If you love wine and everything related to it, you can actually build a business around it. If buying a vineyard and putting up a winery is still beyond your current capacity, there are still other options you can explore. This article will present some of them.
Set Up a Bed and Breakfast
If you are a first-time home buyer, look for a home in wine country. There are vineyards and wineries all over the U.S., and there is likely a wine region near you. Buying your first home in the area you love is your first step and commitment to building a business revolving around wine.
Choose a house that you can make into a bed and breakfast. That means it has to have at least two more bedrooms in addition to the one you will be occupying. More bedrooms would be better if you could get a mortgage for a bigger house.
Setting up a bed and breakfast in your new house can pay for your monthly mortgage and provide you with an income. Being in wine country increases the chances of having regular bookings.
It is crucial, however, to market your bed and breakfast online to get maximum exposure. Hire professionals to set up your website and implement ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) so that your business shows up on top of searches for lodgings in wine country. Set up accounts on various social media platforms and post regularly with hashtags related to wine. Ensure that your posts are attractive and engaging to other wine lovers. Interact warmly with people who comment on your posts.
Organize Vineyard and Winery Tours
Organizing tours around vineyards and wineries can draw more guests to your bed and breakfast. People who love wine just like you do will gravitate toward your lodging house and your tours.
Ensure that your tours are widely publicized on your website and your social media platforms. You can also pay for social media ads, ads on search pages, and ads on popular blogs about wine, wineries, and vineyards. Also, consider advertising on sites for weddings so that you can reach couples planning their honeymoon and on sites for vacations.
Open a Wine Bar
Add a wine bar to your bed and breakfast, and open it even to people who are not checked in. This will be an additional source of income independent of your room bookings.
A wine bar is a great place for people to gather and relax while enjoying a glass or two of their favorite vino. Make sure you have all the specialties of your location and also have wine from other regions of the country and of the world.
Complete the ambiance with tasteful interiors and soothing music. Create a menu of appetizers and desserts that go well with wine. Make sure everything tastes superb.
Offer Wine Tasting Dinners
Go a step further and offer wine-tasting dinners. Hire a chef or take professional cooking classes to ensure that your food is top-notch. Do not skimp on the quality of ingredients, either.
To get started, look for recipes online that pair well with different types of wines. You can also experiment and come up with your own dishes. Just make sure the flavors complement each other.
When it comes to wine, get help from experts. There are sommeliers who can guide you in choosing the right kinds of wine for your menu. You may even be able to partner with a local vineyard or winery for your wine-tasting dinners. Ensure that you recommend the best wines to go with the food. After all, you are offering a wine-tasting dinner, so the focus will be on the wines, which should be complemented by the dishes.
Publicize your wine-tasting dinners the same way you would your tours and bed and breakfast business—on your website, social media platforms, and various ads online.
Sell Wine Gift Baskets
Your guests will love to bring home wine gift baskets for themselves and their families and friends. Offering these for sale will add to your revenue stream. You can include professionally-designed postcards with your bed-and-breakfast branding and information about each wine included in the package.
You can also sell these wines online. There are people from all over the country who will want to give them as gifts. If you make your packaging classy and your prices fair, you will have many customers.
When it comes to marketing, you can take advantage of special occasions like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Father’s Day, and Mother’s Day, when people are more likely to give gifts. You can also offer wine gift baskets as prizes for raffles and contests.
Make a Living with What You Love
To sum it up, there are quite a few ways you can make a living out of your passion for wine. You can open a bed and breakfast in wine country, offer vineyard and winery tours, open a wine bar, sell wine gift baskets, or even offer wine-tasting dinners. Whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it so you can share your love of wine with others.
