Running a brewery is a non-stop whirlwind of to-dos, deadlines, and decisions. But if you’re anything like most brewery owners or managers, you often end the day exhausted and yet feel like the most important work still didn’t get done.
Why?
Because most of your time is spent on compliance tasks — things that scream for attention, but don’t move the needle.
Things like:
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Payroll submissions
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Tax filings and TTB reports
- Paying bills and filling out regulatory paperwork
These tasks are necessary. They’re the “price of admission” to stay in business. But they’re not the reason you got into the beer business. And they won’t help you grow it.
On the other hand, value-added tasks — the strategic work that actually builds a better brewery — tend to get pushed to the back burner.
We’re talking about:
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Building a profit plan
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Optimizing your taproom menu for margin
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Reviewing your weekly labor cost vs sales
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Building systems so you can step back
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Training staff to upsell or cross-sell more effectively
These are the tasks that create leverage. They free up time. They grow margins. They reduce chaos. They add value.
So why do we avoid them?
Because compliance is loud. Value-added is quiet.
Compliance tasks come with hard deadlines, external penalties, and a clear sense of urgency. The pressure to complete them is external — from the government, your accountant, or your payroll provider.
Value-added tasks have no such urgency. There’s no one nagging you to optimize your profit margin. So they quietly get pushed off… sometimes for years.
Do this next:
- Watch the short video below – The Brewery Profit Planner: Your Roadmap to Organized Profits
- Join our membership in the Beer Business Finance Association – a network of brewery owners and managers working together to improve financial results
