We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeffrey Green a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jeffrey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?
I feel that most craft breweries, or maybe even small business in general feel that success means you have to grow. I love serving my product locally. I would never want it served so far away that the person experiencing it couldn’t conceivable come and chat with me about it. When you get to a point where you are paying your bills, taking care of your people well, and able to provide yourself a retirement, I think you’ve made it. At that point I feel it’s the smart move to maintain.
Craft anything allows the consumer to be present. When a product is available everywhere all the time, then it doesn’t matter where or when you are. To grow and grow with the goal of being available to everyone everywhere, you risk losing a large part of what made you successful. In the craft industry, uniqueness is an essential part of the value of our product.
Jeffrey, 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?
The Very Nice Brewing Company brews and serves craft beers and is can most accurately be described as following the English pub model. We are not a “bar” in the American sense of a bar. We do not have wine, nor do we have liquor. This creates an environment of moderation in which all walks of life can visit with each other and discuss their life or day or whatever without being so inebriated that you re no longer present..
Our product is not simply beer, although that it what we sell. However, beer can be bought in a liquor store and brought home. What we provide is a gathering place in which people can come and feel connected to their community.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My wife and I went to a bank to get a loan to start our business. The bank asked us if either of us had ever commercially brewed, we had not. So it became apparent that folks as green as we were, with limited assets and no wealthy relatives or friends to act as guarantors were not going to get a loan.
It is really hard to get a loan from a bank. You think that you come to them with a great idea and solid business plan and they’ll be all like, “lets Go!!!”. Not the case at all. They want to know its a safe bet. That means not only having the capital to show you have some serious skin in the game but that the bank can cover the loan some how if things go south. I never realized how skewed the system is to those who already have a lot of wealth either personally or in their circle of friends/family.
So we used our savings, cashed in the 401K and took the penalty. it was pretty scary.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We manufacture all our product in house. I am the first to admit that our beer in the beginning, over 10 years ago, had a lot of flaws. Fortunately, we started at a time where the craft beer consumer was willing to give grace. At the time, the craft beer drinker enjoyed going over the positives and negatives of a given beer. It was part of the culture.
Through intently listening to our customers, taking the advice of any experienced brewer willing to give it, and brewing over and over again, we got our beer to a high level of professional quality.
Its the rule of 10,000 hours. You do anything over an over again you eventually master it.
I’m not sure I could start out in the current environment. There is no forgiveness or second chances any more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.verynicebrewing.com
- Instagram: verynicebrewing
- Facebook: facebook.com/verynicebeer/
- Twitter: @VeryNiceBrewing
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/the-very-nice-brewing-company-nederland