Archive for the ‘Business Tips for Wine Shop Owners’ Category

Did you know that it is illegal to ride your bike while holding a glass of wine in a national park? I’m a pretty avid cyclist – and frequent consumer of wine – so how this nugget escaped me is a mystery. [level-members] Mysterious as it may be, it’s not a regulation that wine shop owners […]

When you start a business, you are forced to wear a lot of hats. It can be tempting to try to wear every hat you think of, but your business will be better off – and you’ll be happier – if you strike a balance between wearing all hats and hiring experts. [level-members] Your goal should […]

Just because you don’t want to be like McDonald’s – or any other national fast-food chain – doesn’t mean you can’t learn from their practices. [level-members] Perhaps the most valuable thing you can take away from enterprise-level businesses is their insistence on systematization. From how particular menu items are prepared to how frequently bathrooms are cleaned, […]

A recent article in Forbes takes the position that wine is, for the most part, a commodity, and always has been. [level-members] There’s real truth to that, at least as the article lays it out. The vast majority of wine and wine grapes in the world are sold as bulk products. A relative small handful […]

There are probably a lot of contenders running through your mind at the moment. What really is your wine shop’s most valuable asset? [level-members] It could be your location or the real estate itself, if you own it. It could be your reputation or your expertise. It could even be your inventory, if you’ve got […]

An article I came across recently on LinkedIn about the pizza business brought the Grapeseed audience to mind. The article is a bit of cautionary tale about how getting too comfortable can be deadly. [level-members] This is true in any business, of course, but what’s interesting about the LinkedIn article is the unexpected nature of […]

The vast majority of retailers in the US accept credit cards. (Those that don’t seem to either be businesses with virtually no local competition or businesses very tightly focused on their local market. Like the only mechanic that works on foreign cars in a small town, or a neighborhood restaurant.) A big shift is in progress, […]

If not, maybe you should be. Not that we don’t see the value of down time. (In fact, I took yesterday off as part of a long weekend.) But there are some things you should be thinking about even when you’re off the clock. At least, sometimes … [level-members] There are things you definitely shouldn’t […]

Sometimes working backwards from where you want to be is easier than figuring out how to get there from where you are. [level-members] This recent article in the New York Times provides a guide for consumers to find a great wine shop. It is also an excellent opportunity to do just that kind of reverse engineering […]

More and more American consumers are buying more and more wine online. Should you jump into the ecommerce fray? [level-members] There’s no short answer to that question which would cover every shop’s circumstances. And though we could write a book on evaluating ecommerce for your wine business, it really comes down to one question: can […]