Significant changes may be coming to the wine industry beginning with Washington State. Winemakers are looking to legalize virtual wineries which currently have no defined place within the state’s liquor legislation landscape. Like Pennsylvania, Washington State is one of 18 states to retain monopoly on liquor sales. To read more on the Washington’s potential new winery license read here: Will Washington Legalize Virtual Wineries?
Nothing can replace the feeling of euphoria that comes with selling that first of bottle of wine made from grapes you crushed yourself or perhaps serving that first entree in
the restaurant you worked for months to open. Yes, dreams of owning your own winery, restaurant, or hospitality business can be realized even in today’s tough economy. Why? Because a new wealth economy will come by the growth of small businesses. Much of this growth engine will be fueled by new businesses, many of which will be in the wine and hospitality industry.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither was Apple or Comcast for that matter. Succeeding at your dream of building your own restaurant or hospitality business starts by planting the seeds of good leadership and sound business infrastructure. As an owner in control of your business, you quickly come to know that everyday decisions aren’t made on guts alone. They are founded on sound decision making in order to avoid financial and legal pitfalls.
Here are a few good tips you’ll want to consider to when building your winery, wine or hospitality business that will help you avoid these pitfalls:
Prepare Your Business Plan For Your Winery Or Hospitality Business:
Rather than planning as you go, execute. Create a Business Plan that details your
business strategy to determine where your business is headed in the future. Identify
measurable goals and business tactics that will guide you.
Establish Early On The Ownership Structure Of Your Winery Or Hospitality Business:
Choose the business structure that is right for your business. Whether you’re a
Sole Proprietorship, Limited Liability Company, or Corporation, choosing the right
business structure that’s a fit for your business is key. In doing so, seek legal counsel
when necessary to assist you in making the right business choices.
Read Your Contracts:
Do not sign agreements you do not read. You may be presented with contract
agreements from your suppliers, vendors and speciality suppliers for products that
make your business unique. Consult with legal counsel to read your contracts and
advise you of the risks associated with various contractual provisions.
Maintain Good Record-Keeping:
Good record-keeping shows the quality of your company to future investors. Due
diligence is necessary to maintain good corporate formalities. Maintain policies
outlining your internal practices on check signing, accounts payable and financial
reporting.
Seek Legal Guidance When Franchising:
Many aspiring restauranteurs often look to buy a franchise when breaking into the
food and wine business. Franchising is not a guarantee of financial success. While
instant branding comes with franchising, there are also numerous costs associated
with franchising that you may not have contemplated. The U.S. Small Business
Administration provides guidance on answering common questions about franchising.
Before entering a franchise relationship, you will need to consider what opportunities
best suit your needs and interests.
Is there a winery, wine or hospitality business in your future? If so, join the new wealth economy, get your business on and watch your step!
Is your winery, restaurant, or hospitality business attracting the new generation of young millennial’s? If so, you’ll not want to miss marketing to this group on their own terms. Just ask them. If you don’t get on this train, it will surely leave the station without you.
Check out this new virtual sommelier aka Enomatic Wine Dispensing System. This high tech sommelier gone wild can be found at the CLO Wine Bar in New York, New York. CLO Bar has the right mix of edge and attitude to attract today’s generation of young drinkers. Its a visionary concept that may appeal to the future urban winery or trendy hot spot for the next budding restauranteur.
So just for today, I have momentarily veered away from a more serious post and have included a link for your viewing pleasure. Just between you and I…this spot has been added to my list of favorite places to visit. Perhaps I’ll see you there!
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has recently introduced it’s new vending machines aka “wine kiosks” to the Commonwealth. Customers must swipe their ID, blow into a breathalyzer, and look into a security camera to buy their wine. A State employee then verifies that you are who you say you are and that you are also sober. If you pass the swipe and blow test you are approved to buy wine.
Based on the success of a recent trial run of two test kiosks, the PLCB has just announced it will be adding over 100 kiosks in grocery stores all over the Commonwealth.
A big question still outstanding is whether Pennsylvania produced wines will make it into the wine kiosks for consumer purchase. After all, if its good for Pennsylvanians to “eat local”, then why not “drink local”?
What say you?
Does your Pennsylvania wine, winery, restaurant or hospitality business have a winning name? In my earlier post, Can A Rose By Any Other Name Still Be A Rose we considered
some of the challenges associated with naming your new winery, wine, restaurant or hospitality business. By now, many of you newer entrepreneurs have surely discovered that naming your business indeed requires significant thought, imagination, and creativity.
But once you’ve come up with that one memorable business name that perfectly reflects your brand, you should now give consideration to taking those steps necessary to protect your business identity. Register your new business name as a trademark.
A trademark is a distinctive word, slogan, phrase, logo, graphic, symbol or other mechanism used to identify the product source and to distinguish your product from everyone else. If you’re starting out as a new winery, restaurant, or hospitality based business, having the exclusive right to use your selected name without interference and confusion by use of others can be greatly beneficial.
A good example is Black Boxed Wine. Its a wine that is sold in a square black box. Its very hard not to miss the identity and source of that wine and its brand. Its a product that is well distinguished from other wine brands. Just like Black Boxed Wines, if you’re the first to use and register your trademarked name you can prevent other businesses from using the same or similar marks.
How can you can achieve comprehensive protection of your brand’s identity? You can accomplish this by registering your mark under state, county and federal trademark laws.
To do so, you’ll need to conduct a full search to ensure no one else is utilizing the name or mark you have in mind. You can conduct your search by checking with both your Secretary of State’s trademark registers and the Federal trademark register at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These are ways you can determine if the name you have selected is available for your business.
You may also consider the use of a professional trademark search service. While the latter can be quite expensive, such services have a high degree of reliability. A well conducted search will help you to avoid the possibility of paying damages to a first user in a trademark infringement suit who has challenged your use of their name.
Once you have checked the availability of your new business name, register your name with the Secretary of State in your jurisdiction and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. By doing so, you will have established the legal presumption that you are the trademark owner of your business name. You can more likely substantiate ownership if a dispute over your mark ends up challenged in a court of law or whether other marks exists that conflict with your own. If someone infringes your mark, you can hire legal counsel to pursue and protect your interests.
Does your Pennsylvania wine, winery, restaurant or hospitality business have a winning name? If so, protect your brand. Trademark your name.
Is your restaurant or winery contributing to food borne illnesses? Let’s hope not. But 
summertime is as good a time as any to discuss ways to avoid food liability claims against your winery, restaurant, or hospitality based business. Ingesting foods that have been contaminated by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemicals can indeed cause food borne illnesses.
If your establishment engages in the preparation, service or sale of food items, safe food handling helps to avoid legal liability from customers that are imbibing and dining at your establishment. Mitigating such claims is of major importance to the success of your business and brand.
As often evidenced by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), incidents of food borne disease often emerges as a result of improper food handling.
To prevent these hazards, you will want to exercise appropriate food safety procedures for your winery, restaurant, or hospitality based business. Employing these tips will help you and your employees avoid complex food liability litigation while maintaining best practices for food safety as advocated by your state and local public health departments.
Top Food Safety Tips To Remember:
Handwashing: Wash hands frequently and practice good hygiene.
Food Storage and Temperature Control: Properly cook and store all foods at proper temperatures. Cold foods should be refrigerated at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping foods cold slows bacterial growth. Hot foods should be cooked at or above 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep cooked food hot until serving. Bacteria growth increases with food remaining at room temperature longer than two hours. Do not re-freeze food.
Sanitation: Use sanitary food and water sources. Replace/wash dish towels and sponges to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria.
Avoid Cross Contamination: Practice proper personal hygiene to safeguard against the transfer of harmful bacteria. Avoid smoking, eating, drinking, coughing and sneezing in the food preparation areas. Keep your ill employees at home.
Equipment: Keep all equipment clean, assigning food and equipment sink protections.
Vermin: Protect against flies, rodents and roaches.
By utilizing best practices in food sanitation and workplace safety, you’ll be assuring your customers that your winery, restaurant, and/or hospitality based business takes food safety seriously.
Now, that you have these tips under your belt, do have a great summer and get your food and drink on safely!
If you’re the life of the party and the great “toaster”, you may be interested in joining 
Pennsylvania Wine Association’s toast competition. If you can write a toast of a 100 words or less, this is a party you surely will not want to miss.
Sixty-two wineries state wide are participating in the Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast. Pennsylvanian’s are setting out to achieve a Guinness World Record for the largest number of people raising a toast on August 14 at various wineries simultaneously. Do get your pen, paper and wine out and join The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast celebration.
For more information on the competition and how to apply read here: Pennsylvania Wine Association
Its that time again folks! Wine Blogger Tom Wark at Fermentation has recently announced this year’s finalists for the 2010 American Wine Blogs. Its always interesting to see which social 
media wine bloggers are giving American media a run for its juice. Is your winery’s blog amongst this year’s nominees?
Go now and cast your vote. American Wine Blog Awards
Unless you plan to spend a ton of money on legal fees defending your business 
against liquor liability claims this summer this is a good time as any, to pause and take note of a few useful tips.
As the summer approaches and the volume of customers at your establishment increases, its a good time to be vigilant and put a few best practices in place that are designed to limit your winery or restaurant’s potential liability related to the sale of alcohol at your facility.
Whether you’re serving alcohol in a tasting room, restaurant, wedding, catered event, bed and breakfast or bar, its important to remember that the person who serves the liquor is on the front line to limit your establishment’s liability and help your guests from over indulging.
Let’s review some useful tips that will help your establishment limit its potential liability as a result of alcohol service:
Check ID’s for all customers
Train your staff to recognize “visibly intoxicated persons”
Ensure that your employees do not drink on the job
Do not over-pour
Do not price alcohol too low so as to encourage heavy drinking
Do not allow self service at your event
Provide non-alcoholic beverages
Do not allow pets in the tasting room or catered event.
Purchase liquor liability insurance
As you entertain and educate your customers about your wines or your brand, you can also use these valuable customer contact opportunities to encourage your guests to drink responsibly. Your customers will appreciate the fact that when they leave your establishment, they are left with a sense of having been well cared for during their outing.
At the end of the day, you’ve kept them safe…and you’ve saved yourself some dough!
The State of New Jersey’s Division of Alcohol Bureau Control has recently announced new legislation to take effect on May 1, 2010 that in effect changes its existing law related to wine tastings. The new legislation modifies existing law regarding size, sampling, events and media advertising related to tastings. To learn more on this new statutory ruling read here: NJ Special Ruling Regarding 2010 Statutory Change To Tasting Law.
