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How many have quit their day jobs?


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I am just curious - of those with working distilleries, how many have been able to quit their day jobs? We are still all working other jobs - a challenge, to say the least!

When we first started our distillery, Both my father and I were still working for Hewlett Packard. It was nice to have the supplemental income while trying to work so dutifully on a project we actually liked doing.

That being said, I went back to university and finished up, and my dad got caught in one of the last rounds of HP's layoffs about 6 years back, so that was when he decided to do this business fulltime.

We have been very lucky to be able to stay in business this long, mostly due to my mother being an executive in silicon valley. She has the purse strings, and we get to play. Fortunately we have managed to stay afloat for over 10 years now, which given the ridiculously expensive economy in silicon valley, is a huge success.

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I am just curious - of those with working distilleries, how many have been able to quit their day jobs? We are still all working other jobs - a challenge, to say the least!

No chance of that happening for some years to come. But there will be a day when it is fully supporting of a couple of living-wage salaries, maybe in three years in the best case and five in the worst case. You have to love it, and I just happen to!

Rusty

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Both Doug and I work two jobs. I am a GC and have been in our town for 30 years. I have realy cut back as I am getting too old and too sore to keep up the pace out their. Doug has another business called Carpet Direct which he balances both to keep selling our product. We pay all the bills and have a little left over to make improvements to our products and processing but wait another year or so then we will not have to work two jobs. My wife is a retired school teacher which brings us in a salary so all is well. Coop

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It must be quite a challenge to do a startup distillery and continue to work a full time job. When do you guys sleep?!

This is planned to be my full time project for the foreseeable future. I sold my other businesses almost two years ago. I've been considering doing some side businesses in my old field if I have extra time once I'm up and running. Extra time may be at a premium once I get going at full speed though.

What has been your biggest challenge in getting to the point where you can go full time at the distillery? Is it just not having enough sales yet? Is it re-investment in additional equipment & the biz? High costs, payments on equipment, etc?

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Sleep is highly over rated. Plenty of time for it when you're on the dirt side of the grass.

True, but I did the lack of sleep thing when I was in my thirties and starting my prior businesses while working a full time job. I understand what those of you working a job while starting a business are going through. It's fun, challenging, motivating and exhausting. Now that I'm in my forties I actually appreciate a good nap in the afternoon! lol I'm a natural hard worker when I like what I'm doing but I also appreciate time with my family these days.

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