Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | The Barefoot Spirit

How to Use Your Suppliers as Investors to Reduce Your Need for Capital

THAR’S GOLD IN THEM THAR BILLS!

by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | Business Blog

Nobody likes to get bills. They seem unending and chew up your monthly income as fast as it comes in. It’s probably the scariest part of starting a new business. You begin to realize that the bills are due no matter whether you have the funds to pay them or not. Many...

5 Startup Lessons

by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | Business Blog, Interview

I’m not a connoisseur of wine. I’m still confused about which type of grape corresponds to which type of wine, and still have not perfected my pronunciation of “sauvignon.” Over the years, I haven’t improved much when it comes to wine selection, but I have spent a...

5 Key Elements of Productive Business Relationships

IT'S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!

by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | Business Blog

As you conduct your business, you will find a myriad of folks you will interact with, and their cooperation and support are crucial to your success. Simply having a killer product at an unbeatable price just isn’t good enough to guarantee success. You must gain the...

5 Keys To Launching A Successful Startup

by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | Business Blog, Contributed Blog

Most start-ups fail. Two recent articles, one by Forbes one by Fortune, cited a 90% failure rate of start-ups. And top Harvard Business School lecturer, Shikhar Ghosh, confirms that 75% of U.S. venture-backed firms don’t even return investors’ capital. In search of...

We Need More Successful Startups

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey | Business Blog

Earlier this year, Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, warned about the declining “birth” rate of new businesses compared with the current “death rate.” We found his Gallup Business Journal article so interesting that we think some of the statistics he quoted...