What Nobody Tells You

Every funding source has a hidden cost:

• Self-funding costs you your financial security and your peace of mind
• Crowdfunding costs you months of marketing effort and the moral weight of losing other people's money
• Investors cost you control over the business you built
• Bank loans cost you interest payments you can't afford on margins that are already thin
• Alternative lenders cost you even more, with terms designed to extract maximum value from your desperation

There is no free money. There is no easy money. There is only money that comes with strings, and strings that come with consequences. Before you commit a single pound to opening a brewery, you need to be clear-eyed about which consequences you're prepared to live with — because you will be living with them for a very long time.