Clients | The Barefoot Spirit

The 5 Requirements We Look For in a New Client

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 18:00:01 +0000

We work as advisors to help businesses monetize their brand equity. In other words, we use our considerable experience having built and sold a business to help a select group of businesses do the same. But how do we select our clients? And what do we look for?

We look for the factors that we believe are necessary for them to achieve a successful acquisition. Many entrepreneurs want to get paid for their innovations. There’s a ton of legal services out there that are only too happy to sell them patents, trademarks, and copyrights. They’ll even put together licensing agreements and provide introductions. But from our experience, the way you make the most on your concept is to wrap it in a product, wrap the product in a business, wrap the business in a brand, and build your brand to the point that it attracts your acquirer.

It involves a lot of inglorious hard work and takes longer than you think. The sales cycle alone may be more than your budget can tolerate. But if you have what it takes, it’s doable! What does it take? Well, aside from persistence, excellent cash flow management, excellent personnel management, and excellent distribution management, it takes a certain kind of business.

We can’t help everybody. But everybody we help has to succeed. Our reputation is based on it. How do we mitigate our risk on the front end? How do we know when we are looking at a business that can benefit and will benefit from our advice? These are the requirements we look for in any new potential client.

Coachability

Simply, are they coachable? Will they take advice? Will they listen and apply? Are they willing to do what’s necessary even if it’s work they hadn’t planned on? Do they have respect for the experience being shared? Are they willing to work hard and long hours and make personal sacrifices? And lastly, the most important, do they take responsibility for their own actions and that of their business?

Scalability

Is their business scalable? Is there a product, service, or application that can be duplicated and achieve an increasing volume of sales? Is their product codifiable, mass-producible, and widely marketable? Does it satisfy a market-wide need or solve an unaddressed problem? Have they distinguished themselves with a product that has little or no competition?

Seasoning

Do they have some previous business experience? Do they have experience with their own product or market? Have they either achieved a breakeven or positive cash flow yet? Do they have at least some customers? Have they learned about what changes their product needs to be more acceptable to the market? Do they understand the value of sales overproduction?

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Can their business ever run without them? Are they willing to delegate? Do they know what they are good at and what they are not? Are they willing to admit it? Have they ever considered replacing themselves? Are they writing down everything including job descriptions, policies, procedures, checklists, and sign off sheets? When they make a mistake, do they learn from it and improve their documents to make a reoccurrence less likely?

Acquirability

Are they in business for the expressed purpose of eventually selling their business? Do they know who the top 5 potential acquirers are in their field? Do they know how big they have to be to pique the interest of an acquirer? Have they researched the metrics necessary to achieve before they would be considered as an acquisition target? Can they ultimately part with their business? Do they want to sell in 2-5 years (even if it takes 10)? Will they make the strategic moves to get the attention of an acquirer?

If they have something that improves their industry or makes the world a better place, if they can answer yes to most of these questions, and if we have good chemistry, then we can make a big difference, save them tons of money and time, and relieve a lot of the fear of the unknown. We want to use our experience to help others succeed faster!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 New Year’s Resolutions to Improve Your Bottom Line

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:30:19 +0000

We all want to see our businesses prosper in the New Year. We want our products and services to become more relevant. We want to reduce turnover, reduce our need for capital, and see our people more engaged and empowered. We want to reduce costs and increase profitability. But where do we start?

This year we have been asked for our top 5 New Year’s resolutions to improve any business. Since it’s easier to shake the tree from the top, we’ll start with the boss. If that is you, your attitude toward business relationships will make all the difference. Here are the top 5 resolutions that will improve your business for 2015 and beyond:

1. Resolve to treat your employees like owners. If you want your people to act more entrepreneurial, treat them like owners. To make sure they know where the money comes from – the customer – show them a “money map.” Make sure they know that everybody not in sales is in sales support by making their bonuses dependent on sales. Let them know-the-need instead of only what you think they need to know. Give them written appreciation acknowledging a job well done, and copy it to your entire team.

2. Resolve to treat your customers like family. You wouldn’t want to offer inferior products or service to your own family. If you were selling to your grandmother, you would deliver 110%. You would listen, and then adjust your product/service and it’s delivery to her feedback. You would honor your commitments to your family and exceed their expectations. You would want to make them happy and do whatever you could to please them. Do the same for your customers.

3. Resolve to treat your vendors like partners. They’re not just salespeople selling you services and supplies. They are strategic allies who benefit when you benefit. They want to see you succeed, because your success means they can sell more to you. Don’t blind-side them when you can’t pay your bill – give them a heads-up in advance so they have time to make adjustments. Generally, all they need to increase your credit is trust in you.

4. Resolve to treat your financiers like friends. Meet with them regularly. Tell them everything, not just the achievements and goals, but also the challenges. Look to them for advice. Make them feel like they are part of your company, and they will surprise you with their support. They can lengthen your terms, reduce your interest and give you timely short-term loans to help you through the tight spots and underwrite your growth. Few of their debtors really level with them and your transparency can give them the confidence they need to make exceptions and bend the rules in your favor.

5. Resolve to treat your competitors like mentors. Instead of looking at your competitors as adversaries, study them and learn from them. Notice where they are missing the market, and where they are capturing it. Take note of where they are becoming less relevant and don’t jump over that cliff with them. Zig when they zag. And especially if you are starting out, sell where they are not. Don’t try to copy them or you will make the same mistakes. Don’t compete, distinguish.

New Years is merely a celebration about the passage of time, but you can transform it into something more meaningful. Make and keep these resolutions and you will transform your key relationships. After all, it is our relationships with others that we rely on for our success.

Happy New Year everyone!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Happy Holidays!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:30:48 +0000

Well it’s that time of year again when we reach out to friends and family to let them know that they are important to us. It’s even better when we can spend some time with them. We love this time of year because it reminds us that family and friendship is what it’s all about.

During the year, it’s easy to get wrapped up in work, carried away by “making progress,” and becoming so focused that we forget to say, “Hey, you’re important to me” to the people that matter most. But no matter what your faith, the holidays force us to put on the brakes and spend special time with those we love. In fact it’s an institution that is hard to ignore. If it’s not the familiar holiday music, it’s the decorations everywhere. They’re all signaling us that it’s time to get back to basics, it’s time to touch base, and it’s time to be a real human being again. And do it quickly before this year is history!

Thank goodness for this annual reminder! Sure, it always seems like it arrives way too fast and we’re always unprepared. As the clock counts down, we may even feel pressured to visit friends, buy presents for family, and call everyone we can’t see. But wait! Let’s get back to what’s really going on here. We’re being reminded by these holidays to show appreciation for who’s really important to us in our lives.

And if we haven’t connected as much as we would like to during the year, we are reminded that this is our last chance before the year is over. In the process, we are also reminded how busy we have become that we may have inadvertently relegated some important relationships to a lower priority than our work, career or projects. In fact, if it wasn’t for the holidays we may even lose track of some of those important relationships. We ourselves certainly fit into that profile more than we would like to.

But this is what we are all working for; this is what we all have at the end of the day and the end of the year, family and friends. So try not to see it as a chore and don’t feel under pressure. Be grateful that you have some folks that you care for and who care for you. Be grateful that you can spend some time and show them that you truly appreciate the relationship you have with them, even if you don’t express that during the year. As far as business is concerned, it’s OK to hang it up for a while. You have permission to take some time to give and receive appreciation!

We want to take this opportunity to give appreciation to each and every one of our readers, all of the students of entrepreneurship who have listened to us, all of the professors and academicians who have hosted us, and all the organizations that have brought us in to keynote their events over the past year. We wish you all the happiest of holidays and the very best for you and yours for the New Year. And yes, you are important to us!

Happy Holidays!

Michael and Bonnie

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Should Some Clients Be Fired?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:30:18 +0000

With the New Year upon us, we are all reflecting on our past and how we can improve our future. In the early days of our business, we took any client or customer we could get. We had to stay in business. It’s humbling and sometimes we had to put up with a fair measure of abuse. Clients, after all, are human with all the strengths and weaknesses that go along with that. They are in a position of power and they know it.

Good clients realize that treating their vendors (you) with respect will result in you doing an even better job for them because your are more concerned about their needs. They understand that developing a genuinely positive and friendly relationship will pay dividends over the years. Some clients, however, may use their position of power to further their own agenda which may not have anything to do with business or getting the job at hand done. Every salesperson knows this.

As an entrepreneur, you are in sales, no question about it. So the question is, how long do you put up with guff before you fire an abusive client? Well, certainly not in the first few years if you depend on their fees or purchases to stay in business. But eventually you will achieve a positive cash flow and have the luxury of choosing what clients you want to do business with.

Sure, it takes a lot of courage to fire a client. It seems counter-intuitive and counter-productive, but look at it this way: You can do a much better job for your remaining clients when you are working under less emotional stress. Removing fear and negativity from your mind share will do wonders for your ability to perform.

Michael’s father once told him when he was a young boy complaining about a schoolmate, “You are like a space station orbiting the earth. You only have 3 or 4 ports where visiting space ships can dock. When all the ports taken, no new ships can get in. First, you have to open up a port.”

Bonnie’s mother, a Rosie-the-Riveter type from World War II, lived with us for 7 years and supplied us with salt-of-the-earth wisdom and common-sense insights. She used to tell us that seasonal pruning makes the trees grow stronger and produce more fruit. This basic gardening philosophy, along with Michael’s father’s advice, can be applied to your company as well.

As the year comes to a close, take a good look at what clients you love to work with and those that give you that pain in the pit of your stomach. Are you still at that desperate stage where you can’t afford to let them go? Or are you now in a position to take a chance on filling that vacancy with a new client who may be more rewarding to work with? If you are, maybe it’s time to prune. You may just open up the opportunity for the right client that you now have time for. You may find that when unhampered by negative emotions, you can give your company and all your clients your very best.

You have a life too. And your work takes up a major chunk of it. If you’re anything like us, you work hard because you sincerely want the best for your clients. Why not pare down to the clients who really appreciate your efforts and encourage you to be your best? Why not open up a port for the ideal client to dock at your space station?

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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