Taproom Success Tips, Tactics, and Strategies
Free resources to help your taproom or brewery improve sales, management, and finances
Let’s end with a checklist to help you find the events that may work best in your taproom.
Ask yourself:
- Have my guests been asking for this? (The answer is often, but not always “yes”)
- Does the potential event align with our core values? (The answer must always be...
The ”O” stands for originality.
Forget what I said about need. Originality is your chance to do something no one else in your area is doing. This is your opportunity to innovate. I absolutely love the “try anything once” approach. This is your chance to forget...
The second N represents the numbers.
One of the mistakes that I often see with event planning is a failure to set a financial budget, or a goal for the expected outcome.
It’s easy to get excited about the event: All the folks that will show up, and the fun everyone will have....
Let’s begin with need (N).
When you begin to brainstorm what events you may host, first ask yourself, “Is there a need?”
Have your guests been requesting a trivia night based on some obscure 80’s sci-fi show? Do you frequently have patrons wishing there was a small...
Contribution margin is the portion of every sales dollar that helps to offset fixed costs.
In other words, contribution margin is the number every 'restaurant owner' needs to know in order to achieve profitability in their business.
Let's consider a few examples, courtesy of Mark...
The odds are you didn’t open a brewery to look like the other 8999 out there.
You had a vision to be a place people gathered for the shared love of beer brewed on-premise. You desired to create a welcoming space where those in your community could come together and create memories. You...
The unfortunate truth about food pricing is that the market is in charge.
You're stuck with the market price, no matter what you do.
However, you can use a powerful strategy called Design to Cost, so that you are profitable on your food offerings.
Design to cost works like this:
- ...
When it comes to making money on food in your taproom, the key is to have a narrow menu. The narrower the better.
This does not mean that you don't give your guests choices.
Consider how you can use the Platform Strategy: One basic food item you can make in 10 or 15 different...
