Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$63

$200

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Food Business Expenses

$2,325

$36,900

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,786

Total Startup Costs

$10,199

$106,347

Suntory

suntory.com

154,547

Distillery Trail

distillerytrail.com

417,846

MGP

mgpingredients.com

427,288

Mile Hi Distilling

milehidistilling.com

461,394

Clawhammer Supply

clawhammersupply.com

574,653

Craft Spirits Magazine

craftspiritsmag.com

617,476

Whitmeyer's Distilling Co. LLC

whitmeyers.com

931,675

Durham Distillery

durhamdistillery.com

1,098,869

Distillery Equipment

distillery-equipment.com

1,134,866

The Distillery Restaurant

thedistillery.com

1,601,634

Greenbar Distillery

greenbardistillery.com

1,650,637

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a distillery business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

High margins

The gross margins for your distillery business are typically around 48%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

Easy to encourage "impulse buy"

In the distillery business, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Longer Sales Process

A distillery business can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

High employee turnover

In the distillery business, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Taxes

As a distillery business, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting a distillery business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.