Nine Years Building a Craft Distillery: The Invisible Work Behind Backwoods

When Leigh and I started Backwoods Distilling nine years ago, we had one simple goal: make exceptional Australian spirits. That part hasn't changed.

If you walked into our distillery today, you'd still find Leigh doing what he loves most - making whisky and gin. He's still the distiller, still experimenting with grain and botanicals, filling barrels and obsessing over every detail that ends up in the bottle.

His role has always been easy to explain. Mine has always been a little harder to define because it's changed alongside the business.

In the early days I focused on building our brand. I built our website, wrote product descriptions, managed our social media, started an email list and tried to tell the Backwoods story.

Then we opened our distillery door, and my focus shifted again. I was hosting tastings, looking after visitors, bottling spirits, packing online orders and doing whatever needed doing that day.

A few years later, the business changed once more.

Living in a small regional town is something we love, but it's also taught us not to rely on tourism alone. Visitor numbers can change with the seasons, the economy, bushfires, floods or, as we all experienced, a global pandemic.

It became clear that if Backwoods was going to be sustainable for the long term, we needed more than one way to reach our customers. We couldn't simply wait for people to find us. We had to find them.

That completely changed where I invested my time. I immersed myself in ecommerce, digital marketing, email marketing and learning how to build an online business that could introduce Backwoods to people all over Australia, not just those travelling through Yackandandah.

At the same time, Leigh and I both started spending more time working on the business instead of simply in it. We worked with a business coach, implemented Profit First and together we've spent countless hours learning about cashflow, planning, systems and leadership. Most of that work is invisible.

Nobody notices an afternoon spent reviewing budgets. Nobody congratulates you for improving your cashflow or documenting procedures. But I've come to realise that this invisible work is just as important as making great whisky. In many ways, it's what gives us the best chance of still being here in another ten years.

One of the biggest milestones in our journey isn't a whisky release or another trophy. It's the shed we're currently building on industrial land we purchased more than two years ago. A purpose-built bond store and processing facility has been years in the making - not just because of the cost, but because of the planning, compliance, funding and countless decisions that come long before the first slab is poured.

Nine years ago I would have thought the exciting part of the job was creating new products. Today, I know it's building the foundations that allow us to keep creating them for decades to come.

Here's a bit of a brain dump of the lessons I've learnt building Backwoods over the last nine years.

Making great spirits is only half the job

The product creates the opportunity. The business gives it a future.

When people imagine running a craft distillery, they picture creating new spirits, tasting whisky and winning awards.

Those things absolutely happen, and they're some of the most rewarding parts of what we do. But they're only half the job.

The other half is bookkeeping, tax and excise, marketing, forecasting, customer service, freight, staffing and making hundreds of decisions every single week.

For a long time I thought the business existed to support the product. Now I realise they're equally important.

The business will keep asking you to learn

You don't really get to choose what you learn. The business chooses for you.

One thing I've learnt is that the skills that get you started aren't necessarily the skills you'll need a few years later. The business has continually asked different things of me.

First it needed a brand. Then it needed a visitor experience. Then it needed an ecommerce strategy. Now it needs stronger systems, better planning and a team that can help carry the load.

None of those things were part of the original plan, and not all of them have come naturally. But that's one of the unexpected realities of running a small business.

Sustainable growth has always been the goal

Sometimes success isn't measured by how fast you grow. Sometimes it's measured by your ability to keep going.

People often ask us if we want to get bigger. The honest answer has always been the same - only if it makes sense.

We're not interested in growing for the sake of it. We'd much rather build something sustainable than something impressive from the outside. And there have been years where simply staying profitable felt like success.

We started a business that was still finding its feet when COVID changed the world. Since then we've navigated bushfires, floods, rising costs, changing consumer spending and the realities of manufacturing in regional Australia.

None of that was in the business plan, and looking back, I don't think those years held us back. I think they taught us resilience.

The work nobody sees has become the most important

The whisky is what people see. The invisible work is what keeps the doors open.

The biggest changes in our business over the last couple of years haven't been new products or awards. They've been learning how to build a stronger business.

Working with business and marketing coaches. Understanding cashflow. Forecasting and reviewing budgets. Building systems and processes. Planning further ahead than we ever used to.

It's not glamorous work, but it has probably had a bigger impact on our future than almost anything else we've done.

Building a team might be our biggest achievement yet

For most of our journey, Leigh and I have done almost everything ourselves.

We're still the first ones in and often the last ones out, but we're beginning to build something that doesn't rely entirely on the two of us.

Soon we'll have four permanent team members, including us, along with an incredible team of casual staff who give us something that's hard to put a value on - weekends with our kids. That feels like success.

It's also incredibly rewarding creating jobs that people genuinely enjoy. Work takes up such a big part of our lives, and if we can provide meaningful employment for a handful of people in a small rural community, that's something we're really proud of.

We don't need to employ hundreds of people to make a difference. Creating four or five great local jobs has an impact too.

We're still learning

If there's one thing these nine years have taught me, it's that running a craft business isn't just about mastering your craft. It's about becoming the person your business needs at each stage of its life.

Sometimes that means learning marketing. Sometimes it means understanding cashflow. Sometimes it means becoming a better leader. Sometimes it means admitting you don't know something and finding someone who does.

I'm incredibly proud of the spirits we've created over the last nine years. But I'm just as proud of the business we're slowly building around them.

It hasn't happened quickly and it hasn't always been easy. But it feels sustainable. And I think that's definitely something worth celebrating.

If you’re still reading, I have a favour to ask

If you love what small Australian producers do, please keep supporting them.

Whether it's a local distillery, brewery, winery, cheesemaker or baker, every purchase matters more than you probably realise.

Behind every product is a small team trying to build something meaningful. We notice every order. We celebrate every returning customer. And we're incredibly grateful when you choose to support us.

If you've enjoyed reading about our story, here are a few ways to stay connected with Backwoods.

• Visit our distillery and experience Backwoods for yourself.
• Join our email list for new releases, behind-the-scenes stories and updates.
• Follow our socials to see what we're building next.
• Explore our range of award-winning Australian spirits.