Working on my business plan

[Dragonslayer]

I am working on my business plan and am having some difficulty in finding statistics. GotMead.com lists 155 meaderies. How accurate is that? Also I saw a stat sourced to GotMead.com that the mead industry in America was worth $20 million but I wasn't able to find that on the website to confirm.

I'd appreciate any assistance in getting this done. Also, any Meaderies willing to share their Business Plan as an example I'd appreciate it.

Chris

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Not wanting to speak too much for Vickie and Oskaar, I'd say it's not 100% accurate, but likely close to the actual figure. A lot of the meadery listings are write ins from the meaderies themselves, and may also be listings from news items. If I hear about a new one I'll forward it on to Vickie.

GotMead is something they do on the side, both Vickie and Oskaar have full time jobs, families and other commitments. The quality of this site says a lot about thje work put into it, especially since it's been a labor of love from the beginning.

--

 

[Dragonslayer]

Not wanting to speak too much for Vickie and Oskaar, I'd say it's not 100% accurate, but likely close to the actual figure. A lot of the meadery listings are write ins from the meaderies themselves, and may also be listings from news items. If I hear about a new one I'll forward it on to Vickie.

GotMead is something they do on the side, both Vickie and Oskaar have full time jobs, families and other commitments. The quality of this site says a lot about thje work put into it, especially since it's been a labor of love from the beginning.

--

Thanx for the feedback. My own research just on the web generated about 60 mead only Meaderies. I also found several wineries that also make a mead or two. I see the GotMead list includes both and I will accept it as more accurate than my numbers.

I appreciate what Vickie and Oskaar have done to put this site together and keep it going. I have worked with the web since before it went public and am well aware of what it takes to manage something like GotMead. Once I get licensed and running I would like to get more involved with this forum and the industry in general. I have already tossed out the idea of hosting a Mazer Cup here in the PNW or I may put together a local pro-am competition. I also designed the logo for the American Mead Makers Association and am doing what I can to help get them launched.

Unfortunately these are all distractions to the main goal which is building a commercial winery. I say winery because I will also be making some fruit wines. This weekend I decided to focus on the business plan until it is done and knowing the great and diverse membership of GotMead.com I figured this would be a great resource for the information I need. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can provide necessary data.

 

[IanB]

Chris, not sure if you have seen it..

Chris, good luck and welcome to Got Mead Commercial forum.

You should know that my business plan (the financial version anyway) was put up on the site about a year or so ago, but is still a very true plan for how we wanted to make money. It is probably due for an update at the End of the Year.

Here is the link and a little secret is that we have done 'far worse' than I expected (and I expected pretty slow/bad):

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16900

Still, the numbers are what makes a good business plan. This should help you get a base down. Also, do not count on any distributor picking you up, and do count on them taking a large chunk of the money if they do decide to carry you. I hope you are in a state that allows self-distribution. Good luck, and shoot me an email with any specifics. ian@isaaksofsalem.com

 

[Noe Palacios]

I am working on my business plan and am having some difficulty in finding statistics. GotMead.com lists 155 meaderies. How accurate is that? Also I saw a stat sourced to GotMead.com that the mead industry in America was worth $20 million but I wasn't able to find that on the website to confirm.

I'd appreciate any assistance in getting this done. Also, any Meaderies willing to share their Business Plan as an example I'd appreciate it.

Chris

Hi Dragonslayer!

I like stistics, before mead, statistics was my weakness.

In Nicaragua there is an office that keep data about every good that is imported/exported or just produced here, this information is public, but you have to pay a very low fee to obtain any data. In the past I used them for my research works, now I use them mostly to know the wine's prices and how many bottles Nicaragua imports, I also know how many honey Nicaragua export and the honey's price. I have the complete database of Nicaraguan beekepers. This office also has information about the companies, but it is not public, well, at least not for me.

I think that in the US should be a similar office too, you just have to find it (them?). I found this office during my graduate studies. Busineess schools are good place to start, I'm sure that that kind of office should exist in the US.

By the way, about universities, I think that universities may be a good source of information too. I know two US universities involved in wine, I think that might be more, but these are those that I know. They are UC Davis and Purdue. Purdue has a annual wine competition that includes few mead categories, it will be a good idea to knock thier doors.

Few month ago IanB started this thread:

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17894

A good one.

Saludos,

 

[Dragonslayer]

Chris, good luck and welcome to Got Mead Commercial forum.

You should know that my business plan (the financial version anyway) was put up on the site about a year or so ago, but is still a very true plan for how we wanted to make money. It is probably due for an update at the End of the Year.

Here is the link and a little secret is that we have done 'far worse' than I expected (and I expected pretty slow/bad):

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16900

Still, the numbers are what makes a good business plan. This should help you get a base down. Also, do not count on any distributor picking you up, and do count on them taking a large chunk of the money if they do decide to carry you. I hope you are in a state that allows self-distribution. Good luck, and shoot me an email with any specifics. ian@isaaksofsalem.com

Ian,

Thanx for the encouragement and the info. I will check out your plan. I had already figured on self distributing at least in the beginning. I have been following your success for a while along with some of the other new meaderies around the country and and very excited about where the industry is going. I want to be a part of that.

I will upload my plan once it's done.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Hi Dragonslayer!

I like stistics, before mead, statistics was my weakness.

In Nicaragua there is an office that keep data about every good that is imported/exported or just produced here, this information is public, but you have to pay a very low fee to obtain any data. In the past I used them for my research works, now I use them mostly to know the wine's prices and how many bottles Nicaragua imports, I also know how many honey Nicaragua export and the honey's price. I have the complete database of Nicaraguan beekepers. This office also has information about the companies, but it is not public, well, at least not for me.

I think that in the US should be a similar office too, you just have to find it (them?). I found this office during my graduate studies. Busineess schools are good place to start, I'm sure that that kind of office should exist in the US.

By the way, about universities, I think that universities may be a good source of information too. I know two US universities involved in wine, I think that might be more, but these are those that I know. They are UC Davis and Purdue. Purdue has a annual wine competition that includes few mead categories, it will be a good idea to knock thier doors.

Few month ago IanB started this thread:

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17894

A good one.

Saludos,

I am also a statistics man. The U.S. has several agencies that collect statistics about different things. Problem is figuring out which one has what you are looking for. Fortunately for us this information is usually free. Unfortunately I don't think anyone has been keeping numbers on meaderies.

I live in Washington State where we have two schools the teach wine; Washington State University and South Seattle Community College. I plan to start the wine program at South Seattle this spring.

 

[Noe Palacios]

I am also a statistics man. The U.S. has several agencies that collect statistics about different things. Problem is figuring out which one has what you are looking for. Fortunately for us this information is usually free. Unfortunately I don't think anyone has been keeping numbers on meaderies.

I live in Washington State where we have two schools the teach wine; Washington State University and South Seattle Community College. I plan to start the wine program at South Seattle this spring.

I think it shouldn't be so hard. There's in the US an instance that aprooves licenses, Right? Well they should have the numbers you're looking for. In Nicaragua Licienses are aprooved by Health Ministry, so I could ask them about how many meaderies licenses are valid (licenses in Nicaragua last 2 years, so every two tyears I have to renueve it) and in that way I'll know how many meaderies are in Nicaragua. But it is not my case, I know how many meaderies are - 1 - . For me wine imports data are more valuable.


Saludos,