Owner of TailGate Beer in San Diego
I started brewing beer as a hobby, which turned into a business. I legally started TailGateBeer in 2007, and sold my first kegs in 2008.
Craft beer is a billion-dollar industry and growing at 10% per year. It's even done well during the recession.
I use a facility in the Midwest to brew my beer, 62,000 gallons at a time. Nine months ago, we were only in San Diego county. Now TailGateBeer is in six states. By the end of the year, it will be in at least eight.
Despite the growth, the industry is highly regulated and makes running the business challenging.
First of all, every state has different regulations. And we have to keep track of all of them. And that's not so easy, because everyday there are new changes and announcements.
One regulation is that we can't advertise where we sell beer on Facebook and Twitter.
Then there are the taxes. We are taxed when we brew, when we ship, when we import and when we export to different states. We are also taxed when we sell to distributors or retailers.
And if we have a violation, we really pay for it. Some of the fines are up to six figures.
The bottom line is that it is easier to sell pot in this country than beer. And that's the truth.
We asked 10 small businesspeople what would they ask President Obama to do to make it easier for them to hire.
