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Distillery Consultant / trace ownership?


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I just spoke with the bank today and one of their requirements for an SBA loan is that at lease one of the "principles" had to have at least 5 years experience in the industry. 

Are there any consultants out there who could serve as a 5% owner and provide distillery consulting services?  Where to start looking? 

If this doesn't work, then are there any lenders (Texas) that are amiable to new Craft Distillers?

Cheers,

Van

Bartletts Distillery, LLC

Montgomery County, Texas

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That's total bullshit. Shop around for another bank.  To a lender it doesn't matter if you're selling booze or bikinis, just need to show them a solid business plan and most likely some (read: a lot of) collateral. 

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1 hour ago, Bartletts Distillery said:

I found another bank to work with, submitted 35MB worth of files on Thursday.  Let's see what they say this coming week.

 Most likely they will say give us 10 more MB of info on Tuesday.   There is a lot of filling out paperwork in SBA loans.  

 

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LOL Bart, when I was studying aero-engrg in college, all we had was slide rules and the first hand calculator which seriously curbed my happy hour Fridays! I swear the Prof was a sadist in a past life.

Good luck and if you need cooling equipment budgets, give me a shout- I can do the same (at will).

Regards, Mike

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Fortunately, Mike, slide rules were out by the time I got to college.  We all had HP48's with RPN.  Initially, the reverse Polish notation took some getting used to, but turned out to be great for Engineering work.

Loan #3 fell through.  I'm done dealing with individual banks and now have two brokers working on my case.  It may turn out that I have to purchase the property without any capital for startup.  This would mean I get the property and a really small still (~50 gallon) just to apply for the license.  Once I get the license, then I get another loan for upgrading equipment for bigtime production.  Sucks, but that's sort of what I'm looking at now.

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You might not like this advise but.  You might have a better shot if you start up a little smaller,  Not buying the property and just leasing something.  Start up after a couple years turning a profit the bank will be much happier to work with you.  As of now you don't have any business or industry experience for them to bank on.  

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WT, believe me, I tried that.  Once you get away from a major metropolitan area, small industrial spaces that have access to enough water for a sprinker system gets extraordinarily difficult, or impossible.  I could not find any location for lease under 5000 sq.ft. that had utilities (water, electricity, gas) that wasn't near a church, school, or public hospital.

Sure, I could lease a small space and get a a tiny still.  But, it's not profitable when you can't store more than 120 gallons.  Banks don't like business that loose money either. :(

At this point, I'm neck deep into this property, and am even considering purchasing the small house next door for a tasting room / office.

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