The Copper Rivet Distillery

I have just been given some information about the Copper Rivet Distillery in Chatham and it got me thinking about local business. There are so many good young businesses out there and it is a refreshing change from the corporate cycle of products.

The Copper Rivet Distillery makes sprits, including gin and vodka, using locally sourced products. Here is some blurb from their website.

The Copper Rivet Distillery is an exciting and dynamic new Medway based craft distillery.  Drawing upon the area’s rich tradition of innovation and craft, the team will toil together to produce small batches of exceptional gins, whiskies and vodkas from scratch in bespoke stills, with the same skill that local craftsmen once fashioned world-class ships.

Kent is a dynamic and energetic county to live in with plenty going on. North Kent, especially in the Medway towns of Rochester and Chatham, have a very vibrant scene that enables young start-ups to successfully achieve their goals. Maidstone, although being the beating heart of Kent and the centre of operations for Kent County Council, does not have that same vibrancy.

The Copper Rivet Distillery looks cool; their website is neat and tidy and their products really look very good. Dockyard Gin is on my Christmas list  and Son of a Gun sounds a good and strong spirit, reminiscent of the Chatham dockyards gun-makers.

Maidstone does have a few things going for it though, and one of them is an excellent artists gallery in the Royal Star Arcade.  We also have a museum which does hold late nights and occasionally a pop-up cinema courtesy of Splintered Cinema. Their next movie night is in February and will be a classic romance movie.

Starting a new business is a daunting prospect, and can be very soul-destroying when you do not get the number of clients that you need in order to see a profit. Splintered Cinema is just over a year old now and although bookings have been coming in it has not been to the extent that I can leave the day job. I’m hoping that 2017 will be different. There is something exciting about it though, and although Splintered Cinema is now a year old, and having taken so much financially, the idea of the business still excites me and gets me to do all the things that I don’t like to do, like marketing.

Marketing is the hardest thing in the world (probably not really, brain surgery is harder than that), and trying to get  your head around the twists turns of it can turn farcical. It is also a very lonely thing to do, especially when you send out a series of emails or responses and getting nothing in return. It is the most important thing to do though for a business. Something that cannot be underestimated.

Marketing is the most important part of the business strategy, and something that some overlook. It is worth taking the time to familiar yourself with best practices and take a leaf out of other businesses books, the Copper Rivet Distillery would be a good place to start.