What is the name and nature of your business?
Manhattan Brewing
How did your projected first year look compared to your actual first year?
We ended up doing about 1/4 of our projections.
What were the significant challenges your business faced in opening during a pandemic?
Trying to keep everyone safe while trying to be profitable. We were a new brewery and got busy VERY quickly, but since we were only at 50% capacity we struggled to keep profitable.
Now that you have made it through your first year with added challenges, what does the future look like?
Hopefully brighter and brighter. The new year (and hopefully no more COVID) means that we are going to be facing different challenges, like keeping up with beer production. But that is a good problem to have!
What were the unique opportunities that presented themselves due to opening during a pandemic?
A LOT of positives actually came from the pandemic. The biggest one was the incredible loyalty that Manhattan showed us over the past year. We were also able to get a patio on the street for outside drinking (THANK YOU DMI and the City of MHK), and that was a GAME CHANGER, not only for us but for the feel of downtown. Also we were able to fill in all of our taps with a nice variety of beer. The amount of funding federally really helped keep us alive as well.
What were the circumstances or opportunities that led you to decide to open your business during a pandemic?
We were already 3/4 of the way through our construction and at that point we couldn’t turn back. We knew that we had to survive at all costs.
