Taproom Success Tips, Tactics, and Strategies

Your taproom staff have chosen to work at your brewery for a variety of reasons. Once we know those reasons, we can better connect with each team member, but also design unique strategies to best motivate everyone.

I like to break potential motivators down into 3 categories:

1. Reward
2. Recognition
...

As taproom managers, it's easy to get caught in the moment, get stuck putting out fires, and not take the time to build the relationships that arguably matter most - those with your staff.  We often spend our time thinking about how to provide the best experience for our guests, but what about your ...

Let’s end with a checklist to help you find the events that may work best in your taproom.

Ask yourself:

• Have my guests been asking for this? (The answer is often, but not always “yes”)
• Does the potential event align with our core values? (The answer must always be “yes”)
• Is the idea financia
...

The ”O” stands for originality.

Forget what I said about need. Originality is your chance to do something no one else in your area is doing. This is your opportunity to innovate. I absolutely love the “try anything once” approach.  This is your chance to forget whether there’s a need and take a cha...

The second N represents the numbers.

One of the mistakes that I often see with event planning is a failure to set a financial budget, or a goal for the expected outcome. 

It’s easy to get excited about the event: All the folks that will show up, and the fun everyone will have. But, it’s a lot less...

Let’s begin with need (N). 

When you begin to brainstorm what events you may host, first ask yourself, “Is there a need?”

Have your guests been requesting a trivia night based on some obscure 80’s sci-fi show? Do you frequently have patrons wishing there was a small concert venue in your area th...

Contribution margin is the portion of every sales dollar that helps to offset fixed costs. 

In other words, contribution margin is the number every 'restaurant owner' needs to know in order to achieve profitability in their business. 

Let's consider a few examples, courtesy of Mark Meckler from Cr...

The odds are you didn’t open a brewery to look like the other 8999 out there.

You had a vision to be a place people gathered for the shared love of beer brewed on-premise. You desired to create a welcoming space where those in your community could come together and create memories. You aimed to cr...