NZ Entrepreneur - Issue 40

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

March 2016

10 QUESTIONS with Greig Cranfield

Co-founder of Yudoozy & Director of Auckland StartUp Grind

Maximising Four Key Strengths to Boost Business Success Critical Advice on Getting Your Business’ Valuation Sorted Want to Win More Clients? Here’s the Right Questions to Ask! 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 ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

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From the Editor Is your strengths wheel turning smoothly?

GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or email jennifer@nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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10 Questions with Greig Cranfield

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Kristin Harper on 021 905 830

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Want to Win More Clients?

Ask the Right Questions!

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Frank Ansell from Success Asylum

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Six valuation anchors investors & buyers look for

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Cycles of Change

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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.

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EDITORIAL

THERE’S A LOT OF inspiration and pearls of wisdom to be gained in this issue from fellow Kiwi entrepreneurs a long way into their journey as well as those who are in the startup phase.

The best part of my job as editor is the privilege of having so many entrepreneurs share their stories with me.

I always come away feeling inspired and learn something new from every conversation I have. It’s also a bonus knowing there’s so many others out there who can relate especially when a lot of the people around us (our darling family members

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included) think we’re absolutely nuts especially when first starting out.

Be encouraged NZ entrepreneurs and don’t forget to take more time out to celebrate every milestone you reach and win you gain.

You deserve to focus on the progress you make, especially when business presents us with continuous challenges to overcome. Focusing more on the positive steps we’ve made often helps give us the energy and enthusiasm we need to tackle obstacles in our way.

Jennifer Liew

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

IS YOUR STRENGTHS WHEEL TURNING SMOOTHLY? What? Well, to get on top and stay on top it’s not enough to look after and develop just one area of strength. We are human afterall. Sandy Geyer of EnQ shares some hard earned wisdom on the four areas of strength we need to focus on to keep us on top of our game.

WE NEED FOUR PRIMARY areas of strength to drive effective business leadership.

If any one of these areas of strength becomes deflated, our ‘wheel’ becomes difficult to turn.

If we have gained some speed with our businesses the loss of pressure on any one side leaves us feeling unbalanced, out of control and literally ‘stuck in the mud.’

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So we need to consciously develop and maintain these areas. Here are some tips on how to do that:

The EnQ strengths wheel presents a simple model to carry out a ‘pressure check’ from time to time.

MENTAL STRENGTH This is the strength that drives us to do difficult tasks as and when necessary, and to act as if we are brave when in reality we are often terrified. We get our mental strength by being connected to what matters most to us, and by programming our subconscious minds to drive our actions appropriately.

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We need to incorporate wheel maintenance into our daily habits. Business leaders consciously program their habits with these four areas in mind. They know that certain things need to happen, in most cases daily, regardless of whether they feel like it at the time or not.

We get our mental strength by being connected to what matters most to us, and by programming our subconscious minds to drive our actions appropriately. .

when we faced a legal case against an employee who had stolen a lot of money from us and then proceeded to sue us for unfair dismissal. We were a young, cash-strapped and very vulnerable company in an almost impossible situation.

Each morning as I stood in front of the mirror I would tell myself, “I have more to give this day than this day has to give me.” I also had the Affirmations work well for this advantage of having to apply purpose (they need to be in makeup which I pretended the positive and the present to was my war paint. This mantra work). Mantras can also work and little routine did a lot to well to build and maintain strengthen me mentally each mental strength. For me, an day, and we came through example of this was very early that situation, intact, and a lot wiser, if a little battle scarred. in our first business venture,

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 7

FINANCIAL STRENGTH Is needed for growth, to endure seasonal cash flows, costly production mistakes and unexpected lost orders and clients. Financial strength comes from facing the brutal facts up front when planning the year ahead as the business leader.

This can often be achieved by setting up and updating a cash flow forecast, consistently, as a habit. Loans might be needed, sales expanded, costs controlled but identifying pitfalls and planning ahead instills a habit of achieving financial strength.

Many business mentors advise their clients to run their businesses as if they are always cash flow tight.

Why? Because they maintain the habit of staying right on top of things and will seldom get caught out by changes en route that they didn’t plan for.

Mental strength is sometimes needed to build financial strength too – nothing quite like facing a cash flow forecast to separate the cubs from the warriors.

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EMOTIONAL/SPIRITUAL STRENGTH We all need to feel significant, and entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult places to achieve this on an ongoing basis.

We work so incredibly hard and often feel that our efforts are invisible to everyone else, especially when we don’t get the results we were hoping for. Some of us get our sense of significance from our religious beliefs, and some of us get it from creating and focusing on our own strong sense of purpose.

We also get a lot back from seeing some visible progress from our efforts. There is an insightful 5-minute presentation here, on dealing with feeling invisible by Nicole Johnson. She takes a religious view, but regardless of your feelings about that, it offers a lovely perspective and is worth the watch.

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Just about every successful entrepreneur has some routine to make sure that they stay physically strong.

PHYSICAL STRENGTH

our physical health, our eating habits are even more Very possibly our most important. This is not an area significant strength. We don’t of expertise for me, other than all have to be body builders or what I have learned about food radicals, but we do need myself, most often the hard to ensure that we are firing way. So if this is an area you’re on all cylinders at all times. struggling with, to help you on Just about every successful your journey I am delighted entrepreneur has some routine to introduce you to one of my to make sure that they stay very first EnQ Path of the Lion physically strong. graduates, Sonja Gardiner.

There are a gazillion articles Sonia is an expert in nutrition to be found online about and wellbeing. the habits of successful If you need help improving entrepreneurs, and most your Physical Strength find will include some form of out more here on dealing physical routine designed to with feeling invisible by Nicole keep them physically strong Johnson. She takes a religious to be able to lead their view, but regardless of your businesses effectively. feelings about that, it offers While exercise seems the most a lovely perspective and is obvious way of maintaining worth the watch. ■ 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

INTERVIEW

10 QUESTIONS

with Greig Cranfield

Greig Cranfield, Cofounder of Yudoozy and Auckland Director of StartUp Grind shares some of the key realities of being an entrepreneur and what it takes to make it work especially in startup phase. For those of you starting out or looking to jump in be sure to read Greig’s pearls of wisdom.

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What’s the story behind the idea?

Tell us a bit about Yudoozy, what is it, who is it for?

We can see the freelancing market growing rapidly and want to enable awesome freelancers to get exposure to great projects and help businesses get top talent easily without paying huge fees.

Yudoozy is for businesses to view availability and contact local freelancers/contractors with tech and creative skills without needing a recruiter.

It’s free for freelancers and employers pay a subscription fee each month to access the database.

I recruited UX designers in London for startups and agencies. I heard the same frustrations from contractors and employers on a regular basis, saw a broken model and could see a problem longing to be fixed. I moved to Auckland, and it was even more evident here! I sat down with my then boss and now co-founder Trudi Batson, she fully understood the problem and was looking for something else to launch, so we decided to explore the idea together. After loads of business discovery sessions, prototyping, blood, sweat and tears we arrived at Yudoozy. I am eternally grateful to Trudi for backing the idea and bootstrapping us as far as we could when she already had a successful business running.

It was a gamble on both our parts, but we believe it’s paying off.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 11

You’ve had recent success raising capital to help take Yudoozy to the next level. Raising capital can be a challenging task. Based on your experience can you share a few tips with entrepreneurs looking to raise funds?

Raising capital scares the hell out of some people! It shouldn’t.

It’s a game, a process and like anything else it can be learnt.

Our initial ‘friends and family’ round was heavily reliant on reaching out to people we already knew. Some of the best advice I can give would be to chase investors for their expertise and network, not just their money. The investors we have gained are also incredible for helping us with advice and ideas.

A big tip is that you need to factor in your full-time salary when asking for cash, no one will back you if you don’t back yourself. “I’ll work on it on the side of my full-time job to save a salary and have security” is not going to get you money. Investors want to see you fully believe in the success of this, so you have to show your commitment.

We’re currently opening up our series A round which is already a trickier proposition so come back to me in two months for an update.

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What has been your biggest challenge so far as an entrepreneur and how do you overcome obstacles that get in your way?

Mental toughness is key.

Running a startup is a grind!

I think the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face is themselves. There are times when you question yourself when something goes wrong, or everything goes wrong at once, and the doubts start creeping in, especially in startup phase as it’s not for faint hearted.

If you have created a product or service, you’re going to receive both positive and negative feedback so removing your ego and bias from feedback is critical. It’s too easy to take people’s feedback too personally and get disillusioned.

Who or what is your biggest source of inspiration? What keeps you fired up?

I recently became a dad for the first time so as soppy as this sounds, my daughter has now become my biggest source of inspiration. It’s made me prioritise what’s important.

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Don’t be too precious about what you’re working on either, talking to people and seeking advice is key in the early stages.

What key advice would you give to entrepreneurs just starting out?

Find customers as early as possible. Not your friends and family, real customers who aren’t close to you personally who won’t be afraid to hurt your feelings. Too many entrepreneurs get seduced by their own idea and build a business around ‘well I’d pay for this’.

Removing your ego from an idea is tricky, I’ve been guilty of it, and most people are. You have this vision of how you want to solve a problem or run a business, but you find out shortly after launching it that no one will pay for it. Businesses fail to get off the ground because founders perceive with their idea rather than fully understanding the problem their proposed business

is trying to solve and then adapting and iterating based on the potential customer.

Don’t be too precious about what you’re working on either, talking to people and seeking advice is key in the early stages.

The chances of someone taking the time, effort and possessing the passion to steal your idea and somehow manage to launch it to market before you do are slim. Another key tip read. A lot.

Can you recommend any books in particular that have helped you on your entrepreneurial journey?

‘The lean startup’ by Eric Reis is a must-read for any startup founder and Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday is also a game-changing read for marketing on a budget.

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What do you think it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? Can anyone make a go of it?

Definitely. I believe anyone can build a successful business regardless of who they are and what their background or education is provided they have the vision, passion and the mental strength to see their ideas through to fruition.

In business, you run into constant challenges and difficulties so without these things success is a long shot.

The media often depicts quite a different view though especially in the tech startup space. Headline stories such as ‘21-year-old whizz-kid builds app in bedroom and sells it to Google for millions’ don’t help and would have us believe that truly successful entrepreneurs are born not made and portray an image of overnight success that only happens to born geniuses.

I never went to university, and I definitely had no idea what I was doing when I first started out in business. Funny thing is you quickly find out that pretty much everyone else first starting out is in exactly

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the same boat as you and also knows next to nothing.

Once you get stuck in though you’ll learn pretty quickly from experience. So if you’re seriously considering starting something of your own just make a go of it as fast as possible, even if it’s a side project to begin with. You’ll learn very quickly whether or not the life of an entrepreneur is for you or not.

And it’s definitely not for everyone, I know loads of people who are actually just happier working for a large company on a salary doing what they are good at, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all (if anything sometimes I envy them!) because being an entrepreneur often means living in a constant state of uncertainty and potential failure.

Despite that though one of the best things about being an entrepreneur is that everyone has the opportunity to start on a level playing field. As long as you’re able to drop your ego, have the right attitude, a willingness to learn and strong work ethic anything is possible.

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If you’re seriously considering starting something of your own just make a go of it as fast as possible, even if it’s a side project to begin with.

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The great thing about doing business here in New Zealand is people are happy to sit down with you and give advice in exchange for coffee or alcohol!

Are there any groups you belong to or mentors that you’d like to highlight that have helped you along the way? If so, what have they brought to the table for you?

outside of this, but I have a good network of people I can sit down with over beers and seek advice from.

The great thing about doing I run Startup Grind here business here in New Zealand in Auckland, so I get to sit is people are happy to sit down down and have conversations with you and give advice in with incredibly inspiring exchange for coffee or alcohol! entrepreneurs on a monthly I’ve learnt a lot from Trudi too, basis which I still pinch having a cofounder that has myself over. started and run businesses There’s no particular groups before is helpful.

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Our ultimate goal is a very human one - to have a successful business that helps a large number of people achieve their goals and allows us to achieve ours in the process.

What are your hopes for Yudoozy’s future? The ultimate goal.

There are still pain points in the product I’m working on, iterations to be made and problems to solve, but this is never ending for a SaaS product, it’s what I love doing.

We’re planning to launch in overseas markets very soon as we’ve validated this is a viable business now.

We have happy customers and happy freelancers so now we’re positioning ourselves and the product to scale rapidly. Our ultimate goal is a very human one - to have a successful business that helps a large number of people achieve their goals and allows us to achieve ours in the process. ■

Greig Cranfield is cofounder of Yudoozy, Director of Startup Grind Auckland and passionate about product and growth. Greig has written for Startup Grind and had articles featured in Curated (StartupFoundation). His medium blog can be found here.

SALES & MARKETING

Want to Win More Clients?

Ask the Right Questions!

In business to sell more to both prospects and clients we need to ask questions that enable us to gain answers that help us solve their problems, support them in ways that make a real difference, shape their thinking in ways that show how we can help them achieve their goals and sell them solutions to problems they actually want solved.

Jermaine Edwards explains more.

HOW DO I ENSURE MY QUESTIONS GET ME ANSWERS THAT MATTER?

manager and one who coaches

As simple as that phrase is,

questions is a critical skill. It

sales professionals, asking

it has changed my whole

helps clients discover new

perspective on the value and

solutions and challenges sales

benefit of great questions

professionals to change those

in sales. As a key account

behaviours that aren’t effective.

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As sales professionals, we can be so caught up in asking questions that we never ask ourselves, “Do we know the reason? What’s the purpose?” It’s this answer that should shape the direction of our questions.

One of the practices I want to challenge are the questions we ask in sales. The archetypal questions of who, where, what, how or closed and open are peppered throughout our training and education. This training is great for telling you what types of questions you could ask. However, they give no guidance in knowing how you develop questions that get you answers that matter.

As sales professionals, we can be so caught up in asking questions that we never ask ourselves, “Do we know the reason? What’s the purpose?” It’s this answer that should shape the direction of our questions.

What is that one thing that you want to know? Why? And does it help you and the other person achieve a goal?

Of course, there is a whole host of reasons you might need to ask questions to your clients and colleagues.

• To understand what specific pressures your colleagues or contacts are under in a new role • To understand the impact changes in your client’s industry might have on their business • To understand the effects of a key person leaving the business • To understand the shift in priority of their business All of these are helpful reasons to ask questions. I’d like to propose that the number one reason for questions is to CLARIFY. I’ve become fascinated with questions.

Indulge me for a moment.

Questions are like a bridge that connects knowns and unknowns, decisions and non-decisions and actions and non-actions.

The questions we ask are our opportunity to ensure we’re moving in the right direction with our client. It leads us to answers that help us know if we need to act now, pivot, get rid of something, solve something. You get the picture.

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All of these questions are fine in their own right. But they should always be asked with the intent to deliver value and benefit to the client.

Once you understand the purpose of your questions, you can then be more intentional with what you ask. You can walk away from the conversation with every piece of information needed, knowing what to do and what not to do.

Here is the one question you need to consider before asking your next questions to clients or colleagues.

• Does this question help me solve, support, shape or sell something to my client?

• Solve a client’s recognised need?

• Support a particular initiative already ongoing with your client?

• Shape or clarify a new project, offer additional insight or challenge?

• Sell position other services that may benefit my client that they haven’t already purchased?

Some examples: • Solve – What were your thoughts on the development needs that came out of the last training session?

• Support – How best can I support you in the change your department is facing?

• Shape – How would you see us using our expertise to help you achieve that important goal for 2016?

• Sell – Had you considered what you’d do to ensure your data was sufficiently secure?

As simple as these questions are, when you apply this framework of thinking to the planned conversations you have, you will become a master at asking questions. And you will be known as an insight bringer and a person of value in your client’s world. Let me know how you get on. ■

Jermaine Edwards is a learning and behavioral change enthusiast, sales and customer nurture explorer and all round inquisitive guy. You can contact him on Twitter @jsaedwards

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Ecosystem

FRANK ANSELL from SUCCESS ASYLUM

Frank became an entrepreneur out of necessity in the beginning when the GFC hit. His experience has fuelled a passion to now empower and help other fellow graduates to learn the business skills necessary to make the most of their qualifications. His business Success Asylum helps inspire graduates and give them the confidence and skills to better pursue their dream jobs or to create their dream business.

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What’s your story? What did you do before you started ‘The Success Asylum’ and what’s the driver behind your desire to help others create the life they always dreamed about?

I graduated from Otago University with a Bachelor of Science just as the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ hit. I was interested in designing energy efficient buildings, but that industry had basically collapsed worldwide, and nobody was hiring.

So I had to take up a lousy job for the best part of a year while I cold-called and sent out CVs, trying to get job interviews. Eventually, I managed to talk my way into an engineering job which got me some practical experience to kickstart my career.

Some years later, while I was working as an engineering consultant, I made the decision to start my own business. With a bit of help from some friends in IT, I set up a software business.

Within a couple of years my company was operating nationwide, was fully automated and ran entirely online. I had a 100% passive income.

I started the Success Asylum to help teach the business skills

that I’ve learned to people who, like me, are graduating from university and struggling to get into that dream job that’s actually going to pay off their student loan. I want to see the best and brightest young people in our society getting ahead instead of struggling in underpaid jobs.

What is ‘The Success Asylum’ and how exactly does it help entrepreneurs and those thinking about starting their own business for the first time achieve their goals?

We help university graduates create their dream career using the qualifications that they have. We run a combination of networking events, seminars and coaching programs to help graduates figure out what they want to do with their lives and then help them reach those goals. Be it that they choose to pursue their dream job or create their dream business.

Empowering more graduates and teaching them business skills to support their qualifications creates more opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to hire talented graduates to help grow their businesses too.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 23

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What specific problem is ‘The Success Asylum’ hoping to solve? What’s different about what you do?

...while universities teach technical skills well, most students don’t learn anything about how businesses work, so they’re unable to communicate their real value to employers who want to hire them.

Every week I talk to university graduates who are working in retail jobs, waiting tables, or answering phones for a living. In fact, it’s fashionable nowadays to say that university degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

What’s the benefit of being a member of ‘The Success Asylum’ and can non-members take part?

In my experience, that’s not true. The real problem is that while universities teach technical skills well, most students don’t learn anything about how businesses work, so they’re unable to communicate their real value to employers who want to hire them.

Our members get regular coaching sessions to help them build their ideal career.

We bring in experts in every field of career development to work directly with the members to answer their questions, work through the challenges that are holding them back and show them.

So we show them how to market the experience and abilities they have to the people who need their skills, so that they can get into their ideal career and ultimately live their dream lifestyle.

Most of our events are free so non-members can still come along and hear from our presenters, and get their questions answered. We also have plenty of online content that’s free to access.

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It’s not easy starting a business that’s centred around helping others achieve extraordinary goals. It requires serious collaboration. On that note who are the types of Partners you would like to call on to help you support the entrepreneur community here in New Zealand better?

colleges or departments that are interested in helping their graduates and alumni get into the right careers or start their own businesses.

We’re also interested in partnering with any companies who are interested in helping young people get ahead in their careers. In particular we’d We’re already working with the like to run more events so we’re interested in speaking Auckland University Careers to any potential partners who Department, and we’d like to talk to any other universities, have venues available. ■ Frank Ansell is an entrepreneur and founder of the Success Asylum.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 25

Investment Corner

SIXVALUATION ANCHORSINVESTORS& BUYERSLOOKFOR If you’re in the process of or looking into setting a valuation of your business for the purpose of gaining investors or buyers interest, then this article is a must read. So much time can be wasted on valuation exercises especially if you don’t understand the key metrics potential investors and buyers use. Nathan Rose from Assemble Advisory gives us a heads up.

VALUATION OF A VENTURE deals with all of the mess, uncertainty and possibility that a company’s future holds, and tries to reduce it down to a single numerical figure – its valuation. Given how incredibly difficult forecasting the future is, investors and

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buyers will tend to gravitate to certain valuation ‘anchors’. As a company owner, it is critical to understand them, as these anchors can determine, in large part, how the discussion and negotiations around value will be framed.

Multiples

The main ones are:

Discounted Cash Flow Attempts to forecast a company’s future revenue growth, profitability margins and capital expenditure requirements, then takes these projected future cash flows ‘back to today’ to give a valuation figure using a ‘discount rate’ (a measure of risk, somewhat similar to an interest rate).

DCF brings rigor to valuation discussions – assumptions can be flexed by buyer and seller to help them come to a view on value. DCF value tends to be highly sensitive to inputs, meaning investors will surely consider other anchors as well.

Still, a DCF under reasonable assumptions significantly adds to the credibility of a company looking to sell or raise money, as it shows you have thought in-depth about your company’s future potential.

A ‘multiple’ takes a valuation and divides it by some income measure, commonly EBITDA or net profit (for more established and profitable companies) or revenue (for newer, fast-growing and lossmaking companies).

A sale price of $5 million for a company making EBITDA of $1 million thus has an ‘EBITDA Multiple’ of 5 million/1 million = 5x. If you know that a 5x EBITDA multiple was used when a similar company was sold, you can use it as a starting point to value your own business, by using your own EBITDA figure and multiplying it by 5.

The problem with multiples is they tend to simplify matters too much – no company is exactly like yours, and size differences, growth rate differences, product differences and many other things all can lead to adjustments up or down.

Still, multiples often provide a very good starting point to discussions, and are a useful ‘sense check’ to proposed prices arrived at by other methods.

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Valuing a company using historical financial statements is only relevant when what is presented in the statements is close to the realistic commercial selling price of that company’s assets.

This could be a fair assumption for companies that hold a lot of property, but most other businesses (especially smaller, faster growing ones) should transact at values hugely different from what is presented by the balance sheet.

Remember, depreciation rates are made-up numbers from the tax department, and ‘historical cost’ is just that: history. Valuation deals with the future, not what was paid in the past for the pieces within a business.

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Past Valuations

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Book Value of Equity or Net Tangible Assets

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Valuation of a venture deals with all of the mess, uncertainty and possibility that a company’s future holds, and tries to reduce it down to a single numerical figure – its valuation.

This is particularly relevant for companies in the angel/ venture capital space, as often these companies receive funds several times within just a few years.

As these companies are notoriously difficult to value using methods such as DCF and multiples, investors will look closely at the values at which cash was invested in the past, with adjustments made for how the business has been performing since then.

Replication Value

Break-Up Value Certain assets within a business can be worth more to an acquirer than the company is worth to them as a going concern – examples of such assets: a customer list, patents, and particularly desirable land or buildings.

The approach to take is to understand how much the assets would be worth to an acquirer (not to the current owner) and to introduce competition into the sale process: the competitive sales process element is vital, as if only one buyer has the ability to unlock this break-up value, then much like an auction with only one bidder, the buyer will not need to pay what that asset is worth to them, only what it is worth to the current owners. Remember to value the other residual assets in the business as well.

If you have an asking price of $1 million for your company, it is useful to consider if a new competitor could simply start from scratch and fit out similar premises, build a similar customer base and sell a similar amount of a similarlypriced product for much more or much less than $1 million – after all, depending on the nature of your business, this could be an alternative open to a buyer. Replication value is less important when you have a truly unique feature within your business, which would make what you have built very difficult to replicate by others This has been a brief introduction to valuation anchors. Now your job as a company owner becomes to use them to your advantage in your pitch to sell or secure new investment. Whether you want to draw attention to them or argue why they are less relevant depends entirely on your circumstances. ■

Nathan Rose is an experienced investment banker offering 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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Investment Corner

Cycles of Change

Nature although harsh at times, ultimately gets it right. What can we learn from the seasons and how to apply what should be natural cycles to our ourselves to get the most out of our lives and our businesses? Jo Hutchinson from Great Spirit shares her thoughts.

SO IT’S THE END of March.

change – summer is ending,

What does this mean? Well, it

and we are transitioning to

indicates that three months of

autumn which represents a

the year have already gone by. new beginning or a new cycle.

It’s the end of the quarter, and it might also be the end of your financial year.

It also signals a seasonal

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Now it might just be my imagination, but it sure feels like these last three months have flown by.

I was reflecting on this quote - “You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust the sails to reach your destination.”

So just as the season changes and we move into autumn, it’s a time to consider what this means for you and your business? Are there some adjustments to make?

In all things, there is a natural cycle – a life cycle. There are times to push ahead and times to pull back and reflect or strategise. The key is to understand where you are in the cycle of evolution.

and flow, so too does a cycle where it peaks, then subsides.

Wherever you are in the cycle, there comes a moment when you need to pause and pay attention to what you are learning and experiencing.

Notice what’s working and what isn’t. Each cycle provides knowledge and insight that is valuable. It can be used wisely to propel you forward so you put your energy and resources into the crucial actions that will give you the best result.

“Sometimes in the winds of change, we find new direction.” And sometimes it doesn’t look like much has For example, when you are changed until we stop and starting out you are at a look back. Celebrate the beginning stage of planting journey and the milestones the seeds to reap the potential along the way. They are later. Or perhaps you are important markers that will at the time of harvest, and help you grow, and formulate making the most of the current new goals to align with the season or cycle before it cycles of change that we are completes. Trying to reap the all influenced by. Build a plan benefit of something that has of action that will take you just been sown is not realistic day by day, step by step in because there is a time of the direction of your greatest growth that is needed before aspirations knowing that it can be harvested. whatever you set your mind to, you can achieve. ■ Just as a wave has an ebb 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 businesses. See more at www.greatspirit.co.nz

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PARTING SHOT

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

-Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple

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