The conference was held in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, but still under 300,000. The state is much bigger in area than Texas but lacks the infrastructure we take for granted in the lower 48. As you can imagine, the winters are harsh, and the people are stalwart.

While most of the rest of the country enjoys a booming economy, Alaska suffers from a recession, brought on by the collapse of oil prices in an oil-producing state. Needless to say, they have to find a new path economically and so they are turning to entrepreneurship.

What could we possibly bring to the table that would help them in their challenge? What could we bring that would have a universal and positive impact on those folks who now face raising themselves up by their own bootstraps? We looked at our own bootstrap experience and discovered three practical lessons we could share:

1. Follow Your Opportunity …Passionately!

You often hear, “Follow your passion!” It seems to make sense on its face, since we all need that drive and tenacity that comes naturally when we follow our passion. But you can follow your passion right into the poor house if you are not fortunate enough to have a passion that is in great economic demand.

We followed our opportunity, passionately. The chances are greater that opportunities, not necessarily in your passion, will present themselves more often. We found we didn’t have to give up on our passions to seize the opportunity we were presented with. As a matter of fact, we found many creative ways to use and incorporate our passions into our mercantile business, not the least of which was Worthy Cause Marketing.

We saved a bundle on commercial advertising by supporting worthy causes we were passionate about. We wanted to give the members of those causes a social reason to discover, buy, and advocate our products. This can work in Alaska!

2. Use your Hidden Assets and Resources.

The VC’s have brainwashed most startups and small businesses into believing that the only way to success is to secure a big investment, go through a burn rate, scale fast, and fail fast. If you are playing a numbers game, then you only need one unicorn in 10 if you expect a 10X return. Forbes, the SBA, and others all agree that still, today, 9 out of 10 new businesses fail. ‘Sounds like they are indeed failing fast.

But what if you don’t get a big investor and don’t have the luxury of a big burn rate? If you are like most of us, you don’t! So now we are talking cash flow management. And the secret to cash flow management is reducing your need for cash and growing slowly, but surely!

One hidden asset we had was our top supplier. Outside of product (wine), our biggest need was packaging materials (glass, corks, closures, labels and cartons). Because we were a low priced product with high volume, we would use more of these materials than any of our supply company’s other customers. We certainly let them know this, but we didn’t stop there.

We met with them quarterly to share our growth plans and negotiated a long-term contract. We let them know ahead of time when we couldn’t make our payments. And we gave them a catch-up plan that would bring out account current. Over time, we were able to gain extended credit and terms that saved us from borrowing the money or worse, trading equity for it.

Treating your suppliers as partners to save money can work in Alaska!

3. Put Your Self in the Other Guy’s Shoes.

You hear this all the time. It basically the golden rule. But just how does that translate into practice in the business world? And why does it remove obstacles and speed the processes you rely upon?

We found 7 distinct people we had to sell in order to get our product to market. They each wanted something different. Surprisingly, most of them were interested in something else entirely beside “The best wine and the best price” (our slogan).

For instance, our own people wanted income, acknowledgment, time off, and a company that stood for more that its product. The ownership of our distributors wanted a strategic advantage with a powerful retailer who wanted our product. The distributer’s sales managers wanted to make their numbers. The salespeople wanted to make their commissions. The retailers wanted a proven product with excellent customer service. The store clerks wanted to feel important, so they would recommend and reorder our products. Only the consumer really cared about the wine or the price!

But discovering and delivering what each person in the chain wanted (and not what we thought they wanted) was the key to our success. This can work in Alaska, or, for that matter, anywhere.

We admire the spirit of Alaska, and hope these lessons help vitalize their recovery!

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.

The post 3 Lessons to Vitalize Your Business! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The C-E-O (Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization) had their Annual Conference this past October 31 – November 2 in Chicago, and we were thrilled to be a part of it. When we got up to the stage and even before we began our keynote address, we were taken back by the spectacle of nearly 1,200 college students, faculty, and young entrepreneurs from around the world.

This gathering of aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs was representative of the future of the American economy. Ranging in age from 18 to 24, this was Generation Z at its finest! It was a moving experience to realize that among these young people would emerge the next Steve Jobs and similar business rock stars of the future.

Over the three days of the national conference, we heard many inspiring speakers share their experiences on what it takes to make it in business. We were most impressed by seasoned entrepreneur and senior editor of Inc. Magazine, Norman Brodsky. Norman began his keynote speech not from the stage but from the back of the room, true to his out-of-the-box theme. Then, as he walked through the crowd of young people, he asked a series of questions and provided some surprising answers.

At one point he asked, “What is the main job of the CEO?” The young crowd peppered him with an array of answers from “leadership” to “fundraising,” from “the buck stops here” to “company vision.” After each suggestion, he gave a loud emphatic “NO!” After a period of silence, Norman said, “Culture! The CEO’s main job is to build positive company culture – because true success ultimately comes from your people!”

We couldn’t agree more, and, as a matter of fact, our success with Barefoot Wine was really the success of our team culture. We gave them permission to be creative and, yes, even to make mistakes. This inspired a culture that was fun and friendly, open and respectful of the contributions of others. With the customer at the top, serviced by our sales people, everybody else in the company understood that they worked in Sales Support. Creating positive company culture is the main job of the CEO. Thank you Norman for the reminder!

We met hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs from C-E-O chapters in 43 states and several Canadian provinces. They were all there to soak up as much as they could from proven successful business executives. Throughout the conference, we found that the #1 misconception most folks had was they thought the distribution of their product was somehow going to take care of itself, and that the strength of their idea and the demand by the public would be enough to pull their product through the distribution channels.

Once again we had to remind them, “You can’t buy it if it ain’t there!” And it won’t be there unless you see to it yourself. This is especially true at first when you are an unknown. We live in a wonderful country with the most efficient distribution infrastructure in the world. Shopping in stores brimming with choices of all sorts of products gives us the mistaken idea that everything we see is all there is. But there are thousands of products we never see because they simply never made it to the shelf. Sure, you have to have a great product at an affordable price with a cute logo and compelling catch phrase, but distribution management is ultimately the deciding factor.

We hope our experience and the experience of others who spoke will give these young people the insights they need to succeed. We want the new entrepreneurs of Generation Z to be Generation Zero-limits! Go get ‘em, Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization!

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.

The post The C-E-O is the Future of The American Economy appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.