Dispelling Myth About Women - A F(W)ine Example

Chances are you wont find two women competing for business side by side at the same event. But to declare there is no support just doesn’t seem right. The statements below compelled me to add my two cents.

“It’s a dirty little secret among women that we don’t support one another,” says Susan Shapiro Barash, author of Tripping the Prom Queen: The Truth About Women and Rivalry and professor of gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College.

To the contrary

“The iVillage ‘Women Like Me’ study clearly validates that women’s communities engender an unmatched level of trust among their users,” says iVillage EVP Jodi Kahn, “and are ideal places to go for product and brand information.” 

Look what happens when you combine Wine, Women & Motherhood – You get one very successful Facebook page, Blog and a thriving income generating business. 

http://www.omgisoneedaglassofwine.com/press/

My newest Northern California neighbor is rocking at a global level.  See what a healthy glass of wine will do for you.  I can’t wait to meet her.

For full article dirty little secret http://bit.ly/fq1y8m

For full article Women Like Me http://bit.ly/epGOH4

Beware of Impotent Goals

An impotent goal will not lead you to success rather disappointment.  But a goal with passion at the root will get you where you want to go. If you are working for money, why?  There is rarely a passion for money – rather it’s how you will use the money.  What is it you are so passionate about you are willing to sacrifice?

Example 1

Impotent goal: I will double my income in 2011.

Passionate goal: I will double my income in 2011 to achieve the top sales award and take my husband on a dream vacation to Italy’s Tuscan Wine Country.

Example 2

Impotent goal:  Run 8 miles to get/stay in shape.

Passionate goal:  Run 8 miles so that I can open and drink my last bottle of limited production 2006 David Bruce Petite Sirah, guilt free. 

In my case it was running eight miles through rough terrain to simply enjoy a glass of wine.  The first four miles meet my daily calorie burn.  The next two help me burn more calories than I consume. But the last two miles of calorie burning agony are exclusive of all goals because my passion for wine has driven me to this point.  I can now enjoy a “calorie free” glass of wine this evening.

Beware of impotent goals.

Working Women Want Wine

It's true - based on my personal experience, working women want wine.  Networking events typically offer hors-devours.  For years food has been a determining factor when choosing one event over another.  This works well to magnetize men.  But if you expect working women  on the scene, include the word wine in your event invitation.  We ladies are forever working on our Wine-Waistline(c). Women have gone so far as to include wine under the fruit & vegetables category to replace the food otherwise offered.  Consider this when planning your next business networking event.

Search For Existing Research

The hobbyist with an entrepreneurial spirit will eventually come around to the idea of turning the hobby into profits.  What often stops them are the words "I don't know." Why not find out by getting the facts from credible research often available online?  Are you curious about the costs and realities of starting up a winery?  I did a little research and here is a quick easy snapshot posted to my website: 
    www.divinitatis.com/wineryinvestment.pdf
Notice that wineries small and large turn a profit within 3 years.  Research like this can be used when presenting your dream to investors.  Use existing research and jump start your hobby turn business dream.  Use your answers to "I don't know" into a profit.

Another Start-Up Tries to Sell Wine Online

Any article or story about balanced entrepreneurs interests me.  When it is wine industry related you've got may full attention.  Claire Cain Miller hooked me with the title above.  Below is part of an article she wrote about not just the business but the driving force, Lloyd Benedict.  Enjoy!

Despite all the other products we now buy online, Web sites selling wine have struggled. Consumers don’t automatically think of the Web when they want to buy wine, and labyrinthine laws complicate the shipping of wine between states. During the dot-com craze, several wine e-commerce start-ups were born and died.

A new start-up, AmericanWinery.com, is betting that the time for online wine has finally arrived.

The site, which was founded in 2007, has the requisite Web 2.0 tools for wine aficionados. Winemakers can post their tasting notes and tips for tourists who want to visit their vineyards. Wine drinkers can buy, rate, review and discuss wine. A blog offers recipes with wine pairings and interviews with winemakers, and a wine encyclopedia defines terms from “abboccato” to “zinfandel.”

AmericanWinery.com’s founder, Lloyd Benedict, is also tapping into the latest foodie craze: buying local. Three-quarters of the 435 wineries that sell on the site are small vineyards that produce fewer than 1,000 cases of wine each year and sell in few or no stores. These winemakers don’t have other ways to reach customers beyond those that visit their tasting rooms and don’t always have the resources to set up their own e-commerce sites, said Mr. Benedict, who wears a “Support Your Local Winemaker” T-shirt to trumpet the cause.
 "Take me to this leader."

or continue this article...

“People in the United States are producing fantastic wine, but they are barely making it,” said Mr. Benedict, who has seen wineries go out of business in Walla Walla, Wash., where the company is based, because they can’t reach enough customers. “Direct sales are a turning point for them.”

Many start-ups tried something similar during the dot-com bubble.Wine.com, a major online wine seller, has imploded and rebuilt itself several times in the last decade. Other start-ups weren’t so lucky. Wineshopper.com, which sold a 45 percent stake to Amazon.com in 1999 when it first tried to enter the wine business, didn’t succeed and merged with Wine.com in 2000.

Wine will never be easy to sell online, said Barbara Insel, chief executive of Stonebridge Research, a consulting firm for the wine industry. Wine purchases are driven by recommendations from trusted friends or salespeople, a visit to a winery or a special experience at a restaurant, she said. “You don’t get that just from going to a Web site. It’s the ultimate experiential purchase.”

Still, consumers’ interest in buying wine online is growing, said Jeremy Benson, president of Benson Marketing Group, a Napa Valley wine marketing agency. In the last 30 years, he said, the number of wineries in the United States has bloomed to 6,000 from 300, while the number of wine wholesalers has shrunk to 200 from 12,000. As a result, more and more people visit vineyards, can’t find the wine they want in the store and go online to buy it.

Nonetheless, Mr. Benson said, only 10 to 20 percent of most wineries’ business comes from the Web.

AmericanWinery.com hopes to fill that void. The site is free for customers and vintners. When a winery sells a bottle of wine through the site, AmericanWinery.com processes the payment and the wineries are responsible for shipping. Shipping is $15 for one to three bottles and $25 for a case.

Wineries set the prices for the wine, which range from $5 to $1,000 a bottle. AmericanWinery.com keeps 10 percent of that and returns 90 percent to the winemaker.

That is a crucial difference between his business and other e-tailers, Mr. Benedict said. Many of them operate as re-sellers or wholesalers, keeping the wine in warehouses and handling the entire transaction. A typical distributor gives the winemaker 50 percent of the sale price, according to Mr. Benson.

For example, Amazon.com, which is reportedly starting a wine e-commerce service sometime soon, is said to be using a fulfillment service called New Vine Logistics to store and send wine and will give winemakers 47 percent of the retail price. (Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.) Wine.com operates nine warehouses.

Mr. Benedict said it was important to him to leave distribution up to the wineries — a lesson he said he learned from the travails of wine e-commerce start-ups during the dot-com bubble. “Looking at the bust, I’m dead set on never touching the product,” he said.

One advantage of using a service like New Vine Logistics: it will navigate the maze of confusing shipping laws that govern whether and how out-of-state wineries can ship wine to each state. Thirty-five states allow wine to be shipped into their states, but each has different rules, and most require winemakers to buy licenses, pay sales tax and fill out paperwork, said Mr. Benson, who is also the executive director of Free the Grapes, an organization that advocates easy, direct wine purchasing.

Mr. Benedict said he planned to have a system in place by December to coordinate these shipping licenses so that winemakers on AmericanWinery.com can sell to customers in the majority of states.

Mr. Benedict, who at 24 has only been able to legally drink for three years, said he first became interested in wine when he moved to Walla Walla to attend college in 2002. The region is a burgeoning wine destination.

He started the site with $2 million from angel investors as a free service for winemakers to post information about their wines online for other vintners or for visitors planning a trip to the vineyard. Winemakers quickly asked him to add an e-commerce feature so that consumers could buy wines. He did that a year ago, and 35 to 40 new wineries sign up each month.

Still True: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Our best evidence of people's true feelings and beliefs comes less from their words than from their deeds. Observers trying to decide what people are like look closely at their actions. Researchers have discovered that people themselves use this same evidence -- their own behavior -- to decide what they are like; it is a primary source of information about one's own beliefs, values, and attitudes (Vallacher & Wegner, 1985).

It does not hurt to check in with ourselves from time to time (or daily in times of change).
Let's pose the questions:

What does my behavior say about me?
What actions of others are drawing my attention?
What will I do today that will reflect my own beliefs, values, and attitudes?

If we ask the questions we are 1/3 closer to greatness.
If we answer the questions we are still another 1/3 closer.
If we act on our intentions we 99.9% there. The last 1% is reserved for those of us that go back to question one throughout our lives.

Forget About the Competition: Lead & Develop Success

"It's mind over matter, I don't mind because you don't matter." -me

The "you" in this quote refers to the competition. Its time we stop giving our energy and focus to them.  Your own ability to deliver a quality product and outperform the rest depends on your leadership not theirs.  You take control of what happens in your business.  Every second given to checking out the competition is a second away from your personal best. 

When asked what they do to outperform the competition, Ron McManis of McManis Family Vinyards responded: "Our focus is on three things: quality, consistancy and value."

Ron is not checking out the competition's quality and consistency.  He's focusing on his business and what he controls and accomplishes.  Competition is a diversion from success. When you started your company or developed a vision, did it have anything to do with competition?    Maybe quality, consistency and value is what you too want to deliver.  Decide on what they looks like to you. 

Forget about the competition because they don't matter.  What three things you do to lead, succeed and consequently, outperform the competition?