Out of everything I’ve had to write, ponder, calculate, and research for the business plan, arriving at The Number for our startup funding has been the most challenging.

The moment you think you’ve got it figured out, you think of yet another expense to add to the list. You watch The Number climb, and climb, and climb. It makes you itchy. It sucks.

So many spreadsheets… So many calls to vendors and suppliers…

It’s absolutely maddening. Between brewhouse equipment, bar and taproom equipment, facility renovations, inventory purchases, operating expenses, and legal fees, startup costs are never-ending. Not only do you have to decide on what you need, but then you have to go and figure out how much it’s gonna cost. And some things are nearly impossible to get an estimate for.

So you get quotes, you talk to people who know more than you do, you pad all your estimates, but still you wonder if it’ll be enough.

I’m almost there now. We decided on our brewing system, which is the biggest chunk of our startup expenses. So that’s at least done. But facility renovation is probably the most difficult thing to estimate. So rather than just flat out guessing, we’re working with a contractor to help us cost out what we want to do to the building. We’ve had two meetings with the architect and general contractor so far, and I’m pretty excited to be working with them.

Within the next two weeks, we should be able to finalize that. It’s the very last bit that I need for our business plan. I can’t believe I’m almost finished with this bad boy! Looks like it’ll be about 65 pages when all is said and done. Lotta work, yo… So close now!