During the interview process, we often ask, “In your previous job, can you give us an example of a problem you solved by applying a principle you discovered in another situation?” Most folks answer with a question, “Like what?” or, “Can you give me an example?” And therein lies the problem.

When people in the boomer generation were growing up, our parents would inevitably say, “Why don’t you kids go outside and play?” We had no video games, no computers, and no electronic toys. Except for bikes, we had very few manufactured toys. We made our own toys, and, in most cases, we made up our own games.

We had to extrapolate. We were forced to be imaginative. We were forced to be resourceful. We were hands on and creative. If anything, our parents were worried that we were watching too much T.V.

We were forced to learn principles first, then apply them to examples. You couldn’t build a toy or make up a game without knowing, or looking for, the principles that made the toy work or the game possible.

But then, the electronic babysitter came along with games and cookie-cutter challenges which the kids quickly mastered.  Multiple choice and cut and paste quickly replaced start from scratch, build your own toy, and create your own games. But in the process, something very important was lost: critical thinking.

With the information age came a fixation on all things digital. Basically, imagination took a big hit, resourcefulness took a big hit, and so did extrapolation. Suddenly all your options were clearly described and laid out in front of you. You just had to choose between them.

Kids raised with this multiple choice, copy-and-paste approach could now learn examples without having to know, or even look for, the principles behind them. The problem is that later on in life, they turned into the “like what?” bird, saying “like what” to every request, even when the same principle was at work in two seemingly unrelated situations. Like what became the lazy, knee-jerk, and go-to response that required the least amount of thinking and responsibility.

Too bad business isn’t all prescribed choices. If it was, this dumbed down way of looking at things would work. But situations occur daily that require the application of previously learned principles in totally new situations. Extrapolation is essential for the type of imaginative problem solving that gives you the advantage in the market place.

Why hire a person who can only copy and paste? Why spend unending hours providing examples until they get it? And even then, they only get the example you described.

This is why so many employers are looking for people who will make the training process a breeze and quickly prove that they can create imaginative solutions on the fly – people who willingly and competently take responsibility for jobs where all the answers are not clearly spelled out.

So, if you are a parent, consider what that screen is doing to your kids’ future. If you are one of those kids, take a break and go out and play! If you were raised by computers, look for the principle behind the scenes. Seek it out before you just copy and paste!

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 Is Extrapolation an Endangered Talent? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

But there are many critical lessons Boomers have learned, mostly the hard way, that are timeless. These lessons are not “retro” but classic, and will be true for centuries to come. Millennials will have to learn these lessons themselves eventually, or, if they are smart, they can save themselves the time, money, and pain by learning from the Boomers while they are still around.

Why not get a big head start today and learn classic truisms that are understood by those with more experience in business and human behavior?

Part of the Boomers’ legacy is invaluable to Millennials trying to establish themselves in the business world. Millennial success is critical to the future economy. Here are three key areas where Millennials should seek advice from Boomers:

1. How to be Resourceful. Many Millennials think that you just come up with a business plan, get it funded, and voila! Instant millionaire! Any successful Boomer will tell you that the business plan takes an immediate back seat to the cash flow plan as soon as you open your doors! Also the idea that funding somehow allows a “burn rate” that presumably extends the runway long enough to achieve that positive cash flow is fraught with hubris and a quickly approaching cliff! Boomers who have made it will confess that they typically had to develop a positive cash flow quickly to survive.
2. How to Build Strategic Alliances. The concept that assumes that with enough money you can pay all your bills regardless of poor sales is also a classic fantasy, but somehow has become very popular. Successful Boomers will tell you that no matter how much money you have, you still need to develop strategic alliances. These are the businesses you will work with and depend upon for your essential goods and services. As you become successful, they become successful. There are ways to get your creditors to extend your credit, thereby reducing your need for cash, and successful Boomers know how it is done.
3. How to Create Sustainable Growth. So many Millennial businesses today go out of business because they didn’t get their act together before they took their show on the road. By the time they find out what is truly required to grow, they areout of money. Boomers who have faced this problem of growing too quickly will tell you to start small, make your mistakes in a small, manageable place, and make the fixes. They will advise Millennials that truly sustainable growth is knowing the real cost of sales.

Not every Baby Boomer has had the business experience and success to earn the credibility to be thought leaders in entrepreneurship. But the ones who have actually done it, and who are willing to take the time to share the lessons they’ve learned, are well worth listening to. They are giving the Millennials a legacy and a gift. Millennials can tell them about technology and Boomers can tell them how to use it best. Cool tools are great, but actually making money with them is better. Why not get the best of both generations working for you?  Don’t throw the Baby Boomers out with the bath!

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 Don’t Throw the Baby (Boomers) Out with the Bath! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

What’s going through your mind? Short-term security with a good “solid” job and get-by retirement, with apparently little risk? Or a much bigger risk but a giant paycheck for building and selling a business?

Before you take the plunge, take stock of your philosophies. That’s right, your philosophies, how you think about stuff, how you make decisions, and how your judgements are formed. More than any other single factor, success in entrepreneurship comes down to making more right decisions. What influences those decisions? What standards do you hold up as guides and measures? In entrepreneurship it is your decisions that can make or break you.

Do you think, for instance, that if your idea is good enough, your quality high enough, or your prices low enough, sales will take care of themselves? In other words have you bought into the popular notion that it’s all about the product or service? We did! And boy were we surprised! This is a commonly held misconception! Sure, you must have a great product at an attractive price, but actually getting it to the ultimate customer is a much bigger challenge than producing it in the first place.

Do you think that those who have a financial interest in seeing your product stay in stock and reordering it, will keep selling it? We did! Wrong again! They have too many other products to sell to put much energy in to a new, unproven one. Especially in the critical early stages, we found that we had to sell it for them, over and over again. In fact we had to do so much of what we thought was the other guy’s job that we wound up with our own sales team, and that cost us plenty.

Do you think you need tons of money to get started? In retrospect, we found that being undercapitalized actually forced us to be resourceful and innovative. If we had been “properly financed” we would have never discovered how to get the word out about our product through worthy cause marketing. We would have just thrown lots of money at advertising, the common approach to marketing.

Do you think your vendors are trying to squeeze you for payments?  We actually increased our credit when we were late on our payments! How? By treating our vendors the way we wanted to be treated, with a friendly heads-up call in advance of a late payment, along with a plan to bring our account current. We met with them bi-monthly to appraise them of our progress. Your vendors can be your strongest strategic allies!

Do you think salespeople are out to unload merchandise on you or somehow get over on you? If you do, you will lose one of the best sources of information about your competitors and the market changes. Vendors and salespeople know what’s going on and they can share it with you.

Where do these inaccurate business philosophies come from? It could be your childhood, what you have heard from others, or assumptions you have made about the market. For instance, you may think no one has come up with your great idea yet because you haven’t seen it. In fact, you may not have seen it for sale because the original developers may have been unable to bring it to market. Don’t be like them.

We can help by sharing the lessons we learned most often the hard way. Get the big picture before you take the plunge!

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 Thinking About Taking the Plunge into Entrepreneurship in the New Year? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The idea might be for a great product that makes life easier. But to actually have a monetization event where you get paid for your idea, you must create a business that sells it. Now you have to demonstrate that there is a substantial and increasing market for your idea. You do this with sales.

If you intend to eventually attract an investor, acquirer, or cash infusion partner, your business must show the level of earnings they are looking for. Most businesses are valued on a multiple of annual earnings, so, in most cases, it is the earnings they are investing in, not the “idea.”

For us, it took 19 years to finally achieve the earnings and the sales necessary to attract an acquirer. For every category of consumer product and price point, there is a corresponding number of earnings and sales that your business must achieve before any acquirer will even look at you. And those numbers can change with the times and the economy. But once you know what those numbers for your particular type of business, you must grow to at least that size.

Now you are involved with growing a business and all the critical make-it-or-break-it decisions that are required daily. How will you make more right decisions? What principles and standards will you employ to hold up as a guide in every aspect of your business?

If we had known then what we know now, it might have taken us half the time to monetize our business. We learned most lessons the hard way, but now we have 20-20 hindsight. Like a Monday morning quarterback, we look at our history and realize what we did right and what we could have done better.

Many folks with great ideas who want to get paid for them are starting out just like we did: not realizing all that is involved to reach that monetization event, not realizing the long term effects of daily decisions, and not really employing a set of time-proven standards. We can help!

Our New York Times bestselling book, The Barefoot Spirit, is our story of hardship, hustle, and heart. We wrote it as a business adventure story to entertain and enlighten. It’s about the real world, not academic form and function. But now we have distilled out of it The Guiding Principles for Success that ultimately guided us, resulting in our success. We put them into a 30- day, four-part video-webinar series. Each week for 4 weeks we present a one-hour content video and 4 days later, a one-hour live Q&A. We wish someone would have sat us down and had this chat with us!

Part 1 is “Starters for Startups.” It breaks business down to the things you should know before you get started and the mindset required to overcome the challenges ahead.

Part 2 is “Being Resourceful – Cash Flow Management.” It examines the ways you can reduce your need for capital, increase your credit, and extend your terms.

Part 3 is “Engaging and Empowering Your People – Personnel Management.” It explores ways to reduce turnover (the #1 hidden cost of business) and how to motivate your people.

Part 4 is “Sales Is King – Distribution Management.” It focuses on the most important part of your business – sales. It tells how to get your product to market and how to keep it there.

We employ 20 Guiding Principles for Success to these core competencies. Stop wasting your time and money in your quest to monetize your great idea! Go to www.BarefootSpiritGPS.com for a free sample.

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 Save Time and Money Monetizing Your Idea appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.