I am in the early stages of planning to open my own brewery with a couple of friends. We are vetting out the details and starting the business plan. While we will be investing some of our own money, we are looking to get a majority of the initial funding from other sources. I thought the plan Dick Cantwell used for Elysian as detailed in the BA's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery sounded like a reasonable starting point. Get a significant portion from equity investors while having the three of us still retain majority voting rights of the remaining shares. Then approach the bank for the rest of the necessary funds.
The one piece I am currently trying to figure out is what is a reasonable and expected return on investment for the equity investors would be. I have some ideas on percentages and time frames, but won't share them yet for fear of steering the answers a certain way.