How to Start a Wine Business (11 Best Tips to Help You Succeed)

If you want the best tips on how to start a Wine business and be successful, this article will really help you.

It explains a lot about wine business and exactly what to do and how to be successful.

 

Importance

It’s somebody’s birthday and the celebration is enhanced with a birthday cake and ice cream.

A new baby is brought into the world, and we celebrate when the father passes out either regular cigars or bubblegum cigars.

Somebody retires within our organization, and we honor their years of service with a gold watch.

Another milestone is reached on the days of the anniversaries in our lives. Specifically, we celebrate our lives of love and devotion to others as we celebrate wedding anniversaries.

Our lives are filled with exciting milestones and with each milestone, we have certain traditions that we follow in celebration.

Usually, the celebrations of these special occasions are opportunities for the uncorking of a bottle of champagne or uncorking a bottle of wonderful wine.

We lift our glasses, offer a toast, celebrate commitments, and love for each other.

All of these wonderful moments in our lives are celebrated with each other and surrounding us are our families and friends.

During those special moments, we forget about our problems and our challenges, and we focus on celebrating the wonderfulness of life and relationships.

Wine and other spirits, in moderation, are part of the celebration. Their flavor and intoxicating effect add to the enjoyment of the moment.

 

11 Tips to Successful Starting a Wine Business

 

1: Which Wine Row?

Being part of the wine industry and starting a business and succeeding requires the potential successful entrepreneur to decide on what wine path to follow.

Specifically, the individual choosing to start a wine business needs to decide what aspect of the winemaking industry they wish to be involved with.

Those areas of involvement include managing a vineyard, operating a winery, offering wine tastings, or being a wholesale supplier of wine to various businesses.

Of course, the wine business visionary can conduct business in all of the wine business components.

Each aspect of the winemaking business has its different challenges and possibilities.

The major component required to start any of these ventures would be the availability of financial assets to make the proper investments.

 

2: Sip the Wine

When contemplating how to start a wine business it is important to know the business other than enjoying a glass of wine.

To start a wine business and succeed one must know the industry.

For instance, recent statistics suggest that domestic and foreign wines account for the consumption of 600 million gallons of wine in a recent survey conducted.

The total retail value of this remarkable statistic reflects a $19 billion industry.

In addition to local consumers enjoying domestic wine, 79 million gallons of wine were exported to other countries.

The revenue generated by wine exports was reported at $500 million in revenue.

Another fascinating statistic is that the state of California is the largest producer of wine in the United States.

However, other parts of the United States have seen the business sense of producing wine and are bridging that gap that places California in the lead.

Recently, it was advertised that the United States of America became the largest wine consumer by volume. This consumption of wine exceeded the country of France

Additionally, the future of wine in America is intoxicating. A recent article suggests that the production of wine and its consumption will rise by 11%.

 

3: Step into the Wine Vat

For a moment, immerse yourself in the wine-producing industry by accepting the invitation to step into the wine vat.

By this, it is meant to take a close look at the wine industry.

It is important to note that the production, marketing, and selling of wine is an extremely competitive industry.

There are major established wineries that even the mere mention of their name makes the palate of a wine connoisseur tingle.

However, having said all that the market is in such explosive growth that there is always more room for others to be included in the wine vat.

The business success idea is to carve yourself out of a particular niche. Something that will differentiate you from the other wine business companies.

Also See: How to Become Self Employed and even Independently Wealthy.

 

4: No Sour Grapes

Before starting a wine business, the prudent business person should make sure that they understand what the competitive vineyard landscape of the wine business is.

If proceeding down the winery row of the vineyard, it is important to know the area in which you will be creating your delicious wine or retailing.

A location that has other wineries in proximity is not necessarily a bad thing.

This is because often individuals will go on wine tours and will visit the various wineries in a certain area and take tours.

They conclude their tour by sipping their delicious wine while milling around and taking in the beautiful scenery.

If wishing to distribute to various businesses, then it is important to research the various wines that are provided.

Knowledge of the wine should include an idea of the pricing, what may be the most popular wine served in hospitality venues, etc.

This can be accomplished by visiting a variety of these wine serving businesses and find out about their wine supplier and their satisfaction with their wholesaler.

 

5: Press the Grapes and Crunch the Numbers

Another important aspect or tip to pursue before going too far down the wine business path is to make sure that the individual crunches the numbers.

By this, it means, what will be the anticipated revenue of going into the business versus what the expenses will be?

On the income side of the ledger, for all components of entering into the wine business, is the selling of the bottles of wine, supply and demand, and what the market will bear.

On the expense side of the ledger for a winery, it would be about the costs to fully produce one unit of wine.

This number then is multiplied out to the number of bottles of wine that the winery can process.

This number can be derived by taking into consideration the equipment that the winery has invested in, the employee hours invested, the wine-making time frame, and all of the other processes involved.

It’s all a matter of crunching the numbers.

For a wholesale seller of wine, it’s a little bit more straightforward. The wine is purchased from the winery at a negotiated price.

Then the individual selling the wine will then markup that bottle of wine at a percentage in which they want to attain to attain profitability and an amount to cover their expenses.

 

 

6: Business Plan

As with the startup of any business, a comprehensive plan should be devised that captures the specifics of what the business will look like and what success will look like.

The business plan should include an executive summary by the owner, marketing plan, financials, detailed cost analysis, staffing required, purchase of equipment needed, etc.

This plan will also capture the mission and the vision of the wine business that is being created.

 

7: Cultivating the Vineyard

Cultivating means enriching the vineyard to enhance the growth of the grapes and for a business it means marketing.

Marketing is the lifeline of interacting with customers and potential customers about what you as a business can offer.

The idea is to get a small amount of wine into the hands of the customer or potential customer and over their lips. This marketing can be through promotions, giveaways, etc.

Another good opportunity is to work with a charity golf event and set up a wine hole for the participating golfers.

Of course, as a sponsor of the event, you would anticipate some sort of advertising of your winery or distributing company as a benefit.

Also See: How to Get Paid to Live Off the Grid and Get Paid to Hike.

 

8: Cutting Through Red Tape, not Red Grapes

If starting a winery, several certifications should be achieved. This can be accomplished by employing people who have these important wine certifications.

One critical certified individual as it relates to a winery is an individual who is known as a viticulturist.

This individual role and responsibility in the winery would be the choosing of which grapes to produce, harvesting, etc.

Another important certified role within the winery would be an individual who is experienced and qualified in the fermentation process. This person is called an enologist.

Also, if involved in a winery, the process of preparing the wine for bottling must be an area that is sanitized and sterilized according to health safety standards.

Another piece of red tape that needs to be cut through is acquiring various permits and licenses.

These permits and licenses need to be obtained from local governments and state governments as well as from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

This is because being an alcohol-driven business requires the oversight of this bureau.

Also, if the wine will be sold at your vineyard, for example, additional licensing may be required for these sales transactions to happen

Of course, depending upon your state of operation, they may require more or fewer permits and licenses.

 

9: Business Model

An important aspect of starting a business is the choice of how the company will be legally identified.

Choices could include the company being a sole proprietor, LLC, C Corp., or S Corp.

There are various pros and cons associated with each of these business models.

If the sole proprietorship option is chosen, then you as the sole proprietor will be responsible for all of the liabilities of the business.

However, if you choose to use the structure of an LLC, your liabilities are limited to just what are the assets of the company any other liabilities cannot be brought against you.

 

10: Wine Label

Giving a name to your enterprise is important.

A name should reflect the wine product that you are endeavoring to have associated with your winery or business.

A name, like your own, reflects who you are. It is your brand.

If trying to convey elegance or sophistication the business name chosen should be a reflection of that intent.

An example of the wine brand name to reflect this intent could be Park Avenue or Elegance.

Or if the business is a joint venture with a partner or spouse, the initials of those individuals can be used to name the company.

 

11: Insurance

One cannot underscore the importance of having adequate insurance to cover the businesses’ operations.

It is important to talk with your insurance agent and to obtain policies that are required by your particular business component that you are involved with.

The insurance agent should be able to inform you as to what the requirements are needed for coverage.

This is an important aspect and business step of protecting your hard work and hard-earned dollars that you have invested into your company.

 

Personal Story

Wine, in addition to being part of our celebrations, can also be part of our healings.

While working with a not-for-profit I had the opportunity to visit a donor husband and wife. My purpose was to thank them for their generosity with their recent contribution.

Driving up to their beautiful home I was struck about how great life, it appeared, had been to them.

Being invited into their home I was requested to join them in the living room for their afternoon glass of wine.

This doting husband and the love of his life, probably married over 50 years, were enjoying a glass of wine together.

I felt bad intruding upon their special time with each other, but the husband explained to me that this was part of their daily ritual and thanked me for joining them.

He continued by saying that his wife had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and he was hoping to use this routine of an afternoon glass of wine to continue to keep connecting with her.

He also shared with me that many studies about the health benefits of wine upon a person who was suffering from dementia were documented.

Consequently, he said not only do I use this as a time for us to routinely sit with each other, but he indicated that he was ever the optimist in hopes that somehow the wine would stimulate memories of their lives together.

Other articles on how to start other businesses that might be helpful:

• How to Start a Welding Business
• How to Start a Soap Making Business
• How to Start a Shipping Business
• How to Start a Lip Gloss Business
• How to Start a Knitting Business
• How to Start a Transportation Business

 

Conclusion

Wine can be an important part of remembering our milestones in life and celebrating.

Wine can also be an important part of our desire to stimulate memories of times gone by but robbed through illnesses.

Your start-up business in the wine industry is a significant venture.

Not only are you producing or distributing a product that is enjoyed by millions, but you are part of the celebration process of life.