[NEWSLETTER #1] Business Showcase - Andollini's Winery

View newsletters produced by the San Andreas State Government, and find out what's happening in the government and around the state.
Locked
Solomon Cobb
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:41 am
ECRP Forum Name: Ash

DOC Awards

SASG Awards

LSEMS Awards

[NEWSLETTER #1] Business Showcase - Andollini's Winery

Post by Solomon Cobb »

Image
INTRODUCTION
What does it take to start a business in Los Santos? What is the process of acquiring a property for starting a business and what options are available? What roadblocks do business owners face in the current climate? What is the motivation behind even starting up a business in the first place?

The above questions will hopefully have some answers in this first public release of the Business Showcase, a series of articles covering various up-and-coming businesses as well as established businesses to see what makes for a good venture and a bad one.
ANDOLLINI'S WINERY
This first showcase will be covering Andollini's Winery, located at 4 Buen Vino Road between Tongva Hills and Tongva Valley. This business is run by Mr. Luca Andollini.
Luca Andollini wrote:I came from New York as an only son of a mafia don. My father was disappointed in me, not wanting to be part of his "family". I never cared about his approval and I graduated with a bachelor's degree in agriculture at Michigan University. After that, I took a loan and opened my winery. After some time, I realized my father was laundering money through the winery. That's when I've had enough. I've decided to ship my Shinobi to Los Santos, grab some clothes and hop in my S2 Cabrio speed away. When I came to Los Santos, I did a lot of freelance jobs in order to get on the feet as I could not take any money with me, as it was confiscated by the FBI. One day, I decided that I needed a decent job, so I applied to DCC and here I am now, an Assistant Manager at DCC and proud CEO of Andollini's Winery, the first winery at San Andreas county.
PROPERTY REQUEST

The first step of any business is of course location, where will the business be operating from? For Mr. Andollini, this was an issue as he did not own his own vineyard. There was, however, a property perfectly suitable to this business venture currently not in use so Mr. Andollini utilized the government's Property and Housing Bureau to request to buy this property. (You can view the application here.)

During this process, it can go a few different ways. It could get denied, it could be sold, or it could be leased. For this particular highly valued property the decision was made to lease it to him at the price of $50,000/month. The leasing option gives many benefits to both the entrepreneur and the government. It firstly enables a quicker business start-up as the initial capital invested into the business is significantly lower before opening a business compared to buying an entire property for possibly millions of dollars. It also offers a level of security for the property and housing bureau as leasing means that highly coveted properties will not just remain stagnant and unused if the entrepreneur decides to cease business or fly abroad for an extended period of time.

Image
REGISTRATION AND LICENSING
The next step in the process is business registration and licensing. Registration ensures your business is acknowledged by the government and properly documented, and licensing enables you to start lawfully operating under the guidelines required for a high-quality business. Using Mr. Andollini as an example once again, he requested the following licenses:
  • GRBL:03 - Food & Drink Service
  • GRBL:05 - Liquor
With these licenses, he is held to a high standard of food preparation, safety, and liability when it comes to selling alcohol.

Image
LAUNCH EVENT
Andollini's Winery had a private launch event with select people invited to try out wine and food on offer to gauge the initial reception from members of the public. Upon entering the venue we were greeted by security provided by Diablos Security (Who were all licensed firearm holders and had a valid business license to run security). Walking into the main entrance you pass the wine cellar, and into a lovely rustic property that fits the setting of a winery & restaurant in the county.

The food on offer for the night was grilled fish or sushi, I personally checked the kitchen to ensure everything met the requirements of the Food & Drink Service business license and I am happy to say they passed the inspection with flying colors. The cooked and raw meat was stored completely separate from one another, there were no flammable objects near any open flames or cooking areas, fire extinguishers and first aid kits were on hand in case of emergency.

Image

On top of the food and wine, there was entertainment provided by Asbjorn Schmidt, but this was not your regular party-style music, instead, a mix of classical, jazz and Italian-themed music to perfectly fit the theme of the evening. The atmosphere within the venue was very high quality and everyone I spoke to felt welcome.

Image
AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. ANDOLLINI
1. Where did the idea of the business come from and what was your driving inspiration?
As mentioned before, all my life was centered around agriculture, winery, and being boss to myself. I wasn't aware of the property until I was on a ride with a customer somewhere near the property itself. I was browsing government pages once in a while and saw that you can put in the property request and that is what I did.

2. What planning did you do prior to putting in any sort of applications for property or licenses?
To be honest, I just wanted to get back to one of my favorite things - wine. As I put the property request, all ideas just started to come back from my previous winery.

3. How did you find the property request process?
I was expecting it to go faster, but in the end, I'm happy that the government realized the potential and gave me an opportunity.

4. How did you find the business registration and licensing?
It was great and pretty straightforward. All of the instructions are well written. Business registration and licensing officials are doing a great job and are very kind and helpful.

5. Could you give us some info about your opening night and how it went?
Honestly, a lot more people responded to the invite, but as I was not aware of many meetings being held at the time of the private opening, the outcome was a bit disappointing. In the end, I ended up happy with all the positive feedback from guests and commissioner Langley himself. Also, I would like to thank the commissioner for his promised help in the future.

6. What roadblocks have you had in setting up the business?
It is hard to bring people into this kind of business. Especially rely on them. The first problem for me, and I guess for everyone else, is money. You have to work hard somewhere else to bring in the money to a business, then you don't have much time to build it, organize it, and hire the staff. A lot of sacrifices were made to plan everything up to the point it is enough for it to start working. But enough is not what I'm satisfied with. I want more and I always will want more.

7. What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs in the city?
Take your time, and start slow. I've worked so hard to start something big and I feel like I needed some more time. Talk to people, ask for advice. The most important thing is that you have reliable people on your side and as your staff. Do not get disappointed and be persistent. In the end, the only thing that matters is that you are happy with the business. For me, the winery is like my home and I am not sad nor disappointed if the business is to fail but also, I will do everything in my power to make it successful.

Image
CLOSING WORDS
Overall, we are pleased to see the initial success in starting up this business, and Andollini's Winery is definitely an up-and-coming business to keep an eye on when advertised on Weazel News or through lifeinvader. If you would like your business showcased here reach out to me on the details below. We look forward to sharing more stories of businesses in the city, both upcoming and existing to highlight success stories, tips on how to become an entrepreneur, and to generally share more information on the processes required using businesses as examples.

    Image
    • Image
      Solomon Cobb, Esq.
      Director | Public Relations Bureau
      San Andreas State Government

      [email protected]

      ☏ 335-2510

    Locked

    Return to “SASG - Newsletters”

    Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests