The Cash-Flow Cliff

Here's the timeline that nobody fully grasps until they're living it. You sign the lease and start paying rent. You buy equipment and pay for fit-out. You buy ingredients and start brewing. Your first beer takes two to four weeks to ferment and condition. You package it and start selling — but payment terms mean you won't see cash for another thirty to ninety days. From the moment you start spending to the moment money starts coming back, you could be looking at four to six months of pure outgoing cash with nothing coming in.

During that time, you're still paying rent, still paying utilities, still buying ingredients for the next brew, still paying for everything the business needs to function. Your startup fund is draining in one direction only. If you haven't budgeted enough runway to survive that gap — and most people haven't — you'll find yourself in a cash-flow crisis before you've even established whether the business can work.

Chapter 16 covers the funding options in detail, but the message here is simple: whatever number you've got in your head for startup costs, it's not enough. Add a contingency. Then add more. The brewery will find ways to spend money you didn't know you needed to spend, and it will do it before a single customer has paid you a single pound.