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How small can I go when starting biz?


porter

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Question here is how small of a production run will the TTB license?

Want the business to be in conjunction with a regular job.

Have a couple of local sales points wanting to handle the product on wholesale level.

So.....will the TTB even talk to someone who want's to run 500 proof-gal yearly?

This size of a business can be done in 500sq ft spot (portable building, metal pole shed, etc)

County and state (Missouri) are very open on licensing.

In middle of wine country so looking really hard at custom distilling for the wineries during season.

I already have my own business in IT which allows virtually any hours I want for the distilling business.

Yes, I want it to grow, but folks just don't want to invest $50k around here unless you can show you know what you're doing.

Any thoughts on this?

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The TTB is not concerned with a minimum for licensing. If you distill a single drop of alcohol, the law says you have to have a license and pay the excise tax. And yes, give them a call. TTB people by and large want to help you comply with the law & regs so that you can succeed and generate tax revenue for Uncle Sam. They are good folks.

I'm interested in your progress on the very-small-scale end of the business. Please do keep us updated here.

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I'm interested in your progress on the very-small-scale end of the business. Please do keep us updated here.

Thanks for the response, but will be a bit before I have much to report. BUT take a look at Ridge Distillery in an above post. That's exactly the size of install I have in mind, 24x24 building and 50gal batch runs.

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My situation had a lot of similarities to yours as far as size goes. Basically, you need to figure how much bang for your buck it's going to be. It all comes down to overhead (equipment, utilities, insurance, bonding, licensing fees, federal and state taxes, etc.) and if you can at least pay that off and hope to make some profit after a little while. Everyone's situations are specific to their immediate local laws and cost of doing business. But, IMHO, there is a breaking point as to how small you can go in the financial sense IF you expect to make any money whatsoever. By the way, I'm about to write a hefty check to the feds for our taxes and I personally still haven't made a dime, just throwing that out there.

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My situation had a lot of similarities to yours as far as size goes. Basically, you need to figure how much bang for your buck it's going to be. It all comes down to overhead (equipment, utilities, insurance, bonding, licensing fees, federal and state taxes, etc.) and if you can at least pay that off and hope to make some profit after a little while. Everyone's situations are specific to their immediate local laws and cost of doing business. But, IMHO, there is a breaking point as to how small you can go in the financial sense IF you expect to make any money whatsoever. By the way, I'm about to write a hefty check to the feds for our taxes and I personally still haven't made a dime, just throwing that out there.

Thanks Paul........My idea of this business is to be able to pay back the debt load rather quickly, not taking profits from the business. I have the IT biz and the wife works. Have 40x60 metal pole shed already in place, and will save a lot to convert half of it to start. Plenty of room for expansion. (We just use it for storage, not farming.)

So.....if we can run the numbers and come up with at least a $500 profit/week, that pays the small debt back fast, then reinvest.

Ran into a local distillery around Branson who's got a real nice setup. But he went into it at around $90k, new building and all. Production will have to be large to pay that load down.

I have couple of money folks wanting to invest over $20k each into it, but I don't it wise to take partners just to put something in large at first.

And when you say you haven't made a dime, you mean you haven't taken out a salary, correct? Just paying down the debt load?

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