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Are you running a business or a hobby?  You might say:  “Of course I’m running a business. I have a tax ID. I have a building. I’m selling a product. I employ people. My business is 5 years old already.” Turns out, it takes a little more to differentiate between a business and a hobby.  […]

Do you know the cost of your beer?   Do you spend evenings tinkering with a multi-tab, multi-thousand cell costing spreadsheet you made, where you think you’ve added in all possible ingredients, trying to nail down exactly how much money you’ll make on your beer? And do these numbers not jive with what’s happening in reality? 

We have a Scottish Terrier named Wallace, and he’s the quietest dog I’ve ever been around.  In the house, there is no barking, no whining; basically silence. You might hear the occasional grumble or huff when he’s annoyed, but that’s about it. However, Wallace owns his backyard.  When he’s allowed in the yard, he patrols

I want to talk about taproom revenue per square foot.  I’ve been at Small Batch Standard for a little over a year, and on multiple occasions I have heard the metric of taproom revenue per square foot brought up.  We consider your taproom square footage to be the space usable by your customers.  We do

I want to talk about case equivalents. Let’s start off with a definition of CE.  CE is case equivalent, and this is the language of distributors. Start introducing this verbiage in sales meetings.  And to quote our friend Kary Shumway: “The case equivalent, or CE, is a standard unit of measure for a beer wholesaler.

I must admit a rather large mistake I have made on my entrepreneurial journey. It has to do with hiring.  More specifically my methodology on hiring. Or better yet, my old methodology. Being the astute bean counter and tax stallion that I am, I thought I needed to surround myself with other astute stallions to

Well folks, It’s that time of the year again when we start planning for…  Tax time! Arguably everyone’s favorite time of the year. Said no one, ever. Pardon the sarcasm. This will be the only tax post for the year, so bear with me.  The stance I take on taxes is, it is a form

“I’d be hard pressed if you work with another brewery with our same business plan.” “I’m curious how many breweries you work that have the same structure as us, I bet not many.” “We are unique.” MODEST ANNOUNCEMENT: When it comes to the business of your brewery, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. Hard pill to swallow?

True story. I was in a Quarterly Huddle* with Rob and Rita last week when I noticed something interesting. They sell, on average, around $27k in merchandise a month. Yep, you read that correctly, $27,000 in merchandise per month. Important note: No online sales, no DTC… this is merchandise sold out of a single location.

As you know I frequently talk about making decisions based on numbers.  I strongly believe in this philosophy for a business to thrive and grow.  The alternative to making decisions based on numbers is making decisions based on emotions, or gut feeling.   The problem with making decisions based on emotions is that when we access