Does Your Liquor Consultancy Service Do This?

Whether you need help applying for a liquor license or require assistance with store set up and operational insight, at some point you may work with a liquor consultancy service to help you with your private retail liquor business. Business owners often don’t understand the role of consultants – primarily because many consultants have a “one ‘n done” relationship with their business. They may help you apply for a liquor license, or buy or sell a liquor license with you, then they wave “Buh-bye”, never to be heard from again.

While these folks provide a valuable service, liquor consultants at Thrive Liquor & Cannabis Advisors do much more than apply for liquor licenses or help broker deals between liquor license buyers and sellers. We also help businesses become profitable, remain profitable and stay compliant.

Since 2003, we’ve helped liquor retailers in BC and Alberta at all stages of their development and we’ve learned a lot about what’s needed at each stage. The needs of start-ups are much different than those of established retail liquor businesses. As such, an effective liquor consultancy should be able to help your business become more profitable, regardless of whether you just opened your doors or have been up and running for some time.

What’s Different About Our Liquor Consultancy Service?

While we certainly do help businesses with liquor license applications and buying and selling licenses, Thrive Liquor & Cannabis Advisors differentiates itself by providing end-to-end consulting services, including:

Store Set Up

For new stores, we provide advice and feedback on proposed store set ups. This service covers everything from optimal fridge, shelving and rack placement, liquor SKU selection, placement of products on shelving for maximum exposure of more profitable products, cash register placement, set up and training, and in-store marketing planning and set up. This phase of interaction often includes examining lease agreements and other business agreements as well.

Operational Insight & Feedback

By examining monthly, quarterly and yearly financial statements, we can determine where expenses can be reduced, and identify which products are money makers and which products are losers. Once we’ve examined statements, we make recommendations for improvements based on our findings.

Long-Term Business Relationships

We establish long-term business relationships with our clients, so we understand their operation intimately and can provide invaluable advice and feedback at any point in the business’s lifespan. Mentoring from a knowledgeable liquor consultant with in-the-trenches experiences is vital to success. While some business owners attempt to go it alone, unfortunately winging it doesn’t cut it in the highly competitive world of private retail liquor sales.

Project Management

When starting a liquor business, we can act as liaison and coordinate, communicating with architects, designers, leasing agents, municipal inspectors and LCRB staff, to ensure that tasks stay on track and government liquor branch criteria is met.

Research and Planning

Whether you are building, renovating or changing locations, or planning an expansion, we do research and create plans that will ensure your business has the best chance at success and that compliance requirements are met.

Proactive Input and Follow Up

We don’t wait until your business has compliance or operational issues to help. We take a proactive, preventive approach, so we can identify and correct problems before they spiral out of control.

Our liquor consultants also take a personal approach. We sometimes call or email just to say “Hello”, send articles of interest about products, the retail liquor industry, or inform you of impending changes to government regulations that may affect your business. We do so, because although we need to make a living (like all of us do), we value the strong relationships we build with our clients. It’s not unusual for us to become close acquaintances with our clients because of our personal approach.

Referrals to Valuable Resources

Because we’ve provided liquor consultancy services for so long, we’ve established relationships with select, established vendors, which we refer free of charge. For example, we know where you can get competitively-priced reliable refrigeration, POS terminals, shelving, brew tanks or casks. We can refer you to a trusted lawyer, developer, architect or construction company that has experience with retail liquor stores or pubs and understands liquor licensing compliance requirements.

If you are starting a liquor business or currently run one, contact us to find out how we can make your business more successful! We provide liquor consultancy services to businesses in BC, Alberta and the USA.