Running a Bitters Business
Brandy Newman
So we finally decided to initiate our blog for Black Cloud Bitters. We have been so busy that writing prose seemed like the last thing we would have time to do.
We are kicking off this blog post on the inaugural day of the release of our 2018 Business Plan. We wrote a Business Plan back in 2015 (Version 1.0) when we launched the company. It has been on a shelf ever since. After staring at it for three years we decided to give it a read and assess where we thought we were going and where we have arrived. This involved celebrating all or our successes, reviewing our missteps, and recalibrating our path.
Drafting a Business Plan is a fabulous exercise to undertake. We recommend all business owners take the time (and we know you have none) to put things down on paper and chart your course - the bank likes it when you do that too!
Our Business Plan ended up being about 30 pages and it was supported by a Marketing and Sales Plan/Strategy (35 more pages), a very detailed financial forecast (another 20 pages), appendices (20 more pages!), and a in-house built, financial model that incorporates multiple product lines, multiple distribution channels, and multiple jurisdictions. The skillset from our professional careers came in handy as we burned the midnight oil on this project.
What's next you ask? The implementation of the Business Plan!
Stay tuned....
The Team at Black Cloud Bitters