NZ Entrepreneur Magazine - February 2017 Vol 3 by Espire Media

NEW ZEALANDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

FEBRUARY 2017 VOL 3

The Fear of Public Speaking Overcoming the Legal Challenge to Content Marketing Startup Watch: PT Minder

HOW TO START A BUSINESS WITHOUT QUITTING YOUR DAY JOB www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

CONTENTS 4

How to start a business without quitting your day job

10 The fear of public speaking

16 Overcoming the legal challenge to content marketing

22 Startup Watch: PT Minder

w: www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forwardthinking entrepreneurs.

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EDITOR / Richard Liew ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble

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CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on 021 994 136 or email richardl@espiremedia.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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Entrepreneurship

HOW TO START A BUSINESS WITHOUT QUITTING YOUR DAY JOB BY Richard Liew

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was talking with a good friend of mine the other day about how he would love to be able to go into business for himself. This is someone I have known for over 20 years, we went to school and university together, and he is one of the smartest, hard-working and nicest guys I know. Since university, I have watched him work his way up the corporate ladder where he is now well positioned, if he so chooses, to capitalise on his experience and growing reputation to cement his place in corporate leadership within his industry throughout his forties and fifties. On the other hand, he is now equally well positioned to capitalise on those same things and build a business of his own. While there is a part of him that would dearly love to do it (his heart), another part (his head) worries about the potential impact that quitting his well-paying job might have in regards to his lifestyle. Things like being able to take care of his financial responsibilities as a husband and father, a homeowner, and dare I say it, his reputation as a responsible, successful and respectable member of society. And rightly so, what kind of a person would you be if you didn’t carefully consider the potential impact upon the people you love most and your financial well-being? A foolhardy, naive, reckless person is what. This is one of the reasons it helps to start your entrepreneurial journey as young as possible before you get accustomed to the security of a regular paycheck and have all the responsibilities we accumulate as we get older.

Does this sound familiar? Do you, or could someone you know, relate to this? Because over the course of my journey I have met hundreds of lovely people grappling with this same scenario. Their entrepreneurial spirit is locked in a perpetual and epic battle with the forces of logic, reason and ‘reality’. And the worst part of it is most people will end up losing this battle, their inner entrepreneur having been choked, suffocated and head-locked, just long enough for them to realise one day that it’s the end of the tenth round and they have left it too late. At which time the entrepreneurial flame is snuffed out altogether, and there is only darkness...now that’s depressing! So what’s the answer here? Well, it’s true that starting any business involves an element of risk. But then so is relying on a job. And to be honest, as your entrepreneurial experience grows, the risk involved in starting new businesses diminishes as you become a better entrepreneur. Why? Because successful entrepreneurs (the ones who do it again and again – not just one hit wonders) learn how to set things up in a way that mitigates much of the risk involved. For instance, they won’t develop a product until they have validated demand for it in the market. They won’t launch a new venture until they have the investors lined up. They won’t enter new markets until they have already established partners in that market. And it’s this way of thinking that can help those addicted to the safety of a paycheck make their business building dreams a reality in a safe and steady fashion. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Entrepreneurship

STEP ONE So I asked my friend, “Well if launching your own business now isn’t possible, do you think that if you began working on it now, it might be possible for you to be in a position to launch your business in ten years?”. Straight away, just by adjusting the time frame, I could sense that the idea shifted in my friend’s mind from being something that was impossible and implausible, to not just possible, but very plausible. Overoptimism is one of a new entrepreneur’s biggest blind spots and gets a lot of people in trouble. On the other hand, experienced entrepreneurs know that everything inevitably takes at least twice as long and three times as much money as their best guess. So if you dream of starting your own business, take the pressure off yourself by setting a time frame that makes you go, “Yeah absolutely I could make it happen within that time.” Write down the words, “Within ABC years I will be living my dreams as the owner of a successful new XYZ business”. Then date it, sign it, and stick it somewhere you will see it every day. Better still, talk to your partner and get their support for your goal. Often half the job is getting them to believe it could be possible. And again, by choosing a more believable time frame you are less likely to be met with the sideways glances, rolling eyeballs and scepticism that wellmeaning but smaller thinking partners often greet big ideas with. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

STEP TWO The next thing to do is gift yourself a little bit of time each day, or at a minimum once a week, to work, research, think or dream about the business you are going to start. In life, we get what we think about most of the time. So the first thing you need to do is increase the time you are thinking about your business from zero to 10 minutes a day, or an hour a week or as much as you can manage. This will start to build a habit. The habit of taking action towards your goals. And obviously, it will also allow you to start planning and working on your business. Learn about building businesses. Learn about other businesses like the one you want to start. Learn about the skills you will need to acquire. Prepare a business plan because it will force you to answer a whole lot of questions you’ve never considered. You will never be perfectly prepared. But as much as possible, you want to go into your first business with your eyes wide open.

Your goal is to start to create cash flow before you quit your job. Ideally, enough cash flow to replace the income you’re earning from your day job or at least cover your essential monthly outgoings STEP THREE Lastly, make money. What do I mean by that? If at all possible, make some sales before you launch your business. If it’s a product or service you’re able to provide without the need to invest much capital, create a prototype, or service offer, or draft (if it’s an informational product) and go out and make some sales. Deliver on your promise to the best of your ability, while you are still holding down your day job. Yes, you will be busy. But you will learn more from this than any other exercise, and it’s better than being busy watching TV. If it’s a product or service you can’t deliver without capital, then go out and get some forward orders. That is, validate the demand for your product or service by talking to potential customers. Be upfront and explain that you want to create a product or service to help them solve a problem you believe they have. And share with them the idea for your product or service so far.

Ask them – if a product or service such as the one I have described was available, would you buy it? If so, what price would you be prepared to pay? If I could deliver said product or service in that price range, can I put your name down now so that I can come back to you when we are ready to launch? If not, what would I need to do to this product or service to make it something you would buy? You can then take that information and use it to tweak your product until you know you have something the market wants. Your goal is to start to create cash flow before you quit your job. Ideally, enough cash flow to replace the income you’re earning from your day job or at least cover your essential monthly outgoings. Or if that’s not possible, create a pipeline of customers who have already expressed their interest, with which you can more confidently go ahead and raise the money you need, or quit your job. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Entrepreneurship

In other words, how to create a business without quitting your day job, is to create a business while you still have your day job. Could you see yourself doing this within ten years? How about five? How about two? I wonder…

Note: The other option is, of course, to simply take a deep breath and dive on in. Many people will argue that in reality, this is the fastest way to learn what you will need to learn.

Could you see yourself doing this within ten years? How about five? How about two?

But while stories of individuals who had an idea and within a week had quit their jobs, sold their houses, and jumped headfirst into the deep end of entrepreneurship make for entertaining and inspiring reading, this is certainly not what I would recommend for the majority of people. It’s like a beginner mountaineer trying to climb K2 on their first day out! You are likely to do yourself an injury and put yourself off altogether. In fact, knowing what I know from doing this myself, I would only recommend this to people who are young, fit, childless, have no financial responsibilities and are prepared to live on two-minute noodles for a few years if they have to.•

Richard Liew is the founder and Editor of NZ Entrepreneur magazine. He is an entrepreneur specialising in sales and marketing and holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance, from the University of Auckland. L: Richard Liew T: @nzpreneur www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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Sales

THE FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING Three causes and what to do about it

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BY Olivia Mitchell

he potential client you’ve been chasing for months wants you to make a pitch presentation to clinch the sale. The thought makes your mouth go dry, and your stomach queasy. You’re suffering from that most common of fears – the fear of public speaking. In this article, I’ll explore three distinct causes of fear of public speaking and specific strategies you can use to reduce your fear. These three different causes of speaking anxiety relate to three separate

areas of the brain – the old brain (it’s called this in neuro ’pop’ books but is more correctly called the hindbrain), midbrain and the new brain (again more properly called the forebrain). My descriptions are a simplification of the science – in particular, the parts of the brain all interact with each other, so it’s not strictly correct to say that just one part of the brain causes nervousness. But I think it’s a useful model which may help you understand your fear of public speaking and work out the best way to reduce it.

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Sales

OLD BRAIN NERVOUSNESS

Your old brain is the part of your brain that is constantly scanning the environment looking for threats. Survival is what matters to the old brain. Many people suffer from old brain nervousness. In prehistoric times, being part of a group was essential to our survival, so one of the threats to our survival was being kicked out of the group. What might get you kicked out? Maybe standing out in some way, saying something offensive or stupid, or not performing up to expectations.

So rationally evaluate how awful it was. What were the consequences of it? Here’s an exercise you can do now to put these experiences in perspective. • Think of that nerve-wracking presentation experience. • How awful was it on a scale of 0 to 100%? • Imagine, your little finger has just been cut off in an accident! • How awful is that on a scale of 0 to 100%?

• And now how awful is that nerveFast forward to now. You’re standing in wracking experience compared front of a group ready to open your mouth, to losing your little finger? and your old brain goes (metaphorically): Uh-oh. This is a threatening situation. If you Here’s what you can do about say something stupid, YOU MIGHT DIE! this type of nervousness: It’s no longer true that you might die, but your a. Accept it old brain doesn’t know that. Your old brain This type of nervousness may happen activates your survival system: fight, flight or every time you speak. Accept that freeze. When it comes to public speaking, the nervousness may be your ever-present most common reactions are flight or freeze. companion. If you fight your nervousness Flight – you avoid public speaking if at all by saying to yourself ‘I shouldn’t be possible. If you do have to speak, you talk as fast nervous’, you’ll make it worse. as possible so that you get through it as quickly as possible. Freeze – You feel stiff and artificial b. Get used to it as you speak, and your mind goes blank. You may suffer from nervousness less as you gain more experience If you can readily identify a previous presenting. That’s because your old experience which is causing you to be brain has gradually realised that this nervous now, the most important thing to public speaking thing is possibly not do is rationally evaluate how bad it was. If that life-threatening. So desensitise you continue to tell yourself that it was a yourself – take every opportunity terrible, awful experience, it will continue to to speak in front of a group. create nervousness for you into the future. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

The most serious consequences of a presentation going badly are losing a large sale, an election or other contest, or your job...These consequences are disappointing – but not catastrophic.

MIDBRAIN NERVOUSNESS

The midbrain regulates our emotions. Your midbrain, in conjunction with other parts of your brain, will make you nervous when you’re reminded of a previous nerve-wracking experience. So if you had an experience at school where you were humiliated in front of your classmates, or suffered an embarrassing mind blank in an important presentation, those strong emotional memories may come back to haunt you. Most people revise the awfulness of their nerve-wracking experience from somewhere near 100% to somewhere near 0%. They would prefer to relive that nerve-wracking presentation experience

rather than lose their little finger. The loss of the finger helps them to put it in perspective. (If you’re happy to lose your little finger, imagine losing your hand, or the finger or hand of a loved one – at some point you’ll gain some perspective). The rational reality is that most of the things that happen to us in presentations are not that bad. They’re nothing compared to the other things that can happen to us in life – like relationship break-ups, loss of a loved one, and severe health issues. The most serious consequences of a presentation going badly are losing a large sale, an election or other contest, or your job (though I’ve never heard of someone losing their job because of one bad presentation). These consequences are disappointing – but not catastrophic. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Sales

Here are some common demands people have about presenting and public speaking: • I must be interesting and engaging • I mustn’t leave anything out • I mustn’t waffle • I mustn’t show I’m nervous • I’ve got to be able to answer every question

NEW BRAIN NERVOUSNESS

The new brain is the conscious thinking part of your brain. Most of us have patterns of thinking that contribute to our nervousness. You can reduce your nervousness by exploring your patterns of thinking. One of the most common patterns of thinking that contribute to the fear of public speaking are demands. Here’s an example of how they operate. A few weeks ago I was running a training course. I knew that the CEO would be one of the participants. I felt myself get a little nervous as we were setting up. When he walked into the room, I got hot, and my heart started racing. Why would I react in this way? I have a demand around CEOs. It goes something like this: CEOs are really important, and I must have their approval. My demanding thought made me nervous. What was the result? I messed up the instructions for a simple exercise that we do at the beginning of every course and that I’ve done perfectly hundreds of times before! www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

These demands make you nervous because you can’t guarantee that the demand will be met. To reduce their power, rationally analyse the truth and usefulness of these demands. For example, with my CEO demand I can see that it’s not essential that a CEO approve of me. I don’t demand that everybody approves of me – and it’s irrational to demand that a CEO must approve of me. I can also see that it’s not useful to have this demand as it made me mess up. Fear of public speaking can be debilitating, and can have you avoid opportunities in your life. I hope this article has been useful to you in thinking through how you can best reduce your nervousness. •

Olivia Mitchell is an internationallyrenowned presentation trainer and blogger who provides presentation training in New Zealand through Effective Speaking. W: www.speakingaboutpresenting.com L: Olivia Mitchell T: @oliviamitchell

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Marketing

OVERCOMING THE LEGAL CHALLENGE TO CONTENT MARKETING BY COLIN KENNEDY

he marketing director of a large Australasian multinational told us recently that she had given up on content marketing. “We just can’t get anything through legal,” she said. “They either bottleneck to the extent we miss our deadlines, or it goes into the ‘too hard basket’ and never sees the light of day.” Similar experiences are becoming commonplace in the corporate environment, but is legal the problem? Talk to digital agency staff and the marketing and digital departments in most corporate companies about ‘legal’

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vetting content, and you’ll most likely get a grimace. At first blush, it seems like legal, unable to understand the bright new world of ‘content marketing’, are becoming a fly in the ointment. But a closer look suggests that things may not be all they appear. Regardless of who might or might not be to blame for the bottlenecks, or drastically altered pieces of content and missed deadlines, the legal challenge to content marketing in New Zealand is a very real issue that is, and will increasingly, impact the ability of brands to engage their customers.

MARKETING HAS A PROBLEM Customers hate ads – they don’t like being sold to but still love to shop – and that means giving them information that helps them make better decisions, rather than trying to overtly persuade them to choose your brand. Recent studies show that Internet users are using ad blocking software in increasing numbers. The editor of Netherlands-based technology news site Guru3D.com discovered recently that ad blocking has eaten into 50% of their ad revenue, in spite of their growing audience. This kind of thing is hurting publishers, but it’s hurting marketers more as achieving ‘cut through’ becomes steadily more challenging. In other areas, Apple’s new iOS operating systems allow ad blocking for mobiles. iOS ad blocking apps now top the most downloaded charts.

The upshot is that brands have to become publishers. They have to start thinking and behaving like journalists, because consumers want to be informed, educated, inspired and entertained; not sold to. That makes content marketing – done properly – possibly the most powerful strategy for building brand profile and trust. The marketing world, it seems, has come to recognise this. Marketing and digital departments, even brand managers, are keen to embrace content marketing in ever growing numbers. That’s why content marketing was voted the most significant digital marketing trend three years in a row. It seems that some legal departments, however, may still be playing catch-up when it comes to recognising the shift in the way we market to customers. On the other hand, marketing may have to play catch up on the legal side of things. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Marketing

LEGAL HAS A PROBLEM Objective value added content notwithstanding, content marketing is a trading activity that promotes goods and services, even if indirectly. As such, it’s subject to laws like The Fair Trading Act 1986, and potentially Advertising Codes of Practice. Then there are sector-specific laws like the Financial Advisers Act 2008. But that’s not all. When brands begin acting like publishers, they’re also more likely to be dipping their toes into issues like copyright law and even the Harmful Digital Communications Bills (among others). Simpson Grierson media and communications lawyer Tracey Walker tells us that content marketers need to be wary of making claims without the same rigour applied to marketing compliance. “If you make a claim about your product or service, for instance, you should be able to substantiate it. If you are going down the editorial road, best practice is to pay attention to [the] fundamental tenets of good journalism – such as declaring conflicts of interest, transparency and making clear what is fact and what is comment. These are things that brands should be taking into account when publishing content.” www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Legal departments within corporates recognise that they have legal responsibilities, particularly around commercial laws like The Fair Trading Act 1986. Few have acknowledged the trend towards content marketing, and may even be a bit slow in realising the need to get across laws about media and copyright, for instance. “There’s no question that in-house legal teams are going to have to brush up on and take into account aspects of media and copyright law as content marketing becomes more prevalent,” says Ms Walker. That, in a nutshell, seems to be a large part of the problem. Marketing knows content marketing is important but is unaware that rules still apply. Legal might not be across the necessary shift to content marketing, but they know that rules apply, somewhere – they just don’t know exactly which rules and where they apply.

CONTENT DIVERSITY A ROADBLOCK A major stumbling block for all is the variety of content and overnight proliferation of content providers. “Corporate publishing can range from ‘very editorial’ through to advertorial and then to native advertising,” says Ms Walker. “There are different things requiring more nuanced consideration; part of the challenge is deciding where a piece of content sits on the spectrum.” Ms Walker raises a very important point. The nature of a company, which is to make a profit, means that it may be producing all types of so-called content, from advertisements to opinion articles to ‘how to videos’ – and legal departments are suddenly faced with the challenges of recognising the nuances in each and applying the appropriate slide rule. This diversity of content may be one of the things stymying legal advisers. Part of the problem will be with the broad adoption of the word content to apply to anything that is produced – movies, advertisements, opinion pieces, blogs, advertorials – but few of those things are actual content marketing by definition. Content marketing is defined as: “The marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and

valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” The keywords here are ‘valuable’ and ‘relevant’ – advertising and advertorials are not necessarily relevant and most certainly not valuable to the consumer. We can assume from this that advertisement campaigns like Old Spice’s ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ do not fit the definition of content marketing. “The more content leans towards editorial, the better shielded the company may be from falling foul of the law,” says Ms Walker. “However, the definition of advertising applied by bodies such as the Advertising Standards Authority is incredibly broad, embracing advertising in any form, even that which advocates ideas or beliefs. I think the ASA will take an interest in many forms of content marketing dressed up as editorial content. “The key to my mind is to act with integrity, with an eye to ethical standards applying to real journalism and you will find there is a degree of symmetry; you earn trust for the brand and will avoid legal problems. For example, declare any conflict of interest, be transparent and value accuracy.” www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Marketing

It seems sound advice for companies to clarify what they mean by content marketing, to define a strategy and to ensure that their content providers understand the nuanced differences between, for example, a press release, an opinion piece and an advertorial.

PICK HORSES FOR COURSES WHEN IT COMES TO CONTENT

most likely have a better understanding of media and copyright rules.

Disclosure of conflict of interest: Espire Media is both a publisher and a content marketing agency, firmly in the editorial school of thought.

For example, companies might be better off relying on qualified journalists to create editorial content like articles, blogs and white papers, than on an advertising agency. Because not only do journalists put first the interests of the customers (which is the essence of good content marketing), but they will www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

When it comes to advertising and making representations that are more commercial in nature, then obviously advertising agencies are best qualified to work in that area. Advertising agencies and public relations companies work well together, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no reason content agencies canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enjoy a similar relationship. What muddies the waters, however, is when one tries to be everything to everyone.

FINDING A WAY FORWARD The best way forward through what are essentially uncharted and untested waters is for the marketing department and legal departments to leave the silos behind and begin talking. Some steps to consider taking to reduce bottlenecks: • Clearly, define and silo your marketing initiatives, e.g. understand and document the difference between content marketing, advertising, public relations and advertorial as they apply to your organisation. • Define the content marketing strategy for your company e.g. ‘how to’ advice, ‘thought leadership’. Understand what you are trying to achieve with your content marketing. • Work with your legal department to establish compliance checklists so that you can produce content that has a better chance of getting through, as well as the legal department’s understanding of what rules apply where. • Consider using ‘disclosure statements’ and other indemnifying statements e.g. “the opinions expressed are the opinions of the writers” etc.

“Legal risks are a very grey area, but they can be managed by being very clear about the ethical or integrity standards that need to underpin content marketing.” Ms Walker says the conversation should be about managing corporate reputation. “The legal advisers have to work hand-inhand to enable content to be published, rather than as an obstacle. They need to show the way it can be done while managing the legal risk. Yes, those legal risks are a very grey area, but they can be managed by being very clear about the ethical or integrity standards that need to underpin content marketing.”

• Work with suppliers who understand the law and the differences in marketing tactics “If everybody is clear on that, the to ensure you keep your initiatives clearly likelihood is that legal risk is avoided. It defined and the waters un-muddied. is a discussion that has to be had.” •

Colin Kennedy is a content marketing expert and owner of Iron Road. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND IS A HOTBED OF ENTREPRENEURIAL GOODNESS EACH WEEK WE PROFILE A STARTUP WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE WATCHING ACROSS A RANGE OF INDUSTRIES

PTminder FOUNDERS: Callum Cook and Rick Thompson HQ: Auckland www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Tell us about your business? PTminder is a cloud-based personal training business tool, designed for personal trainers to manage their daily business operations. It also includes mobile apps available in iOS and Android.

What are your biggest unique selling points? • It’s an all in one platform designed specifically for personal trainers – everything you need is in the one interface • We provide custom branded mobile apps • Ease of use – a simple but beautiful design • We also pride ourselves on our excellent 24/7 customer service

The main features are an online scheduling system, credit/debit card payments, automated What are you most proud of? We’ve processed 50million payments, SMS reminders, invoicing, and reporting. made over 2million bookings, and It also offers specific personal training helped over 100,000 clients. features such as a workout and nutrition planner, online store, client assessments and staff management.

Where did the idea come from? Callum first came up with the idea back in 2011 when he was a personal trainer in his local gym in Remuera, Auckland. Callum then joined forces with co-founder Rick Thompson, who now handles the IT and development side of the business.

What is the biggest entrepreneur lesson you would like to share with other Kiwis thinking of starting their own business? The number one lesson is to be a great people person. The absolute key to becoming an entrepreneur is how good you are with people. If you genuinely care about people, if you can surround yourself with people that are genuinely excited about what you’re doing, if you can draw out the best in people, if you’re good at praising people, not criticising people – this is the key. Be a great people person.•

W: L: F:

I: T:

Who is your target market? Self-employed personal trainers, personal training studios and gyms.

www.ptminder.com PT Minder www.facebook.com/PTminder

www.instagram.com/ptminder/ @PTminder www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

“For good and for ill, we generate these incredible stories about the world around us, and then the world turns around and astonishes us.” Kathryn Schulz, Ted Talk WATCH IT HERE: ‘On Being Wrong’