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Hello from Greece! Home of the Financial Crisis...

AlfA01

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Hello Everyone!

New guy to the forum and using BeerSmith, in general.  I have an interest to continuing my homebrewing and to escalate it to a larger scale.  My wife and I have recently come across an opportunity to become involved with a old family hotel on the island of Evia, Greece.  Given that the financial situation swings is semi-favorable direction, we will make a go of opening the place for 2016.  Of course, we plan to incorporate brewing.  At first, we are thinking to offer a simple Lager on the buffet as part of the all inclusive packages.  And, we are thinking to sell the same Lager or an Ale at the beach bar, if things go well and we can obtain all necessary permits, etc. 

I've been fermenting since I was a kid back in Mississippi where I grew up.  I became very serious about it in 2010.  Now, in the coming years I hope to take it even further.  My adventures are not only in beer, but wine and spirits as well 

Cheers to everyone,
AlfA01
Dan
 
Good Luck with the referendum! It seems like a choice between fire and boiling oil and tough on your country, either way.

I've just embarked on my third brewing business startup consultation in as many years.

If you get involved with the hotel, I'd recommend that the first 6 months to a year be spent on just making it a great place to stay. This will take all of your attention, I'm sure. It always seems to be part of any new business venture. You might find that, at first, you don't even have time to brew much for your own use, let alone making it part of the business.  :)


 
brewfun said:
Good Luck with the referendum! It seems like a choice between fire and boiling oil and tough on your country, either way.

I've just embarked on my third brewing business startup consultation in as many years.

If you get involved with the hotel, I'd recommend that the first 6 months to a year be spent on just making it a great place to stay. This will take all of your attention, I'm sure. It always seems to be part of any new business venture. You might find that, at first, you don't even have time to brew much for your own use, let alone making it part of the business.  :)

Sounds like you're the right person to ask for some advice.  We have investors and a manager that will run the operations of the hotel, so our contribution is to take on the brewing and help where there are gaps in production related jobs.  For instance, the hotel is typically closed during the winter months, so we will essentially be security guards and grounds maintenance during those months.  Most of the brewing will happen during those months as well. 

Our shortage of capital is why we brought in an investor.  We will have part of the new rental company based on 'sweat equity', plus my wife will have partial ownership as an inheritor of the family.

Cheers,
Dan

 

 
AlfA01 said:
Sounds like you're the right person to ask for some advice.

Uh oh....  Be forewarned that my advice can sound harsh because I want to see people be prepared and succeed. Also, I know nothing of how Greek business deals work. ;)

Our shortage of capital is why we brought in an investor.  We will have part of the new rental company based on 'sweat equity', plus my wife will have partial ownership as an inheritor of the family.

If the "sweat equity" is spelled out in a contract with specific benchmarks for how you earn it and how much you get, then cool. If it's just an "I work hard and they'll share" agreement, well, you'll certainly work hard.

I'm hoping that your wife's partial ownership is direct to the company and not in trust through the family inheritance fund or some other indirect involvement. A managed fund is a safer investment for the family, but a lot less direct control for her.

Investors always have their own goals for investing. If those goals aren't the same as yours, you'll lose nearly every time. Hopefully, you see what I'm getting at, here. You're seeing a lot of promise in this venture and you're getting involved because of the possibilities. My advice is to make sure you turn these possibilities into real goals that all of the investors are on board with, too. You have to do that with contracts and some really hard conversations, but chances are that the investors want to reward success, too.

If you've had all of these conversations and you have an ownership equity contract, then let's talk about making beer!!  8) ;D

I do wish you the best of luck with this. Greek tourism is set to surge with the new Eurozone agreement, if it is accepted by Greece. You have good timing on your side. Making beer commercially is a lot of fun, too.
 
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