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Polish Italian going for American Dream

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Venn

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Aug 22, 2019
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Hey all,

I have decided that I am going to use this forum as a kind of journal for my bussines and personal development. This way it should help me with being consistent and focused on my goals, and maybe it can be of some use for you. I am 26 y/o Polish guy living in Rome just finished my Msc in Biotechnology.

My goals for the next 10/5/1 years are:

10 Years Goals
  • Ten millions euro at 4% return rate which gives my constant, solid income (as described in Unscripted )
  • 2 business - First is a drink bussiness (Having many brands in one company where I have made these 10 milions), Second just starting in more futuristic field (maybe biotech engineering, or cannabis in europe)
  • Having a wife and three kids
  • I can travel the world easly if needed
  • Having great physique, healthy and knowing martial arts like boxing and bjj
  • Knowing at least 5 languages at C1 level.
  • Deeply familiar with the teachings of Stoicism/Philospohy/Self development - Maybe have even written a book on that subject
5 Years Goals
  • I have a drink company with many different brands around the Europe (Probably Italy, Portugal, Poland and if other slavic countries)
  • Me and my family is able to live off comfortably from my business (Meaning my wife doesnt have to work and we have probably a house)
  • I am already married and having one kid
  • I can easly on demand afford airplane tickets to travel around Europe (Mostly Italy-Poland for business and family meetings)
  • I am at a pro level at boxing (6 years of experience) with a great body while checking where is my limit in becoming the biggest with the lowest body fat
  • I speak at least 4 languages at C1 level.
  • Living the 4 Stoicism virtues, doing, cryotherapy, sauna etc, no porn/no fap etc.
1 Year Goals
  • I have started my own alcohol company with a product/maybe two products doing sales already in one of the countries (probably Italy/Poland) and looking for the possible expansios on the other markets.
  • I am efficiently freelancing /flipping to fuel my alcohol company (finally not working for someone else) ( I guess or in Personal Trainer/Dietics field or Marketing)
  • I have orginised relationship (we go out on a date once a week, having our rituals),supporting each other, and breeding our dog together.
  • I travel to my home country probably once or twice a year for xmas and/or holidays.
  • I have 1,5 year of experience in boxing and I am confident in physical challenge. Having six pack.
  • I am studying 4th language and I am already able to communicate in it.
  • Practising stoicism, learning do be more efficient and disciplined, doing cold showers, maditating, no fap/no porn.

Currently at
  • I have no business, but working for "almost relative" who has made good money and learning form him the mindset and how to operate in Italy. (I will probably start the alcohol journey with him)
  • I have made Personal Trainer license, and in October I will be able to be a nutritionist (although I am having alot of self-doubt since I am always thinking that my Italian is not proficient enough to pull it off but its just an excuse i guess)
  • I have a loving girlfriend and we live together, having dog etc.
  • I am already traveling once/twice a year to my home country although I have to book the tickets way before and choose the cheapest once (I do not have a real freedom in that)
  • I have already 6 months of experience in boxing. I am not though comfotable mentally in physical challenge. I have really good physique with a sixpack. (so I have to grow and maintain it)
  • I am speaking 3 languages and knowing 4th one on basic level.
  • I am reading Seneca, doing cold showers, and some breathing techniques.

So I guess that gives me a roadmap on where I am currently at, and what am I strking for. In the next post I am going to write down the daily actions that I have to take in order achieve my goals. Then I guess I will update it once/twice a week in order to see the progress. If you have any suggestions on how can I improve or you maybe have some experience in the industries that I want to enter you are more than welcome to share you knowledge.


Venn.
 
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Venn

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Aug 22, 2019
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Confusion Time

Hey all. Well being all my life in an organized structure (which was university) is not helping me now to find myself in a new reality. I feel like Jews led out from Egypt by Moses where from one tyranical structure they fall into even worse chaos of worshipping false Gods. The first week I was fu*king around I have:
  • Bought a course on Udemy about digital marketing and made 4 chapters
  • Have signed my self to Toastmasters group in order to improve my Italian
  • Hit the gym where I have asked about the possibility of working as a independent personal trainer, I have not followed up that subject though.
I feel that this confusion had also influenced my relationship, we were arguing alot lately (I guess because of my lack of groudness). This situation have changed abit in the second week when I have took some "real/physical" action i.e.
  • I have basically cleaned whole office and front part of the warehouse/beer factory so I actually have a place where I can stay and focus on business. (I was coming to the warehouse/factory for 3 hours before an actual job to clean and adapt the structure for beer production).
  • I have started to deepen my knowledge about beer and alcohol production.
  • 34245
  • Here you have the photo of the "organised" office.
It was alot of physical work since there are tons of personal things of the owner, but seeing it clean was really satisfying thing and have changed my mindset alot (I have stopped arguing with my gf and I feel motivated to do shit).

I am in a place where every business seems sexy to me and I cannot actually decide on what I want to do. I guess taking acton in the direction of beer/alcohol production made me clarify my vision. I will continue my routine where I will simply present myself in the factory each day for three hours before my full time job and I will work wheter physically on beer production or on self development.

Beside that I have deleted all the video games from my pc and have started to practice no fap.

Venn.
 

Bobby_italy

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Good luck man and you're very lucky to have someone teach you HOW to do business in Italy ;), it's not so much about making the money as to not giving back 80% to the country.

Also I visited a beer brewing company close to where I live, I think they invested somewhere around half a million if not more and took them thousands of attempts to create somewhere around 10 beers, they're among the best in Italy tho, also family owned and the three founders had 20/30 years of experience in beer brewing.
Every restaurant or higher class place in the area carries them and they're also really expensive, they also produce for others, so I'd advice you to find such a company in your area and have them come up with a "formula" you like and produce it, I mean unless you have 100-200k laying around that you can risk then disregard what I just said.

It's a really difficult business to get in especially with italian legislations, can you lay down your plan so we can double check if there are any anomalies to pin point?
Like how did you get the idea, what value do you provide, what kind of brand are you trying to grow, what experience you have in the sector, how much have you already invested(I see the warehouse for example) and if you need someone to test your beers I'm willing to risk it :p

Also if you produce it where you sent the picture I'm about 75% sure you have to mark that it's not made to drink or you risk very huge sanctions if they catch you.
Do you have the certifications needed(?):
  • apertura partiva iva
  • iscrizione al registro delle imprese
  • comunicazione di inizio attività al comune
  • permesso per esporre l’insegna esterna
  • apertura delle posizioni inps ed inail
  • comunicazione unica alla camera di commercio
  • ottenimento del nulla osta sanitario asl
  • messa a norma di impianti, zona di produzione, di cucina e di somministrazione, e dei locali in genere, in materia di igiene, sicurezza, agibilità, ecc.
  • comunicazione all’agenzia delle dogane per la vendita e somministrazione di alcolici
Sorry for writing them in italian but in English they made no sense.


If you haven't have you thought about becoming a franchisee(?) those are some of the pros:
  • less expensive to start and you have a real brand backing you up, easier to manage
  • Easier to market an established brand
  • They already have a path for success laid out, you're not the first franchisee
  • support, assistance and guidance
  • they'll teach you how to work and keep you updated on laws and new techinques etc...
  • they'll help you find a good location
  • Help on setting up a nice production facility
  • Ready go with all the furniture, machines, software, production,...
  • Help with the italian bureocracy that we all know sucks...

I'd advise those two in the case you consider franchising:
- Over18 BeerHouse | Il nuovo spazio per chi ama la birra Made in Italy about 40k investment needed
- WineBeer about 10-20k needed

Hoping I've been helpful, I had already researched in this sector and finally realized if I were to do it, it would just become a low-end paying job unless I invested heavily into it and got lucky, because let's face it for how much I can study experiment etc.. I can't beat 100s years of experience in beer brewing.
 

Venn

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Aug 22, 2019
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Thank you for reply @Bobby_italy I really appreciate some feedback especially from an Italian person.
Like how did you get the idea, what value do you provide, what kind of brand are you trying to grow, what experience you have in the sector, how much have you already invested
Regarding your 1st question the idea of producing beer is not mine but its the person that I am working for. I want to sell spirits like gin, vodka, grappa, amaro in different markets in the Europe. Because of that when I have seen the opportunity to participate in the creation of beer factory I thought that it might be a great experience where I can learn alot, and then maybe in the future use the infrastructure created to make my own spirits there (in the spirit creation process there is basically one more step when compared to beer production). The value I guess is that we want to make great commercial beer that is 100% Italian. The first place where the beer would be sell is a pub which is of the same person. Then if that would go well we would start to think to open new pubs which would sell the same beer. We have pretty good awareness in the industry since I am master in biotech(beer production is a biotechnological process) and have 3 years of experience as a barman, and the person that I am working for was in the industry of pubs etc. for around 40 years.
Also if you produce it where you sent the picture I'm about 75% sure you have to mark that it's not made to drink or you risk very huge sanctions if they catch you.
Do you have the certifications needed(?):
Regarding the second part that is why I am calling it warehouse/factory because it is more of a warehouse at the moment. We are not producing beer yet, all of the legislations and construction work are going to be proceed in (I hope close) the future. Some of the construction work will be made already in august (since august is a vacation month in Italy :D). My plan at the moment is to brew some beer for personal use in order to gain confidence and understand all the details in the process, and establish basic 5 recipies along with the laboratory protocols that we can use for future constant beer production.

About franchising etc. I would be even willing to consider this option but the person that I am working for is more of a I want to maintain control guy (but I guess he is right at the moment). Anyways I am not putting my money on the line yet, so I am paceful about that.

Once again thank you for your response !

Venn.
 
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Sethamus

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Sep 13, 2019
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Sounds like a plan! I had wanted to do a whiskey distillery since I was 18 and 3 years ago started to put it all together on paper. I ran into issues because I wanted to "do it right" or what I thought was right at the time. I learned there are multiple ways to become a distillery and many do not distill their first products. They buy in bulk and then potentially redistill it or not at all. I heard that is how Tito's vodka did it originally, buys bulk and redistilled until they liked it.
I ran into issues with quitting a good job for a product that needs to age and not pulling in revenue. I do not think I was ready at that time and lacked the confidence, wish I had been on this forum back then.
Clear un-aged products can bring in cash right away if you have a distribution. Doing Gin is more than just one extra step, it is coming up with a flavor profile.

Here is a rum distillery in New Orleans and is just to show how small you can actually start. 5- 26 gallon stills and they are still going. With a column you can do vodka off one of these. Where I originally thought that was too small and needed 200k for a bigger still, you know so I could grow into all of the sales I didn't have yet. Guess who was wrong.
 

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Venn

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Aug 22, 2019
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Hey @Sethamus thanks for the answer!
I am also abit sceptical about aged products, and I would actually like to produce Gin for Polish market.
Doing Gin is more than just one extra step, it is coming up with a flavor profile.
Ye thats true but often times the flavouring occurs in the distillation column during the distillation process.

Here is a rum distillery in New Orleans and is just to show how small you can actually start. 5- 26 gallon stills and they are still going. With a column you can do vodka off one of these. Where I originally thought that was too small and needed 200k for a bigger still, you know so I could grow into all of the sales I didn't have yet. Guess who was wrong.
Thats pretty nice I would like actually do something simillar. I want to buy microdistillery around 100 Liters (I guess its 26 gallon) for 3,5k euro and then start to work on that. Once recipie would be establish I would or outsource it or think to buy bigger distillery.
34290Venn.
 

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