Jason M

I should clarify - I'm not buying the still that will end up in my business, I just ordered an 8 gallon one to learn the process and get my reps in beyond what I've already done. I appreciate the great advice everyone has given so far and absolutely do not take lightly the amount of blood sweat and tears that will go into this. My wife owned a restaurant for 17 years and I watched her beat her head against the table when something as simple as her printer running out of ink on payroll day went wrong. I have a lot of great resources from my local SBDC and have subscribed to distillery university's curriculum so I've been reading until my eyes dry out. It'll be a long road, but I'm optimistic that it'll be rewarding and fun in the end.

As of now, I'm shooting for a 175ish gal combination mash tun/column still and a separate alembic still (unknown size). For fermenters, I don't think I'd need more than 3 but I imagine everything I just typed will change in some way after I've met with a consultant.

I am planning to start small. From a volume standpoint, however, I don't have a number. I plan to keep my product line pretty basic for the first year or two as I perfect my skills. I will hopefully be able to afford someone to help me with sales and marketing, but I've lived in my town all my life so I have a lot of contacts in the industry. I will absolutely be beating the streets myself, doing tastings at bars, events, etc. as well as working on partnerships with local breweries for collaborations. I will likely need to source my whiskey off the bat (which is going to be a whole other rabbit hole from what I'm seeing.) 100% swimming with the fishes. No following yet, as I just ordered my first still this morning. At this point, I just have no way to know what to expect from a traffic standpoint. Am I going to sell 10 bottles of rum per month or 100? Can I expect to pull down $10k a month in my tasting room? $20k? I will absolutely be looking into a consultant. From what I've seen so far they're more reasonably priced than what I'd anticipated so that's a relief! I appreciate the post and would only ever want someone to be direct and honest. Thanks!

Yeah, I suppose I worded that incorrectly. They are doing very well and business-wise, I strive to be like them. I guess I just meant that I want to find some ways to be original and set myself apart.

Hi all, I'm working toward opening my distilling business in the Midwest and have been "interning" at the one operational distillery in my town to learn the ropes of production operations. I have an investor on board, properties in mind and have been in contact with my area alderperson as well as the city planner in charge of zoning. All are enthusiastic about the project and I'm optimistically shooting for a soft open in 6-12 months. In that time, I will be working closely with my SBDC contact and attending any business seminars that I can. I will also be fine tuning my business plans. The one part I'm somewhat hung up on is coming up with any sort of realistic sales numbers for the first two years so I can get my investor some halfway decent P&L figures. Seeing as there is only one other business like mine in the area and they are only 2 years old themselves, I don't really have anything to compare to. Would anyone be willing to reach out to discuss this with me? I realize there are a lot of variables, but at this point I feel like any input is good input. Thanks in advance! Cheers! -Jason