Business first - lifestyle second

If you intent to develop a wine business from scratch, then you should not expect to see any returns for quite a number of years. This is because of the long lead times before your first sales are made. It is important that you have the resources to develop the business to the stage where it is making money and to do this you need to know what costs are involved. Too many people get lost in the romance of having a vineyard and forget that, for the business to be successful, income streams must be developed. While "losing money" but enjoying the lifestyle may be acceptable in the short term, long days in the vineyard soon temper one's thinking as the romance of "working with the land" soon becomes drudgery - and those bills keep on coming in.

Planning to succeed - developing a wine growing business plan

Lake Wine Services Ltd has a comprehensive Excel(TM) based model for a start-up wine business. Vineyard, winery and marketing/distribution assumptions are input and the model generates Profit and loss, Cashflow and Position forecasts for the first ten years.