We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brennan Rosenow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brennan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

My background is in engineering, specifically manufacturing engineering. Most of the time I was working for someone else was spent finding ways to be more efficient. Either tooling and process changes which eliminated time or manpower needs to produce products. I was mostly dedicated to cutting costs.

Now that I am on the ownership side, most of my time is spent on growing revenue. Cutting costs is great and important, but there is a base limit for the amount you can cut (it is almost impossible to have a business with $0 expenditure). You also reach a point where the effort isn’t worth the reward, especially if you aren’t growing. You can also get yourself in trouble if you cut something you thought wasn’t critical, but turned out to be very important. On the other hand, it seems easier and less risky to try and grow revenue; I’m not saying it is easy, but there isn’t an upper limit to revenue.

Brennan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I learned how to brew with a couple of my fraternity brothers in college. I always kept the hobby going and refining my skills as I moved around in my early 20s. Once I had the chance to see behind the scenes of some smaller and larger breweries, I knew that it was an industry I wanted to be a part of.

What sets Half Bushel apart from the rest of the industry is our approach to beer and food. We aren’t flashy, we don’t chase trends or gimmicks. We brew solid beers that aren’t given fancy names. We hand make our pizzas and our burgers and appetizers are top notch. We aren’t anything fancy, but we create a welcoming environment where you are free to relax and know exactly what to expect.

Any advice for managing a team?

Read a book called Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. It lays out a number of simple but effective ways to keep tabs on employee interactions, methods of appreciation (that actually work), and general good advice. Most of all, what I learned from being a plant manager earlier in my career was that the longer you took to let go of a bad employee, the more it hurt everyone else. I try really hard at Half Bushel to hire great fits for our team. They may not be the most knowledgeable or experienced, but everyone in every industry started from zero. Being able to speak candidly with them and having people who fit well and take criticism and apply it quickly is well worth the lack of previous experience.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I could recommend a year’s worth of resources here, but I like to keep questions like this short and achievable. First off watch ‘How the Economic Machine Works’ by Ray Dalio on YouTube. It is the foundation of all economic understanding, taught simply, in half an hour. For entrepreneurs I always recommend the book ‘Predictable Success’ by Les McKeown. It helps foreshadow the types of decisions you will be making as your business hopefully grows. And last but not least, I think any manager should have a copy of ‘Traction’ by Gino Wickman. It is an amazing framework for analyzing a business; where the current issues are, who should be handling them, how to know when we’re making progress, etc. It sucks to be climbing a mountain to realize at the peak you’re on the wrong mountain. This book address that (metaphorically).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://halfbushel.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HalfBushelBrew