When you make the decision to get into the brewery business, you only have a couple of options: buy an existing brewpub (with the kajillion dollars you have lying around) or start your own from the ground up. So, unless you’re flush with cash and/or have years of brewing experience, it’s a done deal that your brewpub won’t last long if you manage to open it. That’s why Voodoo Brewing Co. has created a third option with our brewpub franchise. Rather than trying to bootstrap a brewery from the ground up, you can start a business with a ready-built model and craft beer that’s brewed for you.

Just five years after we opened franchising, we’ve figured out what it takes to thrive in the Voodoo crew. Let’s look at some of those traits while we meet Jeff Prout, our newest craft beer Franchise Owner, joining us out of Austin, Texas!

Why Franchise Over Doing It All Yourself?

Owning a business can be incredibly rewarding, but unless you have any experience with business management or growth, it’s a challenging task. As mentioned in Investopedia, a few of the common reasons businesses fail in their first few years are a failure to consider a business’ marketing needs, poor initial management, and a general lack of upfront planning. However, with franchising, you get everything laid out for you, including marketing strategies and assets, management systems, and a support team to help you follow the processes as you launch and grow.

But Why Voodoo?

If you hadn’t noticed already from our website, Voodoo Brewing Co. is committed to being the anti-cookie cutter, anti-corporate culture franchise, and we’ve recently become the fastest-growing brewpub on the planet! We are a franchise built on a model of great craft brews, streamlined service, and badass individuality, and with our franchise, Franchise Owners get to open their own brewpub without the hassle of learning to brew beer themselves.

We Brew It, You Sell It

At Voodoo, our resident beer wizards are committed to tirelessly working in the background to perfect some of the best-tasting craft beer in the world. This is the beer that you taste and love once we’ve shipped it to each of our brewery Franchise Owners’ locations. All you have to do is pour and sell this craft beer in your brewpub and take the credit as the hero who provides liquid gold to their community! This way, you don’t need to invest in expensive brewing equipment and shell out millions of dollars or spend years learning to brew craft beer yourself, keeping your financial investment and everyday overhead expenses lower.

We’re Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Franchise

From the very beginning, our goal was not to become yet another cookie-cutter franchise with a stiff corporate culture that kills creativity, excitement, and any Owner’s originality. Instead, we empower and encourage Owners to freely incorporate elements of their local community into their space. From the brewpub’s overall visual design and decor to featuring other local craft beers or spirits and food that’s served, Owners have the chance to take anything they love about their area and incorporate it into their brewpub. Franchisees even collaborate with our internal designer to create their own one-of-a-kind Voodoo Brewing Co. logo to reflect their local community!

The Ideal Candidate to Join the Voodoo Brewing Co. Tribe

At Voodoo Brewing Co., we’re looking for select individuals to join our motley crew of beer lovers and business heroes. We were built on a dream to brew amazing craft beer, but we wouldn’t be where we are without the people who matter most: our fans, supporters, and the Franchise Owners who put our beers into more hands than we ever could’ve imagined. For this reason, we’ve built a tight-knit business family, and we need to know that anyone who joins our franchise will blend in and mesh with our existing vibe.

You’re a Freakin’ BOSS

Those born leaders and excited entrepreneurs are the perfect fit for our brewpub franchise! People who drive to get shit done and lead a team through the dinner rush to victory are the ideal brewery Franchise Owners for Voodoo Brewing Co. If you’re looking for a craft beer business with profit potential that’s enjoyable to run, then we’re looking for you.

You Know How to Have Fun

Our franchise business model is a brewpub focused on selling kick-ass beer and hella delicious food, so this isn’t a strict, boring business to be in. Beer and food are fun things to sell, so you need to be fun and enjoy having fun at work, too. Whether that’s through coordinating cool events or just making daily tasks fun for your team, you need to be a fun person to be around to fit the Voodoo Brewing Co. vibe.

You Live Life on Your Terms

Most people in the corporate world are tired of living the everyday grind and not having control over their own lives. This leads thousands of people every year to franchising as a means to escape the grind and take back their freedom. Franchisees who want to take their life back and run a business on their own terms instead of selling their soul to make a couple of bucks are the best type of people to open a Voodoo Brewpub franchise.

You Believe Beer is LIFE

If you love craft beer and can’t wait to make money by sharing it with your community, you’re in the right place. Here’s the thing: you don’t need to be a beer-obsessed expert who knows everything about the science behind brewing. If you simply love trying new craft brews and sharing a moment between friends over a beer, that’s more than enough to join our tribe.

You’re Not a D-Bag

We’ve established ourselves as the anti-corporate franchise, so our biggest sticking point when it comes to bringing new Franchisees into Voodoo is that they don’t have a corporate, d-bag personality. Our most successful brewpub Owners need to be unique and creative but also good at playing with others. As a team leader, you need to know how to work well with people of all roles and backgrounds and get the most out of them without being a jerk about it.

You’ve Got That Tribe Mentality

In addition to not being a D-bag and being a frickin’ boss, the best Franchisee candidates have also come with a team mentality. When you join the Voodoo Brewery franchise, you not only join a tight-knit crew made of our Franchisees and our founding team, but you also get to build the crew that will become your everyday A-Team. Together, you and your new team become the legends that bring Voodoo Brewing Co. to your community!

Meet Our Newest Local Beer Hero, Jeff Prout!

Voodoo Brewing Co. has come a long way since our first location in Meadville, PA! While our next locations opened in and around Pennsylvania, we’ve always dreamed of expanding across the country. With Jeff Prout showing all the ideal traits of a badass Voodoo franchisee, we’re excited to see a Voodoo Brewing Co. beer hall pop up all the way in Austin, Texas! As he prepares to find the perfect place to open Austin’s new go-to brewery, let’s learn more about him and hear directly from him what he’s most excited about moving forward!

Getting to Know Voodoo

While working one day, Jeff found himself wondering what might be out there if he were to leave commercial insurance for his own business. After scrolling through BizBuySell, he happened upon Voodoo Brewing Co., and although he wasn’t a fan of typical franchising, Jeff decided to look into it. After learning more about our beer-obsessed, anti-corporate model, he considered the franchise investment opportunity and moved forward in the process.

A few more steps and one Approval Day later, Jeff had fallen in love with our team’s mutual disdain for corporate culture and the excitement around individualizing his brewpub. That, paired with his prior entrepreneurial experience, proved that Jeff was ready to jump back into a business owner role – this time, as part of the Voodoo Brewing Co. tribe!

“Was there anything specific that made you want to jump in with Voodoo?”
Jeff Prout: “I think just the overall kind of vibe; it’s not just like this cookie-cutter kind of franchise. It’s sweet. Everybody gets their own logo, [and] you get to have your own little flavor of what you want – on the walls and all that stuff to a certain degree. It’s a cool kind of thing and something that I would go to, and I know my friends around here would go to. So that’s when I was like – all right, this looks pretty legit.

I like that I can customize it with my own and Austin flavors with [both] the food and the decor. That was the real draw. They’re going about this franchise model the right way, the way that I would want to do it.”

“What do you think will make you most successful?”
J: “I think I’ve gotten a little bit older and have been through a couple more things that are gonna help me. Perseverance: I don’t expect day one – I mean, it’d be awesome – but, day one, out the gate to be wildly successful. I know I got to go out and make it happen, basically. [I expect to] market and do all the things as opposed to just kind of relying on the brand to do it itself.

Voodoo doesn’t really exist down here. So we have to make it exist. To do that is going to be hard work, which I think a lot of people don’t really want to do; to me, that sounds like fun. I think that’s what’s appealing to me and is what [will ] make me successful.”

“What do you most look forward to about owning your Voodoo Brewpub?”
J: “I look forward to learning about all the beer. I look forward to being immersed in the community. I look forward to building something from scratch here in Austin and making it – maybe – a household name in the immediate area and the go-to place for people who not only want great beer [and] great food but [also] a great time. I wanted them to know us for our events that we’re putting on. I just want to be known as a place that everybody can go to and really just let loose and have a good time.”

If Jeff’s story resonates with you, or if you vibe with any of our ideal brewery franchisee candidate traits, you’re probably in the right place! There’s no other way to bring a Voodoo brewpub to your community than to join our craft beer franchise, so what are you waiting for? Take our quick, one-minute quiz to see if you qualify to open the next Voodoo Brewing Co location in your community!