Since I made my initial announcement about the brewery plans, lots of folks have been asking me how it’s been going, how are the plans coming along, when are you opening, do you know where you’ll be yet? And I always have to sigh, and resign myself to having to bursting their little bubble. I’m glad that so many other people are excited about my brewery plans too, I just wish I had more to tell them than, “No, I haven’t gotten any closer this week to opening than I was two weeks ago, or a month ago.”
It’s hard to show much progress on the plan at this point, because a lot of what I’ve been doing is simply fine-tuning the plan that I’ll need in order to be able to secure funding. All of the Big Stuff – finding a space, applying for permits and licenses, starting the build-out, setting the opening date, and setting up the brew-space – all of that hinges on me getting the funding I’m seeking, which will rely on having a comprehensive and well-presented business plan.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Starting a business is no small thing. Over the years, I’ve started (or been involved in starting) at least a few, including Lunarbistro.com and Stumptown Comics, Inc. Normally they were as simple as getting a dba account at the bank, and paying an annual license fee to the state. The most complex one was getting the Stumptown Comics organization incorporated. But none of those businesses involved seeking funding, or developing any sort of a business plan. In both cases I felt a business plan was unnecessary – the freelance design business was so simple in structure, and Stumptown (while considerably more complex) had been well-established and fairly well-defined by example. When I started the process of thinking about this brewery, though, I knew I wanted to do this one differently.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Putting the finishing touches on this ‘Epic’ version of the basic logo, which will be the basis for any large-scale promotional items I make, and will also be key to defining the branding going forward. I definitely want to see this on a t-shirt or growler (in a limited-color-palette capacity, at any rate), or a black-light velvet flocked poster, oh yes.
The coloring came out far more complex than I was intending, but it just looks better this way. I can always reduce the colors for silkscreen purposes, but I figured, this thing is supposed to be EPIC. So, Make It EPIC.
Enjoy!
…Like getting the rest of this site styled properly, and sweeping away the last of the stylistic remnants of the wordpress template it’s built on. I still have a number of pages I’ll need to build before I’d call the site ‘Final’ by any stretch, but there’s a lot that still needs to happen before I’ll have any content for those pages.
Speaking of those things, whenever I’ve shared with folks that I’m putting this project together, one of the first questions I get asked is “Where’s it going to be?” This is the question I’m most anxious to have answered as well, but unfortunately it’s going to be a while before I have the answer. Having spoken to a few retail real estate agents, it’s clear that first I need to get my financing in order, which means sharing my business plan with the bank and getting that ever-elusive ‘Small Business Loan’. I’ve been told they’re fairly easy to get these days, and that I have a strong business plan going into it, but I’m not holding my breath. My over-riding philosophy with this project is not to be too disappointed if it doesn’t happen. Until it’s real and I’m hosting my grand opening party, Megalith Brewing is just a really cool dream brewery. And the next step to making this dream a reality is securing the funding to sign a lease and start applying for my permits.
In the meantime, I’m going to do the things I CAN do right now, like developing the branding and style guides for the business (which I want to also include with the business plan when I talk to the bank), and continuing to make more beer for the Tasting Party coming up later this spring (details to come soon!).
Hey, all!
I know it’s a small step toward legitimate business stuff, but getting one’s brand locked down on all of the different social media you plan on using is a key part of any good marketing plan. Before I chose the name Megalith Brewing I did quick checks to make sure the name was available on these networks (it was!) – this was an important criteria for any name I was deciding on.
Yesterday I spent some time firming up all of those claims, so here are the official Megalith Brewing Social Networks! Do please follow us on any or all of these networks which you use!
Megalith Brewing on Twitter
Be sure to ‘Like’ us on Facebook
And Follow the brewery on Untappd
AND ALSO on Instagram!
…and of course our RSS feed (do RSS readers still exist? Surely they must…)
I should probably also think about a mailing list, but not sure yet what I would put on it. We’ll have to see how things shape up, if I have the need for a newsletter, then definitely a mailing list will be in the works.
Next step: Finishing the layout for this website, and pursuing financing!
