Looking for a Wine Career? Look No Further.

When I took a break from my high-tech career nearly 20 years ago, I decided I wanted a wine career. I’d always been a wine lover, and I knew that I wanted to do something in the industry. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but knew that I wanted to work with wine. In this article, I’ll review my history of becoming a wine consultant.

My Wine History

After temporarily leaving high tech, I started my wine career by working for a small winery, helping them build their corporate events business and working in their tasting room.

I then moved on to working in a wine store where I was a team member answering customers questions and helping them find the wines they were looking for.

While both activities were fun, they weren’t home runs for me. I wanted more creativity and more control. When I landed on the opportunity to become an independent wine consultant, I knew that was where I wanted to be. I loved the idea of having my own business.

Overcoming My One Qualm About Being This Wine Career

The one serious qualm I had about being a wine consultant is that WineShop At Home, the company I was talking to, is a direct sales business. I had always steered clear of direct sales businesses. When I was in college, a fellow classmate in my dorm sold products like toothpaste through a direct sales company. She was always breathing down people’s necks. When she saw we were running low on something, she would swoop down. Sometimes we would borrow full product from one another to avoid her eyes. The experience was incredibly unpleasant. And I decided that’s what direct sales was and that I wanted nothing to do with it.

I expressed my concerns to the woman I was talking to at WineShop At Home, the company I signed up with and am still with 15 years later. She convinced me that WineShop At Home wasn’t that type of direct sales company. She said we’re all about helping people have fun with wine. The wine kind of sells itself. Well, after doing eight or nine tastings, I got it. The people at my tastings had so much fun, and the ones who liked the wine bought it. Others didn’t. It was all good.

I like to say that we’re a kinder, gentler direct sales company. But the longer I’ve been doing this, I now realize that there are a bunch of kinder, gentler direct sales companies out there.

The Benefits of a Direct Sales Company

Even though the direct sales approach turned me off initially, I now see it as the perfect business model for this type of business. Why?

• You have a winery backing you who makes the wine, has the alcohol license and does all the heavy lifting when it comes to the wine industry.
• You have a low initial investment, which makes it very easy to start your wine career.
• You have many other people to learn from.
• You get to do the things that are most fun for you: introduce people to great wine, get to know a bunch of people, run your own business.
• You can easily walk away from your business if your life changes and your wine career no longer fits neatly into your life.

Exploring the Wine Consultant Path

If you’d like to explore becoming a wine consultant, please check out my wine consultant pages and call or email me at 650-714-7009 or mailto:betty@winetastingsandmore.com.

Cheers!