pay someone to work in there for at least a couple years if ever.

That doesn't mean it wouldn't be worth while though.
Maybe a good thing to do would be to talk to somebody with a homebrew store in at Town comparable to the size of the one you would be in.
As long as its not somebody so close that you would be competition I bet they would give you some really good ideas of cost, hours they have to work, how long till they turned a profit, and any problems that you or I might not think of.
It would help if that brew shop was in the same state that you would be in because of the differences and licensing or permit costs and problems.
Show up with a 6 pack of your favorite homebrew and just shoot the breeze.

 

[huntingohio]

In this stae if you were to open a store that sold beer and wine consumption on site would be against the law, uless you were a bar. My LHBS is also a winery but beer onsite even homebrew is against the law. THere is kind of a spiders web of laws around alcohol and from google maine dosnt seem to be any easier.

If it were my money I would open a pub, just serve beer. Itd make a great place to run a lhbs because if there drinking it at the bar or making it at home either way your getting paid. It would be great to get a pint and shoot the breeze about home brew, however the only place I could see this succeding is in a large city