What’s up with that 2010 Bankruptcy?

If you do some research online, you’ll find that The Traveling Vineyard declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2010. It’s no secret.

That’s when I took every penny of my personal savings and made a plan to buy the company. Yes, in the middle of the Great Recession. My wife was skeptical, as you might imagine. “I’ve never seen destiny present itself so clearly in my life,” I told her. “I have to do this. I know I can make it work.”

I had a good reason for my faith in the company. The concept behind free home wine tasting and Traveling Vineyard had been my idea in 2001 when I worked for Geerlings & Wade, a leader in the direct marketing of quality wine. If the home party concept could work for plastic storage containers and cooking implements, why not wine?

I tested the idea with a dozen people and it took off. By 2005, Traveling Vineyard had thousands of independent consultants, who work from home hosting more than 100,000 home tasting events a year in 26 states. After decades in various sales, marketing and management positions, I had finally fallen in love with a business.

Just when the Traveling Vineyard model had built momentum, a leadership change in the parent company triggered some strategic decisions with which I disagreed, particularly a decision to make changes to the programs we created that supported the self-employed Independent wine consultants. Our consultants form the heart and soul of the business model. How could I be expected to tell these wine enthusiasts about program impacts to them that I completely disagreed with?

That’s when I left Traveling Vineyard and spent five years doing other things – until I heard about the bankruptcy filing. I persuaded my wife, presented my case to dozens of friends and investors, emptied my savings accounts (yes, all of them) and made a run at it. I knew that if our independent wine consultants received the support they needed to be successful, the company would get back on its feet.

By November 2010, the Traveling Vineyard was back in business. Today, we’re proud to have more than 1,000 happy and satisfied Independent Consultants in 28 states who love their home based business.

So, that’s why the words “bankruptcy” and Traveling Vineyard will show up together in any online search.

I have no regrets. In fact, if I hadn’t seized this opportunity, it would have been a regret that haunted me for the rest of my life. The Traveling Vineyard has always been an entrepreneurial idea that relies on an entrepreneurial spirit to spread the love of wine tasting one tasting event at a time and a business that helps our Independent Consultants one important commission check three times a month.

It works. We’re happily proving that every day.