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3 reasons you don’t need a brewery business plan and 1 reason you do

I spent the better part of last year writing a brewery business plan for the brewery that I plan to open in Monterey, California. It’s all so new to me. I talked to some small business owners in the area. Looked up a ton of stuff online. I attended the Startup Weekend and entered the Startup Challenge. And learned a lot doing it all. I don’t feel like my time was wasted writing the business plan. However, I’ve learned that it’s not as necessary as I once thought.

Stack of papers by Jenni C on flickr

Stack of papers by Jenni C on flickr (CC by 2.0)

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What I hope to accomplish by starting a brewery in Monterey—Part 2 of 2: I want to help bring the craft beer renaissance to Monterey

In the last post, I explained that this blog is a place to gather my thoughts and cast a vision about starting a brewery. To ensure that all partners are striving for the same thing, a clear vision is crucially important. Last time, I explained that my ultimate goal is to help, to inspire, and to create. This time, I’ll explain that another reason I want to start a brewery is to help bring the craft beer renaissance to the Monterey area.

Banner for Core words for my microbrewery: Help, inspire, create.

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What I hope to accomplish by starting a brewery in Monterey—Part 1 of 2: I want to help, inspire and create

Part of the reason that I wanted to start a blog, was to gather my thoughts and cast a vision about starting the brewery that I’ve been planning for the last year. When my partners left the project earlier this year, I learned that a clear vision is crucially important. This blogsite is a place to catalog my business ideas and other thoughts on the beer industry. In this post, I’ll explain that one thing I want to accomplish with a new microbrewery in the Monterey area is to help, to inspire and to create.

Banner for Core words for my microbrewery: Help, inspire, create.

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How I stop procrastinating—Part 1 of ?

My last 2 posts were about my continuing battle against perfectionism. A big effect of my perfectionism is procrastination. My subconscious mind uses procrastination to prevent me from doing mediocre work. My mind has tricked me into thinking that anything less than perfect would be mediocre, and that mediocre would be unacceptable. It’s an ironic predicament because doing nothing is even worse than doing mediocre work. Furthermore, perfect is unattainable.

Banner for many to-do lists help me to stop procrastinating.

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My continuing battle against perfectionism—Part 2 of ?

I had thought that my last post would be a one-off. I had so much to say about my battle against perfectionism, that I had to split it into 2 posts. Writing is a great tool to help process thoughts. Now I realize that I’m not in a battle against perfectionism—THIS IS WAR! I think I’ll occasionally return to this title with future posts. This post explores ways that I am currently gaining some territory against the non-existent target of perfect.

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My continuing battle against perfectionism—Part 1 of ?

Hi, my name is Nathan and I’m a perfectionist. I used to think that perfect was a worthy goal. I was raised with the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Somehow along the way, I fell to the notion that anything less than perfect was unacceptable, wasn’t worth doing at all. Eventually, I started to see that I haven’t followed through on many of my dreams and ambitions. I have started way more plans than I have finished simply because they weren’t coming together as well as I had hope for. I still believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well. But now I am learning to accept less than perfection from myself and others.

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Why I’m hosting a craft beer podcast about breweries

In May, I took over for Joe Shelerud as host of craft beer podcast, MicroBrewr. I had already been working nearly a year on a business plan to start a brewery. A podcast seemed like too much to add on, and it seemed unrelated to my main objective: start a progressive craft brewery in Monterey. It’s not a stretch from what I already had going on. Here’s why I’m doing it.

Banner for I'm hosting a podcast about breweries. MicroBrewr http://microbrewr.com

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Let’s set Certified Cicerone® apart from wine sommelier

Beer is a highly specialized and diversified product, and trends change rapidly. A beer cicerone, specifically a Certified Cicerone® or a Master Cicerone®, is a highly skilled and knowledgeable professional. Yet they are often described in reference to wine sommeliers. I propose a new description for Cicerone, one that stands on its own, independent of other beverage professionals.

Banner for beer cicerone vs. wine sommelier.

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Why I want to start a brewery in Monterey—Part 3 of 3: The market is ready for a progressive craft brewery

There are many reasons I want to start a brewery in Monterey. You don’t have to look long to find an array of statistics about the craft beer industry’s seeming invincibility; the economics of craft beer is exhilarating. There is also a great sense of community surrounding the product and the industry. Since living in the Monterey Peninsula area for the past 8 years, I have grown to love it and I’d like to stick around. I am also in a transitional phase of my life, and I think I can find a niche in the craft beer industry. In this last post of the series, I’m going to explain why Monterey is more than ready for a progressive craft brewery.

Photograph of sailing ships.

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Why I want to start a brewery in Monterey—Part 2 of 3: This is where I am

In the first post of this series, I wrote about the first reason I want to start a brewery in the Monterey area. Basically, I feel this is an exciting time for craft beer and I want to be a part of it. Heck, it’s an exciting time in the history of beer. A lot people are even calling this a renaissance of beer. History will dictate whether this is truly a renaissance in the traditional sense. In this post I write about why I want to open a brewery specifically in the Monterey area, and I am breaking that into 2 parts. The first reason: This is where I am, in geography, in my life.

Photograph of map and compass.