Right after 2001 grape season, Fred realized that his industry was fastly moving into an over supply condition of grapes. Soon it would become less expensive to let grapes rot on vine then to harvest them, and Fred felt this was unacceptable. Always considered a maverick within wine community, Fred decided to think outside traditional winemakers' box. Fred's marketing approach is simple and straightforward. He states, "Our strategy is to fish where fish are. I think more people want value in their wine purchase and realize it doesn't have to cost them $10-25 dollars."

Hence his Charles Shaw brand of budget wine was born and stage was set

Fred Franzia met with Dan Bane in early 2002 and Charles Shaw saga began. Dan recognized that budget wine from Fred Franzia's Bronco winery would bring customers into his store and while there, they would be introduced to his offering. He was confident in quality and pricing of his products and felt this would prompt many to conveniently buy items they would normally purchase at their regular grocery store. This was catalyst Dan was looking for.

The other force in this success equation is Fred and he clearly understands how to make money. Fred knew that Bonco was in a unique position to take advantage of present market conditions because his winery is one of just two California wineries with a distributor's license. The other is Kendall-Jackson. That means Bronco can dramatically cut middleman costs. Direct delivery to retailers is not something most wineries can do. Bronco delivers a case of Charles Shaw to Trader Joes for a meager $19. Trader Joes decided to sell this same case for $24 or $1.99 a bottle.

With virtually little promotion, Charles Shaw brand has become most successful wine brand ever. Mostly by word-of-mouth it has gained almost mystic status.

People need logic or a believable reason when a major price shift takes place on anything they purchase. Justifying new price and value of product must be rationalized.

Almost immediately, rumors began to surface about $1.99 bottle of Charles Shaw wine. A few well-publicized stories like tale that this $1.99 bottle of wine beat out a $68 bottle of Chardonnay wine in a blind tasting, although totally unsubstantiated, has given it front-stage billing. Another common rumor for low price suggests that Charles Shaw was a premium wine dumped by American Airlines because of a ban on corkscrews on airlines precipitated by actions of 9/11. Other rumors included that "Two-Buck Chuck" was a financial bailout of a premium wine from United Airlines trying to avoid bankruptcy. None of these are true (some say Fred Franzia floated these rumors, but he denies it), nor is Charles Shaw a fire sale Napa wine from a nasty divorce of Charles Shaw and his wife.

Charles Shaw continues to fly off-the-shelves resulting in handsome dividends to both Bronco winery and Trader Joes. With its Charles Shaw loss-leader marketing approach, Trader Joes has driven many new customers into their stores resulting in double digit growth for firm, with no sign of slowing. And Bronco winery, with its maverick CEO Fred Franzia, cannot keep up with demand. Bronco has already delivered more than 60,000,000 bottles (about $100M in Bronco annual revenue) of now famous two-buck-chuck.

Innovative, risk-oriented, marketing always trumps linear thinking in any market. How are you infusing innovation into your marketing ideas?

If you're passionate about your topic, and understand a few business & comunication basics, you can learn rest as you go along. Take bite-sized chunks, learn one new priciple or concept a week and you will soon be "an expert" in most people's eyes. Remember, every day that you delay someone else is serving your customers, taking your share of revenue, building relationships that you could have influenced. Get going.......Just do something!

5. But I don't have right product, service, info etc.

The beauty of internet is that it is full of opportunities to joint venture. If you have clients that need a particular product or service that you don't currently offer you can go search, find it and cut a deal to supply. You may see a product or service that is ideal for your existing customer base. Again, strike a deal to put supplier in touch them (through you, of course!). If you are eventually successful online, you'll probably be approached with offers of this kind yourself.

My advice...get really good at searching for what you want on web. Go to Google, Yahoo! & Overture and practice using their search tools until you can find anything you need in shortest time. And don't forget offline world either. There are thousands of companies out there who are not fully net savvy, and haven't developed an online presence for their product range yet . Keep an eye on trade journals, magazines etc for opportunities to bring clients and products together to your business benefit.

6. Just one more...and I'll be there!

The final step......uploading your first web site to host server, ready and open for business! But wait a minute...wouldn't it be better if I just added a popup box there, or changed headline over here.

Fact - some of most effective web sites in online business history have consisted of ONE PAGE only. And some of those one pagers have not even looked attractive! Many of best marketers on internet have most simple web sites - that carry their information in an easy to understand format, and that's it!

It's your message that's important, having a fantastic website is secondary...by some way. If you've done your homework well, researched your target market, have an offer that solves their most pressing problem (or one they haven't even thought of yet!) you are in business. Get shop open and start marketing!

7. Poor time management

Have you ever sat at your PC screen, with full intention of investing some serious time in getting your ideas off ground, only to fritter away your limited efforts on any of these?

Reading pointless emails.

Surfing web in an aimless fasion.

Checking out speculative ideas from others / competitors.

Spending money on unrelated stuff from catalogue sites.

Or...........do you just give up, and return to watcing TV instead?

If you make any cursory study of time management techniques you will find most of above listed as time stealers. As already said, you may well find that your budding business empire has to compete with family, day-job and other commitments making 10, 15 or 20 hours a week you can commit to business building critically important. I can tell you that many people I have consulted with never overcome this barrier, and don't take necessary action to produce results. A further study of time management would reveal that following are regarded at "high leverage" activities (ie: for a small initial commitment they pay back handsomely!):

Setting up / monitoring systems.

Learning a new skill, to be applied in short-term.

Reading / studying relevent business material.

Meeting colleagues, suppliers, mentors, customers.

Attending seminars, coaching sessions, conferences with like minded people.

You simply must focus your efforts. Tell yourself "If I've got 2 hours / $10 to spend on my budding business, what will give me biggest bang". Structure your time so that you are uninterrupted when you're online. Choose a (preferably one) good mentor and start to build relationships with like minded people, surrounding yourself with success, and good habits will rub off.

If you want more help with pushing down "The Barriers to Net Success" you can find common sense advice from Les Sheppard at www.netblueprint101.com

http://www.netblueprint101.com/