One of the most effective and often over-looked resources to build and grow your business is strategic alliances. “Partnerships” with other businesses and organizations who benefit by your success can help you meet your bills, get the word out about your company, and improve your image. Who succeeds if you succeed? As your business begins [...]
A Solid Business Foundation is Necessary for Success
When you build a house, the foundation must be laid strong and straight. If it’s not, the framers try to make up for it. When they can’t, the drywall guys try to make up for it. When they can’t, the painters try to make up for it. When they can’t, you’re going to have to [...]
Improve Your Chances of Success by Starting Small and Carefully
As long as your product is not in a specific market or retailer, it can’t be discontinued. Once you are discontinued you may never get back. You’ve got one shot. Take careful aim and hit just one bullseye at a time. The shotgun approach may get you more distribution in the beginning, but, due to [...]
The Advantages of Being a Small Start-Up – Part 3
By focusing on your customer, and not your big time competitors, your small start-up has the opportunity to address the market with creative and relevant products. In this series we have examined some of the powerful advantages of being small, undercapitalized and able to turn on a dime. These days, with lawyers running the big corporations [...]
The Advantages of Being a Small Start-Up – Part 2
This is the second installment in a four-part series designed to encourage small start-ups by recognizing some of their inherent advantages. Small start-ups face a myriad of challenges. They are undercapitalized, unproven and have no market traction. They are up against the status quo that will use its established power and influence in the marketplace [...]
Dress for Success (Especially in the Office)
Many companies these days seem to think that they are giving their office staff some kind of a benefit by letting them dress any way they want. Business casual has become casual and casual has become downright scruffy. What happens when Mr. Big walks into your company and your people are dressed in a way [...]
Positive Company Culture is critical to Growth and Survival – Part 3
This is the third part in the series about the original Barefoot culture. Culture really sets the tone, boundaries, and expectations the team has toward your company, your mission and your product. We’ve saved the best for last because having a common cause and a common challenge forges, more than any other single factor, positive company culture. When [...]
Positive Company Culture is critical to Growth and Survival – Part 2
A company survives and grows due to sales and the loyalty of customers and staff. Sales are based on price, value, dependability, integrity, availability and perception. The basis of perception is image, networking, and more recently, the transparency of the producer. Transparency is what the brand stands for, its authenticity, its identification with higher values, [...]
Distribution: The Distance between a Great Product and a Sale – Part 4
In the previous three posts we have given just a few examples of the importance of Channel Distribution Management in product design. Here we will examine two of the most important factors in product distribution through conventional channels: 14. Stack it! It is great to get your product on the retail shelf, but getting it [...]
The 8 Principles of Successful Outsourcing
For the most part, there is usually no shortage of products. There is, however, a big shortage of Purchase Orders. Why tie up precious dollars in bricks and mortar when you really need to spend them on marketing and merchandising? It’s possible, and in many cases preferable, to outsource as much production and services as [...]
