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How This Craft Brewery Defines Success Is Perfect

How-to-start-a-successful-craft-brewerySo, I clicked on a Facebook link today titled “The Beer You Can Only Get In Hawaii.” Because I like beer and Hawaii. So I thought it would be fun to watch. I didn’t expect there to be so many knowledge bombs in the video within the article about the value of slow growth and the importance of listening to the people who love your work so much that they’re willing to give you money for it. Here’s a couple here:

“…the customers have dictated the speed at which we expand our offering. “

“Basically, the people that we listen to are the people who walk through the door.”

The marketing director of The Kauai Beer Company, Larry Feinstein, goes on in the video about how most restaurants drown in debt because they try to start out fully mature. Like they’ve been open for years, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 7 days a week. And they often fail. But Kauai focused on slow growth. Growing with their audience and expanding based on their needs. They defined what success looks like (they say in the video that they’re a craft brewery and are only interested in serving on the State of Hawaii and they want to achieve a “nice sustainable level of profitability.”) and they are focused on making that happen.

I love that definition: We’re committed to our craft. We will serve this small group of people. And we will be sustainably profitable. It’s that simple for them. So long as they’re doing this, they are successful. They don’t want to be the big dogs. They want to serve the people who are walking in the door, listen to what those people want, and give it to them. That’s it.

If you want to be successful, define what that looks like for you Then always listen to the people who are walking in the door and give them more things that THEY want. Not what other people say they want but what they actually want.

Grow with your audience.

And also, drink good beer 🙂

Here’s the video:

 

P.S. If you need help developing your vision, sign-up for my free 5-day email course all about developing a clearer vision so you know where you’re going and what it looks like to succeed. Sign-Up Here!

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