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I am runing small winery. (4500 bottles of wine/year) It is fun and if business go wrong you can always drink your end product. Ask anything if you like.

by dejv 16y ago

city41 16y ago
Can you give some super introductory pointers on how to start a "physical" business like this? My girlfriend and I have been batting around some coffee related ideas, but this domain is completely foreign to us.
- bigohms 16y ago
  all starts with the product. find an excellent offering, work on the costs then build a small service around it. the couple that runs the blog http://mywifequitherjob.com/ http://mywifequitherjob.com/ have a wedding linens business and share lots of data about optimizing and sourcing. spend 50-100x more time on the product features than the website at the outset.
- dejv 16y ago
  It was very simple in my case. Few generations of my family are making wine, so we own vineyards, wine cellar, equipment and such. Now it is just plain work, experimentations and more work. It is actually very similar to software business: start small, create some product, learn from your mistakes and iterate. You don't need tons of fancy equipment and huge infrastructure from the beginning.
roel_v 16y ago
Where are you located? Is your market local?
- dejv 16y ago
  I am located at Czech Republic. All market is local and consist mostly of just one big wholesaler who takes most of my production. Rest of production is sold directly or consumed by myself or my family. It will be much more better to sell directly, but it is still just kind of hobby as I spent most of my time writting software.
matthewhelt 16y ago
There's a stupid joke in the wine industry-whats the best way to make a small fortune in wine? A. Start with a large fortune. My company is working on that. We're designing a complete precision viticulture analytical tool based on the principles of sustainable organic agriculture (I'm pretty sure everything is headed this direction, it can be done cheaper then petro-based agriculture when managed correctly. I'm curious, as someone involved in vineyard management - do you agree with this idea? Have you noticed increased demand for organic products?) We're starting with small, boutique vineyards in Northern California. Maybe if yr geographically located you'd like to join our upcoming beta program?
- jnw2 16y ago
  I suspect oil prices are going to collapse at some point in the next several years, once there are enough battery powered cars on the roads from Tesla and Nissan and others to reduce the demand for oil a bit. That may have some effect on the economics of organic vs not-organic farming. Of course, that doesn't make organic farming pointless. Some people are willing to pay for quality. If organic farming reduces water consumption, there is also the issue that there are parts of the country that don't have unlimited water supplies, and I don't know of any plans to dramatically increase the water supply, other than perhaps there being a small decrease in corn farming as battery powered cars reduce the demand for ethanol to dilute gasoline with.

I am runing small winery. (4500 bottles of wine/year) It is fun and if business go wrong you can always drink your end product. Ask anything if you like.

by dejv 16y ago

I am runing small winery. (4500 bottles of wine/year) It is fun and if business go wrong you can always drink your end product. Ask anything if you like.

city41 16y ago

Can you give some super introductory pointers on how to start a "physical" business like this? My girlfriend and I have been batting around some coffee related ideas, but this domain is completely foreign to us.

bigohms 16y ago
all starts with the product. find an excellent offering, work on the costs then build a small service around it. the couple that runs the blog http://mywifequitherjob.com/ http://mywifequitherjob.com/ have a wedding linens business and share lots of data about optimizing and sourcing. spend 50-100x more time on the product features than the website at the outset.
dejv 16y ago
It was very simple in my case. Few generations of my family are making wine, so we own vineyards, wine cellar, equipment and such. Now it is just plain work, experimentations and more work. It is actually very similar to software business: start small, create some product, learn from your mistakes and iterate. You don't need tons of fancy equipment and huge infrastructure from the beginning.

roel_v 16y ago

Where are you located? Is your market local?

dejv 16y ago
I am located at Czech Republic. All market is local and consist mostly of just one big wholesaler who takes most of my production. Rest of production is sold directly or consumed by myself or my family. It will be much more better to sell directly, but it is still just kind of hobby as I spent most of my time writting software.

matthewhelt 16y ago

There's a stupid joke in the wine industry-whats the best way to make a small fortune in wine? A. Start with a large fortune. My company is working on that. We're designing a complete precision viticulture analytical tool based on the principles of sustainable organic agriculture (I'm pretty sure everything is headed this direction, it can be done cheaper then petro-based agriculture when managed correctly. I'm curious, as someone involved in vineyard management - do you agree with this idea? Have you noticed increased demand for organic products?) We're starting with small, boutique vineyards in Northern California. Maybe if yr geographically located you'd like to join our upcoming beta program?

jnw2 16y ago
I suspect oil prices are going to collapse at some point in the next several years, once there are enough battery powered cars on the roads from Tesla and Nissan and others to reduce the demand for oil a bit. That may have some effect on the economics of organic vs not-organic farming. Of course, that doesn't make organic farming pointless. Some people are willing to pay for quality. If organic farming reduces water consumption, there is also the issue that there are parts of the country that don't have unlimited water supplies, and I don't know of any plans to dramatically increase the water supply, other than perhaps there being a small decrease in corn farming as battery powered cars reduce the demand for ethanol to dilute gasoline with.