This week we speak to Mark Costello, Founder of the Horsforth Brewery.

Mark tells us how he’s grown the business from a home brewing hobby in his kitchen to a fully-fledged brewery and tap room, the effect of launching the business on the first week of the first lockdown, his successful crowd-funding campaign and how a Christmas disaster turned into a success.

Mark also teaches us how to run a crowd-funding campaign.

INTRODUCING MARK COSTELLO

Mark Costello is the founder of Horsforth Brewery. After a career in hedge accounting, risk management and secured funding he made the transition to full-time self-employed in March 2020 and has steered the brewery through COVID and a cost of living crisis, establishing an onsite taproom in the brewery that's open 6 days a week.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[00:01:30 ] How did the launch of the brewery happen?

[00:03:00 ] Launching part time with grant funding

[00:06:10 ] Moving from a hobby to a business

[00:09:30 ] Launching into lockdown

[00:14:30 ] When the business ran out of cash

[00:18:00 ] The addition of a tap room and the additional challenges it brings

[00:21:00 ] The Euros effect

[00:25:30 ] How do you sell beer into an outlet?

[00:31:00 ] Raising funding for the business

[00:36:00 ] How to run a crowdfunding campaign

[00:42:00 ] The Christmas disaster and the solution that worked

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS

• You may be eligible for 50% match funding from WY Combined Authority

• You need to keep momentum going during a crowdfunding campaign

• Own your mistakes and be honest to your customers

3 BEST MOMENTS

• “Seeing people’s businesses fall apart during Covid was hard”

• “Everyone started clapping (for carers) but I thought it was for me dropping off beer”

• “In the early days we sold beer to outlets via Twitter”

VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU

Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leeds-business-podcast/

Phil Fraser - Business Sounding Board - www.philfraser.co.uk

Website: www.horsforthbrewery.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-costello-68868619/

Visit the Tap Room at 143 New Roadd Side, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4JZ

Shout out tags: https://swinethatdines.co.uk/

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ABOUT YOUR HOST

Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit. As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus. As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.

Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.

LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST

Leeds, Leeds Business, Business in Leeds, Nous of Fraser, Business Sounding Board, Business Coach, Business Mentor,

Email: phil@leedsbusinesspodcast.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Pre roll November

As November is my birthday month, I've got three special offers for you.
If you can say yes to the following four points, you qualify.
You have to be a business owner, have three to 15 staff, a turnover of between 350, 000 and 3 million, and wanting to develop and improve yourself and how you run your business.