Financial Summary
Books & Brews is not currently fundraising.
Previous Fundraise Summary
| Security Type | Revenue share | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $5,000 | |
| Investor Eligibility | All Investors |
Previous Fundraise Activity
$77,500 raised
Explain your historical financial performance to date.
We opened our Indianapolis location on March 21st, 2014, and brought in $184,000 in gross revenue in our first year. In 2015, revenue rose to $377,000. In 2016, we brought in $481,000 at our Indianapolis location and $155,000 in Zionsville, which opened on July 1st, 2016. We project a combined $900,000 in gross revenue between the two current locations in 2017. We will use the money raised on Local Stake to open a 3rd location in Muncie, which should add between $300,000 and $400,000 in revenue in its first calendar year. Additional documentation upon request.
Upload a copy of your tax returns for the past 3 years (if applicable)
Tax returns upon request.
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Business Plan
Books & Brews mission is to provide a place for people without a place. Where all are accepted, appreciated, and encouraged to be themselves. We sell craft beer, focus on local food, and provide an extensive social-based event schedule but we are defined by our people. Simply put, people are our product. From our staff, to our customers, to our vendors, we
- Current Employees
- 30
Provide detail on your hiring plans
Our franchising team will be handling the expansion of our company-owned businesses in the same way they will be handling new franchisees. For the Muncie project, we will hire a General Manager, Taproom Manager, Head Brewer, Assistant Brewer, and at least a dozen other hourly employees to run the taproom.
What is the composition of your current team?
We currently have a five-member franchising team (detailed under "Management Team") in addition to approximately 20-25 other hourly employees across both our current locations.
How do you sell your product or service?
Retail
How do you market your product or service?
We focus mainly on word of mouth and social media. There is no better advertising than a positive experience, so first and foremost we want to ensure our customer service standards are being met. Second, we want to stretch our advertising dollar as far as possible while making sure each dollar is well spent and hitting a demographic that will enjoy the B&B experience. In order to accomplish this, we mainly rely on targeted marketing on Facebook which can advertise to very specific interests.
What is your production process?
We use as many local products as possible in both our beer production and food menu. Local vendors include Sugar Creek Malt Company, Smoking Goose Meatery, Fair Oaks Farms, and Broad Ripple Chip Company, just to name a few.
Provide us with some background on your products and services.
Our main revenue streams are beer (and other alcoholic beverages), food, merchandise, and books.
Our beer menu consists of between five to seven house beers and an equal amount of guest taps. We focus on keeping a range of flavor profiles to make sure we have one beer on tap (both house and guest) in each of the following categories: hop-forward, malt-forward, wheat/fruit, stout/porter, and blonde/cream. We sell our beer on draft by the 16-ounce pint, 10-ounce pour, 64-ounce growler, and 32-ounce bullet. We take advantage of our small batch size and experiment frequently with odd and off-the-wall flavors. We debut a new, one-off, or seasonal beer every Friday in order to drive at the "hobbyist" customer always looking to try something new and exciting.
Our lifetime Mug Club membership is a lifelong membership program that gives members a long list of perks. To date, we have over 1,100 mug club members between our Indianapolis and Zionsville location and we expect that number to sky rocket as we add both franchised and company-owned stores (memberships will be transferable between all stores).
Our merchandise options include several company designs in addition to products by Out of Print Clothing. Out of Print Clothing is an organization out of New York that licenses covert art from classic novels and puts them on t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, and more. We also see a lot of sales from glassware.
Finally, our books make up a small sliver of our sales. We get all our books on donation from our customers and sell them for $3. We also use the books as an added perk for mug club members with a lifetime book exchange policy - leave a book, take a book. We donate 10% of the proceeds from the book sales to Indy Reads, a non-profit that focuses on adult and family literacy.
What is your product development timeline?
During our search for locations for potential franchisees we discovered an opportunity in Muncie too good to pass up. We will use our franchise team to establish this spot as a 3rd company-owned location and perfect our franchise model. We are currently in lease negotiations but expect to be in the space between April and June 2017 with a projected opening in July or August.
Who are your target customers?
We don't target specific demographics but provide an atmosphere that attracts specific interests and social-based activities and/or groups. For example, book clubs, writers, musicians, gamers, craft beer enthusiasts, foodies, or anyone looking to disconnect from technology and have a conversation.
What is your current customer pipeline?
We currently have an established customer base at both locations anchored by over 1,100 Mug Club members.
Do you have current customers?
We currently have an established customer base at both locations anchored by over 1,100 Mug Club members.
What market(s) are you in?
Indianapolis and Zionsville. We will use the money from Localstake to open a 3rd location in Muncie.
What is your competitive advantage?
We appeal to nostalgia. Our business model will never die because nostalgia will never die. People will always appreciate the concept and history of paper books the same way they will always appreciate antiques. All of our house-made beers and food menu items are themed after authors, books, or literary themes.
We also appeal to everyone's sense of authenticity. We live in a time where the average customer is more informed about the world around then they ever have. Simply put, they can spot a fake. After going through the 80s, 90s, and 00s where the focus was "bigger, faster, cheaper," the market is now demanding "small batch, authentic, local." We will ensure the longevity of this appeal by committing to always keeping our local vendors, locally-made ceramic mugs, and hand-built furniture in all our locations.
Who are your competitors?
We believe we have aligned ourselves with several industries without becoming direct competitors including breweries, gaming stores, live music venues, event space, co-working space, etc. For example, most breweries are product-based businesses where that would have no business if they ran out of beer. Since we are an experience-based business we can afford to deal with product-based difficulties that arise (we can continue to operate and be profitable if our brew system breaks down, for example).
In the future, there is always the possibility someone will try to copy our bookstore/bar theme. However, we don't believe the big money restaurant investor will be able to duplicate our experience or go to lengths to compete with our small batch brewhouse, locally-sourced menu, or hand-built furniture.
| Status | Leased |
|---|---|
| Location Type | Restaurant |
| Comments | Our original Indianapolis location is located at 9402 Uptown Drive Suites 1300 and 1400, Indianapolis, IN 46256. We originally leased 1400 in November of 2013, opening in March of 2014, and expanded in the adjacent suite in November of 2014. We opened a second location in Zionsville in 2016 and our plans for the funding we raise through Localstake is a 3rd location in Muncie, Indiana, one mile south of Ball State University. |
| Entity | Books & Brews LLC |
|---|---|
| Entity Type | LLC |
| State Organized | Indiana |
| Founded | March 2014 |
Jason Wuerfel
Jason founded Books & Brews in March of 2013 and opened the first location in Indianapolis in March of 2014. Jason has run every facet of the business since inception including brewing, maintenance, sales/marketing, promotions, and accounting, just to name a few. As the business evolves and expands, Jason will be in charge of the franchising team as they seek out to establish both new franchisee locations and company-owned locations.
Mike Hansen
Molly Grooms
Bryan Suter
Updates
This business has no updates at this time. Check back soon!Business status: No current fundraise
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