If you could start a new business right now, what would it be?
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Apparently, WordPress thinks I should have started a business by now. It asked me a version of this question last August, and at the time I came up with Barrels & Bookmarks, a place that combined two things I love: books and bourbon. The idea was pretty simple—comfortable chairs, good books, good whiskey, maybe some espresso, maybe some pecan pie, and a place where people could sit down, slow down and actually talk to each other. In other words, a business designed specifically to keep me from ever wanting to go home.
A year later, I still like the idea. But I think I’d build it a little differently now.
Over the past year, I’ve spent more time writing, more time thinking about bourbon as something bigger than just what’s in the glass, and more time building things like Southern Sports Stillhouse. Lately, there has even been some discussion about taking my Sunday Pour essays and turning them into a book. Somewhere along the way, I’ve started to realize that maybe the business I’d want to start isn’t necessarily a place. Maybe it’s a platform.
I’d still want bourbon involved, of course. I’m not suddenly opening a kale boutique. But instead of starting with a storefront, I think I’d start with the things I already enjoy doing: writing, tasting, storytelling and conversation. Maybe it would become a small publishing and media company built around those things.
There could be bourbon content, tastings and reviews. Southern Sports Stillhouse could grow into something larger, with football, whiskey and the kind of arguments people have when they know there is absolutely no chance they are changing the other person’s mind. There could be books and collections of essays. There could be events where people gather for a tasting and hear the story behind a bottle instead of just being told whether it scored an 87 or a 91.
Maybe eventually there could even be a physical place. Barrels & Bookmarks could still exist someday. I haven’t abandoned the idea of shelves filled with books, bottles behind the bar and comfortable chairs where nobody is in a hurry to leave. But I think I understand the idea a little better now.
Last year, I thought the dream was the building. This year, I think the dream may be what happens inside it: the stories, the conversations, the people who come back, the bottle somebody discovers because you recommended it, the book somebody picks up because a title caught his eye, or the Saturday afternoon spent arguing about whether Florida can cover the spread while somebody pours a bourbon neither of you has tried before.
A year ago, I wanted to create a place where people could belong. I still do. I’m just beginning to think you might not need the building first. Maybe you start by creating the things that bring people together and see where they lead.
Of course, there are still a few minor obstacles standing between me and entrepreneurial greatness: capital, time, business expertise and a willingness to risk everything I own on the assumption that other people would enjoy spending their afternoons exactly the way I do.
Details.
But if I could start a business right now, I think that’s where I’d begin—not with the lease, but with the story.
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