Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Brooks Cloud, CEO and Founder of Proof Syrup, located in Atlanta, GA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Proof Syrup makes premium craft cocktail mixers, primarily syrups, from all-natural, fresh ingredients. We sell direct to consumers and retailers, bars, and restaurants.
Our direct-to-consumer customers are people who like to drink! They’re folks who enjoy high-quality cocktails and want to have a great experience mixing them at home. The bars and restaurants that serve us are businesses with high-level cocktail programs who want to serve great cocktails more quickly, consistently, and profitably.
We’re all about celebrating classic cocktails — both pre-Prohibition and modern cocktails made with just a few top-quality ingredients — and we’re always looking for ways to help our customers enjoy them.
Tell us about yourself
Back in the 2010s, I co-owned a neighborhood bar in Decatur, Georgia, one of the first craft cocktail bars in the area. Right from the start, we wanted to serve craft Old Fashioneds as a centerpiece of our cocktail program. We knew they needed to be 100% consistent in terms of flavor and balance. We also wanted to be able to serve them quickly — so customers wouldn't have to wait long for a top-quality craft cocktail. Our solution was to create our own syrup recipe that included the sugar, citrus oils, and bitters in the perfect proportions. The cocktails made with that syrup were a huge hit, and we realized quickly that we could offer our customers the same cocktail experience at home if we started bottling the syrup to sell as a standalone product. We named it Proof Syrup, started selling it in three flavors, and it took off from there.
What brought me to the cocktail bar scene was a love for food and cocktails. I don't have a ton of hobbies, but I would say eating and drinking is a hobby of mine, something I'm passionate about. If you love fishing, you open a tackle shop. If you love drinking, you do this.
What motivates me? That I get to work with people that I love. We have an amazing team at Proof.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I'm still waiting on it! For now, though, I think how much we've been able to do without really any financing. A lot of people get an idea, raise money, turn it into a business, but we haven't done it that way. It's always been bootstrapped and rubbing two pennies together to get a nickel.
There's a benefit to that, which is that you're a lot more aware of what you're spending and how, and you're more aware of the urgency of it all. Would it be better if you had 10 million in the bank? Maybe? You might find the answers faster, but you might be lazy and lose money and be wasteful. We're scrappy.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
When you have problems that must be solved that you have not figured out a solution for.
When you start a business, in some sense, everything you’re doing has never been done before, not exactly the way you’re doing it, so you’re trying to create something from scratch, and the only thing you can do is make assumptions. You’re wrong a lot, and that sucks. It is humbling.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Assume it’s going to take twice as long and cost twice as much as you think.
The other thing to understand — and this is true of everything, not just business — is that your ability to process failure correctly is critical to success. Failing is a strong motivator not to try. Most people that talk about owning their own business never do it because the risk of failure outweighs their desire to do it. When people actually do something, it’s because they want to do it so badly that they don’t fear failure. When they do wash off the beach, they gather up their stuff and get back up there and try again. You have to run fast into failure until you understand what to do not to fail.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
If you like Old Fashioneds, you can’t go wrong with Proof Syrup. At the end of the day, we make a product people fall in love with, and you can’t beat that.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://proofsyrup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/proofsyrup
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proof.syrup/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1osDGRiGarbZ-0uHBTA_Q
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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