How we started our own micro-brewery business

Many people start their own business because they dream of riches, while others simply want to earn a living from something they truly love. The latter is true of Liverpool-based Grateful Dead fan John Marsden and his wife Julie, who set up The Melwood Beer Company in 2013.

“For many years I’d dreamt of running a microbrewery business with my wife, Julie. I’m passionate about beer, but I don’t like the mass-produced, watery, gassy stuff you get in pubs and supermarkets.

“In March 2013 we opened The Melwood Beer Company. We make high-quality beers that taste great and are totally natural – we don’t use chemicals. To start the business, I used earnings from my work as a self-employed hospital operating theatre technician and Julie worked as an administrator at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

“Our premises are special. I’d mentioned to a patient that I was looking to open a microbrewery and she told me about an old dairy near her house” John Marsden

Ideal premises

“Our premises really are special. I’d mentioned to a patient that I was looking to open a microbrewery and she told me about an old dairy near her house, which until recently had been home to one of the North West’s first craft breweries.

“After seeing them, we just had to have them. They were perfect, and in such a beautiful setting near to Knowsley Safari Park – some days you can actually see the rhinos and zebras. Our offer was accepted and as a result we started the business sooner than anticipated. It all happened so quickly.

“We fitted the place out with all the necessary tanks and equipment and worked with a brilliant local welder. We also had to source supplies, create our website and develop our branding, as well as try to win our first customers, but come the end of March our first supply of beer was ready.

“We installed a five-barrel system, which enabled us to produce up to 800 litres per brew, which is 20 casks, each containing 72 pints. We had four fermenters, which gave us the capability to brew up to four times a week [ie 80 casks], providing the demand was there.”

In December 2015, John and Julie moved into The Kennels – a larger building which used to house the estate’s gun dogs. The extra space enabled John and Julie to finally do everything they were planning – with dedicated rooms for bottling, kegging, casking and tasting. In May 2016, they were visited in their new premises by the crew of Food Unwrapped who filmed the brewing of a special beer.

“All our beers are single malt varieties and their names are inspired mostly by bands, singers or songs” John Marsden

Grateful Dead

“Music is my other great passion and I play Hammond organ in a Grateful Dead tribute band. All our beers are single malt varieties and their names are inspired mostly by bands, singers or songs.

“We do an ‘Icons of Rock’ series and our first was Mojo Rising [The Doors/Jim Morrison], then there was Fools Gold [The Stone Roses]. Julie also developed an ale called Knowsley Blonde. A while ago, she made a beer called Father Ted, in honour of her late father. We also produce one called Citradelic, which is very popular.

“Our branding incorporates the famous Grateful Dead lightening bolt skull logo, which was originally created by the band’s soundman Owsley Stanley in the 1960s. Sadly, he died in 2011, but I emailed his family to ask permission to use the logo and they said yes.

“We plan to start selling branded clothing through our website, which will hopefully help to raise our profile. I used our home-based computer to create our website and branding and I produce all of our pump clips, stationery, labels, etc at home. As well as saving money, I enjoy doing it. I get a real buzz from seeing the pump clips in public.

“Brewing beer involves a lot of hard work, but it doesn’t feel like it because I love it so much” John Marsden

Labour of love

“The name of our business is inspired by Liverpool FC’s [former] training complex, which is close to our home. Brewing beer involves a lot of hard work, but it doesn’t feel like it because I love it so much. It’s not like a job. Our beers are very good – the reaction has been brilliant – and with our passion and commitment, I’m confident our business will do well. We’ve sell to wholesalers in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester and our sales in Merseyside continue to grow.

“I don’t know whether the business will make us rich, but I’d be happy if it generated a wage for us both. If it does make us rich, that would be the icing on the cake, but just to be able to walk into a pub and see people enjoying our beer means we’ve already achieved a long-held dream.” 

“Find a way to be special – that way people will buy your products rather than someone else’s” John Marsden

John’s three top tips

• “Base your business on something you love. That way it won’t seem like work and it will drive you on when the going gets tough”

• “Ask for help from other businesses. We’ve had some really useful free advice from other brewers on Merseyside – you really wouldn’t believe how helpful people have been.”

• “You must set yourself apart from your competitors. Find a way to be special – that way people will buy your products rather than someone else’s.”

• This profile appeared originally on the Start Up Donut website. John and Julie went on to open their own successful micropub, The Bard, in Prescot on Merseyside.

Are business plans a total waste of time?

A survey carried out by business software provider Exact suggests that more than a third of the UK’s 4.9m SMEs don’t have a business plan and “they could be missing out on an extra 20% of profit as a result”.

Of the 34% of respondents who didn’t have a business plan, 68% said they didn’t see the need for one, while 23% were “too busy” to prepare one, 8% “didn’t have anyone to help them” and 5% “weren’t comfortable with numbers”.

Should we be surprised by these findings and are business plans as essential as some start-up experts would have you believe?

Some experts would tell you that start-up business plans aren’t worth the paper they’re written on

Waste of time

Some experts believe start-up business plans aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Author Paul B Brown, wrote a piece for Forbes.com called Why Business Plans Are A Waste Of Time., after he came up with the idea for a new book that sought to offer insight from the original business plans of highly successful US entrepreneurs.

But there was a problem. As Brown explained: “Most of the business plans had nothing to do with what the businesses eventually became. People who said they were going to specialise in developing new computer hardware ended up in software, for example. In a surprisingly high number of cases, what was in the business plan ended up having very little to do with what the company ultimately became.”

After writing about entrepreneurs for more than 30 years, Brown believes that creating a “painfully detailed business plan really doesn’t make much sense. The first time you encounter something you didn’t expect, the plan goes out the window. Things never go exactly the way you anticipate.”

Some of the heroes of today’s would-be entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Michael Dell, did not have business plans when they embarked on ventures that changed the world

Business plan myth

A few years ago, (“former banker, small-business investor and veteran entrepreneur”) Kate Lister wrote a piece for Entrepreneur.com called Myth of the Business Plan. She highlighted research from Babson College (“regarded as having one of the top entrepreneurship programs in the country”), which found “no statistical correlation between a startup’s ultimate revenue or net income and the supposedly requisite written business plan”.

The study found that: “”Some of the heroes of today’s would-be entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Michael Dell, did not have business plans when they embarked on ventures that changed the world”.

Great business plans may earn you an A in business school, but in real life you only get As for achievement

Lister said she was “all for having a business plan in the verb sense. I’m just not a big believer in the noun form”. She continued: “Writing a formal business plan invites the paralysis of analysis. It distracts the entrepreneur from slaying dragons and thinking big thoughts. And it’s largely a waste of time. The result usually is a long-winded missive that’s out of date almost the moment the ink dries. Great business plans may earn you an A in business school, but in real life you only get As for achievement. So stop dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s and go out there and slay something.”

Success Plan

Andy Fox is the founder of “award-winning independent car service and repair specialist” iAutoUK. He wrote an article for the Huffington Post called “Why You Don’t Need a 40-Page Business Plan to Launch a Successful Company” (sic).

“I’ve never had a business plan,” he admits. “Despite this, in three years my company has reached a turnover of over £1m, with £100,000 annual profits. For your business to thrive you instead need a ‘Success Plan’. This is an evolving strategy consisting of three elements. No 40-page business plan needed. In fact, you can write a Success Plan on one sheet of A4.

Look at companies such as Comet, Blockbusters and Jessops. I’m sure their business plans didn’t include going into administration!

“Firstly, you must understand your market place and how your business is distinct from competitors. Secondly, the Success Plan must have ‘Leader’s Objectives’ and you must communicate them to your staff. The final element is to make sure you make money! You must have a system that provides you with daily earnings information, and which can monitor cash in the bank and in the pipeline.

“Such a Success Plan is a short, relevant, real-world document. I believe a Success Plan is more appropriate than a traditional business plan.” Dryly he adds: “Look at companies such as Comet, Blockbusters and Jessops. I’m sure their business plans didn’t include going into administration! Had they had a Success Plan, perhaps their futures may have been different.”

• This blog was commissioned by Atom Content Marketing and appeared originally on the Start Up Donut website.

The Flip-Flop Philanthropist

Rob Forkan has been on an incredible journey. With younger brother Paul he runs Gandys, which uses some of its profits to help orphans in India – just one reason this fast-growing flip-flop brand continues to win admirers. Rob’s amazing story, which includes surviving the 2004 tsunami that claimed his parents’ lives, as told to Mark Williams, proves that some good can come out of the most terrible tragedy.

Rob Forkan (pictured above right) was born in 1987 in Carshalton and grew up in Croydon. “Our upbringing wasn’t unconventional,” he says, “but mum and dad always encouraged us to go outside and play. Being a couch potato wasn’t an option.”

Kevin and Sandra Forkan were compassionate, fun loving, generous parents

Kevin and Sandra Forkan were compassionate, fun loving, generous parents. “Mum was creative; dad was good at business. They met while working for a car dealership. Later, they ran their own business, selling end-of-line clothes via fashion shows at universities, schools and hospitals. They’d donate back money raised from ticket sales and raffles.”

Rob didn’t have any career ambitions as a child, but showed some entrepreneurial instinct. “I remember earning money from washing people’s cars,” he smiles.

Humanitarian projects

The Forkans had six children – Marie, Joanne, Rob, Paul, Matty and Rosie. They enjoyed travelling and wanted their children to experience other cultures, so, in 2001, after selling their house, Kevin and Sandra took their youngest children out of school and headed for India, a place they’d fallen in love with on a previous holiday. The plan was to volunteer for humanitarian projects. “I was 13, Paul was 11, Matty was nine and Rosie just five,” Rob remembers. “Marie and Joanne were older and stayed in the UK.”

Despite the extreme hardship they witnessed, the Forkans loved India and enjoyed mixing with local people. “We received a ‘social education’,” says Rob. “We were learning communication and negotiating skills and became very confident because we were mainly mixing with adults. There are many life skills that you’re not going to learn from a school text book or classroom in the UK.”

The full force of the tsunami hit Weligama, with a 20-foot wave devastating the hotel, sending water raging through every room

Asian tsunami

Shortly before Christmas 2004, the Forkans flew south to Sri Lanka, their destination, the Neptune Hotel in the small fishing village of Weligama. After a hugely enjoyable Christmas Day on the beach, horror followed on Boxing Day.

“Paul and I were sharing a room and it was just after 8.30am that I heard screams outside,” Rob recalls. On seeing water trickling under the door, he shouted to Paul. Then, the full force of the tsunami hit Weligama, with a 20-foot wave devastating the hotel, sending water raging through every room. “We had to fight for our lives,” says Rob.

He managed to get out of the room and onto the roof, dragging Paul with him. Nearby, while making sure Matty and Rosie got to safety, Rob’s parents were swept away by the water’s force. That was the last time he saw them alive. Kevin was 54 years old; his wife Sandra, just 40.

Mercifully, all four children survived. And while bruised, battered, hungry, exhausted, barefoot and traumatised by what had happened, they managed to hitchhike 120 miles to the international airport in Colombo. “Because we’d been out there doing what we were doing, we’d toughened up a lot,” reflects Rob.

Rob’s parents were swept away by the water’s force. That was the last time he saw them alive

Free spirits

Some time after flying back to the UK, eldest sister Marie (then 21) adopted her three youngest siblings (Rob was too old for adoption) and they went to live in Hampshire. Rob worked briefly as a lifeguard on Bournemouth Beach, before moving back to Farnborough and finding jobs in customer service and advertising/marketing account management.

Neither Rob nor Paul had lost their wanderlust and they explored many countries in South East Asia, as well India, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Most of the time they wore flip-flops – a symbol of their freedom. Having trained to be a plumber, Paul ended up in Australia, doing various jobs to get by. But inspired by their parents, Rob and Paul remained free spirits.

I wanted to start my own business and create a brand that reflected our upbringing and the outlook our parents gave us

“Despite everything, I still wanted to make a difference,” Rob explains. “I wanted to start my own business and create a brand that reflected our upbringing and the outlook our parents gave us. Many families were devastated by the Tsunami, and many children, like us, were left orphaned. They didn’t have the support we had. I wanted to help.”

After a heavy night at a music festival, Rob woke up with a terrible hangover. “I remember saying I had a ‘mouth like Gandhi’s flip-flop’… That was it! Not only did I have my business idea, but also the beginnings of a brand name. Later I rang Paul and he loved the idea. Soon he returned to the UK and in late 2011 we launched the business – Gandys – from my flat in Brixton. We changed the name because we didn’t want to cause any offence.”

Passion, change, hope and inspire are key words for us

Orphans for Orphans

From the start, the Forkan brothers decided to give a percentage of their profits over to building orphanages in India as part of their ‘Orphans for Orphans’ campaign. “The idea is to improve children’s health and access to education,” explains Rob. “Passion, change, hope and inspire are key words for us.”

2016 was a watershed year for Gandys. They collaborated with Liberty London, the V&A museum and the Rolling Stones on limited edition flip flops – which are now being worn by over 250,000 ‘brand ambassadors’. They also extended the brand further by launching their first clothing range – which included jumpers, jeans and swimwear – and they opened their first stores. The Forkan brothers have ambitious plans for the year ahead too! In addition to their Kids’ Campus in Sri Lanka, they will be building a second campus in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Final question: would mum and dad be proud? Rob replies: “I get asked that a lot and always struggle to answer… I feel like we’ve only just started, so I’m not ready to step back and assess things. We have great products and a great brand, and I’m very proud that our success will help to improve the lives of children who really need that help. Our parents remain a great inspiration for us, too…. Would they be proud of what we’re doing? Yes, I think they would…”

• This profile appeared originally on the Start Up Donut website. Since it was written, profits generated by Gandys sales have helped to build four kids campuses worldwide. The Forkans' good work continues.