[grams]

i've been warned that it is not the greatest idea , but i decided to open a shop in  keene n.h. . there is one in nashua, which is about 40 miles away. and one in brattleboro vermont. about 20 miles away, The one in brattleboro is never open when i go to vermont,and they were lacking in stock the one time i caught him. regardless i became unemployed and really just want a shop to pay my morgage. i'm not looking  to become rich, i  was hopeing some one out there has some market trend stats, or any other useful info in preparing  my business plan. any help would be great , thank you

[theDarkSide]

Just make sure you stock White Labs yeast...can't find it anywhere around the Derry area and have to have it shipped in ( not the best circumstances in the summer ). 

Keep us informed about the opening...I'll make a trip out to Keene to check it out...although I have to honestly say it will be too far for me for my regular shop.

Good luck.

[mroakley]

You have the initial capital for such an undertaking?

[denny]

i've been warned that it is not the greatest idea , but i decided to open a shop in  keene n.h. . there is one in nashua, which is about 40 miles away. and one in brattleboro vermont. about 20 miles away, The one in brattleboro is never open when i go to vermont,and they were lacking in stock the one time i caught him. regardless i became unemployed and really just want a shop to pay my morgage. i'm not looking  to become rich, i  was hopeing some one out there has some market trend stats, or any other useful info in preparing  my business plan. any help would be great , thank you

Try contacting Gary or Kate at the AHA and see if they have some stats you could use.

[bonjour]

Don't ignore the winemakers.  VERY important source of income.

[bluesman]

You might want to host the LHBC meetings. It's a great sales and marketing strategy.

[BrewingRover]

Will you be able to sell beer as well? My LHBS started out as a bottle shop and stocked a few kits. They've expanded to a pretty good selection of stuff but I'll bet they still make more money on beer and wine.

[babalu87]

Will you be able to sell beer as well? My LHBS started out as a bottle shop and stocked a few kits. They've expanded to a pretty good selection of stuff but I'll bet they still make more money on beer and wine.

THIS is a great way to do it IMNSHO

Guy up the road here does that. If I need something in between the bulk buys we do he is my go to guy. If I call him today he can get me about anything by Friday afternoon.

[IHBHS]

Just make sure you have a good selection.  Us here at Ice Harbor Brewing's Home Brew Shop have made a point to be the most well stocked shop on the East Side of WA State.  If you have everything that your customers need, they won't need to go anywhere else.  Barbour Inlt.  (Bayou Classic) is good place to get burners from, Worthington cylinders for O2 for your Oxygenator setups, Brewcraft is a great company to get a lot of your products from as well as LD Carlson, Crosby Baker, Foxx and Fermentap.

[joeysmokedporter]

Good luck with your venture.  I'd suggest you contact New Hampshire's small business development center.  They will have a lot of resources for getting started, options for funding, etc.  Their website is http://www.nhsbdc.org/. 

RE: market trends, I'd suggest you focus on researching the local market--for example, how many homebrewers in the area your store would serve, how frequently they brew...which you might be able to estimate based on information from local clubs and competitions.  National sizes and trends are only relevant to what you are doing if you plan to launch a webstore, which might not be a bad idea.

I'm not in the LHBS business but it seems that the critical success factor is getting regular turnover on your ingredients to keep them fresh--in addition to good service and competitive prices, which I would consider a ticket to play.  There is probably some threshold size of the business that you need to exceed in order to keep your turnover good.

Also, consider striking up relationships w/ local brewpubs and possibly supplying them.  There may be some situations with things like specialty grains where it could make sense for a brewpub to buy from you rather than a grain supplier.  I also know my LHBS sources grain for my local brewpub.  This could provide a nice source of income to finance the store through the early stages of growing your homebrewing customer base.

[tom-r2]

Do some internet searches (http://www.alexa.com/) (http://www.thomasnet.com/) for business information. Use as many descriptors as you can for your searches; Beer; barley; beer making supplies; brewery supplies; etc. You have to figure out who your customers will be, what range of customers you are going to try to serve (the wine making folks was a great suggestion), and where you are going to find the supplies that you will ultimately sell them. Are you going to just sell grains and fermenting buckets? Are you going to sell drinking mugs krugs or steins?  Are you able to comply with all of the licensing requirements in your area? Do you have to register the business or get an operating license or permit? Do you have to be inspected?

I'm not trying to scare you off, just throwing out some things that come to mind for you to consider and cover as you start your business. The suggestion about contacting some of the business associations will give you many of the answers here. Put together a business plan if you need to look for financing. There are books and references that explain what they should contain, considering the size of your proposed operation.

   Good luck!!!  If you work both smart and hard, you should succeed.

[capozzoli]

I would be very cautious. Dont count on ANY new business to pay you or anything thing else for a long time. You have to pay it out of pocket, or in advances from a bank or investor.

Most business fail within the first five years. Thats because people expect to be in the black immediately. It takes years.

No one plans to fail, they just fail to plan. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

I know this to be true cause I am on my third try with businesses.  

Sorry to be mister negative.

To far for me but the best of luck.

[denny]

Cap, I think you're being Mr. Realistic, not Mr. Negative.  When I started my business, not only did I keep a side job for a while, but we also borrowed enough to cover salaries for the first 2 years.

[capozzoli]

Yep, the reality is scary, best to realize it before you get into it.

Did you ever close up shop? How did that go? Hard?

The thing that caught me off guard the second time around (not that a brew supply shop would experience this) is a customer in NYC didnt pay a $180,000 bill. At first I thought we would survive but then I slowly realized that I have to bill $800,000 just to get the $180,000in profit back. Basically I  needed a million dollars just to get back to zero.

I never want to go through anything like that again. Now I have things in place to prevent it.

[denny]

Yep, the reality is scary, best to realize it before you get into it.

Did you ever close up shop? How did that go? Hard?

Yeah, closed as of June 1.  I turned in my key and felt like a ton of weight had been lifted from shoulders!  I'm still the head engineer at a big performing arts facility, but now my normal schedule is Mon.-Thur. 8AM-1PM.  I am SO digging the extra time off!