Employees | The Barefoot Spirit

Fresh Air Improves Productivity and Your Bottom Line

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 18:21:38 +0000

What your people to be more productive?

Here’s a novel idea: open the window.

That’s right. Give them some fresh air.

According to Joseph G. Allen, assistant professor and director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the air quality in your office affects your employees productivity. He is the principal investigator of the Cog Fx Study lead author of 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.

These studies prove what we’ve known for years, there is a direct relationship between ventilation and a worker’s ability to process information, make strategic decisions, and respond to crises.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

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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Will the Predilections and Prejudices of Your Employees Hurt Your Business?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 31 May 2018 17:00:45 +0000

The Starbucks Experience

Starbucks just found out the hard way. Their own people can take unwarranted, fear-based actions that marginalize an entire segment of the population. They found out that those actions can reflect on their company which relies on the entire population, not a single segment, for its reputation, brand image, and ultimately, its very income!

Starbucks simply cannot withstand a boycott by the offended groups or their supporters. There is a real business message here! People vote with their money and they will no longer vote for businesses that marginalize them or others. We admire Starbucks for taking responsibility and for beginning a sensitivity program that is aimed at addressing this problem. But it is in their own best interests.

With the ability to quickly capture, share, and go viral, events of this nature can dramatically affect business. That reality has every business now thinking about the mindset of those they hire who represent them. It’s not enough to hire on skillset alone anymore. Their predilections can turn business away!

Prejudices in Business & Politics

Although much progress has been made since the early days of the civil rights movement, recent behavior by our top elected officials has encouraged many with deep-seated prejudices to act out. They somehow feel vindicated. These people feel they have been given permission to marginalize people. They see top elected officials name calling, ridiculing, dehumanizing and disrespecting large segments of the population based on race, religion, or national origin – and some follow their example.

ABC found out the hard way. Rosanne Barr’s marginalizing tweet about Valerie Jarrett went viral. They were forced to cancel her show or face a boycott of advertisers who are dependent on sales to the entire market, not just one segment.

So, we seem to be living in a society with a double standard. It’s unfortunately “OK” for elected officials to marginalize folks, but not for businesses. Businesses are held to a higher standard of respect for civil liberties. You might have to wait years to vote out elected officials. But you can vote out Starbucks or ABC tomorrow!

Good News & Bad News

The bad news is that as far as we have come, latent stereotypes, fears, and prejudices are still prevalent in our society. It seems to be emboldened and sometimes taken into action by people who harbor these predilections. Perhaps they are choosing news feeds that agree with those prejudices. Perhaps they want to take the next step backwards. Or perhaps they actually believe that society is returning to a more intolerant time.

The good news is that most businesses must serve the entire society. Unlike politicians, they can’t just play to a narrow base. In fact, their customers, their advertisers, and their suppliers are holding them accountable for the behavior of everyone who represents them. In a way, we think businesses that want to include everyone as potential customers have become the inadvertent defenders of civil liberties.

We like to say, “If you really want to change something, put a buck on it!” Marginalized groups like African Americans, Latinos, or the LGBTQ are now powerful economic forces to be reckoned with. Employee sensitivity training might start with why we are all dependent upon one another, how our very livelihood comes from people of all races, religions, and national origins, and why we need everybody’s patronage to earn our paychecks.

Perhaps, if we started to look at everyone as a customer, we would treat them with more respect. Minorities have huge financial clout. They know if one minority is marginalized, their minority might be next. So basically, it’s just plain bad business to bring prejudice in any form into the marketplace. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!

Who We Are

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

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Whatever Business You Think You’re In, You’re in The Personnel Management Business

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 10 May 2018 17:00:55 +0000

We recently had the pleasure of spending the day with 65 MBA students from Nanyang University in Singapore. 25% of the class were part-time students who were already running their own businesses. They asked most of the questions because they obviously had the most immediate concerns.

One question that was particularly telling was, “How do you to get the most out of your employees?”

We’ve given many talks and worked with many companies on this issue, plus we have our own experience building the Barefoot Wine Brand. We had virtually no turnover during the last several years before we were acquired. These were also the same years that the brand made leaps and bounds in the marketplace and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Most of those solutions came from our own people.

“What was the most important thing that made the difference?” they asked.

We told them to “overkill on orientation.” First, your employees have to know where the money comes from and how it gets to them.

Don’t just show your new employee the bathroom, the coffee room, and their go-to person. Take orientation to a whole new level driven by two concepts:

You can move wet cement with the trowel, but when it hardens, you’ll need a jackhammer. Your people will create their own ideas of how things should be done if you don’t provide them early and often with your way of doing business. Their preconceived misconceptions are at the root of most engagement issues.
Most people can instantly grasp an image yet struggle over dialogue and written text. Use graphic simplicity to present seemingly complex ideas in pictures, charts, and process maps that are easy to understand.

Use these concepts by presenting them on day one with two such infographics:

“The Money Map”.This is like a treasure map that shows the employees how the funds to pay their salary, bonuses, and benefits come into your company. It graphically demonstrates every transaction that must occur between the ultimate end-user and all the players and stakeholders your company must satisfy in order to pass those funds up the chain, step-by-step, to your company. It shows how each player must cover his overhead, make a profit, and purchase your products and services.

The money map not only shows new employees where the money comes from, but it shows them the bigger picture. For one thing ,it eliminates the idea that the employer is some kind of a sugar daddy and clearly demonstrates how dependent the employee’s income is on the performance of the company.

By demonstrating all the key relationships, the employee begins to clearly see how they can fit in and how they can make a difference. It’s hard to engage people when they don’t understand the wider business process at play. In fact, they will make their own assumptions about the nature of things. Over time, these misconceptions will harden, and ultimately you as their employer, will need that jackhammer.

“The Two-Division Company”.Unlike the typical pyramid structure organization chart with many layers and silos indicating status divisions of labor and chain of command, we gave them a very simple organization chart with only four boxes stacked vertically.

The top box was labeled “The Customer”. The next box was labeled “Sales”. Below that was a box labeled “Sales Support”. The final box was labeled “Not Employed Here!” So, in our company, everybody who is not in Sales was in Sales Support. That included most of our employees.

This gave everybody the message that we should be listening closely to what the salespeople and the customer service people had to say about the customer and the marketplace. After all, they were the only people in the company that were in direct contact with the customer and marketplace every day. And as they learned from the money map, that is where their salary came from.

This form of orientation quickly and clearly shows your new employees how they are positioned to make a difference before they develop entrenched and counterproductive misconceptions. If they don’t get these simple concepts early on, it will be much more difficult to engage them in problem solving, innovation, and disrupting initiatives. But when they have a firm foundation and understand how it all works, they will not only be engaged, they will be empowered!

Who We Are

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

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5 Ways to Grow and Build Trust

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 18:34:21 +0000

First published on Entrepreneur.com on 11/12/2017

From your creditors to your employees, good business relationships are built on trust. Can the people who depend on you, confidently rely on you to treat them fairly? Once you have proven your dependability, they will make allowances for you and extend their level cooperation. This is essential to your business success.

How much will you save on loan interest with extended credit, easier terms and complementary warehousing? How much will you save on hiring and training by reducing turnover, engaging your people and having them go the extra mile for you? How much will you save on advertising with cooperative distributers, loyal consumers and customers who become advocates? The sooner you demonstrate your trustworthiness, the sooner you’ll receive these benefits and more!

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur.com

Who We Are

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

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The 4 Core Competencies of the Barefoot Startup

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 18:00:07 +0000

If you managed to survive the entrepreneurial process from ideation to monetization and you were asked to boil it all down into core competencies, what would you say? How would you even begin?

We faced this exact challenge. Our employees, business associates and clients all kept saying that we should break our journey down into its essential parts and expand upon those parts. So, for a year we kept tossing around ideas, thinking about how we could get these concepts across to startups.

Focusing on why so many startups failed seemed to be a good place to start. Did they all have something in common? What were the areas that most of the “failures” failed to master? Surprisingly, they all lacked competency in one or more of 4 key areas. So, we decided to focus on those areas and prioritize them in The Barefoot Startup’s GPS (Guiding Principles for Success). Here’s a brief summary:

Monetization Strategy. Crazy as it sounds, many startups never ask the fundamental question, “Why am I doing this anyway?” Is it a lifestyle? Is it a legacy? Or is it to monetize on brand equity? If you’re setting your course on an eventual acquisition, merger, or public offering, the steps you take at the beginning of your journey will be critical to your survival. They will determine your expansion plans and the steps you take to maximize your brand equity. This choice means that your goods or services must be scalable, and your business can run without you. It means that your files reflect your acquirer’s due diligence. And it also means that you know and establish the metrics and milestones you need to become an acquisition target or, as we say, “Get your peanut in front of the elephant!”
Cash Flow Management. The goal here is to reduce your need for capital. Do you know how identify and utilize your “hidden” assets. Ideally, your buyer’s will pay you before you need to pay for your supplies and overhead, and this is possible. But for most of us, we need to juggle! And we need to spend every dime on the bills before we pay ourselves. This is why outsourcing, reducing overhead, and pay-as-you go are so critical. This is why income and cost projections are so essential. You need to establish revenue, even if its small, before you ask for investors’ money. Do you know how to establish strategic alliances with your suppliers and your buyers, to reduce your need for capital?
Personnel Management. The goal is to reduce turnover, the #1 hidden cost of doing business, and to engage and empower your people. How you find good people and build great people are covered in our video. We believe it is essential to overkill on orientation from day one to demonstrate where the money really comes from, including all the hands, hoops and twists it has to go through to get to them. Paying for performance encourages better performance. Paying by the hour encourages longer hours, not necessarily resulting in productivity. Nurturing a culture of permission, encouraging innovation, and giving public acknowledgement for a job well done are absolutely vital to building a productive and supportive team. Sharing challenges with the entire staff on a know-the-need, rather than a need-to-know basis will unlock your personnel assets to solve problems on the fly.
Distribution management. Do you know how to get your product or service to the market, and more importantly, keep it there? Distribution is everything from supply chain management to sales. Sales is not just to your end user, but to your own people, your B2B customer, their B2C customer and eventually to their (and your) end-user. Understanding and delivering what each person in the chain requires can make the difference between access to market and being shut out. Not understanding the true cost of sales is the biggest single reason for startup failure. Start small, make your mistakes in a small place, learn from them, and get your act together before you take your show on the road. Don’t scale fast to fail fast!

Are you interested? We know that these 4 core competencies, so often overlooked, are so important that we spend an entire hour on each one in our online video course, The Barefoot Startup’s GPS (Guiding Principles for Success). Check it out.

#BarefootStartup

Who We Are

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

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Soft Skills Can Result in Hard Cash!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:00:23 +0000

A big part of our “Barefoot Startup” movement is being, well, friendly! You may have the world’s greatest app, most awesome hardware, or must-have consumer product, but the colder your attitude, the higher your price of doing business! Instead of crying about how much money you need to get started, the Barefoot Startup asks, “How can you reduce your need for capital?” The Barefoot Startup knows how!

For us, it’s hard to watch so many startups fail because they say they “couldn’t raise enough cash,” when, realistically, they have not yet addressed the core issue. We ask, “Did you really need all that money to start with?” At the Barefoot Startup, we believe that there are many ways to get your idea off the ground and grow your business effectively that do not require cash. One way is by being more resourceful, and yes, friendly. But you need to be genuinely sincere about your friendliness; Just acting friendly can be seen through and easily backfire!

So, what is “friendly” and how does it translate into profitable business relationships?

Here’s a clue – think about how you treat your friends. You have their best interests at heart. You demonstrate this with your actions. You would never mislead or manipulate a true friend. Think of your family members. You take a sincere interest in their lives. You know their aspirations and their challenges, and you are there to help and encourage them.

Now think about how you felt when they showed up on moving day to help you pack up your stuff, when they introduced you to that key person who helped you with your problem, or when they just listened to you when you needed a sounding board. Their interest in you and your needs made you want to treat them special, give them the benefit of the doubt, and make allowances for them.

Isn’t this what you want from your business associates? Special treatment, the benefit of the doubt, and allowances made for you are all valuable. In business, this can translate into cash. Let’s look at the 4 groups of folks most businesses have relationships with and how you can be friendly with them:

Employees are often seen as an expense, and therefore are an untapped resource. And yet, turn-over is the #1 hidden cost of any business. Employees are more likely to stay with you if they believe you have their best interests at heart. Demonstrate this with fair pay, time off, and an interest in them as individuals. They will be more engaged if you show them appreciation for the good work they do. They will go the extra mile if you compensate them, at least partially, on performance.
Vendors have the ability to extend your terms and increase your credit, but will only do so if they trust you. You will build trust by keeping them up to date on your payment status, sharing your plans for growth, and making good on your promises. When you show them your loyalty by purchasing certain items exclusively from them, they may show their appreciation by giving you breaks on warehousing, shipping, and quantity purchases. Vendors are also a wealth of information. So, treat their sales people like gold …it pays!
Investors are more willing to extend financing if you have demonstrated even a small positive cash flow. They want to see that you appreciate their predicament and are willing to take steps to mitigate their risk. When you demonstrate that you are being frugal and resourceful with their money, investors will be more receptive to the idea of investing more and offering you better terms.
Buyers require reassurance before they will carry your products and participate in your promotions. You can gain their confidence by being dependable, providing industry information, and helping them achieve their goals whether strategic, metric, or mercantile. They appreciate your kindness when you give them personalized attention and provide the help they need without being asked. They will often return your favors by opening doors previously closed to you.

When we speak at universities and technical schools, students of entrepreneurship often ask us, “What else should I be taking beside business to help my startup be a success?” We always answer, “The Liberal Arts, also known as the Humanities.” History, sociology, psychology, philosophy, literature, communications and critical thinking are great “soft skills” tools that enable you to better appreciate and communicate with the people who can make allowances for their “friend,” YOU!

Who We Are

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

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How to Make Sure You Hear the Good Ideas That Will Improve Your Company

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 15:07:20 +0000

Often the best ideas to solve problems, cut costs and improve sales come from your own people — but they never get to you.

Why? Because you have inadvertently allowed your company’s structure to prevent them from doing so.

Employees, vendors and customers are loaded with good ideas to help you succeed. But are you willing to listen?

If you think you know more about your product than anyone else, or that accepting ideas from others is somehow implying that you, the product creator, don’t have all the answers, you may be losing out on a goldmine.

This mindset is counterproductive to improvement. You may be making a statement but losing a deposit.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

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

The post How to Make Sure You Hear the Good Ideas That Will Improve Your Company appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

5 Ways to Build and Grow Trust

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 08 May 2017 17:40:51 +0000

Good business relationships are built on trust. People who depend on you, from your creditors to your employees, need to confidently rely on you to treat them fairly.

Once they know you can be depended upon, they will extend their cooperation and even make allowances for you. This is absolutely critical to your success.

The sooner you demonstrate that you are trustworthy, the faster you will receive the benefits, such as extended credit, loyalty, engagement, priority ranking, increased sales, and opportunities. The key is to be proactive. Look for ways to show all the folks you work with that you have their best interests at heart.

Here’s our short list for how to build and grow trust:

1. Communicate often

Be clear about what you are doing and why. Don’t leave anyone in the dark guessing what you are up to. We recommend regular meetings with creditors, suppliers, outsourced services, and your own team. Alleviate their fears by sharing vital information early and often. The more they know, the more confident they feel about working with you.

2. Forge alliances

Identify who gets ahead if you do and forge these strategic alliances. Treat these folks like business partners, such as sharing your plans for expansion with suppliers who will benefit from your increased business. Discover how you can work together to improve their business while reducing your need for capital, such as long-term contracts in return for free warehousing and better terms.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

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

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Give Your People Permission to be Brilliant

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 17:00:13 +0000

These days there are tons of companies that say they want their people to be more engaged, but are they giving them permission to do so? Yes: permission! It’s subtle, but powerful.

Permission is a powerful idea in determining company culture. Are you giving your people permission to be creative, make decisions, solve problems, and take responsibility? Or, in the name of efficiency, structure, or compliance, are you preventing the very type of support you need?

Here are some ways to give your people permission:

Compensation

Some part of employees’ compensation should be based on sales, growth, and profits. It will take some time to identify and agree upon metrics used to measure those key indicators, but get started now and tweak it every year until it’s right.

If you offer a bonus, make it quarterly. A year is too long for them to remember, and after a poor first half of the year, they may just give up. Quarterly is short enough to remember, and if they have a bad quarter, well, there’s a new opportunity next quarter.

Knowledge

Your staff can’t help you if you don’t tell them what you need. Many businesses believe in the “need-to-know” policy which keeps employees in the dark. We believe in the “know-the-need” policy which includes them in the company’s challenges, opportunities and triumphs.

They already have your corporate knowledge and a stake in solving your problems, especially if they share in your success. We suggest quarterly meetings with sales and sales support staff (i.e., everybody not in sales) to brainstorm solutions. They will surprise you with their great ideas!

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

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

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Are Your Company Values Shared by Your Customers and Employees?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 18:00:07 +0000

You can’t enter a reception lobby of any established company these days without seeing a plaque on the wall that says “Company Core Values.” This is the company’s way of announcing to vendors, employees, and customers the principles, ethics, and morals for which the company stands. Terms like honesty, integrity and morality are common. Some companies get more specific and talk about treating people equally, being a good neighbor, or even making the world a better place. But today’s customers and employees are looking for specifics that can help them justify an association with your company.

Most companies want to keep their core values statement as politically neutral as possible. They consider “political” issues those that have been politicized, even if they are more a matter of survival and security. For instance, a company may use a term like “fairness” but not take a public stand on massive deportation, even though they have employees whose families would be impacted. They want to play it “safe.”

Companies may use terms like “integrity” but have a huge carbon footprint. Or they may say they are an “environmentally conscious” company, but their product comes in a single-use plastic container. Is it “ethical” to damage the environment to make a buck? At some point your company may be called upon to take a public stand. You don’t want to be put to the test trying to justify your apparent two-faced stance.

When we were building the Barefoot Wine brand, we decided to support several non-profit conservation groups that were, at the time, considered to be radicals with intentions to damage the economy. They included The Surfrider Foundation that was cleaning beaches and the ocean, The League to Save Lake Tahoe that was keeping pollution out of the lake, the Mono Lake Committee that was supporting the restoration of Mono Lake and the Mono Basin, which meant reducing water consumption in the greater L.A. Metro.

We were advised against “taking sides” on these “political issues.” We were admonished that people who made their money polluting and destroying the environment wouldn’t buy our brand if we took such a stand. In 1990 during the AIDS crisis we came out in favor of LGBT rights. Again, we were admonished not to take sides on such a “political” issue.

Turns out we were on the right side of history, but also we gained a big advantage in the marketplace with these marginalized groups. They saw us as early supporters and as a result, they became loyal customers and advocates. Was it risky? Yes. Did we suffer some push back? You bet! But the detractors eventually became supporters as they “evolved” and became better educated over time. And for us, as a new product, we needed customers even if it meant that some people disagreed with our stance. The one’s who agreed created our solid customer base.

Today, when you realize that you are dependent on selling your products to folks who are being marginalized by race, religion, or sexual preference, can you really afford to remain silent and play it safe? Is your company’s silence on these issues “ethical?” Is it even good business?

It’s time for companies to takes another look at those “values” they have hanging in the reception area. It is time for companies to take a stand and perform according to their values, rather than merely stating them on a plaque. Their customers are looking more closely now to justify their spending choices with companies that share their values. And employees are concerned about the real values demonstrated by the company that gives them their paychecks.

It’s time for companies to build a strong and loyal customer base by taking a stand on the issues that affect their customers and employees. Why risk losing business with corporate silence to a competitor who sees the advantage of speaking out?

Who We Are

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

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