“One of the things I find frustrating, is that the government requires you to buy all this equipment before they will even look at a license,” Donna said. The timeline had to adjust and that became frustration. Not being able to get a bank loan was a blow, too.īe patient. They had to find contractors and in some cases bring them in from out of town, which raised the price. Learning required traveling outside the state, for instance, because the comparable distilleries were elsewhere. The Williamses faced this in a couple of ways. “That exercise helped us a lot.”īe prepared to face the problems of innovation. Some local municipalities can be barriers, too, though the Williamses found Helena officials to be amicable.ĭo a SWOT analysis. The federal and state regulations are a major hurdle in the spirits industry. You don’t know what all of them are, but do your best to figure them out. We traveled, and went on the tour, and stuck around afterwards to ask questions.” Learning how the equipment worked was another part of that process. “The small craft guys were really willing to help us. “We visited as many distilleries – probably about 15 across the country - as we could find and went to conventions,” Harvey said. Seek to understand as much as you can about the business you’re investing in. Their advice for other innovator-entrepreneurs: And, they’re working with a consulting firm, Thoroughbred Spirits Group, to figure out how to expand. These days, they’re regularly selling out of most of their inventory as they produce eight cases of vodka a week. The first bottles came out around Christmas and sold out within a day. They recruited their youngest son, Thomas, to be the master distiller (he was just featured on the TV show Master Distiller). Unable to get a bank loan (the distillery business was too unfamiliar, the banker said), they invested $900,000 to buy the building, build the still and invent the first batch.

Big rich town poorest part blues