TESTIMONIAL
Holidaily Brewing: A SEAMLESS TRANSITION FROM IN-HOUSE FINANCE TO OUTSOURCED EXPERTISE
SERVICE
Numbers Powered Growth
LOCATION
Golden, CO
THE PAIN OF REPLACING A FINANCE MANAGER
Heading into their 9th year of business, Karen Hertz and the team at Holidaily Brewing found themselves in a difficult position: their in-house Finance Manager decided it was time to move on. And with a consistent, double-digit annual growth
rate, they needed to figure out what to do quickly.
"We had one human running our finance, books, taxes, everything. And you lose that person, it’s real painful."
The obvious move for breweries in this position is to post a job listing to find a direct replacement as quickly as possible to minimize disruption and start the training process ASAP. Instead, Karen took a step back to evaluate her options.
"This is a role where, if you panic and just hire the first person who walks in the door, you’ll probably make the wrong hire. You feel like you’re going to go quick by just hiring the first warm body, but to get them all the information, process it, understand it... it’s hard to get those people onboarded. It takes time."
Fortunately, another brewery owner in her Colorado-based CEO group recommended she consider outsourcing… and in particular, outsourcing with Small Batch Standard.
"We liked the idea of outsourcing our accounting because internal people have internal opinions. What we were looking for was a clean slate: knowing our numbers, knowing the facts, and being told where we stand financially."
Before making any changes though, they wanted to make sure that SBS could actually replace the responsibilities their in-house manager was handling, especially the specifics of their AP process and inventory, as well as their state excise filings.
"We’d hired in-house finance people before, and not everybody knows the ins and outs of the beer industry. That’s always been a challenge for us."
One additional area of focus for Karen was investor
expectations and communication, a mission-critical
priority for them, particularly around tax time.
"Something that has been frustrating in the past is getting K-1s filed on time. That was a huge part of looking for a partner that really understood that we were on a time crunch. And it’s not just about Holidaily, it’s about all these investors and supporters. Getting that done on time was mission-critical for us."
Ultimately, despite their initial reservations about outsourcing vs. re-hiring for the role, Holidaily decided to engage with SBS.
A SEAMLESS TRANSITION TO AN OUTSOURCED TEAM
Right off the bat, Karen saw that not only could the SBS team handle the work, but ramped up quickly. Beyond the fundamentals, they also brought forward insights and clarity Holidaily hadn’t been getting before.
"It is very refreshing and releases a lot of weight off my shoulders to have a partner that is specific to this industry and can really help me see which parts of our business are performing well and which aren’t. Someone who can understand all the different regulations in different states, knows how our P&L should be set up, and has comparables to the rest of the industry to understand how our numbers stack up against the broader craft beer market."
As a result, Holidaily’s leadership has been able to establish clear financial goals for the team and make some key strategic changes along the way.
"Having those benchmarks is key and gives our team something to shoot for. We made some strategic changes, particularly looking at each product and its profitability by brand and style and where we can get growth without sacrificing profitability. That’s been eye-opening for us."
As an added bonus, Karen can now fully sit in the CEO seat, without getting stuck in the weeds trying to gather information. Instead, she can focus on what she does best while SBS provides the groundwork and executive-level reporting.
"From my perspective as the CEO & Founder, I really love the 30,000-foot view of how we are performing. It lets things bubble up to my level to say, ‘Okay, here’s a problem,’ or ‘Don’t worry about this,’ or ‘This is looking really good right now.’ That’s the kind of data we didn’t really have before that we’re getting from SBS."
And beyond the spreadsheets, the SBS team has become an extension of the brewery.
As a final note on her experience with SBS so far, Karen offers her opinion on how other brewery owner’s should weigh the choice between outsourcing and hiring an in-house accountant:
"No matter what, hiring in-house for accounting and finance is hard. Getting someone onboarded takes a lot longer than bringing in a team like SBS that does this every day. The training, orientation, benefits... it’s all expensive and time-consuming. And if that person leaves? It’s your problem. With SBS, if someone moves on, there’s a whole team ready to step in. I don’t have financial people at my fingertips to fill that gap, but SBS does."
"It’s just easier for a brewery to go to the experts, let them handle it, and get things moving in the right direction quickly."
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Small Batch Standard
Can Help Your Brewery?
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