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Author: MIchael and Bonnie Harvey

Welcome to Business Audio Theatre the Most Effective Onboarding Tool to Reduce Turnover and Increase Engagement   
Preserve Founders Legacy through Story Performed by Actors with Sound Effects and Music
DOES YOUR HISTORY, FOUNDING SPIRIT, & GUIDING PRINCIPLES GET LOST OVER TIME?

Does your growth result in specialization, turf battles, corporate malaise, costly employee turnover, and lack of engagement and loss of the big picture?
"Any company that works intentionally on their culture will like this product for on-boarding."
-Bill Higgs, Host, Culture Code Champions Podcast
"TRANSFORMATIONAL ! Tremendous potential for CEO's to tell their story in a new way!"
-Robert Reiss, Forbes Magazine
After building & selling the famous Barefoot Wine Brand and writing the NYT's Bestseller, The Barefoot Spirit, used in 60 schools of entrepreneurship, and after a decade of being trusted advisors to startups, buildups, and buildouts, Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey have developed Business Audio Theatre. As workplace culture experts, they believe the best way to increase engagement and reduce turnover is through story. They believe the best way to convey business story is through audio theatre provided to new employees on day one. Identification with the founders, their story, and their principles is the basis for identification. Identification is the basis for engagement. Engagement is the basis for longevity. Find out more! 

Watch C-Suite TV Interview with Taryn Winter Brill: 

Listen to The Barefoot Spirit from the C-Suite Library

Call: 707-484-1600

EMAIL: Sales@TheBarefootSpirit.com

 

 
Michael & Bonnie in Action:
 

 

1.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/svuthvx4uy

2.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/q1t21okz9f

3 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8y5btoyfrw

10 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8crj4p1hg9
|Welcome to Business Audio Theatre the Most Effective Onboarding Tool to Reduce Turnover and Increase Engagement   
Preserve Founders Legacy through Story Performed by Actors with Sound Effects and Music
DOES YOUR HISTORY, FOUNDING SPIRIT, & GUIDING PRINCIPLES GET LOST OVER TIME?

Does your growth result in specialization, turf battles, corporate malaise, costly employee turnover, and lack of engagement and loss of the big picture?
"Any company that works intentionally on their culture will like this product for on-boarding."
-Bill Higgs, Host, Culture Code Champions Podcast
"TRANSFORMATIONAL ! Tremendous potential for CEO's to tell their story in a new way!"
-Robert Reiss, Forbes Magazine
After building & selling the famous Barefoot Wine Brand and writing the NYT's Bestseller, The Barefoot Spirit, used in 60 schools of entrepreneurship, and after a decade of being trusted advisors to startups, buildups, and buildouts, Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey have developed Business Audio Theatre. As workplace culture experts, they believe the best way to increase engagement and reduce turnover is through story. They believe the best way to convey business story is through audio theatre provided to new employees on day one. Identification with the founders, their story, and their principles is the basis for identification. Identification is the basis for engagement. Engagement is the basis for longevity. Find out more! 

Watch C-Suite TV Interview with Taryn Winter Brill: 

Listen to The Barefoot Spirit from the C-Suite Library

Call: 707-484-1600

EMAIL: Sales@TheBarefootSpirit.com

 

 
Michael & Bonnie in Action:
 

 

1.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/svuthvx4uy

2.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/q1t21okz9f

3 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8y5btoyfrw

10 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8crj4p1hg9
|Welcome to Business Audio Theatre the Most Effective Onboarding Tool to Reduce Turnover and Increase Engagement   
Preserve Founders Legacy through Story Performed by Actors with Sound Effects and Music
DOES YOUR HISTORY, FOUNDING SPIRIT, & GUIDING PRINCIPLES GET LOST OVER TIME?

Does your growth result in specialization, turf battles, corporate malaise, costly employee turnover, and lack of engagement and loss of the big picture?
"Any company that works intentionally on their culture will like this product for on-boarding."
-Bill Higgs, Host, Culture Code Champions Podcast
"TRANSFORMATIONAL ! Tremendous potential for CEO's to tell their story in a new way!"
-Robert Reiss, Forbes Magazine
After building & selling the famous Barefoot Wine Brand and writing the NYT's Bestseller, The Barefoot Spirit, used in 60 schools of entrepreneurship, and after a decade of being trusted advisors to startups, buildups, and buildouts, Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey have developed Business Audio Theatre. As workplace culture experts, they believe the best way to increase engagement and reduce turnover is through story. They believe the best way to convey business story is through audio theatre provided to new employees on day one. Identification with the founders, their story, and their principles is the basis for identification. Identification is the basis for engagement. Engagement is the basis for longevity. Find out more! 

Watch C-Suite TV Interview with Taryn Winter Brill: 

Listen to The Barefoot Spirit from the C-Suite Library

Call: 707-484-1600

EMAIL: Sales@TheBarefootSpirit.com

 

 
Michael & Bonnie in Action:
 

 

1.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/svuthvx4uy

2.5 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/q1t21okz9f

3 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8y5btoyfrw

10 minute: https://barefootspirit.wistia.com/medias/8crj4p1hg9

Categories
Entrepreneurship Personal Development

Why Did You Start Your Business?

We always ask our prospective clients, “Why are you going into business?” This seems like a no-brainer, but many people who consider making the jump don’t really give it the thought it deserves. Your answer to this question can determine business goals, strategy, and even record keeping. We usually get a few standard answers: “Well, to get rich, of course!” or “I’ve always wanted to be my own boss” or “It’s always been my passion”. But none of these answers touch on the three concrete reasons why you can be in business. You can begin a legacy, you can create a job for yourself, and you can make money on your brand equity.

If you create your own job, your “paycheck” is only as much as time spent “on the clock”. You can’t get paid if you don’t work. Yes, you can hire outside help to keep up with things in your absence, but you are essentially trading time for dollars. You may even build equity that someone could pay you for. But this type of business runs on daily profits and income, without considering a long-term plan to make money on your brand equity.

Business owners who go this route usually say they’re “following their passion” and, well, they should! But many of these people also say they don’t ever want to sell their business, thinking they can do it forever. When the time comes, they usually sell because they need to, due to their health or age, or they are finally sick of the work. For them, selling is an afterthought to expressing their passion through a business.

Others who have “no intention of ever selling” think they are creating a legacy. They plan that their children will be a part of their business, and will want to continue this legacy. While this is a nice way to think about your family’s future as far as your business is concerned, only a few of these plans go beyond the first generation.

The last group, one that we consider ourselves a part of, is dedicated to monetizing their brand equity. They want to build a business that attracts acquirers, using their own concepts, ideas, and products. This group takes acquisition very seriously.

And this is the group we can help the most. From the beginning, these businesses are designed to have everything an acquirer wants. They grow into a sellable company. They can run without their owners. And, most importantly, they’ve been set up from the get-go to satisfy their acquirer’s due diligence.

One of the core values of the Barefoot Spirit approach to business is to just ask yourself why you are doing it in the first place. If it’s because you want to build and monetize your brand equity, then you need to think about who would want to acquire your company, when, and why. Organize your records, reports, and books, to replicate your acquirer’s due diligence. Invest your profits into expansion. And carefully decide when, where, and how you’ll grow in order to get your peanut in front of the elephant. This is an art form, and we shared what we learned about it in our Guiding Principles for Success.

From ideation to monetization, we’ve done it all. These are only a few business decisions that are greatly influenced by your choice to eventually sell. If you’re going into business to monetize your brand equity, let us help!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Use the Barefoot Spirit to Ignite Entrepreneurial Culture Within Your Business

After selling our business, our acquirer asked if we would work for them as brand consultants, to “keep the Barefoot spirit alive,” as they put it. We liked “the Barefoot spirit” so much that it led to our first book’s title—The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. 

We’ve since spoken at over 30 national and international universities that teach entrepreneurship. We’ve also had the pleasure of giving keynote speeches for conferences and events of all kinds, where audiences see us as a real example of entrepreneurial success. Everyone wants to know our secret.

We encourage our audiences to use our guided principles as described in The Barefoot Spirit—many of which we learned the hard way. With these principles, we want our listeners to create a positive company culture within their own businesses.

We spoke at the second C-Suite Network National Conference, where more than 400 C-Suite executives sat at the Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey to get the scoop on the latest best practices, disruptive business approaches, and up-and-coming business philosophies. They heard from truly successful entrepreneurs about how they found success.

Along with our story, we shared some guiding principles we’ve used to empower and engage our people, to make work more comprehensive and fun, and to shake up a stodgy industry. We first discussed our initial misconceptions and mistakes that wound up costing us. We then shared what we learned, and how we applied this knowledge with a new entrepreneurial spirit to our vendors, customers, staff, and community to develop a best-selling brand.

Barefoot Wine’s foundation was the two-division company. Many companies go with a top-down structure with the CEO and president on top, followed directly by senior vice presidents, junior VPs, division leaders, department managers, lower groups, and so on. Just one of the silos in this pyramid structure contains customer service and another sales. This led us to ask, “How can you put the customer on top if you put sales and customer service on the bottom?” Pyramids aren’t for businesses—they’re for dead pharaohs.

Barefoot had just two divisions: Sales and sales support. That’s it! Each person who was not in the sales department was in sales support, from the CEO to administration, from production to advertising, from finance to compliance. Each earned bonuses based on sales, development, and profitability.

Our corporate culture wasn’t stiff and rigid. It was based on acknowledgement, permission, and, of course, fun. Since we operated on a know-the-need rather than a need-to-know basis, people had the permission and confidence to contribute. The most successful marketing solutions came from our own staff. They also had permission to make a mistake as long as they claimed responsibility, understood how it happened, and improved our procedures for the future. We didn’t hide our mistakes. We celebrated them. Barefoot was created on the backs of mistakes.

On each team member’s work anniversary, we sent a company-wide memo that appreciated them and validated their efforts. It highlighted what they did in the past year to boost growth, sales, and profitability. This way, everyone else knew what their colleague accomplished, and how they could be acknowledged, too.

We embraced a fun and lighthearted spirit. We made adversity into a game. What’s more adverse than being told “no”? So, we started playing the “no” game, where each team member tallied how many “no”s they got. 7 was the average. You needed 3 to start playing, and once you got to 15, you were considered overdue for a “yes”!

We made the choice to release our second book at the C-Suite Network Conference. The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People is written for corporate leaders who want to bring the Barefoot spirit to their own people. You can find our second book at www.thebarefootspirit.com. Happy reading!

 

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Human Resources Management Personal Development

Every Startup Needs Employees with an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Paid employees have led to the collapse of many startups. When you first grow your business, you don’t want to hear, “I was there, pay me!” when you’re already strapped for resources, time, and money. Paying for attendance rather than performance will quickly deplete your budget, leading you to miss invaluable opportunities. You don’t have the privilege to pay employees just for their attendance, even if you wanted to.

When you want to hire new employees, look for problem-solvers and self-starters. Look for candidates who have worked on a team, preferably as the leader. Take this one step forward and look for people who have small business experience. In other words, find people who think like entrepreneurs. These people have what it takes to think and act beyond their “job”, and look at the big picture.

One of the biggest problems your business will face is a clear description of the work required to make it run well. In the beginning, you just don’t know what’s necessary for your company to satisfy clients’ needs. You learn as you go. And, your employees need to find every single chance to contribute, whether or not it’s in the job description.

Just like a football player, knees bent; ready to jump in whatever direction necessary to get the ball, your team must be flexible and willing to get the job done. They have to be looking for the ball! You can’t afford to hire people who don’t think they’re responsible for sales. They must have an interest in sales to understand the meaning of urgency. They need to be on high alert—their income and job security are based on sales. They have to do everything in their power to make that next sale happen, and keep ‘em coming!

To emphasize this, as the business-owner, you must be prepared to take a smaller piece of the bigger pie. You need to be willing to share the benefits, and offer frequent bonuses based on growth, sales, and profitability. If you need to pay a base salary to your salespeople, make it an advance on commission. Do anything you can to send a message that their job security, income, bonuses, and benefits all directly rely on sales.

When you hire people who think like entrepreneurs, your employees will bet their paycheck on your success. They truly believe in your mission, and they know they can help make it happen. To support this through and through, you need to provide comprehensive orientation, in-depth training, and access to consistent learning resources. Make sure they understand how they can contribute to the success of your company by utilizing their skills, and how they will benefit when your company expands and creates more profit. Aren’t “investors” more beneficial than “employees” anyway? Think of how great this will be for your startup company culture! Think focus, commitment, and teamwork. Consider how it will lessen your need to micro-manage your team, giving you the space to focus on more urgent matters.

We say, “In a startup, there is no room for passengers. If you’re not steering, rowing, or bailing, you are swimming because you are no longer on board!”

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Personal Development Sales

A New Entrepreneur Is an Easy Target for Unreliable Merchants

We have an old saying in California that goes, “The only people who made money during the Gold Rush were selling shovels!” Someone on the hunt for gold needs a lot more than a shovel. He needs a map—the people selling shovels can’t help out with that, because they’d be mining the gold themselves if they knew where it was. They wouldn’t be selling shovels!

There are far too many people today “selling shovels” to entrepreneurial “gold miners.” They’ll help out with your website, your online business, your social networks, and even your sales pitch—but you have to make all the sales.

These merchants want to find people who are excited about new possibilities, hyped up by the media, and perhaps over-simplifying what it takes to make a sale. If you’re a new entrepreneur, you might be like the gold miner without a map. You might buy a shovel because you think you’ll need it if you will eventually mine gold (assuming you even find any). These merchants will stock you full of goods and services you think you’ll need—everything except a map. Bonnie has an expression that really hits the nail on the head: “If we had ham, we’d have ham and eggs, if we had eggs!”

Many products merchants will sell are untimely for your business growth, based on wrong assumptions, or simply pointless. A lot of these require subscription fees and might even need “experts” just to use them. Many of these services try to be all things for all people, so it’s easy to pay for things you’ll never need or use. And they still need a ton of plug-ins to navigate around their shortcomings, but what does it matter to the sellers? They have your money and they’re on their way.

The map to find gold can only come from other successful gold miners! When it comes to entrepreneurship, this is someone who has started and successfully run a business, someone who is now looking to share the secrets that brought him or her to “gold”. These are the people you should be looking for, especially in the beginning. For one thing, they can help you save on premature overhead and costly fees since they’ve also made those same mistakes. They can help you build a strategic client base that will justify services and identify exactly which ones you need. And, more importantly, when you actually need them.

Recently funded, new startup owners, are sitting ducks for those shovel-sellers who target people looking for the next big gold rush. These days, entrepreneurship is the next big gold rush. Don’t get carried away by the hype. Just focus on getting and keeping your customers. Understand that reality first! No tool or service will guarantee those customers, but acquiring them is essential to be able to afford any additional overhead. And how exactly do you get these customers? Have a conversation with successful entrepreneurs who’ve already done it themselves! They have the gold maps!

We can’t even begin to count how many failed businesses we’ve seen load up on unnecessary overhead before they even made one sale. They just ran out of money. Today’s openness to crowd-funding for capital seems to intensify this problem. Neither the recipient of the funding or the crowd doing the funding really understand how to achieve positive cash flow. They are both fogged up by the hype surrounding the product itself. They’re convinced that taking on major overhead is required to be successful, so they typically don’t analyze overhead investments until it’s way too late!

So, before you buy a shovel, invest in a map!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development Sales

To Find Success, An Entrepreneur Must Constantly Sell to Business Relationships

Many would agree that selling services and products are at the foundation of any successful business. If there aren’t any sales, there’s no money to keep up with bills and the business collapses. But there are so many less obvious “sales” that are just as crucial to your success. Without making these sales, and consistently, your costs will skyrocket. You must make these sales with your support team, not with your prospects.

Your support team is comprised of your suppliers, employees, and outsourced services. You’ll have to use a unique approach for each of these “sales,” so that they will be motivated to provide quality service, take on additional duties, and extend your credit and terms. But your suppliers, employees, and outsourced services all have one thing in common—they need to believe that you have their best interests are at heart before they will give their effort, time, products, and loyalty to you. When they do, though, they can significantly cut your costs, turnover rates, and your need for cash. This significantly boosts your chances for success!

Suppliers. Show that you appreciate the risks suppliers take with your new or growing company. Share your challenges, aspirations, and new opportunities regularly. This will relieve some of their fears once they take a chance by extending your credit and terms—therefore enabling you to grow. Your suppliers worry that you will pay bills late or be a “beg pay.” Create a long-term plan so they know you won’t ditch them for someone else. They have to be assured that they can grow along with you. It takes a lot of time and strategy to prove that you really do have their best interests at heart.

Employees. Your people are the key to your success, but only if they understand that you’re giving them security, a career opportunity, a chance to contribute, guidance, respect, and time off. They need to know exactly how their job affects sales (however removed it may be), why their work is important, and how it shapes their career. Prove that you have their best interests at heart so they will appreciate performance-based pay, bonus structures, and more decision-making influence.

Outsourced Services. Show that you appreciate your outsourced services by communicating your expectations. Make sure you have policies in place that are clear on deadlines and requirements, that constantly improve communication, and that explain the reasons behind your requirements. Make it obvious that you’re easy to work with—make sure your criticism is constructive, and that you give more praise than criticism. Try asking, “What can we do on our end to help you be more efficient?” That can be an effective “sales pitch” for these people.

Plain and simple: Negotiating your business relationships is a sale in itself. They need to know that they can trust you, and that you fit into their growth and development. Understand what their fears are, and work to relieve them. You can do this by demonstrating that you are a true partner and ally, and you will live up to their expectations. You want to help them reach their goals—not just your own.

The only alternative to making these “sales” is to waste money on turnover, high interest, higher supply costs, short payment terms, and lost corporate knowledge. Startups cannot afford to lose this money—it’s better spent growing your business.

This concept is not usually taught in school or covered by the entrepreneurial media. But once you prove you really do have your team’s best interests at heart, you will spend less and generate more!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

The 7 Components of Brand Identity That Develop Your CPG Brand

What makes your CPG brand recognizable? What distinguishes it from the crowd? It doesn’t matter what you think. It’s what your customers think! You may be able to slightly influence what they think, but at the end of the day, it’s what they think.

Despite what some people say, most brands aren’t destroyed by competition—they’re destroyed by self-inflicted wounds! These are caused by marketing people who mean well, who think they’re in control, and try to develop a brand identity based on what they prefer, not necessarily what your customers prefer. In other words, your customers own your brand—you don’t!

Any conversation about brand identity must begin with this humble yet crucial recognition. Sure, you can do things to sway their thinking, but proceed with caution when creating your brand identity. Make sure it’s on a solid foundation of what your customer already thinks is important!

Image

How is your CPG displayed to your customer? Is it on a retail shelf, floor display, or on a screen? Is your customer 2 feet away, 4 feet away, or 20 feet away? Is it on both a billboard and a business card? Is it different for each situation?

 Is it surrounded by other brands? How does it separate itself from them? Do its colors make it stand out? What about the logo, name, catchphrase, label, trade dress, package, and themes? Is it obvious to your customer what you’re selling? Is your packaging color-coded and clearly marked so the warehouseperson, trucker, store manager, and clerk each know what you’re selling?

Is your name memorable, relatable, and easy to pronounce? Does it have anything to do with your product? Can you recognize it from a distance? Could you pick it out from the slew of other branded products on the shelf if you were looking for it?

Does your trade dress change for events, seasons, and holidays? Does it rotate often to stay fresh?

Is your label artwork uncluttered and neat with sans-serif fonts and plenty of white space? These are just a few things you need to think about when creating your brand image.

Recognition

Is your brand easily recognizable?

What is your brand identity’s defining and most memorable feature? Have people seen it before in your advertising or online? Will they recognize its originality when they get to the store?

What efforts have you made for them to remember your brand? Is it something they’ve seen before? Is it something that comes to mind whenever they think about some feature of your branded product? Is it an unforgettable shape or color? Does your label, trade dress, or package show third-party endorsements from people your customers already know?

Or, have your sales been consistent enough that you’ve made a reputation for providing value that your customer identifies with your brand? This takes time and skilled distribution management to achieve, but it has allowed many dependable brands to succeed. In this case, a nonsense name or family name has existed long enough to stand its ground. This approach isn’t recommended for newly branded products. This type of brand recognition takes years of consistency and excellent customer service.

When you ‘improve’, freshen up, or alter your image, do you practice strategic evolution, or careless and shocking revolution? Is the brand “gone” all of a sudden?

Position

How is your brand perceived by the customer?

How do you place your brand by price? What is the price at which most branded products in your category sell, or the velocity price point? Is it the same as your price? If so, how do you compete? Do you deliver on quantity or quality? Or do you choose to appeal to different customer values, like awards, endorsements, or status?

Are you below the velocity price point and trying to undercut the pack? Is your customer willing to accept less to save more money? Do they expect less? Does a relatively lower price mean more convenience? Or, are you above the velocity price point, where your customers believe they are paying more for better quality? Or are you charging more out of necessity to deliver more value to stay relevant? And, does your brand image reflect value? What about your package, trade dress, and label? Do you use medallions, gold ink, or traditional style on your label to communicate quality? Or do you use reviews and endorsements?

What do your packaging choices communicate? Does it tower above the others to imply quantity or value? For instance, we’ve noticed that people think taller packages translate to greater volume. A one-liter box of wine is seen as less than a 750-ml. package due to its shorter stature.

Which category are you in? And which sub-category within the category are you in? All of this makes a big difference in how your customers see you. Changing your brand after it’s established could potentially push away your customers who are used to seeing your brand in your former category. Be cautious!

Promise

What does your customer expect of your brand?

This is where many brands fail! They wrongly believe that they control their brand promise. They think that the brand image they’ve advertised online, through marketing, and in their trade dress is a direct message to the customer about what to expect from their product, their brand—even their company!

While your customer does get their first impression about what to expect from these initiatives, they ultimately own your brand promise. Their expectations drive loyalty, advocacy, and most importantly, sales. When they change brands, it’s usually because their brand let them down. It didn’t meet their expectations.

What are those expectations, exactly? Quantity, quality, appearance, price, status, utility, availability, transparency, popularity, and various other factors that your customer notices. If you change just one of them, get ready for the marketplace to react. Customers are loyal to brands they rely on. Finding a new brand is stressful. What will they buy now? How many brands will they have to sift through to find what you gave them, but they somehow lost?

And what about integrity? Do you deliver on your promises? Does your branded product constantly deliver the same or better benefits and features over time? Your customer’s expectations are molded by their experiences with your product. Don’t frustrate them by making unexpected changes.

Are your branded products dependable? Can your customers rely on them? Are they always in stock? If not, your customers will blame you, and see your brand as undependable.

Personality

Does a fictitious character or a spokesperson represent your brand?

Is there a face behind your brand, someone who’s accountable for delivering your promise to the customer? Is it someone recognizable, like a celebrity? Is it you? Is it the President, CEO, or Founder of your company? Does anyone look them straight in the eye and guarantee your brand?

Does a cartoon character, mascot, or specific style convey some feature of your brand? Or does your brand have a personality of its own? Is it reliable, fun, strong, distinguished, powerful, or carefree?

Your brand’s personality will boost your brand’s position, image, and promise. A personal guarantee can turn customers into supporters, and can encourage first-time buyers.

Aside from the physical qualities it delivers, what does your brand stand for? Are you an advocate for your community? Are you a green producer? Are you a good neighbor? Are you an open-minded employer? Where do you stand on issues crucial to your customers’ health and welfare? To put it simply, are you a good person? Now more than ever before, customers vote with their money. Do you give them a good reason to vote for you and what your brand stands for?

“Brand width”

How many products can you offer before your brand collapses? Just like bandwidth, there’s a cap on how many SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) your brand can hold. If you exceed your brand width, retailers will need to ask which products you want to get rid of to make room for the new ones.

You’ll exceed your brand width when your production and marketing teams start to think success comes from having more products rather than more sales. More products doesn’t always translate to greater profits or more sales. It may actually cheapen or confuse your brand in your consumers’ and retail buyers’ eyes.

It seems logical at first. By simply introducing a new product or extending a product line, you’ll get more retail space. But then, it turns into a fight to see how many products your brand can actually support. This is all based on the incorrect assumption that shelf space is unlimited, or that there is an unlimited amount of mind-share when it comes to sales and distribution. But there isn’t! Your brand width is limited!

When a brand collapses, it usually withdraws to its core offerings, and for good reason. It’s easier to manage, and it’s easy to get and keep shelf space. Are too many products hurting your brand image?

Availability

Is your brand still on the shelf?

The absolute worst customer experience happens when your CPG brand customer can no longer find your brand where they shop. Maybe it’s not in stock. Maybe it’s in the back. Maybe it was discontinued. Maybe your distributor got on the retail buyer’s bad side, and now he’s no longer buying anything from them. The reason doesn’t matter—your customer won’t blame your retailer or the distributor. They’ll blame you. It’s your brand’s fault. Now it’s “too hard to get” and “unreliable” in their eyes.

A lot of marketers and brand builders take the distribution process for granted, but all the time, effort, and money spent on CPG branding is lost as soon as it goes out of stock. There can’t be a conversation about brand identity without a deep understanding and appreciation for the distribution process.

How can your labeling, packaging, and cartons be designed to make it through the distribution process easily, without any missed deliveries, confusion, or misunderstandings? What do you need to do to guarantee delivery and keep your brand stocked in retail? How about to ensure proper placement, pricing, and advertising at the point of sale? 

A monumental part of your brand identity is a reputation for reliability. This starts with dependable and convenient access, and doesn’t end until the shelf has been restocked. Retail buyers can only measure sales. Once your product is out of stock, they can’t judge the sales you would’ve made if your product were stocked the whole time. A brand can be discontinued for poor sales due to wrong pricing, wrong placement, or poor inventory control. The physical distribution system puts your brand image on the line! Your customer can’t buy it if it isn’t there!

As you can see, brand identity is a multidimensional arrangement of crucial elements. Each of them needs to be carefully developed, executed, and sustained. Brand identity is not the destination—it’s the ongoing journey that requires nonstop diligence. When each of these aspects is considered, your customers will be more likely to proudly say, “That’s my brand!”

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development Sales

Building Your Brand Entails Counterintuitive Decisions

We’ve seen it a million times—physical product brands spread themselves too thin before they’re established. Some brands offer too many choices, and their principal message gets lost in the marketplace. And others expand too quickly into territories that they can’t handle, and they lose their dependable status. Why is this?

When a brand can’t achieve its true target market quickly enough, they second-guess their mission, trying to be all things to all types of people. They think they’ll do better quicker by speaking to a wider audience. But instead of being the leader in a close race, they become lost in the bigger battle.

Their sales team may cry, “If only we had (this or that type of) product…” As the pressure to make sales is on, brand builders can easily give in to this persistent plea.

Establishing yourself in the marketplace is hard enough without blurring your core message. We tell brand builders to stick to their guns—the fewer, the better! You have to distinguish your brand when you’re a new player. Sure, it’ll take a long time to draw and keep customers who appreciate your unique approach. But this is when patience and perseverance really pay off.

When we started Barefoot Wine, we entered with a large-size format that wasn’t as common as the standard smaller size of most wine. But this set us apart! It made us a newcomer in the big bottle category. And the choice was simple for the customer—only two types of wine, a varietal white and a varietal red. That’s it! It was easy for both the buyer and customer. People don’t like having too many choices.

We thought, “Could we sell more with a pink?” So, we tried it. It worked! Then we thought, “How about other varietals? And why not expand the line with the smaller, more popular size bottles?” Retailers responded quickly— “Which ones would you like to trade out for the new ones?” We were killing our own brand! Total sales hit a plateau for two years!

Looking back, we should have waited until we were more established in the market before adding more choices. Now, we advise our clients to avoid exceeding their “brand width”!

Another mistake some brand builders make is thinking that their product will sell well in other territories just because it sells well in their territory. The big risk is expanding prematurely, before they know enough or have the money to service what they sell in new territories.

It’s easy to forget about the importance of your own time when selling in your own backyard. Because you are doing all the merchandising, policing, and maybe even delivery, you might not have a handle on the cost of sales in a new territory, where you need to hire people to do this work. And without any new hires, you quickly learn what you’re up against—poor representation, out-of-stocks, and the competition taking advantage of your absence.

We made this exact mistake. We misunderstood the cost of sales in 2 new territories, and we expanded too quickly. And we actually had to withdraw from those markets for many years before we could afford to hire our own representatives there. We tarnished our brand in the process. It took us years to bounce back.

At first glance, it might seem counterintuitive to restrict your territory and your offerings when you’re just starting out, but you’ll be thankful that you built your brand on a solid and simple foundation.

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Skills

3 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs-To-Be Should Finish College

Around this time of year, a lot of students question the value of getting a degree. Now more than ever, they’re being urged to drop out. People say, “You don’t need a formal education anymore, especially if you’re planning on being an entrepreneur.” They might say, “Just get started, the real-world experience will be more effective than the abstract and theoretical education you get in college.” These proponents are quick to follow up with a long list of wildly successful people who dropped out of college and are now making zillions!

Our advice is, “Don’t do it!”

If you’re truly planning on being an entrepreneur, you should stay in school. Here’s why:

1. Learn How to Juggle. In college, you must be an expert in a valuable entrepreneurial skill—juggling. You have to juggle work, class, and social activities. You must get a good night’s sleep and stay healthy. Juggling your finances to be able to afford college means learning how to budget your time and money. You have to prioritize, sometimes without gratification, each crucial skill in the real world of entrepreneurship.

2. Learn How to Learn. College teaches you so much more than the courses you take. Due to the number of classes you must take each day, the limited time you have to study, and your course load, you won’t be able to pass unless you adopt a systematic approach to learning. Make assumptions about the course material on a basic level, fill in the blanks, and adjust your assumptions as you go. At the same time, you have to outline the material so that you’ll be able to recall and use it—even if it’s just for a test. You need to learn how to learn. This skill is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur in the real world.

3. Learn How to Finish What You Start. Completing things is essential in the world of entrepreneurship. Finishing college shows that you can really stick to it. Tenacity and commitment require a lot of practice, and they provide rewards. You’ll earn the reputation of a quitter if you pivot too often. You will be someone who can’t be taken seriously after saying you’re going to do something. As an entrepreneur, your customers choose your product because they believe you will do what you say. Your reputation is at stake!

If you still aren’t convinced, try doing these two things:

1. Work Part-Time for an Entrepreneur. Yes! Start working for someone who does what you want to do. It will give you a sense of awareness and respect for what’s involved. Seeing a real entrepreneur face real problems, make tough choices, and prioritize will get you ready for the road ahead.

2. Take Some Humanities Classes. These are also referred to as Liberal Studies or Liberal Arts. A successful entrepreneur properly uses and understands the skills they’ve learned about critical thinking, philosophy, communication, history, psychology, and sociology. Those courses will give you appreciation and gratitude for others. This will be invaluable when communicating leadership skills and selling your ideas to others.

You might’ve noticed we aren’t defending the content of higher education, but we are defending the challenges and rigor necessary to finish what you started. The college experience in itself forces discipline, focus, and frugality at a time when you need these critical traits. They will shape your future as an entrepreneur. So, stay in school! Learn the skills successful entrepreneurs need before you get started!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Investing Marketing Operations Personal Development

Why Perceived Value is a Choice

It’s difficult to give people a good deal! This is especially true when your prices match products that aren’t known for high quality. We discovered this perceived value problem when we started Barefoot Wine. Our idea was to deliver 10-dollar-bottle quality for 5 dollars. Seems like a hit, right? Wrong!

We were faced with the perception that anything sold for 5 dollars must be mediocre, because most choices at that price point were, well, mediocre. Their producers said, “What do you expect for 5 bucks?” And we were grouped into that same mentality. So what if we were written up for quality in all the industry journals, and we won gold medals and Best of Class in open pricing competitions? “It can’t be any good at 5 dollars!” we’d hear.

It took years for us to demonstrate Barefoot’s excellent quality at the 5-dollar price point. Marketing consultants advised us to raise our prices, both to demonstrate “quality,” and to separate our products from the 5-dollar “cheapies.”

We held our ground. We kept our price, and added signs of value to our packaging instead. We used multicolor screening on the logo, gold foil ink, we covered the fill line with longer capsules, and we were the first in the wine industry to add gold medal stickers on the bottling line. But that wasn’t all! We added third-party accolades with point-of-purchase merchandising materials. When we won a competition, we’d stop what we were doing and get the word out to retail buyers and on the shelves in that territory within 24 hours.

What about the price? Eventually, we “communicated quality and value” by increasing it by 1 dollar and then offering a 1-dollar discount immediately. This way, people perceived the value like this: “This is a higher quality product and it’s on ‘special’ for a limited time.”

Ultimately, these tactics were pricey, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s what was necessary to avoid the “cheap” stigma. Permanently raising the price would’ve ended up discouraging the customers who had already discovered our value, hurt our volume, and put an end to any recommendations coming from our growing clientele.

We learned an unforgettable lesson in perceived value from a New Jersey storeowner we were trying to sell. When we were in the parking lot, we saw a storefront with giant signs that covered up the windows entirely. They were just prices—not even associated with any brands or products. Just numbers. But they were huge! 6 feet high! They said, “3.99” and “5.99.” We were confused.

So, we asked the owner, Abe, “Hey, what’s with the big prices in the window?” and he responded, “You’ve got to qualify the customer! Everybody has $3.99 in their jeans. It puts them at ease. They can afford to come in. They know that at least something in here is $3.99!” So, here was a storeowner using absolutely nothing but a gigantic sign with prices to draw customers. Wow!

Abe continued as our jaws began to drop, and said, “Turn around and tell me what you see.” As we examined the store, we saw many products, each one with a big sign sticking out. On each sign was a two-foot-high price—$4.99, $8.99, $12.99, even $19.99. We said to Abe, “Big prices?” Abe got excited: “They are big prices, but not high prices. BIG PRICES!”

He showed us one particular product. “Ya see that one over there? I had it for $5.99 and no one would buy it. Now it’s at $8.99 with a much bigger sign and I can’t keep it in stock!”

Abe’s customer base saw the bigger signs as a limited-time special, marked down from an even higher price. Wow—it worked!

There are a million suggestions and ideas out there about how to tackle the value perception challenge, but the best and most current resource we have is from the cofounder of Ninja Outreach, Dave Schneider. Dave has excellently defined the issue that brand builders run into when trying to seem valuable without breaking the bank. He offers the most helpful and all-inclusive list we’ve ever seen of ways to enhance your brand’s perceived value. Take a look!

And if you’re interested in learning more about our successes and mistakes while building Barefoot Wine, check out our New York Times Bestselling book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand.  You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll get a good laugh too!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

7 Ways to Delegate Successfully

One of the most difficult things for Type-A business owners is to delegate successfully. Some people say, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself!” They think, “Nobody can do it like I can do it.” And they may be right, but you must delegate sooner or later. Simply put, there’s just too much to do in a growing business, and it’s impossible to do it all yourself.

It’s a compromise, but we think successful delegation is a two-way street. The business owner must be able to accept less-than-perfect work. At the same time, the contracted individual or employee must develop new habits, accept new responsibilities, and ultimately move out of their comfort zone.

After years of experience, here’s what we’ve learned. Most of it was painful. But maybe it will help you delegate more successfully.

1. Find Extrapolation Learners. Those who are able to extrapolate the fundamental principles from an example and apply that information to a completely unfamiliar example are great candidates for delegation. Since it’s easy to get copy-and-paste examples for pretty much everything online these days, many people don’t bother looking for underlying principles.You’ll find people who respond, “Like what?” to everything you ask, even though they’ve seen the same principle in action before. Do not delegate to these people. Only delegate to those who pull overarching principles from their own experience and examples given in trainings.

2. Seek Integrity. When people keep working on assignments you don’t ask about regularly, voluntarily keep you posted on their projects, and do what they say they will, they are great candidates for delegation. Look for those who take responsibility instead of blaming others. When you have to ask about what happened on that project, don’t delegate to people who say, “They never got back to me,” because they didn’t voluntarily inform you. Avoid delegating to those who have shown they’ll accept minimal responsibility in order to get their paycheck.

3. Find Self-Starters. When seeing the big picture, if someone initiates appropriate action, improves an unstable situation, or mitigates a problem all without being asked, they are a great contender for delegation. They still might need some supervision, but they aren’t as likely to require micro-managing. Don’t delegate to those who’ve shown they need constant supervision and oversight.

4. Seek Coachability. When people apply constructive criticism, show steady improvement, and look for policies and procedures that can help them work more efficiently, they are excellent candidates for delegation.Avoid those who take professional critique personally, or don’t seek help out of wanting to appear all-knowing and self-sufficient.

5. Seek Mistake Learners. It’s necessary to accept that mistakes will be made. Find candidates who learn from them, see them as opportunities to get to the bottom of an issue, write up new documents to prevent these mistakes from reoccurring, and candidates who can improve your business’s policies and processes.Avoid people who try to cover up or hide from their mistakes, or who blame others (finger-pointers). Rid your company of those who keep making the same mistakes.

6. Give Regular Reviews. In the beginning, give more frequent reviews to avoid any misconceptions or potential bad habits. Always return to the principles. Remind the candidate of the importance of growth, sales, and profitability. Review the decisions they have made so far, offer your advice on the ones that need improvement, and validate the right ones.

7. Provide Incentives. Create a bonus structure for anyone you delegate to, and make sure you both agree on the specifics. Use this new plan for just a year, so you can improve requirements in subsequent years as you fine-tune what’s needed to get the results you’re looking for.

 Delegation isn’t an art form, but you can lessen the risk of failure by recognizing attributes in others that will give you peace of mind and confidence. Train your candidates on the operating principles and the process know-how necessary to take on the involved responsibilities. Then, give them regular reviews and clear goals—and let them do it their way.

We like to say, “When the cement is wet, you can move it with a trowel. When it gets hard, you’ll need a jackhammer.” So, really overdo it on orientation, make sure they understand where their pay comes from (sales!), and make sure your candidate understands the underlying principles that will guide them in making decisions. Then, accept that mistakes will be inevitable, and accept that they might make choices that will be different than what you would do. Who knows—some of those choices might even be better! 

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/