It seems to occur when companies oversell goods and services and then are unable to adequately service their accounts. The people whose job it is to interface with the customer tend to be harried, overworked, and somewhat confused.

But the message to the customer is clear. “Go away, get off the phone. I don’t have time for you, you’re lucky to get me at all. Accept my excuses and empty promises or you’ll get even less.”

Any startup or buildup company would certainly go out of business if their representatives sent this message by their words, actions, or inactions. It seems like this kind of experience is a growing danger in some buildout and enterprise companies that grew too fast, promised ongoing results, and filled their service jobs quickly but not necessarily with well-trained professionals.

Poor Customer Service Examples

Here are some of the behaviors we have witnessed from a customer standpoint:

1. Missed Deadlines

“Don’t worry. I’ll have that for you tomorrow,” is the usual promise, evidently to get you off the phone. But then tomorrow comes, and the day after, and there is no communication whatsoever. You have to call or send emails day after day until you receive what they promised. The implication is that it’s up to you as the customer to oversee them as the service provider.

This sends an “I don’t care, you’re not important to me” message. This frustrates the customer and makes them wonder why they did business with the company in the first place. But they’ve already bought the service, and now they’re locked in. The representative knows this and so there is no sense of urgency. They’ve got us over the barrel!

2. Blaming Others

“It’s not my fault, the tech people didn’t get back to me.” Or “Well, that’s what I was told.” These same representatives force the customer to go only through them for all interactions with their company. The customer is at the mercy of the representative. The representative can say anything to the customer with no accountability. This is because the customer can’t access the right people in the company to get a satisfactory answer.

“They’ve changed the rules,” is another common excuse. In this scenario, the representative blames a third-party for not being able to deliver what they promised. While it’s true that rules change, the representative is under no pressure to identify those changes as soon as they occur. Sometimes the representative only finds out about the rule change when the customer complains about nonperformance. Since the customer can only go through a representative, the customer has no way of knowing when the representative was truly aware of any rule change. But the results usually waste the customer’s precious time. Again, this demonstrates no sense of urgency on the part of the representative.

3. Avoiding Work

“You don’t need that fixed anyway.” “Me and my colleagues have decided it’s not necessary and everything works fine just the way it is.” This is a typical tactic to avoid doing the work the customer requests. Even when it’s the company’s responsibility to provide services without glitches, the representative tells the customer that the glitches are okay and don’t need fixing.

This tactic creates an argument between the customer and the representative as to the true need for the fix. The representative takes the position, “I’m the expert, and I’ll be the judge of that.” This is to mask the fact that the work was not done in a timely manner. It’s like, “It doesn’t matter that we didn’t do the work because it wasn’t needed anyway.” It’s another convenient excuse.

Conclusion

We’ve witnessed other tactics of poorly hired or poorly trained representatives working for large companies that can’t service what they’ve sold. These include emphatically stated outright errors, poor or no preparation for meetings, little or no knowledge of account history, poor coordination, and never acknowledging a mistake or a missed self-imposed deadline.

All of these tactics can occur when representatives believe they are going to get paid no matter what happens to the customer. For them, it’s hours put in and they are overworked. So, their goal is to reduce the work any way possible. We’ve seen this problem occur in top-down companies that view customer service as “complaint resolution.”

These tactics ultimately discourage the customer to the point that they feel obligated to warn others that the company can’t live up to its promises. This reputation hurts the company’s sales. But in the meantime, companies that behave like this suffer a great deal of turnover. This is because they don’t treat their employees much different than they treat their customers. The good ones who want to do a good job, and want to work for a company that lives up to its promises will move on. The turnover hurts the relationship with the customer even further.

It’s only a matter of time before these types of companies will implode from their own policies. We’re shopping, how about you?

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 Overused Tactics of Poor Customer Service appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Almost everyone in the audience is looking for ways to save money in their new or developing business. They’re all looking for the most bang for their buck in every area of spending. Marketing your products and services are probably the biggest challenges new business face. It doesn’t matter how good your products and services are if your customer doesn’t know about them.

No Advertising Budget, No Entry

When we started Barefoot Wine, we were completely undercapitalized. Our first big chain buyer asked us if we were going to spend $200,000 in an advertising campaign to build our brand before he would take it in to his stores. We were so strapped, we didn’t even have one of those $200,000. He then basically turned us down and for good reason, our brand was unheard of, and he would be taking a big risk giving expensive shelf space to an unknown and unproven brand.

He told us that without a well-funded advertising campaign he wouldn’t touch it …and no other chain or box store would either, for that matter. The big chain buyer said, without advertising, we would have to focus on selling the independently owned stores one at a time. We told him, “That will take years!” He said, “You’re right! You better get started!” He did say that once we became a household word, he would put us in to his 200+ store chain. Well, it took 2 years, and yes, he did put us in. His was the first large chain store in the country to take us.

Becoming a Household Name Without Advertising

But we didn’t become a “household word” through commercial advertising. And we didn’t become a “household word” throughout the country at first. We became a household word only in California and we did it through support for the community from which our customers came. You see, the independents were no different than the chains. They didn’t want to take a chance on an unknown brand that wasn’t being commercially advertised. In fact, they threaten to discontinue Barefoot if it didn’t sell within 90 days. And we only had a handful of accounts that would even take that chance, to begin with.

It was during that first in 90 days that we got a call from a nonprofit community organization asking us to support their kids-after-school park. Once again, we had no money. But we did have wine! We donated wine to their fundraiser. The next month we noticed a big uptick in sales in the stores in that particular community. Without knowing it at the time, we had given the members of that organization a social reason to buy our product. They also felt obligated to tell their friends colleagues and families to go out and buy it as well.

We thought, “Wow! Maybe we’ve discovered something here! Maybe this is an alternative to expensive commercial advertising. Maybe it’s more effective simply because it’s more locally targeted. Members of the organization lived in the neighborhoods surrounding the stores where our products were for sale. Then we thought, let’s try this in another market, only this time we asked for a few concessions that the nonprofit could readily provide. They mentioned us in their newsletter, they thanked is from the podium, they let us put up banners, they let us put out lists of where to buy our products at their fundraiser, they let us write posts in their newsletter, they used our logo and let us use theirs.

These were not big national organizations looking for paid sponsorship. These were just little community organizations, but they were made up of potential customers. Why shouldn’t we support our potential customers?

Worthy Cause Marketing

As Ivan Meisner says, “When it comes to networking, take off the bib and put on the apron!” This approach to getting the word out, which we called Worthy Cause Marketing, was so effective that as we expanded Barefoot into other states, regions, and even countries, we got the word out by supporting local communities and their worthy causes.

Already we can hear the objection, “Well it was easy for you. You are selling wine, but how does that work for me with my product and services?” At a local Chamber of Commerce meeting, we met a gentleman who was practicing Worthy Cause Marketing to get the word out about his services. What was he selling? Gun safety! He found that he could support parent-teacher associations, as well as police and sheriffs associations by offering free classes as a silent auction item during their fundraising dinners. Association members saw his support for their cause. Some members bought and used the silent auction classes. They came back and recommended his classes to all the other members.

Targeting the Networked Market

One of the great advantages of working with community organizations is that they are already networked! They are already communicating. And they are local to where your goods and services are for sale. Offering them free goods and services to support their causes as well as helping them get the word out about their goals and fundraisers will endear you and your products to their members. You become part of their organization and a supporter of the causes they hold dear. Of course, they want to support you in the marketplace.

You will not only show the world that you stand for more than the mercantile value of your goods and services, but that you support the causes that are important to your customers. It’s not only a great contribution for your company to make to your community, but in the long run, it’s the cheapest form of advertising!

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 Work with Your Community to Create Advocates appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The interviews with the entrepreneurs that made the list make it well worth the read. But the CEO surveys they ran on the new 500 are even more telling. As folks who have done it from ideation to monetization, we thought you would appreciate a brief summary and our answers to the key questions they asked.

Do you have any entrepreneurs in the family? 45% had entrepreneurial parents. 36% were the first. Bonnie’s mother had a blueberry farm. Michael was the first.

How old were you when you started your first business? 42% were under 25. 25% were 25 – 35. Bonnie and Michael were both under 25.

How much personal savings did you use to get started? 76% used personal savings. The next biggest source was credit cards. For Barefoot Wines we used personal savings, credit cards, and we also took over a client’s debt and converted it into supplies and services.

When did you start paying yourself a salary? 25% said immediately. 32% said within a year. 20% said within two years. For us it was 8 years because we put everything into growth.

What was your biggest challenge? 54% said managing fast growth. Attracting and retaining talent was the next biggest challenge. We agree. The launch is the easy part. Growth requires the right people, a cool head, and a well thought out cash flow management plan.

How much of your growth was funded internally? 40% said all internal. 34% said mostly internal. We grew Barefoot Wines without outside capital, all based on the advice of our cost accountant and judicious use of our cash flow.

Where did your company get ideas for new products and services? 35% said from their leadership team. 28% said from their customers. Only 14% said from their employees. This is where we differ. We got most of our ideas from our employees and the employees of our distribution and sales partners.

What is your primary goal? 82% said scaling. Only 14% said selling. We think the two are inseparable. You can’t monetize without a capital event, whether that’s a sale, merger, infusion, or public offering. And you can’t do any of those without demonstrating scalability.

What is the biggest danger of growing too fast?  One said, “Keeping our company special as we grow.” Another said, “Making hiring mistakes that hurt your company irreparably.” And another said, “Unaddressed problems become much harder to solve later.”  We agree with all these answers.  Our biggest challenge was moving into new territories before we knew how to properly service the distributors, retailers, and our end-users.

Do you think tech companies are being overvalued by Venture Capitalists?  66% said yes. We agree. The inflated values are creating the self-fulfilling hype that caused the last bubble to burst.

Have you ever turned down VC capital? 51% said yes. We think this is wise. Most VC’s are looking for short term returns. They can force a premature sale just to get their money back. They can take so much equity, you wind up working for them. Focus on sales, work with your suppliers to extended your credit, and work with your bank on a line-of-credit based on receivables. Choose the “get rich slow scheme” and own it all when you cross the finish line!

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 Taking the Inc. 500 Survey is an Eye Opener appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

“I need to pay my bills,” you say, or “I need some security,” but by changing the paradigm slightly to “I need to find a customer, or client, for my services,” you can stay in control of your career and approach the job search more effectively.

If you think of yourself as a self-employed entrepreneur you will focus more on what you do best, what your skill sets are, where your experience is, and how you can alleviate your client’s concerns. You will have to bone up on the “prospect” and distinguish yourself from the competition to land the deal.

In addition to seeing your employer as a customer for your services, you also have to consider your own reputation. All your “customers” have to benefit from, and advocate for, your services in order for you to improve your personal brand image and justify higher fees in your future. So be careful not to take on a “client” whom you cannot really help, or who cannot give you the extended experience and responsibility you need to build your reputation.

By putting yourself in your customer’s shoes you can better understand what they are really looking for in terms of (your) features and benefits. Your features and benefits should address your employer’s major concerns when hiring any new person:

False Starts. The cost of turnover is the #1 hidden cost of any business. But after a while every business becomes painfully aware of the cost of searching, vetting, and interviewing. What if it doesn’t work out? Start all over again! Have some empathy for their investment in the search itself. Selling yourself to them before there’s an opening can give you a big advantage when the time comes to hire.

Orienting and Training. If it doesn’t work out, they lose the cost of reduced production by both the trainer and the trainee. You can reduce their anxiety by becoming thoroughly familiar with how they make their money, what their biggest challenges are, and how your potential job fits into the big picture. Learn as much as you can about the company and the job before you apply. The faster they think you can get up to speed and contribute, the more likely they will be to hire you.

Production. They are naturally concerned with your ability to produce. You are pretty much an unknown for which they will take a big risk. Demonstrate your past experience at successfully overcoming steep learning curves. Get testimonials from previous employers or professors that address this specific issue.

Longevity. They worry that after they invest in training you, you will quit! If you can demonstrate that you have stayed at your previous jobs for at least two years, even if it was internships, you will relieve some of their fear.

Dependability and Responsibility. They want to believe that they can depend on you to show up, produce, meet deadlines, and take responsibility for your own actions. Show them that in the past when mistakes were made you have improved processes to prevent their reoccurrence.  They want a process improver, not someone who passes on the blame.

These should be among the features you offer that will benefit your employer by reducing costs and anxiety while improving production. Take another look at the “services” you offer as if you were an entrepreneur selling them. You will be much better prepared to get the “customer” you want!

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 Be an Entrepreneurial Job Applicant – A Message to Grads appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Your support team includes your employees, your outsourced services, and your suppliers. Each one of these “sales” requires a different approach to fully engage them to do their best work for you, take on additional responsibilities, provide quality products and services, and extend your credit and terms. But they all have one thing in common. They must believe you have their best interests at heart before they will commit their time, energy, loyalty, products and services to you. But when they do, they can significantly reduce your costs, turnover, and need for capital, thereby dramatically increasing your chances of success.

Employees. Your employees are key to your success – if they really understand that you are offering them a career opportunity, security, a piece of the action, appreciation, guidance, respect, and time off.  They must be clear on how their job, however removed, eventually affects sales, why it’s important, and how it fits into their careers. Show them that you have their best interests at heart so they will be more appreciative of performance based-compensation plans, bonuses, and increased decision-making power.

Outsourced Services.  Show appreciation for your outsourced services by providing them with a clear message about your expectations. You can achieve this by having policies in place to constantly improve communication, being clear on requirements and deadlines, and sharing with them the reasons for your requirements. It also means that you give more praise than criticism, and your criticism is constructive. Show them that you are easy to work with. “What can we do on our end to help you be more effective” is a great “sales” pitch for these folks.

Suppliers.  Show empathy for the risk they are taking with your new or growing company. Share with them your goals, challenges, and opportunities on a regular basis. This will alleviate some of their fears when they take a chance on you by extending credit and terms that enable you to grow. They worry that you may pay your bill late, or be a “beg pay.”  Work out a long-term commitment so they know you won’t dump them for another supplier. They have to believe they can grow with you. It takes considerable seasoning over time to prove you have their best interests at heart.

Negotiating every business relationship is a sales process. You have to gain their trust and prove to them that you fit into their business and growth plan. You have to be aware of their fears and allay them. You do this by demonstrating over time that you will live up to their expectations, and that you are a true strategic partner, helping them achieve their goals.

The alternative to making these “sales” is to spend tons of money on turnover, lost corporate knowledge, high interest rates, short payment terms, and higher service and supply costs. This is money that startups can’t afford, and money that is better spent growing your business.

These types of sales to your support team are rarely taught in school and receive little focus in the entrepreneurial media. But when you demonstrate that you have your team’s best interests at heart, you spend less and monetize faster!

Who We Are

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

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

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

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

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

The post Successful Entrepreneurs Must Constantly Sell to Each Business Relationship appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

There are way too many folks out there today selling “shovels” to the entrepreneurial “gold miners.”  They’ll help you with your website, your social networking, your on-line business, and even your pitch, as long as you make all the sales.

The idea behind the “shovel” merchants is to find folks who are excited about the possibilities, hyped up by the media, and possibly over simplifying the sales process.  If you are a new entrepreneur, you may be like the miner without the map. You’ll buy the shovel because you think if you’re going to mine gold, you’ll need it… assuming you’ll find gold, that is. The merchants will load you up with goods, services and applications you think you need …everything except the map. Bonnie has an expression we think is apropos, “If we had ham, we’d have ham and eggs, if we had eggs!”

Many of the products they’ll sell you are premature for your business development, based on faulty assumptions, or down right unnecessary.  Many require costly subscription fees and even require “experts” to run those services. Many of these services are trying to be all things to all people, so you wind up paying for services you will never need. Still, they require a myriad of plug-ins that work around their short comings. But what do the sellers care? They got your money and they’re down the road.

The map to the gold can only come from one source: another successful gold miner! In the case of entrepreneurship, this is an entrepreneur who has actually successfully started and run a business, and is now willing to share the secrets that lead him or her to the “gold.” These are the folks you should be seeking out –  especially when you’re starting out. For one thing, they can save you a ton on premature overhead and monthly fees because they too have made those same mistakes. They will help you focus on building the true client base that justifies buying any supportive services, as well as identifying exactly what kinds of services you need, and more importantly, when.

New business owners who have recently been funded are sitting ducks for the shovel sellers who prey on those looking for the “next” gold rush. Today entrepreneurship is the next gold rush. Don’t be swept up in the hype. It’s really all about getting and keeping your customers. Take a closer look at that reality first! The tools and services won’t guarantee those customers but acquiring those customers is absolutely necessary to be able to afford taking on additional overhead. And how do you acquire those customers? Talk to successful entrepreneurs who have already done so, built their business, and even monetized their brand equity. These are the folks with the gold maps!

We can’t tell you how many failed businesses we have seen that loaded up on needless overhead before they ever made a sale and just flat out, ran out of money. Today’s access to capital through crowd funding seems to exacerbate this problem. Often, neither the crowd doing the funding nor the recipient of the funding fully understand the process of achieving a positive cash flow. They are both clouded with the hype surrounding the product or service itself, and they believe taking on major overhead is a requirement for success. So they tend not to scrutinize the investments in overhead until it’s too late!

Bottom line: Buy a map before you buy a shovel!

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 New Entrepreneurs are Easy Prey for Dubious Merchants appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

We went to a conference recently and one speaker actually advised the audience, “Ya wanna get rich? Find the next gold rush!” He was obviously alluding to the old saying that the only people who got rich in the California Gold Rush were selling shovels. Today there are so many people “selling shovels” it makes you wonder what they would all do without those miners.

The real entrepreneurs are producing products and services that improve our lives. These are the miners, and they comprise most of our audience. Surrounding them is an ever increasing rabble of so called service providers who could not exist without the true entrepreneurs who are actually doing the heavy lifting. Each is promising instant success. Each is promising a big short cut. And each is promising big savings. The advent and growth of the internet have only exploded their numbers. Their pitches are polished. Their presentations are formulaic. And their campaigns are ruthless. What most all have in common is 3 types of hype:

1. False or Unproven Premise. “If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs… if we had eggs.” This tactic usually tries to get you to buy in to the results when you don’t have the ingredients. Once you have this (their product or service), they say, then you can have that (what you really need). In this way they sell you services that you don’t need or are premature for your business. This has happened to us and it can happen to you as soon as you open your doors. Listen closely to the pitch. See if it includes attractive numbers like hits, time on pages, shares, and likes, but not actual sales of your products.
2. Good Money After Bad. We actually had a customer in the early days of our business who said, “If you don’t sell me more goods on credit today, I won’t pay you what I already owe you!” He knew that we were depending on him for a certain volume and he basically used that against us. This can happen in various forms. We have had service providers quote us a price for their service but they conveniently left out all the other necessary monthly services we had to buy just to get a return on our investment with them.
3. Everybody’s Doing It. Especially when you are new in an industry, you are preyed upon by all manner of advisors, each extolling the practice of the majority of players in that industry. If they are right, so much for disruption. If they are wrong, how would you know? All you know is they are implying that because so many people are doing it, it must be right. But have these advisors actually done it themselves? And will they be saying the same thing next year? Probably not. Meanwhile you paid them and they got what they wanted. Some industries are changing so fast that by the time you “learn” it, it’s obsolete and you have to buy more consulting. We understand the lemmings all jump over the cliff at the same time, too.

These are just a few of the hypes that new business owners have to be wary of. But wait! There’s more! If you buy right now, we will send you this lovely set of steak knives!

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 Types of Hype to Fight appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

How do you spot the candidate with entrepreneurial DNA? Here’s part 2 of our discussion on the 7 things to look for during the interview.

4. Resourcefulness. Ask them how they solved a professional problem when they lacked the time, support, or funds they needed. Listen for how they used their imagination, asked for help, and thought outside the box. Listen for how they identified, re-purposed and used unlikely resources to achieve their goals in spite of the obstacles. Take note of how they rephrased the problem, saw the bigger picture and enlisted the help of strategic allies who would also benefit from the solution. See if their solution solved more than one problem. Those with entrepreneurial DNA will demonstrate their resourcefulness.

5. Preparedness. Does the candidate expect you to ask all the questions? Do they just react to your initiatives? Do they wait for you to tell them about your company, its goals, successes and challenges? Or do they ask you questions? Candidates with the entrepreneurial DNA will treat you like a prospect for their services. They think of everyone as a customer for them, their service or their product. They know that the best sales pitch is, “I can help you sell your product,” and they can’t do that unless they thoroughly understand their prospect and how they can help. They have carefully researched your company in preparation for the interview. They know your products, your challenges, and your history. They come to the interview with a pen and notepad, and a list of questions.

6. Teamwork. Contrary to popular opinion, entrepreneurs are not loners. Realistically, they know that they must build, depend on, and be an essential part of a team. This requires respect for how each player is key to the overall success of the company. They are keen on understanding all the jobs, procedures, outsourced services and suppliers that keep the customer loyal. Listen for candidates who show an interest in this process. Ask them how their last job fit in to their company’s big picture. Ask them how they worked with their teammates and improved communication both inside and outside their previous company.

7. Organization. During the final interview, you do all the talking. Tell the candidate more about what the job entails, who they will be working with and why, how their job supports the customer experience, how your company is organized, and what the expectations are of their performance. Be sure to include how the funds get from the ultimate consumer to the company to cover their paycheck. Then ask them to write a one page summary of your company, the money trail from the end-user consumer, how they will be working with their teammates and why they qualify for the job. Then, tell them it’s due by 5PM tomorrow. This summary will tell you volumes about their comprehension, organization, communication, and ability to hit a deadline. These are all attributes of the entrepreneurial DNA.

There are other key “tells” that can help you spot the entrepreneurial DNA, such as assertiveness, dependability, sociability, humility, practicality, tenacity, empathy and humor. Asking the right questions will bring these attributes to light.

Also remember, it’s not enough to say you are looking for the entrepreneurial DNA in your candidates. You and your company have to walk the talk. You must build a culture of permission, enthusiasm, inclusiveness, recognition, and acknowledgement, and have a performance-based compensation plan to provide the environment the candidate with entrepreneurial DNA needs to flourish and remain with your company. If you want your employees to be more entrepreneurial, create the fertile ground in which they will bloom!

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 7 Ways to Spot Entrepreneurial DNA – Part 2 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The Barefoot Spirit Review by Dan Clarke

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 Taste California Travel! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

For the most part, great employees are not found, they’re made. In order to delegate and allow your company to grow, you really have no choice.

All this takes time, energy, preparation and lots of patience, but by working together in concert, you can see wonders.

1. Good Seed. Start with people who demonstrate a high degree of integrity, take responsibility for their own behavior and have a history of long-term commitment. They should be willing to learn and extrapolate conceptual ideas and apply them to new situations. A good way to test this is to give the applicant a verbal run down of the job, the company’s challenges and your expectations for the position. Then, have them send you a one-page summary on a deadline. This will tell you volumes.

2. Good Ground. Make sure their job is clearly defined in writing and explains how your products and services produce the income to pay their salary, bonus and benefits. We used to give our people a “Money Map”. It started with the consumer and worked its way back through distribution, production, and all the payables to finally get to their check. This gave them respect for how and where the money came from – the customer, of course.

3. Care. You must inspect what you expect, especially in the first year. Once you are convinced you have “good seed” it’s worth your while to regularly spend time with them answering questions and mentoring. Listen to what’s behind their questions to discover what they really need to excel in their new position.

4. Light and Space. Give them permission to make mistakes. That’s what allows them to develop into the independent decision makers you need to confidently delegate. To “make those mistakes right,” have them write down what needs to be done to prevent those mistakes in the future. Have them make new polices, procedures, checklists, sign-offs, or whatever, but they have to document everything. Consider rewriting their job description to fit their real skill set.

5. Nutrients. Give them the training they need, in person and in writing. If a document doesn’t exist, have them write it. Create a mini manual for every job with the growing list of frequently asked questions and as many charts and graphs as are necessary to depict processes, relationships and decisions. Provide outside training with conferences, or field time with sales or production staff. The more they understand your total operation, the faster they will become invaluable.

6. Time. How much time you give them before they “get it” really depends on the position, their ability to learn, and how much faith you have in them personally. Some folks take longer but “get it” at a core level. Others may learn a specific process quickly, but miss the big picture. So it’s a judgment call based on your assessment of their progress and conceptual understandings, and the preparation, time and energy you have put in.

Even if you do these essentials, there’s no guarantee of success, but you will be much more likely to succeed. To grow those new hires into fruitful producers it takes preparation, permission and patience.

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 Successful Hiring takes Preparation, Permission and Patience appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.