I wish I could sit back and say, "Oh yeah... we're doing tremedously awesome and it's all because we're super geniuses and have a tremendous game plan".
Reality is.. yes, we are very very proud of what we have accomplished and we think things have been a "success" so far... but it's been a mountain of very hard work (two years worth so far) and we're still on a very small scale. So... it's not like we're a bunch of Jim Koch's driving around in Ferraris. That and while we really like how we have gone about things, we've also had a few significant things fall into our laps out of just pure dumb luck.
The perfect example is our tap room. We started the brewery (production) in January of 2013 and, at the time, didn't really have a tap room on our radar screen as it was illegal in Mass for breweries to have "full pour tap rooms" (customers can come in, sit at the bar and have a pint).
Out of no where and completely unexpected to us, the State changed the law in, I think, mid 2013 allowing existing license holders to suddenly have "full pour tap rooms". We actually had the license to legally do it for a couple of months before we even realilzed it.... and that change has been a MASSSSSSIVE difference maker. Having the tap room and having do as well as it has been doing is what is fueling 97% of our growth. We would be slogging through much much longer on our little "no debt" mantra if that hadn't fallen into our laps.
So... I think it has really been a combination of a lot of things that have all fallen nicely into place so far.
Hopefully that string of luck continues.
Reality is.. yes, we are very very proud of what we have accomplished and we think things have been a "success" so far... but it's been a mountain of very hard work (two years worth so far) and we're still on a very small scale. So... it's not like we're a bunch of Jim Koch's driving around in Ferraris. That and while we really like how we have gone about things, we've also had a few significant things fall into our laps out of just pure dumb luck.
The perfect example is our tap room. We started the brewery (production) in January of 2013 and, at the time, didn't really have a tap room on our radar screen as it was illegal in Mass for breweries to have "full pour tap rooms" (customers can come in, sit at the bar and have a pint).
Out of no where and completely unexpected to us, the State changed the law in, I think, mid 2013 allowing existing license holders to suddenly have "full pour tap rooms". We actually had the license to legally do it for a couple of months before we even realilzed it.... and that change has been a MASSSSSSIVE difference maker. Having the tap room and having do as well as it has been doing is what is fueling 97% of our growth. We would be slogging through much much longer on our little "no debt" mantra if that hadn't fallen into our laps.
So... I think it has really been a combination of a lot of things that have all fallen nicely into place so far.
Hopefully that string of luck continues.