NZ Entrepreneur Issue 38

NEW ZEALAND’S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

January 2016

The

Information AGE

is Over, Say Hello to the

Connection Age

New Year, New Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs

How the World’s Billionaire Entrepreneurs Give Back Tips to Overcoming the 90% Business Failure Rate www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought

CONTENTS

provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

EDITOR / Jennifer Liew

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From the Editor

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Four Things Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

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Kiwi SMEs Achieve Better Growth by Focusing on Strengths over Weaknesses

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The Information Age is Over, Say Hello to the Connection Age

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A New Year, a New Group of Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs

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Effective Selling: Don’t Sell Yourself a Myth

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2016 - A Fresh Start

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Turning Risk Disclosure Into a Positive Message

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How the World’s Billionaires Are Giving Back

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ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or email jennifer@nzentrepreneur.co.nz ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Kristin Harper on 021 905 830 or email kristinh@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!

EDITORIAL

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As Jo from Great Spirit has said in her article this month, ‘Start as you mean to go on’ and ‘make this your best year yet’. Each new year you will no doubt hear the same old phrases come out of your own mouth and others, such as ‘time to set my new year’s resolutions’, ‘get to wipe the slate clean and start again’, ‘gonna make this my best year yet’, ‘gonna work off the ham, pav and beer tire I’ve recently acquired’, etc., etc.

Most of us set out each new year with the best of intentions but often fail to follow through on our promises to ourselves. Cliche maybe but resolve to make this ‘your best year yet’ and put the commitments you

make to yourself first above all else. This might mean saying ‘no’ to others (our loved ones included) which for some of us is a good goal to set itself. We’re no use to anyone if our tank is empty because we choose to invest in everyone and everything else other than ourselves.

After a good break which helps clean out the mental cobwebs, the new year is one of the best times we have to make real changes. So this year put yourself first and take the time to create the life you set out to do when you decided to become an entrepreneur.

Have a prosperous and happy year everyone!

Jennifer Liew www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 3

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

FOUR THINGS EVERY ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS TO KNOW Mark Wager says being an entrepreneur is not for the fainthearted, it’s for warriors. I agree. It’s not the easiest path to follow and you should go in with your eyes wide open but it is a path well worth the fight if you want to be the master of how you live your life. Check out a few of Mark’s insights.

WORKING FOR YOURSELF as an entrepreneur is a dream shared by the majority of people who have worked for someone else. I know because I was one of them. I was working in a windowless office in a dead-end job for an organisation that cared little for me.

I’m incredibly lucky that I’ve managed to build a career as a Leadership Coach, working for

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my own company and travelling to different countries meeting fascinating people and enjoying every minute of it.

I know that I’m living the dream and it’s a dream that I would love other people to pursue, but the road is not smooth. Based on my personal experiences I’ve highlighted a few tips for any prospective entrepreneur to beware of.

Tip Two: Follow your passion Tip One: Be prepared to fight.

The cold hard fact of any new business is that there is a 90% chance that you are going to fail. The majority of businesses do not exist within five years of inception. Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted, it’s for warriors.

If you are entering a scenario where there’s a 90% chance of failure, then you must be prepared to fight harder than your competitors to become one of those 10% of survivors.

Most people give up without knowing just how close they were from their goals. The truth is that people who quit end up working for those who didn’t.

The road to being your own boss is difficult and, without doubt, you will face days that you will think about quitting and those around you will agree that you should quit.

The days will be long and you will work way harder than you will ever work for anyone else.

There’s only one way to get through these days and that is if your business is also your passion. If you are entering a field that you are not passionate about, your slim odds of succeeding have just become shorter. You need to be in love with your business because it’s only love that’s going to get you out of bed when you are sick, and keep you working at night when you need sleep.

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Tip Three: Be prepared to be a student again

Tip Four: Don’t be afraid to ask for help

When I see fellow entrepreneurs fail, it’s usually because they are very skilled in one area but very poor in others. When you are working for someone else your job requires a narrow range of skills yet if you work for someone else you have to be prepared to do everything. I’ve seen great salespeople who fail because they are poor at finance and people who are good at finance fail because they have poor website building skills.

Successful entrepreneurs succeed because they are prepared to learn new skills.

The advantage we have today is that there’s so much information available on the Internet. Immerse yourself in this information and be prepared to study harder than you ever did at school.

Having your own business may seem lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s many people out there such as mentors and coaches who are willing to help with advice and guidance.

Don’t make a mistake and assume that guidance can only come from someone in the same industry as you.

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Some of the best advice can come from people who don’t know a thing about your business; they have the advantage of looking at your situation with fresh eyes. I recall my last visit to Fiji when I was asked to meet a young entrepreneur who wanted some advice and the meeting was only twenty minutes long.

Even though I didn’t know anything about her field, I know about what makes people successful. She was so passionate about her business that she made a common mistake of assuming

that everyone else shared her passion for her business, and how did I know? I know because I have made the same mistake. I’m so passionate about leadership that I thought that everyone else would share my passion so would instantly hire me to help their organisation.

I soon realised that I had to build sound business cases to justify my services.

Entrepreneurs have the vision to start their own business but it is not always a vision that’s shared by others. Seek help from others to bounce ideas from and improve your chances of success.

You may be getting to the end of this article with a little less enthusiasm than when you started. The dream to have your own business is not easy.

If it were, everyone would be doing it. It’s a difficult and long road but it is possible.

For the final tip, I will leave you with a quote from Chris Gardner. If you haven’t heard of him, then you may have heard of the movie based on his life.

The Pursuit of Happyness is a movie starring Will Smith, which documented Chris Gardener’s one-year struggle with homelessness before he became successful. ■

“Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me.

You got a dream; you got to protect it.

People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it.

You want something, go get it, period.”

- Chris Gardner

Mark Wager has his own company designing and facilitating leadership development programmes for teams and individuals across the Asia Pacific region. Mark can be contacted at mark@eliteld.co.nz

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INTERVIEW

Kiwi SMEs Achieve Better Growth by Focusing on Strengths over Weaknesses Chris Baker, an award winning Kiwi business coach highlights why giving more of our focus as entrepreneurs to our strengths rather than our weaknesses is so important to our success in business. Chris shares a few tips with us too.

FEAR OF FAILURE COULD be the reason so many New Zealand businesses will make the mistake of focussing on their weaknesses when it comes to business planning for 2016.

Auckland small business mentor, Chris Baker, said today that almost every SME business owner or entrepreneur he has worked with has wanted to fix their weaknesses, instead of improving their

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strengths, which is where the real business growth opportunities are.

“When doing a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) in planning for business in the New Year, entrepreneurs treat the strengths part like filling in a form. It’s a given and requires no more attention.

Instead, they get caught up in their weaknesses and how they can fix them.

“I think it’s because so many SME owners have a fear of failure or fear of loss, and perhaps that’s influenced by the recession we’ve just come through. Perhaps it’s because as Kiwis, we like to stay humble and self-effacing, but it’s not a good formula for success – particularly when you have staff depending on you for their livelihood,” he said.

Baker is not alone in this assertion, with American research-based international performance management company, Gallup, Inc., reporting that entrepreneurs in most countries – from the United States, France and the United Kingdom to Japan and China – believe it is more important to focus on weaknesses than strengths.

weaknesses, most of us assume that our weaknesses trump our strengths.”

Baker says building up your weaknesses is going to make you, at best, mediocre or average in those areas and that is not enough differentiation for a business, or of sufficient value to a customer.

“There is more to be gained by increasing one of your strengths by ten per cent than improving a weakness to the same degree.

“I’m not saying don’t fix what’s wrong because that is something that has to be done, but see it more as necessary maintenance.

Delegate or outsource in areas of weakness, but don’t waste time on them as part of your growth strategy.”

The authors of Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, maintain that fear of our weaknesses seems to overshadow our confidence in our strengths.

“To use an analogy, if life is a game of cards and each of us has been dealt our hand of strengths and

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“The best thing about focusing on your strengths is that it lifts morale and energises everybody. It puts the business in a positive place.”

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Baker said that working on your strengths is energising while working on weaknesses tends to be demoralising and tiring.

“The answer is simple enough. Do a workshop with your business planner and make a SWOT analysis a part of that exercise. List your weaknesses and if it is something that poses a threat to your business, deal with it under ‘threats’.

Then list your strengths and start looking for ways to bulk up in those areas.”

Baker offers the following tips for assessing your strengths: • Survey your customers.

Ask them what they like, or what really impresses them about your business.

• Ask your staff what they think the business excels at doing. It is likely that your staff will have had previous exposure to similar businesses, and will be in a good position to offer an opinion.

• Consider your competitors. What do you do better than them? Discard a perceived ‘strength’ if your competitors are equal to the task.

“The best thing about focusing on your strengths is that ist lifts morale and energises everybody. It puts the business in a positive place,” Baker said.■

A qualified teacher and accountant, Chris is the two times winner of the Team Player of the Year for ActionCOACH NZ and has coached award winning business owners and has helped them achieve awards including the Entrepreneur of the Year and Most Innovative Business. For more information visit www.actioncoach.com/chrisbaker

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MARKETING

The Information Age is Over, Say Hello to the Connection Age

BY Richard Liew, Founder of Espire Media

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IT’S THE START OF a new year and for most businesses, now is the time they will be deciding not if, but how, they are going to ramp up their content marketing efforts for the new financial year.

witnessed the changes taking place in both fields (or should I say the convergence of the two fields) since the early 2000’s, here is my explanation why content marketing is much more than just a fad.

Will they invest more resource in inspirational written content?

Are they going to initiate a new YouTube channel? Will they be hosting more valueadded events? Perhaps even launch their own multimedia digital magazine?

In the Agricultural Age, those who had the most land and could, therefore, produce the most food, fuel and natural resources, had the power.

But despite content marketing being voted the most commercially important marketing skill for the last three years running, some businesses will still be asking themselves if it’s really worth the bother.

Isn’t content marketing just another buzzword? Another expensive fad with a hard to measure ROI that will take our focus away from good old fashioned sales-as-we-know-it?

As a lifelong student of sales and marketing, and having

In the Industrial Age, those who had the biggest factories, and could, therefore, manufacture the most stuff, had the power.

In the Information Age, those who had access to the most knowledge and data, and could provide or leverage useful information the fastest, had the power.

But now that we live in a time where everyone has access to almost unlimited information at the same time, who has the power?

In other words, what comes after the Information Age?

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With people’s attention spreading over an ever increasing choice of mediums and channels, the power of mass media is slipping

The Information Age is Over. Say Hello to the Connection Age.

What has changed though is that media today is becoming increasingly fractured, What do I mean by the competitive, democratised. It’s Connection Age? being sliced up into a myriad Well quite simply, in a time of smaller and smaller channels when people are being serving ever smaller and more inundated with more focused niches and interest information than ever, it will be groups in the way that they those who can cut through the want it. With people’s attention noise to earn their attention and (i.e., your customers) spreading provide a sense of connection over an ever increasing choice who have the power. Whether of mediums and channels, the you’re a politician, a movement, power of mass media is slipping an artist, a blogger or a brand (the recently announced you’ve got nothing without changes to the traditional 6 attention and connection. o’clock news format on one of the mainstream TV channels “But wait,” you might be here in New Zealand is an thinking, “hasn’t this been example of this effect). the case for the last 50+ years?” Well in some ways Not only are the opportunities yes. The ability of mass media for reaching mass audiences to highlight issues, influence diminishing, but we hate societal views (for better or ads. With a passion – be worse), and sell stuff has long they online or offline. Long, been evidence of this. long, long gone are the days

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Attention and connection are the currency of today and the only way to get it, is to earn it.

when audiences looked forward to the ads. This all adds up to bad news for traditional marketers who rely on mass media and ads to get in front of their target audiences. With so many mediums, channels and content sources competing for our customers attention we now need to work much harder and smarter to get the attention of the people we want to be talking to.

Thus, attention and connection are the currency of today and the only way to get it, is to earn it. To be worthy of your customers attention, and once you have earned their attention to honour it such a way that it gives them a sense of connection. Connection not just to your brand or product

but to the tribe and/or idea

they want to belong to. True connection requires a longterm commitment to your audience and serving their interests, before your own.

Content (which I view simply as customer service before, during and after any potential customer purchase) is the way to do this and businesses who are not taking content marketing seriously will lose out to competitors who are.

In fact, I’d even go as far as saying that content marketing is already on it’s way to becoming a redundant term.

In the Connection Age, your content is your marketing. End of story. ■

Richard Liew Founder & CEO of Espire Media, an experienced entrepreneur with a passion for education through content. www.espiremedia.com

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Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

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A New Year, a New Group of Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs

Terry Shubkin, Chief Excitement Officer of Young Enterprise Trust, talks about the outlook for young entrepreneurs, and opportunities to get involved in 2016.

ONE OF THE BEST things about working with Young Enterprise is the hope for the future you gain by spending time with young entrepreneurial Kiwis. Often in the media, we see the worst of New Zealand’s youth. But the thousands of youth we connect with each year are intelligent, creative, funny and brilliantly innovative. They inspire us to do what we do!

Seeing as it’s January, here at

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Young Enterprise we’re gearing up for a new cohort of young entrepreneurs to join The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme. They’re about to start back at school, where they will form around 600 real businesses. They will grow a seed of an idea into a fullyfledged product or service.

They’ll create a business plan, form an operations process, and hustle for sales out in the real world.

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Along the way, they’ll need support from the business world too. If you’re interested in hearing some of their ideas and sharing your experience and advice with them, please consider becoming a YES speedcoach, mentor or judge.

• Mentoring is a longer process, where you meet with a YES Company multiple times throughout the year and help them to navigate the business world.

• Judging can be as a Dragon in a YES Dragons’ Den, or through one of our programmes for younger entrepreneurial students (such as the BP Business Challenge with Year 11 students, or a BizNinja Competition with Year 10s).

To sign up to volunteer as a coach, mentor or judge please check out our website or email support@ youngenterprise.org.nz.

We’d love to hear from you!

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Mentoring is a longer process, where you meet with a YES Company multiple times throughout the year and help them to navigate the business world.

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• Speedcoaching means giving up one afternoon in February to listen to five groups of students pitch their newly formed ideas, and give them quick feedback.

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The start of 2016 also means a new cohort of YES Alumni will be embarking on their journey into adulthood.

Some will continue studying, some will work full time, and some will focus on entrepreneurship.

In October, we surveyed the Class of 2015 to see what they had gotten from their YES experience.

Below are some of the key points we discovered: • 75% said they have been inspired to start up their own company The top business skills learnt were: • Business Planning 80% • Sales & Marketing 74% • Presentation skills 65% • Market research 64% 92% said that YES improved their confidence ■

As business owners, we’re interested to know – what skills would you look for in a young employee? Flick us an email at support@youngenterprise.org.nz with any pearls of wisdom you can offer

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SALES

EFFECTIVE SELLING: DON’T SELL YOURSELF A MYTH Be careful not to erode trust. Sandy challenges some old thinking around the sales process and by doing so also highlights some great tips on how to build better trust with our clients and prospects.

BY Sandy Geyer Founder of EnQ

EFFECTIVE SELLING IS NOT about building a relationship, not about identifying a need, not about doing a certain number of calls, not about

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closing techniques and it’s not about being an extrovert.

In my opinion, these are myths. Let me explain why I think this:

MYTH 1: EFFECTIVE SELLING IS ABOUT BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP

MYTH 2: SELLING IS ABOUT IDENTIFYING A NEED

According to behavioural science, around 50 percent of our clients are not interested in building a relationship.

They don’t mind being friendly but they are far more concerned about what we can do for them than how much we connect with or know about them.

The myth, in this case, is more about when the identifying occurs. In most cases, we do this the wrong way around.

We have a product/solution or service in mind before we approach the client.

For the sale to take place, trust needs to happen and for the 50 percent who need the relationship first, that’s one path to trust; but ‘relationship’ building with the other 50 percent might well be seen to be time wasting and unnecessary. The irritation that occurs in these cases erodes any chances of trust.

With the 50 percent who are more interested in the task than the relationship at hand, trust is better built by getting to the point, doing what we say we are going to do and respecting their time.

Attempting to fit our solution to the client again erodes the trust process. Doing this is much like going to see a doctor about stomach pains and have him tell you what he does best and prescribe accordingly before he has given you a chance to tell him what you need.

Please don’t laugh, this happens all the time in sales situations and keeping the doctor scenario in mind is helpful when you feel the urge to prescribe your expertise too early in the process.

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‘Closing’, as many of us understand it, will do more to push these clients away than to encourage them forwards in a sales process.

MYTH 3: SELLING IS A NUMBERS GAME MYTH 4: SELLING IS ABOUT A certain number of calls will DEVELOPING AND HONING GOOD CLOSING TECHNIQUES lead to a certain number of deals. Focus on the numbers This is something I have been teaching for years so to place it under myths is going to surprise many clients but this is about quality in place of quantity.

The number of calls can easily be misunderstood as a reason to launch ourselves halfcocked at a certain number of prospects (known as shotgun marketing) and forget to do our preparation purposefully beforehand. In my opinion, this is where many online strategies fall short.

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Again, I refer to my behavioural science foundation which suggests that there are four different ‘types’ of communication styles. ‘Closing’, as many of us understand it, will do more to push these clients away than to encourage them forwards in a sales process.

There are ways to get an indication of interest and overselling once someone has indicated they are ready to buy is another common mistake – but ‘forced’ closing destroys a trust relationship early in the process.

MYTH 5: SELLING IS ABOUT BEING AN EXTROVERT

can lead us to be less respectful and less aware of our clients’ space. An An extrovert in a sales introvert behind an online situation used to mean email marketing campaign someone who was charismatic, is no different. It doesn’t unafraid to approach a new work, it never did. So what client, cold and comfortable is selling about? In short, it’s in a crowded room. But about a process. The EnQ an extrovert in the sales (entrepreneurial intelligence) environment has become a definition is ‘managing the different variety. buying process’.

A marketing email received from a person (I don’t know) who professes to have a killer solution for me with bold statements, highlighted words and “how could you possibly not?” questions is the new sales extrovert. When we go into someone’s ‘space’ in a selling introduction without an invitation – we need to do it respectfully.

An extrovert can so easily be interpreted as pushy, inconsiderate and trustdestroying. Being an extrovert

This is not an entirely new process, but there is a new way of navigating this process in a world that is overloaded with information and becoming more schooled daily to ignore us in selfdefence of the avalanche.

While some previous sales theories still apply, many are becoming less relevant by the hour. Maybe the above points discussed are less about myths and more about out-ofdate thinking. ■

Sandy Geyer is an entrepreneur and mentor and teaches the principles of entrepreneurial intelligence (EnQ), to entrepreneurs in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. You can visit Sandy’s website at www.enqpractice.com

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PERSONAL TRAINER

2016-AFreshStart Check out Jo’s great tips on how to wipe the slate clean and help ensure a successful 2016. Your best year yet.

BY Jo Hutchinson, Founder of Great Spirit

SUMMER IS HERE, and there’s nothing better than forgetting about work, enjoying the long days, relaxing with family and friends and making the most of the great outdoors.

A break, be it short or long, is an excellent reminder that our vacation is just as important as our vocation.

Time away from work helps us to see things as they are and to re-discover what’s truly important in our lives and professions. Perhaps we are ready for a change? Perhaps we have new goals and dreams

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that we’re eager to achieve.

No matter where you are at, a new year can simply be a transition from one period to another or it might be a whole new beginning where you start with a clean slate and a blank canvas and re-create your vision with the wisdom gained in the last year.

If there is one thing I know for sure, following your passion and doing things that feel exciting are the clues and keys to your ultimate success, however, you define it.

Here’s a few things to ponder:

1

We each have a unique definition of what success looks like. What does success look and feel like for you?

2

Taking great care of yourself provides the energy and vitality to make your dream a reality.

What one thing is crucial to ensuring your personal wellbeing and success?

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When you enjoy doing what you are doing, work feels natural.

What can you do to bring more light-heartedness and fun to your job?

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Action and activity are two different things. I define ‘action’ as the high priority things you do that take you closer to achieving your vision and goals whereas ‘activity’ are the things you do that keep you busy (also known as busy-ness) but are not necessarily productive or profitable. Are your actions truly aligned with your vision?

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And based on #4, what actions or activities will you Stop, Start or Continue?

I love the saying ‘start as you mean to go on’ and there is no better time to do this than at the beginning of a new year and a new cycle.

Just by spending a few minutes to get really clear about what you want and to get focussed on what matters most, makes all the difference as to how you invest your energy, resources and talents to achieve your goals and dreams. The world needs you and what you bring.

You are unique and so is the contribution that you make. Make this your Best Year Yet! ■

Jo Hutchinson is passionate about helping people ‘flourish’ as leaders in their life, work and business.

To flourish is to grow, evolve and prosper and she provides Coaching, Mentoring and Facilitation services to entrepreneurs, leaders and small businesses. Check out www.greatspirit.co.nz

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Investment Corner

TURNING RISK DISCLOSURE INTO A POSITIVE MESSAGE Risk comes with the territory in early stage companies. All questions asked by potential investors when considering an opportunity can be simplified along the lines of the old risk/reward paradigm: how much reward is possible, and what are the risks? Nathan Rose provides us with some examples of how to do this.

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While every company is different and every risk section needs to be individually tailored, certain risks come up fairly regularly across multiple business models and industries. This list is by no means exhaustive – some of these may not apply to your venture, and there may be others unique to your company not listed here. Still, the below list of possible risks and possible ways to mitigate them should be useful as a starting point.

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COMPANY FOUNDERS OFTEN view the risks section as an obligation rather than an opportunity. But if you can pair each risk with a way you plan to mitigate it, the risks section can turn into a powerful marketing message. It will hopefully show investors that you don’t look at the world through rose-tinted glasses and that you have solid plans in place to deal with the challenges that will inevitably arise.

If you can pair each risk with a way you plan to mitigate it, the risks section can turn into a powerful marketing message

1. Customer concentration risk Risk: Companies that rely on a small number of customers for a large amount of their revenue are at risk if those customers go out of business or choose to stop using the product.

Mitigation: A strategy of targeting additional customers to diffuse the customer concentration. Also, signing customers to long-term contracts gives additional certainty over future revenue.

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3. Competitive risk Risk: Competitors could target the same customers you are, which could impact your ability to gain new customers and retain your existing ones.

2. Key person risk Risk: It is possible that important team members can leave – whether by choice or being proverbially “run over by a bus”. Hiring replacements may be slow, expensive and disruptive to operations.

Mitigation: Incentivising key management to stay with the company through conditional compensation or equity ownership can mitigate concerns about them leaving by choice.

Further, business processes should be systemised so they are not dependent on any particular person so that continuity is possible.

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Mitigation: Having unique selling features (and barriers to them being copied, such as patents) can allow your venture to differentiate itself from competitors.

4. Regulatory risk Risk: Unfavourable changes from regulatory bodies may make operating more expensive or impossible.

Mitigation: Being in close communication with regulatory bodies can mitigate the chance of being taken by surprise by changes. In some cases, regulation may be welcomed as it can raise the barriers to entry for your competitors.

5. Dilution risk Risk: If the amount of capital raised turns out to be insufficient for the strategy outlined, additional capital may be required, which has the potential to dilute the percentage held by existing shareholders.

Mitigation: Create detailed estimates of uses of cash through a high-quality financial model. Then be conservative and build headroom into the amount of cash you raise so you can deal with cost overruns. State an intention to treat existing shareholders fairly in future funding rounds, should they be required.

Investors are cynical creatures, and it’s far better to pre-empt their concerns by admitting to them frankly rather than letting their minds wander on their own. A great risks section demonstrates that

6. Execution risk Risk: This is the failure to do what you are planning, and as such is rather broad.

For example, the company may choose the wrong opportunities to pursue, or be delayed is executing its strategy, or face higher costs than it currently anticipates.

Mitigation: Drawing on the expertise and track record of the team members will add to the credibility of being able to execute on its plans, and to pivot in the face of unexpected roadblocks.

you’re already aware of the risks in your strategy and have contingencies in place to deal with them – take advantage of this powerful marketing opportunity at your next pitch. ■

Nathan Rose is an experienced investment banker, and offers services in financial modelling, building great pitch decks, and capital raising analysis for entrepreneurs and small business. Find out more here:

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Ecosystem

HowtheWorld’s BillionairesAre GivingBack

Global philanthropic giving among the world’s ultra wealthy totalled US$112 billion in 2014. America’s Billionaire Entrepreneurs give nearly US$180 million during their lifetime. Another example of why entrepreneurship is so important to foster worldwide.

ACCORDING TO A NEW report by Wealth-X and Arton Capital, America’s billionaire entrepreneurs give, on average, US$179.5 million per person to various causes during their lifetimes, more than any other ultra high net worth (UHNW) donor group.

The report also looked at the giving trends of ultra-wealthy individuals and how the wealthy are currently giving back to the refugee crisis.

The Wealth-X and Arton Capital Major Giving Index, which tracks trends in UHNW charitable giving since 2004, was up 6.4% year-over-year.

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With emerging markets beginning to slow down and uncertainty over the global economy setting in, the growth in the index trailed the 36.6% increase seen the year before. However, the index remains at an alltime high at a level of 234, up 25% since its inception, signifying that UHNW donors are still very much committed to giving back to causes such as the Syrian refugee crisis.

Wealth-X records more than 211,000 UHNW individuals globally with at least US$30 million in net assets.

Here are some other key findings from the report: • Global philanthropic giving among the world’s ultra wealthy totaled US$112 billion in 2014, equivalent to the GDP of Morocco.

• The typical UHNW philanthropist donates $28.7 million in his or her lifetime.

• UHNW individuals each contributed, on average, US$530,100 last year in the form of donations and pledges to philanthropy.

• America’s ultra-wealthy women who inherited their wealth give nearly 19% of their fortune to charitable causes, more than any other UHNW donor group.

• 73.2% of UHNW philanthropists are self-made.

• 65% of UHNW individuals donate over $1 million throughout their lifetimes.

• Based on total donations, India has the most generous donors, followed by the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

• Based on total donations as a percentage of net worth, the United Kingdom has the most generous donors, followed by the United States and Hong Kong.

• Education remains the most popular cause that UHNW individuals donate to, followed by health.

While wealth inequality remains an important concern for UHNW donors, the global refugee crisis, particularly the stream of refugees seeking entry into Europe to escape unrest in Syria and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, has been put front and center, prompting UHNW individuals to become more involved – in rescue and relief efforts, as well as fundraising and advocacy.

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The report shows that: • 1 in 28 UHNW individuals (or 7,441 persons) have donated to refugee efforts, totaling US$2.7 billion.

• The average gift size to the refugee cause is US$357,500.

• Providing food, shelter, education and a stipend for an estimated 4.3 million Syrian refugees will cost an estimated US$60.2 billion.

With 211,275 UHNW individuals worth US$29.7 trillion globally and 5,975 UHNWIs worth US$995 billion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, UHNWIs have the opportunity to help close the financing gap. If each UHNWI contributed US$815,100, or just 2.8% of their lifetime giving, all registered Syrian refugees could be accommodated. You can download the report here.

Mykolas Rambus, CEO, Wealth-X, commented: “As the global authority on wealth intelligence, we are pleased to, once again, partner with

Arton Capital, the global citizenship experts, to produce this second annual edition of the Philanthropy Report. This year’s study is both revealing in uncovering differences in giving according to UHNW donor groups, and it is topical as it highlights how ultrawealthy donors are directly helping the refugee crisis.”

Armand Arton, President & CEO, Arton Capital added: “The global migration crisis facing Europe is a wake-up call to the world. The desire for a better life is a universal human necessity. At Arton, not only do we advise high net worth individuals on second residency and citizenship planning, but we also involve them in helping the less fortunate through initiatives as the Global Citizen Solidarity Contribution and our work through the Global Citizen Foundation. We are delighted that this year’s Global Citizen Forum award was bestowed to a generous initiative founded by the wealthy Catrambone family focused on saving refugee lives - the Migrant Offshore Aid Station.” ■

Supporting these guys is good for everyone, check out more here for the opportunity to contribute

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PARTING SHOT

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now -Chinese proverb

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