NEW ZEALAND’S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS
October 2014
Selecting & Protecting Your Business Name
Interview
Adam Blackwell
Look Before You Leap
of Stun
10 Questions
Dannyof Ing with
Cin7
Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
iP is about igniting passion Great ideas shape our world if they are harnessed and protected in the right way. At AJ Park, we work with you to understand your business and where you want to take it. Our experts specialise in helping you identify, protect, commercialise, and manage your intellectual property. If you’re looking for clear IP advice, call us today. 0800 257 275 I www.ajpark.com I New Zealand + Australia
AJ Park is about iP • intellectual property • igniting passion • ideas pervading 2 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free
CONTENTS
e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forward-thinking entrepreneurs.
EDITOR / Nick Harley ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson
4 6
From the Editor
GROUP EDITOR / Jennifer Liew
Look Before You Leap
Alastair Noble
10 10 Questions with Danny Ing of Cin7
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER /
CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Nick on 021 052 9770 or email nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on (09) 522 7257 or
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Selecting & Protecting Your Business Name
24
Young Enterprise Trust
30
Getting the Best from your Board
32 Interview: Adam Blackwell of Stun 38 Samuel Williams of Aamplify
email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz
ISSN 2253-5683 NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and distributed without the use of paper so it’s environmentally friendly. Please think before you print. Thank you!
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 3
EDITORIAL
I WAS HAVING A discussion with a friend of mine recently about the Law of Attraction. If you haven’t heard of this before, it’s a well known phenomenon that suggests if you truly believe in something you want to achieve or obtain in life, it will be attracted to you and eventually happen. We both agreed however that the reason the Law of Attraction exists and is credited with entrepreneurs achieving their dreams, is that if you want something badly enough, you’ll simply get there eventually. It’s persistence and tenacity that is really affecting things here. My view is that there is no mythical or spiritual influence at play here, but simply that entrepreneurs have a great amount of self drive. You may have many dreams and ambitions, so you will put yourself into situations that produce opportunities. Go to a networking event and meet your ideal cofounder, go to a conference and obtain your
biggest client or simply have enough self drive to obtain the house of your dreams one day. Were you lucky to meet your cofounder? Were you lucky to obtain that customer? And lucky to be able to afford that house? The thing is, none of this happens if you do nothing. The power to make a change is in your hands. It is up to you to push forward, do those things that you’re uncomfortable with and be in the right place at the right time to maximise an opportunity. The law of attraction is certainly real in my opinion, but it’s one thing to want something to happen rather than to actually make something happen. Hopefully you’ll see that luck is actually rare in business, many times someone was just there in the right place at the right time to take advantage of what was in front of them, and you’d be surprised just how much time and effort went into creating that opportunity.
✉
Decide what you want and go get it!
Nick
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www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 5
BUSINESS LESSONS
Look Before You Leap
It takes courage to become an entrepreneur, so don’t leave anything to chance says Hannah McQueen, Director of financial personal trainers, enableMe.
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LET COMMON SENSE Recently I’ve met several PREVAIL Starting a business people in this situation and is a brave move for anyone, but particularly for those who decide to give up a well-paid job to fulfil their entrepreneurial dreams: with a family and a string of financial commitments in tow.
while I don’t want to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm, I do want everyone on the verge of trading good income for high risk to overlay their dreams with some good common sense.
For some people the rules of business come naturally: they just seem to have what it takes. Others are born into business families and are lucky enough to learn as they go, surrounded by mentors. Many equip themselves with the knowledge they need through study.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself if you have thought everything through: and, most importantly, worked out all the financial implications.
But then there are those who, with little or no previous business experience and limited text-book knowledge, throw caution to the wind and take a giant leap of faith. It doesn’t matter how exciting your business idea is: don’t get carried away. If you are earning a decent wage and have a partner and/or children and all that goes with that – a mortgage, car finance, insurances, credit cards, personal loans – then you need to think long and hard about giving up what you have for a shot in the dark.
USE FACTS NOT FANTASY The only way to be certain you have everything covered is to plan. This means committing to paper all that is swirling around your mind. Without a thorough business plan your chances of commercial success are diminished before you have even got off the ground.Start with the financials. Living is costly, money is real and getting into debt is frightening. If you’re thinking about relinquishing your regular source of income you need to consider the immediate and the long-term impacts on yourself and your family.
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You need to know the answers to these questions. If you don’t, you must go back to the drawing board: • What is your current income per annum? • How much do you need to live on each month? • What’s the breakdown between bill payments (including mortgage, insurances, and school fees) daily spends, groceries as well as extras? • How will you pay for these if you give up your job (you may have other income streams)? • How much in savings do you have and how long will this last? • What will you do when your savings run dry? • How will you fund your start-up?
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Then, there are the ‘what-ifs’: • What if there’s an unforeseen situation and you need a cash lump sum? • What if your start-up needs more funds than you have allowed? • What if you haven’t drawn any income from the business after a year? Or worse, two or even three?
want. Yes, you have their support, but underneath they are panic-stricken. I know because I’ve seen this scenario many times over. So, what do you do? You can’t halt your plans, you are too committed. You know it will work: you’ve done all the figures. There’s demand for your product, you’ve done all the research.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to give up. You just have to make sure you keep your partner informed and reassured: and not with words. ‘She’ll be right’ will convince noREASSURE YOUR one. You need to share the PARTNER While you’ve been facts and figures with your busy planning and getting partner and show them that everything in order, your partner the dollars will stack up. has been busy panicking. “No It’s also a good idea to put they haven’t,” you say, “they told me they are behind me 100 some realistic milestones in per cent.” Yes, well, that’s why place. Sit down together and they are your partner. put a timeframe around the venture. Set realistic goals. They love and trust you Mark your progress. Cap the and want you to be happy funds you invest. Importantly, and successful. They are agree when to pull the plug behind what you are doing because they want what you and take a reality check.• If you have a plan for the above, well done, you’ll be fine. If you haven’t, you still have work to do.
Hannah McQueen is a chartered accountant and the founder of financial personal trainers, enableMe. Visit them at www.enableme.co.nz
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 9
INTERVIEW
Questions 10
Danny Ing of with
Cin7
A lot of hard work and sacrifice is needed to build a business. Each month we talk to an inspiring entrepreneur to show you that really, anything is possible.
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Tell us about your business, what is it that you do? Cin7 is a cloud based Inventory and POS system. ‘CIN’ stands for ‘Cloud Inventory’ and ‘7’ stands for the number of ways we saw buying behaviour changing because of e-commerce, the Internet, and mobile technology. We solve the global problem of giving the consumer the convenience of buying online or the experience of buying in-store. The types of industries that love us are multistore retailers, fashion and apparel, furniture, flooring and wine distribution companies. These industries plus many more need strong inventory control and a point of sale solution. With so many businesses now selling via multiple channels, CIN7 manages stock and sales data seamlessly, while also integrating with other best-in-class systems like Xero, Quickbooks Online, SalesForce, Shopify and many others. Cin7 is being chosen consistently over
much more expensive incumbent ERP due to its ease of use. We provide a product that is online, so no matter whether you are at your office, home, bach or boat, you have control and can see what you are selling and what you are making. The real beauty of what we do is combining both POS and Inventory into one system so that you don’t need two different products or systems to do something they were never designed to do. So you could say we reduce the sleepless nights, the painful uncertainty and the difficult conversations that most businesses experience from either using spreadsheets or outdated and expensive ERP products!
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 11
What’s the story behind the business? How did it get started and why? Cin7 started out as Datum Connect Limited: a web design company. As e-commerce became more popular, more Datum customers started to experience the unique problem of selling products online that they did not have in actual stock. This caused a customer service problem of grumpy customers and refunds. One Datum customer was looking for an online inventory system but could not find one and asked us
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if we would develop some inventory functionality into our e-commerce websites. This started the foray into inventory systems development. Four years ago, we bumped into a still very small Xero company which wanted, first and foremost, an inventory add-on to their accounting system. A year later, Datum Connect was rebranded Cin7 and became an online inventory system. We took a risk that online business systems would become the mainstream and have not looked back.
How did you survive the early days? We were fortunate to have over 1,000 happy website and hosting customers who worked with us and supported us as we made the transition. We kept it lean and did not seek funding while we tried to carve a business model from what was happening. The great thing is we still have that lean mean survival instinct that governs our decisions even now. While we don’t have the same funding angst, we still measure our decisions wisely and make sure there is a result and quantifiable outcome from calls we make. You then have to balance that with pushing forward assertively and making the courageous calls that need to be made in order to gain and maintain momentum. Many of those within the business have skin in this game, so that really contributes towards a focused and motivated culture, and so sacrifices for the greater good are the norm for us.
Have you experienced any bad times? What was the most painful lesson you’ve had to learn in business? Absolutely. If you haven’t had bad or at least challenging times then you don’t have something real. You really need to learn from these times and then move on. Don’t let the scars wear you out, but don’t ignore the decisions that caused the pain either. The transition from a web design company to a cloud inventory company took a full two and half years before we could stop taking on any new website design work and only take on inventory customers: a period I have labelled ‘The Valley of Death’. These could have been extremely bad times, but we made it through, and with a lot of luck the cloud business systems industry became a real opportunity. The most painful series of lessons is centred around getting caught up in the hype. There is a lot of excitement, but nobody is making any money, yet you still have to pay the rent and wages. Trust me; excitement does not pay the bills. We had to keep it real and focused on providing value to our customers.
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How do you market your products, and what advice do you have for others around marketing? Many of our first customers were previous customers from our website building and hosting days. Initially, Xero also provided us with a lot of leads, and as time has gone on we have been referred a lot and have built great relationships with credible partners, which is a channel we still need to grow. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, we really want to target industries and the size of company that we are best suited for. Fashion and Apparel, Flooring, and Furniture retail stores and chains are where we really excel, as well as in niche markets like Wine distribution. So, our strategy is to enlighten and educate these verticals and not have a scatter-gun approach that is more hit and hope than real marketing. Our advice to others is to identify where you fit first, then target them only. Do a good job with them first: then expand. Control the controllable and don’t try and be too clever too quick.
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Do entrepreneurs need lots of money or external funding to build a big business? Any advice for others looking to raise funding or for those who have little money to get going? Yes, the harsh reality is you do need a good amount of funding. However, too much funding is no good as you tend to waste it. In our experience you don’t need millions, but a few hundreds of thousands is essential. The best advice is focus on servicing the customers with the biggest need and the most money. A customer with a big need and money will usually help you develop your product and pay you some money. Remember you are not developing software, you are trying to solve a high value problem.
What are the three most important business skills you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop?
What does success mean to you and what do you think are the most important things to think about whilst building a business?
Filter good advice from the noise. Unfortunately this is a painful process of not knowing you have good advice until you have had a lot of bad advice. You have to keep on asking yourself “Can I do anything with that advice?”.
One of the best lessons I have ever learnt was from my Market Research lecturer at Waikato Uni, Scott Koslow. After studying hard and getting my first class honours in Marketing and Accounting, I approached my lecturer and asked what I do with myself now I have got my degree.
Surround yourself with the right calibre of people as soon as you can. Don your elbow and shinpads and prepare for a gritty and rough ride. Tenacity and resilience wins out over desire all day, regardless of what motivational speaker you listen to. Desire is like a match in the snow, it can disappear real quick once the temperature drops!
He said “Do what you would do for free and if you make money from this you will be successful.” After a year in the workforce as a number cruncher for a plastics manufacturing company I understood what he meant. I then started to follow this Internet thing which was introduced to us in my first year of University.
“DO WHAT YOU WOULD DO FOR FREE AND IF YOU MAKE MONEY FROM THIS YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.” www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 15
Waikato Uni was the first place the Internet had come into NZ and we were the first batch of students to ever use it. I was a terrible speller and had extremely messy handwriting, getting consistent Ds and Es in high school, and looking down the barrel of being useless to society. When I discovered the computer and the spell checker I was hooked into IT. Building a business is extremely difficult and I would not wish it upon anybody. The one thing that keeps you going is that you would do it for free anyway, so you keep on going regardless of the conditions. Success comes when you have done something that you would normally do for free and have done it long and hard enough to make some money from it.
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What do you think are the things New Zealand needs to improve upon when it comes to creating more successful businesses? An understanding of the global market. We are so small, and while we always find ourselves looking up and wishing, fighting for air time globally is different altogether. As a country we need to support and invest in our entrepreneurs. We are a breeding ground of amazing ideas and concepts that never see the light of day. We need to work to our strengths and stop trying to compare ourselves to everyone else. I am sure we were told we needed to copy Ireland, Greece and some other supposed ‘shining’ lights not so long ago, but imagine if we had.
AS A COUNTRY WE NEED TO SUPPORT AND INVEST IN OUR ENTREPRENEURS. WE ARE A BREEDING GROUND OF AMAZING IDEAS AND CONCEPTS THAT NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY. WE NEED TO WORK TO OUR STRENGTHS AND STOP TRYING TO COMPARE OURSELVES TO EVERYONE ELSE.
Where do you see yourself and the business in five years’ time? We have just set up a presence in the US based out of the Kiwi Landing pad. This has contributed to our recent listing with Quickbooks Online as an authorised add-on partner which means we are now one (of three only) POS partners globally, and one of an elite group of cloudbased Inventory providers, so this is massive for us. We also have some big opportunities with some large retail chains in Australia and so we have established
a branch there as well, to meet these needs. This has already opened up some amazing doors so things are happening quickly and so we need to keep up and maximise these windows of opportunity. We are also moving into a lot larger office space this month which is another positive step forward and definitely gives us the motivation to push forward aggressively. There is a very definite goal in mind but we will keep that under lock and key for a little longer: but keep watching this space.•
If you’d like to be feature your story and business idea in this e-magazine, contact the editor at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 17
IP IN ACTION
Selecting & Protecting Your Business Name By John Hackett, Partner, AJ Park
Choosing a brand name that becomes a distinctive trade mark can be a challenging, time-consuming, and expensive exercise. This article provides tips on how you can increase your chances of success without making costly mistakes along the way.
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SELECT A NAME THAT IS DISTINCTIVE Coming up with a good brand name requires a degree of creative thinking. It’s important to choose a name that is distinctive. By this, I mean a name that no competitor can freely use to describe the product or service you market.
For example, a name like ‘Full of Fruit’ is not a good trade mark for a fruit cereal because it describes a characteristic of the product, ie that it is ‘full of fruit’. But, call it something like ‘Fruitful’ and a competitor could not use that word to describe their fruit cereal. Eponymous brand names may work for some, but not everyone. For example, if your name happens to be Brigitte Chanel and you offer beauty services you may run into difficulties trying to use the name ‘Chanel’, because it is already a well known trade mark for perfume and cosmetics. Any name that is likely to be confusing or misleading, or that indicates a connection with a well known brand, is unlikely to able to be registered. It is also likely to incur the wrath of the brand owner!
Names based on geographical place names can also be problematic. A supermarket chain in Australia was recently unsuccessful in its attempt to register a new wine label with the name ‘South Island’. All traders must be free to indicate the source of their products, or where they are produced or manufactured. If you wish to use a Maori name, it’s important to ensure you approach the appropriate iwi to go through a full consultation process. You want to ensure that you have their endorsement to use and register the name, and know that it is not demeaning or offensive to Maori.
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DETERMINE IF YOU HAVE FREEDOM TO OPERATE ‘Freedom to
operate’ is a commonly used term in intellectual property law. It indicates whether you have freedom to market, sell, or license your products or services without infringing the IP rights of others. To determine if you have freedom to operate, a proper search needs to be carried out in the marketplace, and of the official intellectual property registers for the country or countries you intend to offer your products and services in. You can search by looking through numerous databases, including that of the Intellectual Property Office
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of New Zealand (IPONZ) and in search engines such as Google, but an IP specialist can help ensure your search covers all the bases. For example, say you want to use the name FITEC for computer software. You could search on this name and find nothing, but does that mean you are free to use and register this name? Not necessarily. What about phonetic spelling variations, such as FYTEC, PHYTEC or PHITEC? You may discover someone has already registered one of these for the same goods or services. So it’s important that your FTO searching is thorough and well-informed.
REMEMBER, YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS WILL BE GREATLY INCREASED IF THE MARK IS NOT A DESCRIPTIVE WORD, GEOGRAPHICAL PLACE NAME, COMMON SURNAME, OR ANY OTHER NAME WHICH MAY BE CONSIDERED TO BE UNABLE TO BE REGISTERED.
MAINTAIN YOUR TRADE MARK REGISTRATION In most
REGISTER YOUR TRADE MARK Once you’ve come up with a distinctive name, and established that you have freedom to operate in your target markets and classes, it’s time to try and register it.
Remember, your chances of success will be greatly increased if the mark is not a descriptive word, geographical place name, common surname, or any other name which may be considered to be unable to be registered.
countries, if you haven’t used your trade mark for a continuous three year period, it’s open to a third party to revoke the registration, apply for the same mark on the same products or services, and start using the name. To keep your name protected, renew your registration every ten years in the country it’s registered, and ensure you’re using your trade mark. Also, try not to let your brand be used generically as a descriptor or a verb as this could compromise the validity of your trade mark registration.
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ONCE YOU’VE REGISTERED YOUR TRADE MARK, IT’S IMPORTANT TO ENFORCE IT BY TAKING ACTION AGAINST POTENTIAL INFRINGERS.
Google spent many months in court to show its GOOGLE trademark had not become generic, despite evidence that the public use the term ‘Google’ or ‘Googling’ to indicate searching for something on the internet. There are many other well known examples of brand names that have become generic, such as: ‘Rollerblade’, ‘Aspirin’, ‘Sellotape’, and ‘Photoshop’.
ENFORCE YOUR REGISTERED RIGHTS
Once you’ve registered your trade mark, it’s important to enforce it by taking action against potential infringers. For example, if you successfully registered FITEC for your software product, but a direct competitor launched a product using the name PHYTEK, you would be within your rights to take enforcement action. A straightforward ‘cease and desist’ letter pointing out your rights in your FITEC trade mark registration should be sufficient for the potential infringer to back down and negotiate a settlement. • John Hackett is a partner at AJ Park. He works with clients in a variety of sectors, assisting them with brand protection and enforcement strategies. You can email him at john.hackett@ajpark.com
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www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 23
TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEURS
Young Enterprise Trust Terry Shubkin, CEO
Young Enterprise Trust
IT’S A VERY SPECIAL time of year here at Young Enterprise Trust. After running a small business for three school terms, our Lion Foundation Young Enterprise students are sending in their annual reports. We are again blown away by the ingenuity and dedication of the students, and the breadth of products and services they have created. These businesses come in all shapes and sizes, target a vast range of demographics, and produce everything from apps to camera lenses to chocolates to medical appliances. The amount of support these students get is incredibly heartening. It is not solely
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from invaluable people who are kind of obliged to help out (like teachers, parents and mentors) but also from businesses in their local community who are inspired by these wonderful young entrepreneurs. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the students and their supporters. This support notwithstanding, these students run a real business at the same time as their academic and extracurricular commitments. Their dedication is phenomenal, and no matter what the businesses look like, these annual reviews are inspiring and beautiful reflections of that.
CLOSING THE LOOP Takapuna Grammar School, Auckland. This team of six had a goal to make a 100 per cent natural fertiliser from bio waste, and ended up producing a worm casings ‘tea bag’. Bottled worm tea fertilisers are already widely available, but they are chemically preserved, which is against this company’s values.
IF YOU HAD BEEN asked to create a small business while at school, you might have been tempted to come up with something small and simple. After all, what can secondary students actually create and sell, especially when juggled alongside a raft of other school activities. But the wonderful thing about YES students is that they believe that literally anything is possible, and they are not restricted by small ideas. Below is a snapshot of four businesses to show what can happen in a YES year. Prepare to be amazed.
“We saw no point in creating a product to improve plant growth that at the same time has a negative effect on the environment”. So, they made a worm tea-bag, made from locally sourced waste products (worm casings, sacks from local cafés for the bag itself). This tea bag is simply dunked into water in your watering can and left to infuse. It is reusable and fully biodegradable. As a result of this new approach, they have created a product that has a shelf life of a year: longer than any currently available worm tea products. They have gone to Abilities, a local not-for-profit organisation that employs disabled workers to produce the bags. Quadruple bottom line: check!
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EL’ PALEO
and orange-cashew) rather than the one they had initially Henderson High School, projected, and have sold in Auckland As you may have guessed from excess of $4000 of chocolate, rather than the projected the company name, this team $1000. They are currently aimed its product at a very exploring the possibility of specific demographic: followers supplying a Paleo café in of the incredibly popular Paleo Auckland, and a forthcoming diet. They found that there were Paleo shop in Christchurch. no Paleo-friendly chocolates They are shipping Paleo commercially available in NZ, chocolates to both national and shrewdly established a and international customers niche product. and media coverage includes This year saw them shattering TVNZ Midday and Tangata many of their projections. Pasifika. Did we mention that They were able to produce they are the first YES team to three different lines of come out of Henderson High chocolate (mint, coconut, School? Sweet as.
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VENTUS Linwood College, Christchurch.
the wider community through classes and events. He is in effect both creating and fulfilling demand.
Another sole trader is Jacob Barber, who established Ventus with the aim of bringing As such, Ventus has had Parkour and free-running to an incredibly busy year of
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 27
running classes at primary schools, a youth prison; producing a promotional video for Ruination Clothing, performing at festivals and youth events, and being featured on New Balance’s New Zealand website. He estimates that he has exposed over 3000 people to Parkour this year, turning over $10,000 so far. Again, don’t worry! Jacob is not doing all
NEXT SMC Nelson College, Nelson This YES company is a little bit different, as it consists of one person: Rees Vinsen. It’s also a bit different because it’s an international social media consultancy. But don’t worry, Rees isn’t doing it all on his own. Despite the fact
of this on his own. He has trained a team of instructors to cope with demand. The majority of revenue brought in from classes has gone back into the purchase of equipment for Ventus Academy. Jacob has managed to do something very enviable. He has made himself a job, doing what he loves, to go straight into when he leaves school. Role model alert! that he is still in full time education, Rees has rented office space in the Nelson CBD and has five employees plus contractors. His projected revenue for the whole year is $30,000; $10,000 of which was brought in between June and September. Some people make it look so easy. •
Would you like to mentor a student company in 2015? Please contact Young Enterprise Trust on 04 570 0452 or email support@youngenterprise.org.nz to volunteer.
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MIKI SZIKSZAI CEO, SNAPPER
NEW ZEALAND’S SMARTEST BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE SWITCHING TO 2DEGREES. “We were saving between 35% and 40% off our telecommunications bill right off the bat. It also has opened up the opportunity for us to potentially reduce our reliance on landline phones in the office, which we’re now exploring. And again, that will probably take another 20% to 30% off our comms bill.”
MC2527A
To see the full story about Snapper, and hear about other companies who have made the move to 2degrees Business, visit: 2degreesmobile.co.nz/business.
Talk to one of our Business Consultants today and we’ll help drive your business forward. Call 0800 022 249 or visit 2degreesmobile.co.nz/business www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 29
BUSINESS LESSONS
Getting the Best from your Board: Drafting a workable Board Agreement By Brian Steele
In the previous two articles we’ve discussed confirming the ‘Purpose’ of the business and finding the appropriate people to join your board and add significant value. In the final part of this series we’ll look at how to put the correct agreements in place
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NOW YOU HAVE confirmed your purpose and selected your candidates, you need to have a clear plan on how you will work together. An agreement sets out the expectations of the owner and can be used to gauge progress against objectives.
Here are a set of key points that you may like to consider in drafting such an agreement (this example is for an Advisory Board).
INTRODUCTION
REMUNERATION
• Term & review periods • Powers to bind Company (none if an advisory board of mentor arrangement) • Company reserves rights to terminate
• Update from previous section
TERMS OF REFERENCE • Frequency of meetings • Number of personnel (Directors and Advisors) • Chair to be decided by the Directors
OBJECTIVES • Expand from the Purpose section • 3-4 objective points
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS • Develop 4-8 points expanding from the Objectives
OBLIGATIONS • Attendance of meetings • Preparation for meetings • Additional meetings
COMMUNICATION • Board Packs and timing to receive ahead of meetings • Contact protocols with third parties post ascent of directors
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST • Interests register • Protocol to withdraw or not participate in the discussions
LIABILITY • No PI Insurance as no powers to bind company [Note: importance not to be deemed as Directors]
RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES • Method to resolve disputes
CONFIDENTIALITY • Standard duty to preserve confidentiality
If you would like a complimentary copy of such an agreement please feel free to contact Shoreline Partners www.shorelinepartners.co.nz • This concludes the series around getting the best from your board. Brian Steele is the Executive Director of Shoreline Partners Limited. They offer programs supported by the NZTE voucher scheme covering strategy, candidate selection, preparing a board pack and mentoring. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 31
INTERVIEW
Adam Blackwell of Stun You’ll never create a successful business unless you get out there and give it a go. Each month we talk to inspiring entrepreneurs who have done just that.
Tell us about your business, what is it exactly that you do? Stun is a story telling company. We help clients work out what their stories are, distil them and then creatively re-construct them into a format that their audience will be entertained by, pay attention to and take action on. The stories can vary: strategy presentations, training instructions or new business
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pitches. We make sure our clients’ stories get attention through creative execution. You can have the best piece of news or information ever, but if you don’t tell your story with impact, it will never reach its full potential. We bring creative story tellers together with the latest technology to create the end result. It’s a unique proposition that’s getting attention worldwide.
What’s the story behind the business? How did it get started and why? I started First Star (now Stun) from my bedroom in 1996. I had been working in corporate marketing and had become frustrated by the cost, slowness and complexity I saw in the way creative agencies worked. My instinct told me that a very straightforward service, with low overheads, fast turnaround and full use of this new thing called the internet might be what clients needed. I didn’t do a business plan or a feasibility study. I just backed myself and launched it. My first job came within the first few days. I guess it proved from the get-go that clients didn’t need their agency to have fancy downtown offices or overblown budgets to get the everyday creative services they wanted.
How did you survive those early days? How did you pay the bills and keep growing your business? First Star was profitable from month one. The only sacrifices I really made were in time. I had to work every day, and long days, to stay on top of everything and keep delivering on my high quality/ fast turnaround promise. It also meant I couldn’t spend a lot of time prospecting, but in those days, I treated every job like it might be my last, which I guess is what led to the reputation First Star established in the market. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 33
Have you experienced any bad times? What was the most painful lesson you’ve had to learn in business? Not really. As the economy moved through various ups and downs, I actually found that when times were tough, my workload increased. I guess those were the times when large agencies felt the pressure, but for First Star, being seen as cost effective made us the obvious choice when budgets needed to go a lot further. I think two of the best lessons I have learned in business came from a Walt Disney biography
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I read in the late 90s. The first is to always hire people that have skills beyond your own. That’s the only way you’ll excel. The second is to be fearless. Disney said “If you can dream it, you can do it.” First Star has achieved things that I could never have imagined when I got started; like building mobile apps for clients in the US; and making TV commercials in collaboration with the Walt Disney Company. You may have picked up that I am a minor fan of that company.
Do entrepreneurs need lots of money or external funding to build a big business?
How have you managed to get customers? How do you market your products, and what advice do you have for others around marketing? Up until recently, our growth has been organic. People I have worked with have taken me with them around the world as their own careers change. That’s the power of relationships. Now, I sincerely believe that very targeted marketing in the form of a paid and PR combo creates a platform for sales that is essential. Sales without marketing is possible, but three times harder. Marketing provides permission for an effective sales conversation to take place.
Despite conventional wisdom to grow fast or get left behind, I’m still old fashioned enough to believe that many successful small businesses should be able to prove themselves in New Zealand and reinvest their profits to achieve their growth. But when it comes to making things happen in other markets, you simply must be there. You have to be on the ground. People need to meet you, trust you and believe in you to get things happening. Email or Skype won’t cut it, initially. If you have your sights set on the US, or the UK or anywhere else, you have to be there and have someone you trust locally helping you to understand cultural nuances to be mindful of. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 35
What are the three most important business skills you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop? Mine aren’t business skills. They’re just human skills. 1. Be a good story teller. Articulate yourself clearly and confidently. Don’t bore your audience with DIY PowerPoints. 2. Back yourself. Sometimes kiwis think that the successful international business people must know a whole lot more than they do. They may have a different level of experience, but most of the time, the business challenges we have in NZ are the same ones that exist overseas. Scale is the only difference. 3. Slightly sensitive one, but don’t be a dick. Be likeable. Be yourself. But don’t think that getting on the turps and getting loud about how busy you are in airport lounges is ever acceptable. It just gives kiwi business people a bad name.
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What does success mean to you and what do you think are the most important things to think about whilst building a business? Business success is about having choices. When you have the resources to make choices, you’re in a successful position. That’s the choice to grow your business, take some time off, or develop another idea you have been working on. I think a good mentality to have when you are growing is to operate like a start-up for as long as you can. Don’t be tempted to buy and flaunt the trappings of early success. Bank it. You’ll need it later for the choices that will ultimately make you more successful.
What do you think are the things New Zealand needs to improve upon when it comes to creating more successful businesses? I think some smart digital resources would be ideal for getting new businesses started. Templates that force an entrepreneur to get the basics right or self-filter their proposition before they get too far down the track would save many new businesses a lot of heartache and financial waste. I know that’s what incubators are designed for, but I would respectfully suggest there needs to be less feel-good chat and more hard work right at the start. I’m not buying the current ‘fail fast’ mentality. A new business should really understand what
they are doing before they get going. Failure might provide some valuable lessons, but it shouldn’t be touted as badge of achievement.
What’s next for you? Where do you see yourself and the business in five years’ time? Stun is an exciting proposition. We’ve already proven that we can produce creative work in NZ that can be exported and delivered to a client’s mobile device anywhere in the world. My vision is to re-establish Wellington as a world class creative shop that exports storytelling. Initially, the US and the UK are our most exciting markets. We’ve got the talent and the potential. Now we just have to get out there and sell it! •
If you’d like to be feature your story and business idea in this e-magazine, contact the editor at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz
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TAKING THE PLUNGE
Samuel Williams of Aamplify Briefly tell us about your business. How did you first come up with the idea? Aamplify provides marketing expertise, experience and outsource capability. We specialise in providing services to kiwi technology and professional services firms. We work with a range of clients, from Deloitte through to cloud-based software start-ups like Re-Leased. We've had notable success helping companies with their brand story and content marketing, and technologies like their website and marketing automation platforms. Aamplify came about as a result of seeing how digital and social media technology was rapidly changing how companies could compete and win business on the world stage.
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Jamie and Tim who are part of the Aamplify team
With some 20-odd years behind me working in sales and marketing management for software companies in the States and UK, I believe there is both a gap in knowledge and experience of what it takes to promote a kiwi tech-business on the global stage.
So much of what's on offer in NZ is around B2C. B2B marketing is evolving at a rapid pace also, with brand personality and character playing an increasing part of creating competitive differentiation in a crowded online world.
Clever, engaging targeted Apart from a skills shortage content – tailored to the in digital marketing, the business buyer – is now platforms are changing so really important also, with fast it’s really hard to keep up platforms like YouTube with what will work and what providing really interesting won't. Business to business possibilities to educate and (B2B) marketing is different show-off new ideas: since to business to consumer ideas are the currency of marketing (B2C). great B2B marketing.
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Samuel Williams - Managing Partner (left) and Sam Howie
What is the big goal for your business? To incubate the business in NZ and then expand into Northern California. Silicon valley is still the most innovative and interesting place to work in the tech sector. The American can-do attitude and willingness to give something a go is one of the most appealing parts of doing business in the States: that and the opportunity to grow far beyond what we can in NZ.
What inspired you to take the plunge? Having worked in Australia, the US and Europe, I see NZ as one of the best test markets in the world. The relative cost and ease of doing business here makes it an ideal place to test and develop new business concepts.
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You can be pretty sure that if it works here, it will have legs overseas, where you can gain substantial economies of scale. More than that, the decision to start the business was seeing a significant disruption going on, where new opportunity was being formed with the right approach. Such significant shifts mean there are ample new ways in which we can re-invent ourselves and what we do. Taking the plunge for me was about figuring out what I love to do and having enough belief in that to give it a go. It's been challenging and rewarding at the same time. It's great to get up in the morning and look in the mirror (as you're getting ready for work) and be totally jazzed about going to work.
What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of building your business so far? Figuring out where to focus and on what. Scale and revenue comes from finding an effective repeatable formula that appeals to a particular vertical. Go too wide too quickly and you will burn cash that you need to re-invest to gain scale. It's been one of the toughest things I've done. Even though I've been in and around start-up businesses for most of my career, it is entirely different when it’s your money on the line, and your house, and your family. The mental toughness required to start up and be successful should not be underestimated.
What keeps you going when you feel like giving up? For me, the secret is doing something I really love doing and believing in the value of what I (and we) have to offer. People, passion and purpose really do make a difference – even though they may seem
like cliché. Much like being on the rugby field, a staunch belief in who, what and why can make all the difference to match success.
What advice would you give to any people reading this who are thinking of starting a business? It's a long game and it's a classroom. Think of it this way and the perhaps the fear of taking the risk will seem different. Success can't be measured in the short term, only in what you're able to achieve with people over the long term. It is not all about the money: that's just one aspect of what it takes to be happy and successful. I'm reminded of a quote from the American poet Maya Angelou, (who died recently) – and this is particularly true of any human endeavour; sporting, entrepreneurial or artistic: "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will remember how you made them feel". •
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PARTING SHOT
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” Zig Zagler
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