The Microbrewery Handbook

Chapter 7Tips to Start Your Business Plan

I WAS THE guy walking into banks with no previous business or entrepreneurial experience. No craft beer experience (other than drinking a bunch of it – at least some bankers found that funny). Having a sound, meticulous 41‐page business plan with financials that added up, were realistic, and showed a profit was my only weapon. And probably some luck.

Once I knew I would be able to qualify for the Small Business Administration portion of my loan, I pounded the pavement for banks that would take the rest of the loan. We probably reached out to about 15 banks and got about three serious inquiries, ultimately deciding between two banks in the end.

The lesson I learned is that banks are much more subjective than you would think. I had this illusion that all banks plugged your numbers into the same formula, and they'd all have the same answer. They are way more subjective than that. They may have a larger or smaller pool of dollars earmarked for commercial loans than other banks, so the timing can be wrong or right. Banks that have done a brewery deal before may be more apt to take on another one if they had success with the previous experience – or less apt to do it if it flopped.

Know there's a lot of subjectivity with lenders, and that just illuminates the crucial nature of a sound business plan.

Then I remembered I had never done one before.

Where to begin?

Looking for an aid to get this crucial business plan done, in 2016 I found