We are often accused of being Monday morning quarterbacks with 20-20 vision. Well, guilty as charged! And lucky for you!  Having been through it from ideation to monetization, we are in a unique position to offer help. After years of wrong assumptions, and actions based on those wrong assumptions, it ultimately became clear to us what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong. Our experience and success in the real world can save you a ton of time, money, and anxiety.

Like the man says, “If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?” Well, some things we would do just the same, but others, we would have started doing a whole lot sooner. Starting with no money and no knowledge of our industry, you can bet we had a lot to learn. You can bet we made plenty of mistakes.

These are the same challenges startups face today, like being undercapitalized, finding and keeping the right people, providing effective leadership, and getting the word out, just to name a few. But the biggest mistakes startups make may be in their own heads! They tend to accept popular assumptions about business that are just, well, wrong! We want to change all that.

There’s a new movement afoot. We call it “The Barefoot Startup.” Why “Barefoot”? Because it’s a great analogy for a feet-on-the-ground, step-by-step approach to starting and growing your business.  It’s beyond “bootstrap” because it’s sensitive to the terrain, its well-grounded in principle, and clears the path for success.

The Barefoot Startup incorporates the proven strategies we used successfully and the lessons we learned over 20 years building the Barefoot Wine brand. These key tenets made the biggest difference in our success. They can work well for any business. The tenets of The Barefoot Startup  (#BarefootStartup) will give you a big head start, mitigate your risk, and reduce your need for capital.

It’s not another set of tactics. It’s not another cut-and-paste process for 6 figures in 6 months. But it is a fundamental understand, and application, of the basic principles of long-term business success.  Think of it as an insurance policy for your start-up.

The 7 tenets of The Barefoot Startup spell S-U-C-C-E-S-S:

1. Strategic Alliances. Who wins if you win? How can you help them win? How can you work with your community to get the word out?
2. Understandings. How does your distribution system work? What are the challenges you face gaining acceptance in your market?
3. Customer. Who are your customers? What does each of them really want? How should your company be structured to gain their loyalty? How do you turn your customers into advocates?
4. Compassion. What does everyone who touches your product want? How can you show empathy for their needs? How do you gain their respect and cooperation?
5. Empowerment. How can you get the most out of your people, your suppliers, and your buyers? What do they need from you to do their job better for you?
6. Sales. What is the fastest way to create a positive cash flow? Where is your low-hanging fruit? What is the quickest way to gain a “Hot Mover” reputation?
7. Slow Down! How can you reduce your need for capital by being more resourceful? How can starting small show you the true cost of sales? How can you get your act together before you take your show on the road?

The Barefoot Startup offers detailed answers with real world examples. How do you spell success?  Join the movement at www.thebarefootstartup.com!

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 7 Tenets of The Barefoot Startup appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

What could we give these aspiring entrepreneurs that would help them the most in their journey? How about a “Count Down to Success”? This is our best list of understandings necessary for a successful launch and happy landing:

FIVE! The Top Five Guiding Principles for Success (GPS)

1. Make Mistakes W-R-I-T-E. (Not just Right) Write down all your mistakes, and more importantly, identify all the documents that need to be created, changed, or improved so there will be no repeats.
2. Put Yourself in The Other Guy’s Shoes. In every relationship with your people, your vendors, or your customers, ask what is important to them. Then give them what they want first to get what you want.
3. Forge Strategic Alliances. Ask, “Who benefits if I benefit?” Those are your potential allies. Vendors can be bankers by extending credit and terms. Customers can be bankers by paying in cash. Threat them like partners and share your plans.
4. Sales Is King. Achieve a positive cash flow as soon as you can. Don’t expand too quickly. Start small and learn how to get your act together before you take your show on the road. Without sales, all else is moot.
5. Service What You Sell. You are not judged so much by how well you do when everything goes right, but by how well you do when there is a problem.

FOUR! The 4 stages of Business Development

1. Startup. Goal is proving the viability of the concept. Danger is chewing up investment money on overhead and production without sales.
2. Buildup. Goal is securing a few big customers that can sustain the business without more investment. Danger is having all your eggs in one basket and being discontinued.
3. Buildout. Goal is diversifying your customer base so you can sustain a significant hit. Danger is spreading yourself too thin, not servicing what you sell, and significantly underestimating the cost of sales.
4. Enterprise. Goal is continuing to deliver high quality and service until you get noticed and become an acquisition target. Danger is losing the entrepreneurial spirit and taking sales for granted.

THREE! The 3 Core Competencies of Any Business

1. Cash Flow Management. Goal is reducing your need for capital by identifying and working with strategic allies, growing slowly, and relying on cost accounting. Danger is too much debt, not enough income, too much focus on production, and inadequate sales.
2. Personnel Management. Goal is hiring good people, building great people, reducing turnover, and engaging your people in finding solutions. Danger is high turnover, and loss of communication, knowledge, and customers.
3. Distribution Management. Goal is discovering and satisfying everyone who touches your product. Danger is your product gets stopped in the system on its way to the eventual customer.

TWO! The Two Division Company. All businesses have only two divisions.

1.  Sales. The customer can only give you payment and feedback. Feedback goes to your Sales and Customer Service people. Danger is that this feedback never gets to your production and marketing people who can keep your products relevant.
2. Sales Support. Everyone who is not in Sales is in Sales Support – everyone! Everyone’s check comes from sales. Everyone’s job should support sales at some level. Danger is that non-sales people think they are more important than Sales and won’t listen to their feedback.

ONE! Have Fun!  

Don’t take yourself too seriously, lighten up and have a little fun!            Your employees, vendors, and customers will love you for it!

ZERO …IGNITION!

We wish all the Nanyang students happy launches and landings in their new businesses!

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 Countdown to Success 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.

DANIEL DIPIAZZA, CONTRIBUTOR, Founder of Rich20Something

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur

The post Entrepreneur – 10 Business Lessons Learned From the Founders of America’s Biggest Wine Brand appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.