Chapter 10Finding the Dollars to Get Started

YOU WOULDN'T START making beer without a recipe. So why would you attempt to start a business without understanding where your capital is going to come from? This chapter discusses some of the ins and outs of getting your first business loan. It's not as impossible as you think.

An overarching theme in this book is that we felt it important to prepare as much as possible to eliminate the unexpected. Our building took four months longer to close than we hoped, for example. We were going to open in July, then August, then September, then October. We actually opened November 21, 2017.

In this chapter we'll focus on understanding your road map for getting the money you need to start your brewery. There are three ways to go about the search for money:

  1. Private/equity financing
  2. Private loan (friends and family, etc.)
  3. Bank/Small Business Administration financing

The most fun one, which I know nothing about, would be to be independently wealthy and pay cash for everything. Wouldn't that be nice.

Equity financing – taking in investment in exchange for equity in the company – is a common practice.

Private loans without exchanging equity are not unheard of in this industry – asking family members or friends for a loan being the most likely source – but probably less so than other industries because of the capital‐intense start.

The most common method is raising enough funds between ownership and investors, then bringing in bank and potentially ...

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