(Re) Open for business

11 tips for making your craft rebound work for you

Breweries, taprooms and pubs are slowly (and we mean slowly) getting back to business—but it is not business as usual. Who knows if it ever will be. Many brewers have scrambled to make at least some sales since the pandemic shuttered bars and businesses. Without much warning, they made changes on the fly and had to learn what worked and what didn’t as they tested their ideas in real time.

Reopening is a different story. You know it is coming. So plan for it.

Before you swing your doors open—at least all the way—gather your team and create a firm strategy for regaining your footing in an economy that is sure to recover very slowly.

Here are 11 tips for making a solid sales plan that will help your brewery recover:

1. Brainstorm

who work on the front lines. They know what is working and what is not. They hear customers and vendors talking. Gather your team and bat around ideas. Require attendance. Close the doors. Spend all day. Allow for pie-in-the-sky talk; some sliver of an out-there idea might actually be practical. Write every idea on a white board or flip chart so it is visible and does not get forgotten. Tweak the ideas. Talk about them. Truly consider them. If you rule out any suggestions, have a good reason.

2. Research

Find out what other brewers are doing. Call acquaintances you have met at conventions. Read articles about innovators in the field. It is possible your brewery needs to reinvent itself to survive government restrictions and reluctant patrons. If another brewer has a great idea that Often, the most creative solutions come from employees

might work for your shop, get in touch.

3. Innovate Pre-pandemic operations inevitably will look different post-pandemic. Resist the temptation to stick with what worked before, even though that is the comfortable option. Chances are, it will not work anymore—at least in the short-term.