Pub Night Recap

Cheers to the YVEN inaugural pub night last Thursday at Bert’s Pub!  We had a fitting kick-off to our first networking event -Jeff Winn, president and founder of Yakima Craft Brewing Company, spoke about the experience of starting up his business in Yakima this past year.  Jeff is originally from the Portland area and brewed craft beer as a hobby with the dream to one day be brewmaster of his own brew pub.  His wife was from Yakima and they decided that since the Yakima Valley produces 78% of the world’s hops, and that the area lacked its own brewery since the closure of Grant’s Brewery, that Yakima Craft Brewing (YCB) would stake the claim as Yakima’s only brewery.  Jeff and co-owner Chris Swedin have chosen a simple tagline – ‘Just Good Beer’ – and a simple business model:  produce four types of beer, do them well and make a profit within the first year.

Not only have they been successful with their business model and met their first year goals but the fruits of their labor are paying off; YCB’s IPA beer was recently awarded an A+ (the highest rating) from The Beer Advocate magazine, a nationally well-known leader in craft brewing.  Jeff offered some good advice to the group, "Go with your passion in deciding to start a business and making money will follow".  Good advice for the small business owner – too often folks want to make money first and pick what kind of business second.  You might as well choose something you are passionate about if you are going to be working full time at it!

YVEN Pub Night was the first networking event of the Yakima Valley Entrepreneur Network.  This was an excellent opportunity to meet other Yakima County entrepreneurs, business people and directors from SCORE and the Small Business Development Center.  Stay tuned in to our website for future events – we are still in the start-up phase as a network, so we appreciate your input.  Join YVEN for our E-newsletter and get special notification of upcoming activities!