Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Returns to Philadelphia to Host Small Business Speed Coaching

PHILADELPHIA, March 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Samuel Adams announced it is hosting small business Speed Coaching in Philadelphia on Monday, March 16^th as part of Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, a micro-lending and coaching program for small business owners working in food, beverage, and craft brewing. For the Philadelphia event, Samuel Adams is collaborating with Fair Food, an organization that brings locally-grown food to the marketplace and promotes a humane, sustainable agriculture system for the Philadelphia region.

During the Speed Coaching, which will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. EDT at Reading Terminal Market (51 North 12th Street), food and beverage entrepreneurs have the opportunity to participate in up to six 20-minute, one-on-one, high-impact sessions. Coaches will include experts from Samuel Adams and Fair Food, along with local area business professionals. Topics covered will include sales and distribution, packaging, finance, e-commerce, and marketing to name a few. While the event is free, small business owners should register online at http://speedcoachingphilly.eventbrite.com.

Participants are encouraged to bring samples of product, packaging, and other items that they want feedback on, and should come prepared with questions regarding specific challenges their business is facing. For example, a small business owner may want to ask a finance professional for advice on how to competitively price his/her product.

Local Impact
"We're excited to bring our Brewing the American Dream Speed Coaching back to Philadelphia for a second year," said Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. "We are already seeing the program starting to have an impact on the area's food and beverage community, and we're looking forward to working with even more small businesses and fellow brewers to help them grow, succeed, and ultimately support their local economies."  

One example of how the program is supporting up-and-coming food and beverage entrepreneurs in the region is Caputo Brothers Creamery, which produces a new type of mozzarella for some of Pennsylvania's restaurants and gourmet food shops including Carlino's Specialty Foods, Fair Food Farmstand, and Sonnewald Natural Foods.  

Owners Rynn and David Caputo, who won the Brewing the American Dream National Pitch Room Competition last December, have been receiving one-on-one mentoring from Samuel Adams for a variety of business issues they're currently facing. "Their business is growing quickly and they have to expand, so among other things we're working with them to identify ways to effectively contain costs," commented Koch.

According to Rynn Caputo the work with Samuel Adams has been extremely valuable. "They have such a passion for helping small businesses and so much knowledge about the food and beverage industry that we feel working with their team could be transformative for our business," she said. 

Program Inspiration
Samuel Adams is celebrating 31 years of brewing, and despite the craft brewery's success, Jim Koch hasn't forgotten how hard it is to start and run a successful small business. That's why he created Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, a unique program that provides the two things he wishes he had when starting Samuel Adams: financing and real-world business advice.

Brewing the American Dream is a partnership between Samuel Adams and Accion, the largest nationwide nonprofit micro and small business lending network. Established in 2008, the program has enabled thousands of small craft food, beverage and brewing entrepreneurs to successfully start, run, and grow their business.  To learn more about the program, please visit: http://btad.samueladams.com.

Samuel Adams, Sam Adams, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream are registered trademarks of The Boston Beer Company.

About Samuel Adams and The Boston Beer Company
The Boston Beer Company began in 1984 with a generations-old family recipe that Founder and Brewer Jim Koch uncovered in his father's attic. Inspired and unafraid to challenge conventional thinking about beer, Jim brought the recipe to life in his kitchen.  Pleased with the results of his work, Jim decided to sample his beer with bars in Boston in the hopes that drinkers would appreciate the complex, full-flavored beer he brewed fresh in America.  That beer was aptly named Samuel Adams Boston Lager, in recognition of one of our nation's great founding fathers, a man of independent mind and spirit.  Little did Jim know at the time, Samuel Adams Boston Lager soon became a catalyst of the American craft beer revolution.

Today, The Boston Beer Company brews more than 60 styles of beer.  It relentlessly pursues the development of new styles and the perfection of classic beers by searching the world for the finest ingredients.  Using the traditional four vessel brewing process, the Company often takes extra steps like dry-hopping, barrel-aging and a secondary fermentation known as krausening.  The Company has also pioneered another revolution, the 'extreme beer' movement, where it seeks to challenge drinker's perceptions of what beer can be. The Boston Beer Company has been committed to elevating the image of American craft beer by entering festivals and competitions around the globe, and is one of the world's most awarded breweries at international beer competitions. As an independent company, brewing quality beer remains its single focus. Although Samuel Adams beer is America's largest-selling craft beer, it accounts for only one percent of the U.S. beer market.  The Boston Beer Company will continue its independently-minded quest to brew great beer and to advocate for the growth of craft beer across America. For more information, please visit www.samueladams.com.

About the Accion U.S. Network
In seeking a partner for Samuel Adams' Brewing the American Dream the company turned to Accion to facilitate lending to hardworking business owners seeking to grow. As the largest nationwide nonprofit micro-and small business lending network in the United States, Accion connects small business owners with the accessible financing and advice it takes to create or grow healthy businesses. Since 1991, members of the Accion U.S. Network have collectively made over 54,000 loans, totaling over $454 million. Additionally, over 500,000 business owners across the nation have turned to Accion for financial and business advice via workshops, online tools, and one-on-one consultations. Globally, Accion is a pioneer in microfinance, reaching millions of individuals through its international network of partners. For more information, visit usnetwork.accion.org. For more information on Accion small business loans in the United States, please visit us.accion.org.

SOURCE Samuel Adams Boston Beer

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