When it comes to spirits, mixers, syrups, and bitters, no one knows these products better than skilled and seasoned bartenders. So it always seems like a natural matter of course when a bartender decides to launch their own beverage-related brand of products.
But getting a successful business off the ground requires more effort and know-how than anyone expects. Despite the challenging odds, plenty of bartenders have managed to take the leap from working behind the stick to running their own companies.
We asked a group of bartender-turned-brand-owners exactly what it took to turn their ideas into profitable endeavors, and here’s what they had to tell us.
Use your first-hand bar experiences to inform your business concept.
When launching a beverage brand as an experienced bartender, it’s important to remember and acknowledge where your bar success came from and how you forged connections with regulars and fellow bartenders.
“Bartending and brand-founding are both rooted in human connection, being convivial, and making new friends," says Simon Ford, co-founder of Fords Gin. "Both are providing a hospitality service, and [they’re] about making people feel good through a positive experience.”
Tapping into their on-the-ground knowledge can help bartenders figure out exactly which products are missing from the market and how they can improve both creativity and efficiency for future bartenders.
For Randy Tarlow, founder of Liquid Alchemist, a lack of fresh ingredients in cocktail mixers prompted him to make a change. In the 2000s, Tarlow spent time bartending in Europe and noticed that overseas bartenders were “squeezing fresh juice into their cocktails and using all kinds of flavors and nectars with fresh [fruit] and natural cane sugar.” While American bars primarily used “things like grenadine, sour mix, bottled ‘lime’ juice– all with artificial ingredients.”
Pinpointing this market gap motivated Tarlow to find a way to fix the problem and improve flavor conditions for his fellow bartenders and for cocktail drinkers alike, which led to the birth of Liquid Alchemist in 2009.
Many bartender-founded brands seek to help fellow mixologists polish their cocktail recipes and streamline their workflow. But Tom Macy, who earned his behind-the-stick stripes as a head bartender and partner at the iconic Clover Club in Brooklyn, felt the urge to make his artisanal cocktails accessible to a far broader audience than the New Yorkers who frequented Clover Club. “I saw a lot of opportunity in craft cocktails. We [as craft bartenders] had this specialized skill, but it was pretty much contained to this small number of cocktail bars. It was still so exclusive, but you could sense a palpable demand growing,” Macy says.
If at all possible, find a mentor to help guide you through the business-launching process.
Launching a new business can stir up stress and anxiety for even the most self-assured people, and gaining valuable advice from someone who’s been through the product-launch process will help smooth the way.
Macy tells us that Allen Katz, the co-founder of the New York Distilling Company in Brooklyn, served as a crucial mentor when Macy was preparing to launch Social Hour Cocktails. “Pretty much every bartender with an entrepreneurial idea talks to Allen Katz. He’s so generous with his time and knowledge, and he helped me lay out the roadmap [for Social Hour]. He said he could provide spirits and introduced me to a flavor house contact,” Macy says.
Scaling your business might involve building relationships with distributors who can help your product gain visibility.
Developing and refining your product can take years, and this period of R&D often requires brand owners to be completely hands-on. When Tarlow first started Liquid Alchemist, “I would make everything. I would buy the sugar, buy the ginger or other flavor [ingredients], and I’d do the juicing, bottling, labeling, delivering, and invoicing.”
But as the business grew, Tarlow needed to find a way to scale without compromising his product integrity. That’s where building a relationship with a distributor came into play. “After a few years of doing [Liquid Alchemist], Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits came knocking on my door and said, 'hey, we heard that you make these amazing syrups, and we can’t find them anywhere. Our customers want it and our sales people want to sell it,'" Tarlow describes.
Forging this connection with a distributor allowed Tarlow to get Liquid Alchemist into shops and bars and brought the business to a point where larger-level manufacturing was necessary, and “that’s when the scalability started.”
For Jennifer Colliau, founder of Small Hand Foods, scaling her business while also maintaining the integrity of her syrup recipes and ingredients was both a challenge and a non-negotiable priority. “I started with a very small hydraulic press, and I now use a much larger press. I have employees to do all of the chopping and grinding and pressing, so I’m not doing it myself. But we’re still doing it the way I used to do it. Still very old-fashioned-style,” Colliau says.
SBA loans are useful tools for building your business once you’re off the ground.
No business can succeed without a healthy amount of capital, and bartenders hoping to start their own brands must find effective and creative ways to fundraise. Our interviewees used diverse methods ranging from crowdfunding to taking loans from friends and family. But Rhonda Malone, founder of Perfectly Cordial, also pointed out an option available to new-ish business owners: U.S. Small Business Administration loans.
“The SBA is legit. There’s an SBA in every county, not just in every city. So it doesn’t matter if you’re in 'Podunk'; there’s still an SBA office near you. It encompasses all realms of business ownership; through the SBA, I was able to get connected with the Department of Agriculture, who in turn helped me learn about beverage manufacturing. Accounting, supply chain questions—the SBA has a plethora of great free information and is staffed by people who want to see you succeed and win,” Malone explains.
Surround yourself with people who “are better at things than you,” and build a positive company culture.
“A really hard lesson to learn is that you need to find people who are better at things than you and let them thrive,” insists Eric “ET” Tecosky, owner and founder of Dirty Sue. While bartenders are natural multitaskers, building a full-fledged brand challenges you to let go of the reins and allow talented collaborators to help your company grow and evolve.
“The beauty of the early days of entrepreneurship is that you are small, and in a way, your smallness is your bigness," says Ford. "Every bottle you sell is hand-sold, and you do it with all your heart and passion because it's something you created! [But] pretty soon, you start to build a team with like-minded people and an energy forms to create a company culture."
Ford continues to tell us that small-business launches “face challenges that stem from little to no money,” and it’s essential to “have the right people who always come together to solve these challenges.” Ford’s team “forged open and honest relationships with the bartender community, so they started supporting us in spite of our lack of budget. Strong company culture is an important tool that taught [me] that people don’t do business with brands–they do business with people.”
If and when your brand takes off, pay it forward by speaking with other young bartenders who want to launch businesses.
Bartender-led brands can’t happen in a vacuum. As we mentioned previously, mentorship fuels innovation and gives aspiring bar staff/business owners a framework for building their plans and launching their products. That’s why several of our sources urged other brand owners to lend up-and-comers their ears and their advice.
If a young bartender approached Randy Tarlow with a fledgling business idea, Tarlow says that he would “encourage them, but would also look at [their idea] very logically. We would go through a checklist to see the validity of their product and if they have the capabilities and foresight to grow [their brand]. It takes a lot of hustle and a lot of personal drive, and the key is to find your formula. That young bartender needs to decide what it’s going to take to reach their future goals and whether they’re prepared to do it.”
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