Lost and Found in a Mountain Town

I failed miserably at keeping up with my postings over the past few weeks, but I'll make up for it this week. If it is any consolation, I had a hell of a time in Idaho. I was originally going to go back to Seattle on the 2nd, but I couldn't resist the temptation of boats, beer and sun in Donnelly/McCall for the 4th of July. Now that I am home, I have had some time to think over the progress that I made over the last few week. Here are some of the details...

I had two presentations that were a combo of "Craft Beer 101" and an "intro to the Payette Brewing Company concept." I had a 10 slide PowerPoint that I figured would take maybe 30 minutes to go through, but when it was all said and done, both of them went well over an hour and a half. **Quick side note: why is "hour" preceded with "an" instead of "a," its probably the only word I can think of that starts with a consonant that does that. I am not trying to be an English teacher, so moving on... The discussions that came up during the presentations were both distinctly different and will go a long way in my planning in the next few months. Right now I am trying to wade through the ideas and information that I gathered and can't help but feeling more lost than I was a month ago. I figured that I was 70% done with the business plan and after that I feel only 30% done. Frustrating. In the end I know I will have a very solid presentation for potential investors and a better grasp on what needs to get done to run a successful business. At least I have two presentations to very knowledgeable and experienced people under my belt.

One idea that came up worth sharing include the possibility of starting by contract brewing. In a perfect world I would not want to do this, but after talking it through, it seems like a very good option. The two biggest benefits about this route would be getting a product into the market sooner and establishing a demand before raising the large amount of capital to build the brewery I am planning. Once I put together these numbers I will have a better idea of how everything will work, so stay tuned.

Also got great feedback on the logo work and even have a second round of revisions done. Not quite to the point that I want to post them, but soon enough.

I have a lot of other things that I am going to get up this week, but I am sort of over writing this blog...good win today America (2-0 over Honduras in the Gold Cup)