This afternoon, we enjoyed a wonderful beachside luncheon with Melissa Moreno, the school’s Director. She has been instrumental in the creation and development of the Center. Only three years old, it’s already getting the attention and support of several successful entrepreneurs.

Check out their fireside-chat format conversations with these notables on video at their site. These chats are jam packed with excited students interacting with real entrepreneurial successes.

Today’s entrepreneurial students want case studies from real business founders. They want to hear their story and ask them practical questions about how they overcame hardship, challenges and undercapitalization.

Our economy has proven time and again that it’s the entrepreneurs that create new businesses, new jobs, and innovation. Today, we face big challenges. For many graduates, sometimes the only source of employment is self employment.

The Scheinfeld Center provides a big head start for anyone thinking about starting their own business, whether they are looking for credit, or just want to get the latest academic disciplines or practical tools necessary for successful entrepreneurship.

Like schools everywhere, they are struggling with the economy. This seems ironic since they are one of the obvious vehicles to turn the economy around. They deserve your interest and support, so please help pass the word about the Scheinfeld Center. We need more schools like this!

We were honored to be asked to present our experience to the Scheinfeld students next March. Now we have another great reason to visit Santa Barbara. We hope the lessons we learned, sometimes the hard way, will help the next generation of entrepreneurs to achieve success!

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 Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the advantages you have as a small, undercapitalized start-up. We hope these articles provide encouragement and inspiration for the real saviors and backbone of the economy, the little guys!

Here are a few more advantages that can make the difference and give you a powerful competitive edge:

14. Establishing a Positive Culture. Probably the most important aspect of enduring success in any business is Company Culture. The big company has already established its culture and it may have existed for generations. Unfortunately, most big company culture just evolves over time till its set in stone.  When you first pour cement, you can move it with a trowel, but when it hardens, you need a jackhammer. Your small start-up has the advantage of deliberately creating a positive company culture from the outset. You are free to design the DNA and bake it in from the start. To make a sea change the big company has to undo decades of entrenched protocol and unwritten laws that determine the behavior, outlook and personality of its staff. You have the freedom to start out on the right foot on day one and you can easily correct your missteps before you get too big.

15. Company preservation is Job One. Your small start-up has hired a dedicated team that knows what they are up against and has a great deal of respect for the odds stacked against them. As they begin to succeed, they make incredible sacrifices because they see the direct effect they are having personally on the start-up success. There is an air of “we can do this thing if we stick together and all pull our weight”. “Lurking” is not an option.  The big company has stratified its work force so much that personal job security often becomes job number one. Decisions can be made that are good for the employee’s protection, advancement or budget, but are actually detrimental in the long run to the company itself. What’s more, this behavior can go unnoticed by top management. You are painfully aware of this short-sighted approach to job security because it’s readily visible in your small start-up and you can’t afford to tolerate it.

16. Be an Acquisition Target.  In these days of reduced IPOs and dried up venture capital, there is yet a way for your small start-up to monetize its value.  It can get acquired. In fact, it may get acquired by the very big company who may have resisted your advance. You can benefit by the growing trend toward acquiring new ideas. Today, in the big company, a truly new idea can get easily smothered by short-sighted views of job preservation, turf wars or stifled communication. They tend to look outside their organization for truly new ideas that have traction in even a small portion of the market. They tend to look at small start-ups like yours.

In this series we have tried to identify some of the more subtle benefits your small start-up can enjoy over the big well-capitalized, but sometimes sluggish corporations. When it comes to originality, positive culture, or ingenuity, size matters. When it comes to resourcefulness, customer service or maneuverability, size matters. The little guy can still have the winning hand!

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 Advantages of Being a Small Start-Up – Part 4 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.