Education | The Barefoot Spirit

National Entrepreneurship Week – Early Exposure Builds Confidence

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 18:00:39 +0000

Gary Vaynerchuk says entrepreneurs are born, not made. We disagree! Early exposure to the entrepreneurial mindset can be the difference between young minds knowing that entrepreneurial success is possible and never finding out. Sometimes something happens at a very early age that opens the door to entrepreneurship as a valid alternative. What is that?

The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreED) promoted Congress to designate the last week of February to answer that very question. Dr. Gene Coulson, the organization’s Executive Director, has some educational programs he is encouraging. He wants to make young people aware of entrepreneurship as a career alternative in grades K-12.

Sure, in kindergarten and the 1^st grade it might be just a definition of what entrepreneurship is, how to spell it, and how it’s distinguished from employment. Exposure progresses and by the time the students are in middle school and high school, they will be aware of entrepreneurship as an option for their future. The key is every student learning more about entrepreneurship every year.

Some of the groups he works with encourage high school students to get involved in a business plan and other types of entrepreneurship competitions. Others bring in real entrepreneurs for the young folks to see, hear, and question. They thus expose the students to successful entrepreneurs who overcame their risk adversity, solved a problem, and improved the community.

Gene feels strongly that it’s the entrepreneurial mindset that really distinguishes the true entrepreneur from the business school students learning form and function. And that mindset can be encouraged at an early age. He says young folks need to take inventory of challenges and problems within their own communities, see them as opportunities, and imagine ways to solve them. Encouraging young people to begin to notice these problems and ask, “Who else do these problems effect?” is the beginning of ideation.

One member of EntreEd is the Generation E Institute which is promoting the “Entrepreneurs Interview” during National Entrepreneurship Week. During the event, middle school and high school students have the opportunity to meet local entrepreneurs and business owners. Smaller groups of students ask them questions in an informal conversational setting, then explain what they have learned to others.

This approach incorporates social skills, writing, communication, and public speaking – all essential entrepreneurial skills in themselves. But the contacts these students make will also become opportunities for future job prospects, mentor relationships, and community goodwill. Check out more ideas for the Generation E Curricula for K through 12 in Teaching Success: New Directions in Entrepreneurial Education.

We love this whole concept! These young people grow up thinking of entrepreneurship as a valid alternative rather than something reserved for the elite or well born. We feel that the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught and with that education comes the courage to take risks and see ideas through to success. It can help young people look at problems as opportunities and can give them the communication, social, and other skills necessary to engage and empower others to make their ideas a reality.

Gene is promoting these K-12 programs in the rural parts of Appalachia. Instead of resistance to these ideas, he was met with enthusiastic support. With the demise of the coal mining culture, the community has welcomed these programs. “Entrepreneurship is the only hope for this region,” they say.

Big companies and industries come and go. And when they do go, like coal in Appalachia, those who have been dependent on them for employment will be looking for solutions. Perhaps those solutions are in our schools right now! Let’s take out an insurance policy on our future. Let’s celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week by supporting ideas like those encouraged by EntreEd to build some great entrepreneurs!

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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Ask the Right Questions to Get the Right Answers

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 18:00:41 +0000

Last week we had the honor of hosting 21 undergraduate students from the Minor in Entrepreneurship (MiE) program at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. For most of them, this was their first time in the US. They went on to visit the great entrepreneurships in Silicon Valley, but our home was their first stop.

This would be their first impression of America and American entrepreneurship, so we had to set the tone for their visit and lay the foundation to interpret the keys to successful entrepreneurship.

We decided to start with the basics by asking key questions and giving them the three core competencies necessary for success. We examine these critical issues in depth with plenty of examples and stories in our new full length course (The Entrepreneur’s GPS) designed for aspiring, startup, and growth-phase entrepreneurs.

Here’s a brief summary of some of the questions we posed in the live, in person seminar we put on for the Nanyang students:

Why are you starting a business anyway? Are you looking for a lifestyle, a legacy, or are you building a brand that you will one day sell? If it’s the later, that goal will have a great bearing on how you organize, strategize, and grow your business. It will greatly influence your decision-making process.

How will you pay your bills? Cash flow management is absolutely crucial to the survival of any successful business. You simply must make more than it costs to stay in business. Not only that, but you must find ways to reduce your need for cash through resourcefulness, strategic alliances, and fostering critical relationships that build trust.

How do you engage your people? The hiring process is the most important part of this process. We shared what to look for in selecting new hires and how to orient them to understand exactly how their job makes a difference in sales, the overall security of the company, and ultimately the security of their own job. We discussed how to pay them, acknowledge them, and get their insight to solve problems.

How do you get your product to market – and keep it there? In reality, this is the biggest single challenge a new entrepreneur will face. A popular misconception is that price, quality, and value alone will do the trick. It’s just not so! What does each person who touches your product really want? It may not be what you think. And are you ready to do their job if necessary? Who are the real owners of your brand?

All these questions and more must be answered correctly by every successful entrepreneur. When you see a big, successful company, remember, they weren’t always this way.

We tasked the Nanyang students to look for how each of the successful companies they would visit actually answered these questions. We did not give them all the answers, but we did give them most of the important questions. We hope they enjoy and learn from their exposure to successful American Entrepreneurship.

Who We Are

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

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4 Tips to Avoid Drowning in Startup Expenses

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:00:36 +0000

Worcester Polytechnic Institute near Boston may not be a familiar name. However, many major tech and engineering companies regularly recruit WPI grads. They appreciate the well-rounded education of many of their students who also take classes in business, management, and entrepreneurship.

We recently spoke as part of their executive speakers series about the three core competencies of entrepreneurship: Cash Flow Management, Personnel Management and Distribution Management. We shared with the WPI students and faculty lessons we learned from our experience building the Barefoot Wine brand that we believe all businesses must master in order to survive and thrive.

Many wanna-be entrepreneurs fear failure or loss of control of their companies due to lack of funds. They know many startups fail because they have made too many financial commitments before achieving positive cash flow.

Actually, what they really need is sales! Sales earn investments in real estate, equipment, and personnel, and not the other way around.

In our talk about Cash Flow Management, we offered these tips designed to avoid unnecessary expenses and lengthen the runway until sales take off:

Use Your Hidden Assets. Maybe you have a garage or an unused room you can use as an office to get started. We used our laundry room for the first two years. Maybe you have family members who can do some of the work. Bonnie’s mother and nephew came to live and work with us. What can you repurpose for your workspace? We used an old door on two sawhorses for our desk. This allowed us more funds for the surprising cost of sales required to get our business off the ground, as you too will soon discover

Outsource to Local Producers and Service Providers. Right in your own region are companies that can provide you with many of the goods and services you need. You can pay as you use them, eliminating the need to tie up capital in manufacturing, hardware, or office space. In fact, if you write your contracts properly, you don’t have to take delivery of any products not up to you strict quality control guidelines. We succeeded without ever owning an office, a vineyard, or a winery.

Hold Minimum Inventory. Strive for just-in-time production. Although it’s tempting to go for the quantity purchases to reduce your cost per unit, sitting on unsold inventory can be costly and get your business in trouble. Sales volume must justify quantity purchases. Instead, find suppliers who will warehouse goods for you until you need them. And offer buyers quantity discounts for cash to help your cash flow. We found when buyers buy big, they sell big – and reorder quickly!

Extend Your Credit and Terms. Treat your vendors as strategic allies. Grow together, each benefiting from the growth of the other. Gain you supplies trust by monthly or quarterly meetings where you share your goals, opportunities, and challenges. Show them empathy when you can’t pay your bill on time by giving your vendors advance notice and payment plans. Give them a long-term contract so they see your loyalty. Be patient. Your positive performance over time will win you the higher credit limits and terms you need to save your cash flow.

There’s more than one way to achieve a positive cash flow in the early days. These are some that worked very well for us. And, if you are lucky enough to have investors, they will be more comfortable working with you when you demonstrate resourcefulness by reducing your need for cash.

Who We Are

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

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The Barefoot Startup’s GPS Will Help You Succeed in Business

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:00:32 +0000

After several years of keynote speaking, writing and coaching, we, the Barefoot Wine Founders, are happy to announce our first full-length video series on our favorite subject, entrepreneurship! We’re pretty excited!

Announcing The Barefoot Startup’s Guiding Principles for Success (GPS)TM.

This video series is designed for aspiring, startup, and growth-phase entrepreneurs in all industries who want to benefit from our considerable experience building and selling Barefoot Wine, an iconic international consumer products brand.

This is a wide-ranging collection of hard-learned lessons that are easy to understand and will be of great benefit to beginners and experienced business people alike. The lessons are designed to show you how to save time, money and precious resources.

We discuss the three core competencies that every business has to master… no matter what the business. These competencies are: cash flow management, personnel management, and distribution management. Proficiency in all three is a must for success! We provide the primary objectives of each core competency, and share with you the key guiding principles that apply to each one. We also provide the standards to guide you to better decisions in these crucial areas, these are game changers!

The videos are dynamically organized and presented in 4 modules, each one under an hour, presented each week over 30 days: (1) Starters for Startups (Start off on the Right Foot), (2) Be Resourceful (Cash Flow Management), (3) Engage and Empower Your People (Personnel Management) and (4) Sales Is King (Distribution Management). After each module, we offer a live Q&A session for another 45 minutes to answer your burning questions!

(1) Starters for Startups (Start off on the Right Foot): Thinking about our own experiences, we realized that if we knew more about where we were headed, we would have done things differently from the start. So, the first module begins by asking a lot of questions we wish, in retrospect, we had asked. For instance, why are you in business? How big do you want to become? How do you discover the key metrics that help set your goals for a capitalization event (public stock offering, an investment partner or acquisition)? How do you organize your documents – and why? And the list goes on. The answers to these questions will lay a solid foundation that you will thank yourself for later.

(2) Be Resourceful (Cash Flow Management): The cash flow report replaces the business plan on day one. Just how do you make ends meet? How can you increase your cash and reduce and extend your payments right away? The answers we have may surprise you.

(3) Engage and Empower Your People (Personnel Management): You are going to be working with people. How you treat, compensate and engage your personnel will build your business, forge and grow critical relationships with outside vendors, buyers, and lenders – AND will reduce the #1 hidden cost of business, turnover.

(4) Sales Is King (Distribution Management): Ultimately you’ve got to sell your products. That means you will have to depend on others to get your products to the ultimate end users. How you manage your distribution channel will have a bigger impact on your success than the price, quality, or demand for your products. Sales can be easily stopped anywhere in the distribution channel at any level. We will tell you what skills, attitudes and specific relationships are required to keep the pipeline full and moving.

For those first to sign up for the series, we will give free bonuses including info-graphics, Due-Diligence Checklist for Acquisition, Top 10 Questions to Ask an Investment Broker, Case Study of the Barefoot Brand, exclusive membership in the GPS Community Forum, and detailed worksheets for each module to keep businesses on course.

We will offer a free one-hour introductory webinar so folks can test drive the “The Barefoot Startup’s GPS” If you (or any one you know) would like to discover the secrets of what we’ve learned in 20 years of building a top global brand, now is your chance! This is the first time we are offering this exclusive, boots-on-the-ground information designed specifically to help others gain an edge in their industry.

Sign up now and we will notify you when our free introductory webinar will be available. You’ll receive a few of our expert business resources right away to help boost your bottom line.

We offer you the solutions that proved successful for us- against overwhelming odds! And we learned to have fun along the way! We are thrilled to now have the opportunity to share these lessons with you, to make a difference in your business and future.

To your success!

Who We Are

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

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Pretending To Understand Can Be Costly

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 17:57:08 +0000

We live in a world that expects us to know and understand increasing complex technologies. Our allocated time to digest new information has been cut to a fraction of what it once was. In a world of Tweets, posts, quick starts, and “Just tell me the one thing…,” it’s easy to miss the point, and the implications. It’s easier to fake it and just say, “Got it!” when we really don’t.

We are under considerable peer pressure to get it and get it fast. It may seem to us that the others are getting it – but are they? Or are they too faking it?

When we listen to explanations of technology or comprehensive processes with other “students,” we notice that often the basic questions go unasked. Why? Because people don’t want to appear to be the only ones in the group who looks “stupid.” Sometimes, technology presenters go directly to explaining the process without first laying a good foundation of understanding. Very few people will stop them with basic questions. But these fundamental questions not only help you better understand and utilize the presentation, but in many cases, they help the entire group.

Here are some basic questions that need answering even if the technology presenters don’t volunteer the information:

Why are we doing it? Is the applied technology solving a problem? If so, what problem? Just getting a good definition of the problem can give you the bigger picture into which you can better understand, categorize, and utilize the solution. It also helps the presenters better understand how to convey and tailor the concepts and processes.

What does it do? You likely don’t know the technology’s full capability. If you did, you may ask different and more poignant questions. Maybe it does only part of a process but the presenters may assume you understand the whole process, buzz words, etc. After all, the techies live with it and are very familiar with what it does.

What else has to happen? Many times what is being presented may be only part of the solution, requiring other applications in order to function. What are the other parts that have to work in concert to enable the user to receive the benefits?

What is the cost? The cost is not just the onetime cost, but also the monthly fees, installation cost and maintenance – not only of the application being presented, but also the costs of the associated services and applications such as hosting and special tools within the larger application. Don’t wait and be surprised by these hidden costs.

What are the meanings of the terms used? Presenters, especially the techies, will use terms that they and their colleagues are familiar with, assuming that you know their meanings. Often they will use brand names for applications without making it clear that this is one company that offers this service but there are others. Don’t be afraid to stop them and ask “Is that a company name, a service, an application, or a combo?”

What is the implementation process and lead times? It’s a good idea to know how long these things will take so you have a better idea of what gets done first, second and third. Understand the order of what has to be in place and how long it will take to get it there.

It’s OK not to know it all. It’s not OK to pretend or put on airs that you get it when you don’t. It’s OK to ask “dumb” questions. Others at the presentation will be glad you did, and so will the presenters.

Who We Are

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

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A Message to the Graduates

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 17:00:06 +0000

We attended the Stanford Commencement ceremonies to support our young friend Zach Stuart who was graduating in Mechanical Engineering. He was part of nearly 3,000 recipients in several different disciplines to receive their degrees this year from this paramount of higher education. As we sat there in the huge stadium and watched the proceedings we couldn’t help but recognize that these young people will change the future.

NBC News foreign correspondent Richard Engle, a Stanford grad himself, gave the keynote. He encouraged the grads to take chances and “Please don’t get a desk job!” He said that the world was on a collision course with three super trends: technology, over population, and climate change.

He warned that when these forces combine into a deadly cocktail we will see a chaotic and unstable future. He painted the picture of populations doubling and, at the same time, being able to better communicate. He said this would lead to political upheaval where demigods promise peace and stability but disappoint only to be replaced by yet another demigod. He drew the picture of a horrific collision between a bus and a car and said all of the human experience can be seen in that moment; life, death, rescue and escape. He told the grads they could learn from witnessing it.

After graduation Richard Engle left Stanford with $2000 in his pocket and a one-way ticket for Cairo. He said he has been shot at, kidnapped, arrested, and deported during his time as a celebrated war correspondent in the Middle East. His experiences may have contributed to the tone of his talk which was peppered with dire images of an apocalyptic future. Certainly the shock value got the grads attention with the somewhat redeeming message to get out there, take a chance and witness life to continue your education in the real world.

We take a different view. We have spoken to more than 20,000 students in the past two years, but our message takes a more positive spin. We believe this generation will be the saviors, not just the reporters, not just the helpless witnesses. On the contrary, no generation of western grads has been better educated, better informed on world events, more aware of climate change, and more concerned about over population than this one.

Today’s graduates can change the course of the “collision.” They can and will see these mega trends as opportunities for new paradigms, new inventions, and new solutions. Communication can not only make society aware of corruption and foment upheaval, but it can also demonstrate how personal behavioral can empower each of us to make positive changes that can change the world.

Over population’s consequences can be communicated and alternatives offered. New attitudes toward food, air and water can take hold much faster with enhanced communication. Increasing tech-driven transparencies can hold companies accountable for social, employment, and environmental impact.

Climate change can be mitigated with alternative sources of power and transportation. Just making alternative energy more efficient and less expensive than fossil fuel will help the environment, curb warming, and reduce the ongoing wars financed by fossil fuel sales.

All of this spells opportunity for today’s grads.

We want to encourage the grads to not just watch the future, but change the future. Maybe some young engineer like Zach will come up with a breakthrough invention that makes it all possible. One thing is for sure; all grads will be more likely to do it and even more if we let them know now that we are counting on them and believe they can do it! Go get ’em grads!

Who We Are

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

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Sales, the Job That Resists Automation

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 17:00:30 +0000

Once again we have a flood of new grads hitting the job market. But now the concern is, “Will my job become computerized? Will I be out of a job?” Undergrads are asking the question a different way, “What job should I prepare for that won’t be replaced by a robot?” Long-term security plays heavily in the minds of today’s students both before and after graduation. They have already seen many jobs replaced by software or machines and want to know which way to turn.

We believe that there is one job that will always be in demand and can best be done by a living, thinking, feeling human being: Sales! Why? Because ultimately it is a human being that is making the buying decision. They place trust in another human to help them make the right choices. They want to look into the eyes of a real person that they can hold accountable when they make that choice. They want to know who they are “buying,” not just what.

Another reason a job in Sales will endure is that the same skills are required to run any company. You have to sell your staff, your investors, your suppliers, your distributers, and your ultimate customers. These require the human touch and empathy for each person who touches your product or service, from the supply chain to the distribution chain. It’s all sales.

Amazingly, Sales is rarely taught in the schools. Sales Management, where you add up numbers, produce reports, do trend analysis, and create projections is taught. But actual sales, where you farm for prospects, cold call, create relationships, learn the prospects business, gain the prospects trust, overcome objections, master communication, and close the deal, is generally not taught.

So now, the jobs that really can’t be automated are generally not being taught; you would be very hard pressed to find a degree in real sales. Yet these jobs are not only high-paying and in demand, but they will be around for at least the next 50 years.

What should one study to be prepared for a career in sales given that it generally does not have its own curriculum? The Liberal Arts, also known as the Humanities or Liberal Studies. Why? Because in our experience, the more you know about the other person and the better able you are to communicate with them, the greater the likelihood of making a sale whether that’s convincing them to take action, gaining their cooperation, or actually buying a product.

Sociology and Cultural studies will give you a respect for other cultures and their values. This is invaluable to establish essential relationships within an increasingly international market.
Literature, Composition, Speech, Debate and Critical Thinking will help you communicate with every “buyer” from your banker to your employee, and from your wholesaler to your customer.
History and Political Science will give you the big picture perspective, classic lessons learned over time, and will make you aware of the other person’s goals – all essential ingredients to making a sale.
Psychology and Philosophy will help you understand how other people think and why they make the decisions they do.

Sure, there’s more to sales than just the Liberal Arts, but it’s a great start. There is also a myriad of classes on line on sales and negotiation skills to help you with your sales career. But nothing tops actual experience, especially when your livelihood depends on it. You’ll learn the dos and don’ts pretty fast. We did.

So whatever you are taking in school, buy an insurance policy on long-term security by studying the Liberal Arts. You will be a lot less likely to be replaced by a robot!

Who We Are

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

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5 Entrepreneurial Competencies Community Colleges Should be Teaching

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 17:00:03 +0000

As President Obama points out, community colleges are the backbone of the American educational system. He wants to make this 2-year college education financially attainable for all Americans since for most, it is all the formal education they are ever going to get. The question is, what should be taught at the community college level to best prepare the greatest number of Americans to contribute to our economy?

What are the current skills employers want and what are the basics community college grads need to survive economically in the 21^st century?

To answer these questions, we need to take a look at the profile of the typical community college student, where they come from, and where they are going.

For starters they are typically working class people who are the sons and daughters of blue-collar parents and immigrant entrepreneurs. Unlike their colleagues in 4-year schools, many are putting themselves through college by working at part-time, or even a full-time jobs. Consequently, many take up to 6 years to complete 2 years of secondary education. Also, most students in community colleges tend to be more interested in their education than campus life. They are typically down to business.

So given this profile, what would be the most effective education the community colleges could offer? We think it should include entrepreneurship. Since the recession demonstrated to today’s grads that there is no more long-term security in corporate employment, entrepreneurship is now a valid alternative and one many community college grads already choose.

If the goal of the community colleges is to graduate students who are ready to take their places in the work force, isn’t self-employment and the creation of new jobs part of that responsibility? And are their grads ready?

Ironically, the corporations that are hiring, increasingly prefer students with entrepreneurial education. Why? They empathize with their employers as they view business as a whole and not just a group of specialized jobs. They know where the money comes from and what it takes make a profit. We believe this is the most desirable employee.

So what would a two-year entrepreneurship curriculum look like? We think it should include at least the following:

1. Liberal Arts including psychology, philosophy, history, sociology, critical thinking, and communication skills (verbal and written). These competencies will aid greatly in developing and growing relationships necessary at every level of entrepreneurship.

2. Technical Skills including Word Press and other popular programs necessary to maintain a website, and an understanding of all the various social networking platforms and their appropriateness for communicating with prospects and customers.

3. Cash Flow Management including modeling, cost accounting, projections, and budgeting. This should include developing alternatives to getting loans or seeking funding. Resourcefulness can reduce the need for capital, and so can identifying and working with strategic alliances, as well as the outsourcing for products and services required.

4. Personnel Management including compensation and incentive plans, company culture, mentoring, and understanding how to prevent turnover which is the #1 hidden cost of any business. Also, staff selection, hiring, firing, orientation, training, and profit-sharing.

5. Distribution Management, which should include: sales skills and closing techniques; customer relations; the various levels of sales in the distribution chain and what each level wants and why; and how to see every player’s job from their point of view. Also, how to work with the community from which customers emanate.

Whether entrepreneurship is offered as a certification or as an elective part of the AA (Associate of Arts, 2 –year degree), this education will help grads get jobs or start their own companies. Either way, the economy will benefit by reducing the number of “unemployed” grads.

Who We Are

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

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University of Lethbridge Teaches Marketing and Management with Real World Experience

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 18:00:23 +0000

This week we were the Executives in Residence at one of Canada’s premier universities, the University of Lethbridge, with campuses in Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge. In addition to delivering keynotes to several hundred students, faculty, and business leaders, we are also speaking to individual marketing and business management classes about the lessons we learned building the Barefoot Wine brand.

One professor asked us to speak about how we conducted marketing research and acquired information before the launch of our product.

When Barefoot started, we didn’t have a preconceived idea about what we wanted to do. We knew only that it was going to be a wine product. Barefoot Wines was the end result of our efforts to collect a long over-due debt for a grape farmer. Instead of cash, we did a trade for bulk wine and bottling services.

Now we just had to transform the raw materials into cash to pay the debt. But not so fast! This meant that we had to find a buyer for a finished, branded product. We had no idea what was needed or how it should look, but we knew that the chain stores were buying wine in huge quantities, so that was where we started.

We did something that in retrospect seems obvious, but it wasn’t obvious to any marketers with previously designed finished products. Rather than pitch the features and benefits of what we created, we asked the largest buyer in our region what he needed. What he told us was the key to accessing the market in the first place. Never mind the way the brand developed and succeeded. It had to get into the market first.

We acquired the critical marketing information we needed, not from pouring over piles of data, not from extensive focus groups, and not even from interviewing successful brand owners in our industry. We didn’t have the funds nor the time for that approach.

Instead we asked the consumers what they wanted, the warehouse workers how to assure correct deliveries, the clerks what products got the greatest reorders, and the bottling line managers what labels they bottled the most. We asked the retail buyers what price the market would bear for what kind of package and product. Then we worked backwards to develop our product, logo, and budget.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but due to our time pressure and being industry outsiders, we actually collected better, more current, and more relevant marketing information than if we had approached the challenge in a more traditional way.

In fact, the Barefoot brand concept could not have originated from within the wine industry at that time, nor could it have originated from any conventional approach to marketing research. It would have been prejudiced by the way questions were formulated and the way things had been done in the past. In an effort to copy or compete with other successful brands in the space, Barefoot would have turned out just like them. Barefoot was out-of-the-box because it’s founders where never in the box and had the audacity to ask everyone who touched their product for advice. They collected marketing information from the people who physically dealt with products in their category every day. Most had never been asked before.

We laud the management and marketing curriculum at Lethbridge University because it incorporates the experiences and learnings of real-life successful entrepreneurs who overcame the toughest challenges in new and creative ways. We are honored to be a case study and adjunct to their commitment to create the next generation of business leaders.

Who We Are

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

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Worthy Cause Marketing Makes Dollars and Sense

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 19:30:31 +0000

What we dubbed Worthy Cause Marketing back in 1990 was really an outcome from a serious business problem: How could we get the word out about our products when we had no money for commercial advertising?

We discovered something very important when we got a call one day from a neighborhood non-profit looking for a donation for a kids-after-school park. We had no money for a cash donation but we did have product which we donated for their fundraiser. As a result, the membership of that non-profit was able to sample our products and saw that we supported their cause. Sales in the nearby retail account took off.

When we finally put it together that sales were up in that store because we supported the local neighborhood fundraiser, we decided to try it in another neighborhood. It worked! Then we realized that we didn’t have to give up our true passion which was conservation and civil rights just because we were in business. We realized that we could support worthy causes that were worthy of us, our brand, and our products as a way of getting the word out in lieu of costly advertising that we couldn’t afford anyway.

In fact it worked so well that even when we could afford commercial advertising we did not do it. And we discovered something else that was very important yet subtle. The members of the non-profits we supported not only selected our products when they had a choice, but they actively promoted them to friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. They also promoted our products through their networks by thanking us for our support.

We began to realize another important lesson. Part of the discovery process that makes people want to share their discovery is not only the knowledge that the product is great, but also and most importantly, that the person they are turning on to the product couldn’t have known about it any other way. They believe this precisely because they have seen no commercial advertising. They know they will be gratified when their friend says, “Thanks for the great recommendation! We tried it and you were right. It’s great!” So now we had a business reason not to advertise, because the folks who were spreading the news by word of mouth would simply stop if they saw the commercial ads!

So isn’t this just another type of cause marketing? Not quite. The biggest distinction we can make between Worthy Cause Marketing and Cause Marketing is that within Cause Marketing, the support for the cause is advertised to the general public in the hopes that the general public will chose your brand because you are doing good. In Worthy Cause Marketing however, the support for the cause is not advertised to the general public, but is only known to the non-profits’ members and their supporters.

In both cases the decision to support the cause is a sincere intent to help that cause achieve its goals, but the process differs substantially. We have found that Worthy Cause Marketing creates a loyal following when practiced year after year on a long-term basis.

We were honored to be the keynote speakers today at the prestigious Pepperdine University in Southern California at the Margaret J. Weber Distinguished Lecture Series. Given the school’s admirable commitment to social entrepreneurship, we thought no topic could be more appropriate than Worthy Cause Marketing, a driving influence behind the success of the world’s largest wine brand. We hope that our demonstrated success will encourage start-ups, growth-phase and established companies to use Worthy Cause Marketing in their own businesses. We believe they will see, just as we did, that doing good is just plain good business!

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