In today's podcast we hear from Jon Reynolds from BrewPlan, LLC and dig in to all the details of an ABP (annual business plan). We talk about what an ABP is, why it's important, why you need it, and how it works.

In a nutshell, the ABP is a brewery-wholesaler planning process that sets the game plan for getting your beer to market.  If you work with a wholesaler you need to understand the ABP to position your brewery for success. 

Key Topics
Most useful tool in your ABP: The brand calendar
How to create your annual spend plan to support your brands
Tips to build your marketing plan and rules of thumb for how much to budget

Resources
Learn more about BrewPlan, LLC
Podcast: How to Use Brewery Data to Uncover Opportunities in the Market

Sign Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

In this episode you'll hear the audio version of our webinar to introduce the Taproom Success Membership.  

This new  membership opportunity connects you with a community of experts and taproom owners/managers to help you achieve success in your taproom.

The Taproom Success Membership gives you the tools, resources, and support you need to manage and grow your taproom business. 

From fundamentals, to best practices, backed by data, and actionable strategies, the Taproom Success Membership fills the void of taproom educational opportunities.

 Resources

• Learn more about the Taproom Success Membership
• Register to Watch the Webinar Replay 

Today we'll talk about one of my favorite topics: Open Book Management (OBM).

OBM is a system to share financial information with everyone in the brewery. It's about open, honest and transparent communication. And it's a great way to engage and empower employees.

Topics Covered

• What open book is...and What it isn't...
• Why you might consider OBM 
• How to evaluate if it's right for your business
• Steps to put OBM into practice
• My 3 Favorite OBM books...

Resources

• Brewery Open Book Management Course
• Sign Up for the FREE and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

Craft Peak is a technology company that builds websites and e-commerce solutions for some of the world's leading craft beer brands.

In this episode we hear from CEO and Founder, John Kelley.  He describes Craft Peak as a hybrid of a web agency and a technology company. But mostly, he loves developing cool tools for breweries.

Main Topics

• Key metrics: What to measure when talking websites
• How to use memberships to drive sales
• Online beer sales, platform they offer, how it all works

Resources

• Learn more about Craft Peak
• Sign Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

Brew Movers was recently featured in Forbes under the heading: The secret weapon for breweries? A shipping company called Brew Movers.  A cool title and a very interesting read.

Brew Movers is a farm to glass shipping and logistics company for the beer industry. They specialize in beer shipping and understand the unique challenges facing craft breweries.

In this podcast we'll hear how Brew Movers can help you manage logistics to improve on shipping costs to save time and money in your business.

Key Topics

• Primer on how freight and logistics actually work 
• Value added services to look for with your freight carrier
• The main drivers of freight costs (and how to use this info to save money)

Resources

• Learn more about Brew Movers
• Forbes article featuring Brew Movers

Sign up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

A lot of businesses fail because they run out of cash. In this podcast you’ll get a crash course in brewery cash flow planning to help your brewery survive and thrive in tough times. 

Key topics covered in the podcast:

• The 10 Laws of business...
• Cash flow basics: Accrual vs cash accounting
• How to identify and monitor the key drivers of brewery cash flow
• Simple cash flow templates you can use in your business

Listen to the podcast and learn how to build a cash flow plan for your brewery business. 

Sign-Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

In this podcast you’ll get a crash course in brewery debt financing so that you can create a solid funding plan for your business. 

We’ll cover loan terms, types and typical brewery financing structures. We’ll review how your lender will evaluate your brewery business so that you can prepare and put yourself in the best position to get the funding you need. 

Key topics covered in the podcast:

• How to build a financing plan for your brewery so that you have access to capital when you need it
• Examples of typical brewery financing structures - equipment line of credit, working capital line of credit and term loans
• Basics of loan covenants - what you need to know about the debt service ratio and debt to equity ratio

Listen to the podcast and learn how to build a debt financing plan for your brewery business. 

Sign-Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

In this podcast you’ll get a crash course in brewery financial forecasting so that you can create an action-oriented plan to help you improve financial results in your business.

Key topics covered in the podcast:

• How to create a brewery financial pro forma
• Financial planning basics - first steps to get the plan on paper
• Key considerations in building your financial plan

Listen to the podcast and learn how to use brewery financial projections to drive profitable growth in your business. 

Sign-Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

In this podcast you’ll get a crash course in brewery finances. A good working knowledge of brewery finances will allow you to track, measure and monitor financial performance of your business. 

At Craft Brewery Financial Training.com we believe in the sanctity of the beer, and the sanctity of the numbers. In this podcast, we’ll help you with the numbers!

Key topics covered in the podcast:

• What brewery financial statements should look like
• Brewery chart of accounts best practices
• Key financial metrics for breweries

Listen to the podcast and learn how to use brewery financial knowledge to drive profitable growth in your business. 

Sign-Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter

In this podcast we dig in on Brewery Taproom Metrics. We’ll review four key taproom scorecards that you can use to measure, monitor and improve results in your brewery. 

Four specific taproom scorecards we cover:

1. Sales focused (to grow revenue)
2. Operational metrics (to improve non-financial performance)
3. Financial metrics (to watch your financial results)
4. One Thing Scorecard (to focus on the one most important thing)

Key topics covered in the podcast:

• How to create four different scorecards for you taproom
• How to measure with a purpose so that you get the results you want
• Steps to Identify and measure the most important things for your business

Listen to the podcast and learn how to build taproom scorecards to drive profitable growth in your business. 

Sign-Up for the Free and World Famous Craft Brewery Financial Training Newsletter