Viticulture, oenology, equipment management, staffing, marketing and insurance are all essential parts to successful winery business. It isn't just a focus on the grunt work of hand crushing and foot stomping wine grapes, but an overall business systems focus.
Like any business's legal framework, the entity form always needs to be inclusive of liability protection, flexibility, and favored tax treatment. Most wineries in the US are LLC, and privately held as Pty. (Ltd)s in other parts of the globe.
PLAN OF OPERATIONS
Every winery has two separate processes for both Red and White wines. Red wines such as Cabernet Franc, are usually sold 18 months after harvest, whereas white wines such as the most palatable Chardonnay are sold 12 months after harvest. Constant project timeline management alongside with resource management is the name of the game here.
A statement of Projected Personnel Requirements, that stipulates employee job descriptions and commensurate wages (inclusive of the current fair wage per hour), will need to be composed. An industry analysis isn't necessary to go with the plan of operations segment of the business planning, but marries beautifully to seeing how current wine consumption trends, do match your winery business model's framework of operations.
FINANCIAL PLAN
Insurance planning really comes to the fore with vintners, due to the uniquely specific risks they face. Extreme weather exposure of wine grape crop, wine spoilage and leakage, as well as chemical drift liability, are just a few examples of a comprehensive business assurance plan can hedge against.
A well composed Revenue, Capital Asset, Operating Expense, and Cash Flow Projections statement will be necessary. Financial assumptions such as the inflation percentage, aging periods (e.g., Pinot Noir: 12 months in oak, 6 months in bottle, then sold), and provision of an amount for wine not sold (used for promotional purposes, e.g., 14% not sold), must be factored in.
Furthermore, investors will always be keen to see a breakeven analysis in coexistence with the financial projection for sales.
MARKETING PLAN
A well-defined and self-explanatory opening statement to shed light on who the people you're targeting is essential.
"The proposed winery is targeting end consumers who are wealthy, college educated baby boomers. These ideal customers are highly wine-educated, enjoy dining out, and regularly entertain friends or business associates." - Pisoni, Mark E.; White, Gerald B. (2002)
The aforementioned statement of intent to introduce the marketing document is specific, honest, and well-defined overall. Usually at this stage of planning, there's no money to actually enact upon the desire of wine business (or any other kind for that matter). It's this part of the planning process where all the pieces of the business model's feasibility are forged together to form the investor pitch.
Every investor usually doesn't care about how much money it costs (cause they're so rich right), but more so the effectiveness of product strategy. For example, having four vinifera varieties, two white and two red, as part of the final product mix.
Other areas of concern include the frequency of promotional wine tasting events which attract new sales revenue, distribution strategy of using retailers or directly (e.g., online), and the pricing strategy, e.g., the use of prestige pricing to inform customers of the high-quality product being sold.
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