Page 23 - BusinessWest August 31, 2020

Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire — and he’s poised to enter four more, including Ohio. He had plans to be in roughly 30 by this fall, and signed on with a distributor to make that happen, but COVID-19 has put many of the plans ... well, on ice.
“In Florida, Texas, and some of these other states, there are so many problems that it’s not a good time to launch a new brand,” he noted. “Are the bars and restaurants open? Are the bars closed? That’s typically half our business.”
But Kozub, who was named Busi- nessWest’s Top Entrepreneur in 2016 and thus has a few pieces of hardware from the magazine on display some- where, has certainly come a long way in the 15 years since he started this journey in his basement, using a few thousand dollars left to him by his uncle to create his own vodka.
Indeed, he now has his own dis- tillery in Poland; work continues to expand his footprint geographically; he’s spent $500,000 to create a new bottle — an important part of the puzzle in this industry; and he contin- ues to defy the odds when it comes to making a vodka label stand out and be successful in an immensely crowd- ed field.
“About 97% of new vodkas fail within the first three years,” said Kozub, who used that statistic to segue his way back to the pro foot- ball Hall of Fame and a discussion he had recently with its president, Dave Baker.
“We talked about the 33 million people who have played football, the 27,000 who have played in the NFL, and the 300 who are in the Hall of Fame. What did it take for those peo- ple? What qualities did they have to have to be one of those 300?” he asked rhetorically, drawing a parallel to those who get to the top of their field in any business, and especially his.
“You have to have that persever- ance; there are so many hurdles when you’re running a business — and in today’s present moment, there are even more,” he said while answering his own question. “You have to love what you do and have the passion for it. If there’s a roadblock or wall, you have to figure out a way around it or through it. When it comes to vodka ... yes, you have to have a great product, but you have to be willing to work very hard.”
Kozub’s been doing that since he first launched V-One in 2006, trading in life as a loan officer at a local bank for the life he’s always dreamed of — one as an entrepreneur.
It’s not an easy life, certainly, but it’s the one he certainly prefers.
“When you run a small business,
it has to be your life,” he said in con- clusion. “I don’t know many small- business owners who are playing a lot of golf or have a lot of time on their hands. For me, it’s all about my family
“
hurdles when you’re running a business — and in today’s present moment, there are even more. You have to love what you do and have the passion for it. If there’s a roadblock or wall, you have to figure out a way around it or through it.”
challenges that come up — the finan- cial challenges, the HR challenges,
the legal challenges ... all those things don’t end. And we’re still a very small brand; if we do get bigger and become a national brand, the challenge then becomes how do you stay successful — how do you stay on top?”
As Kozub said, the challenges — the roadblocks and the walls — keep coming. And he rather enjoys finding ways to get through them or around them. v
—George O’Brien
You have to have that perseverance; there are so many
and about my business.
“To be successful, you have to love
it,” he went on. “Like I told Dave Baker
... my worst day at V-One was better than my best day of being a banker. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The
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