NZ Entrepreneur Magazine - Issue 5

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

March 2013

10 Questions with

Bethanie Maples Krogstad

from TRANSCRIBE ME

New Zealand’s Property Addiction How to Learn More about Your Competitors Cold Calling Tips Profile on #nzentrepreneur Tom Kluyskens

Plus heaps more inside!

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Contents 4

From the Editor

6

New Zealand’s Property Addiction

8

10 Questions with Bethanie Maples Krogstad

12

Case Study: IP Panels

13

Entrepreneurial Intelligence with Sandy Geyer

14

Profile: Made on Jupiter

18

Cold Calling Tips

20

How to Learn More About Your Competitors

23

Tomorrows Entrepreneurs

24

The Paddock

26

Parting Shot

ABOUT /

iP is

Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forward-thinking Entrepreneurs.

EDITOR / Nick Harley ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on (09) 522 7257 or email richardl@espiremedia.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on (09) 522 7257 or email

From the Editor

A

richardl@espiremedia.com ADDRESS / NZ Entrepreneur, C/- Espire Media, PO Box 99758, Newmarket, Auckland 1151, NZ WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ISSN 2253-5683

nother month and another issue packed with useful tips, tricks, advice and inspirational stories aiming to help guide you along your entrepreneurial journey.

If there are any specific topics you’d like us to cover in future issues of NZ entrepreneur then feel free to get in touch or join the conversation on our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

The sheer amount of advice available to entrepreneurs can sometimes leave us feeling overwhelmed. The differing opinions from the people around us and the information thrown our way can often be helpful but from time to time we come across situations where we simply do not know what to do for the best.

Sleepless nights and anxiety when things turn south are part and parcel of every entrepreneur’s life. We often only acquire the skills we needed once we come through those difficult periods.

Although you’ll inevitably make mistakes throughout your journey and there will be hard times. The fact you’re having a go, taking a risk and throwing yourself into achieving something is a very commendable thing in itself. Embrace failure, don’t be scared to push the boundaries and explore things outside of your comfort zone.

Enthusiasm, determination and a willingness to learn through doing, rather than thinking, will get you where you need to be.

Nick Email nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz LinkedIn http://nz.linkedin.com/in/nickharleynz

4

NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and distributed without the use of paper so it’s environmentally

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5

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

New Zealand’s Property Addiction An entrepreneur’s take

By Richard Liew

G

areth Morgan once asserted that, “Property mania hurts our ability to build business and wealth”, arguing that the Kiwi love affair with property

investment is not only making housing unaffordable for the average New Zealander, but also sucks valuable potential funding for New Zealand businesses.

Not surprisingly, reader comments generally seem to fall into two groups: property owners lamenting that investing in property is the only way to get a decent return on investment in New Zealand due to the dearth of attractive alternatives,

6

and people who can’t afford to buy a home (let alone a rental property or three) because the economics of buying a house and raising a family in any of the main centres on the average Kiwi wage quite simply don’t add up.

Inevitably, the discussion degenerates into a heated debate about who or what is at fault: the government, the opposition, our tax laws, the NZX, property developers, landlords, renters, immigrants… While the complaints and blame from all sides make for amusing reading, it generally leaves us none the wiser about how we actually solve these problems.

So what is an entrepreneur to make of all this?

It seems to me the one group that can help fix this mess (lack of investment opportunities, unaffordable housing, low wages, negative balance of payments, underperforming GDP), is the one group that is consistently overlooked in these discussions – probably because for most of the people doing the discussing, buying houses is the only way they know how to generate and store wealth.

Who am I talking about? That would be you – the bold and fearless entrepreneur.

•

You are the ones who will build the businesses that will increase our domestic and export earnings, creating more skilled jobs and increasing our

“

You are the ones who will build the businesses that will increase our domestic and export earnings, creating more skilled jobs and increasing our productivity, thus helping increase the woefully low average wage.

productivity, thus helping increase the woefully low average wage.

•

Many of your businesses will at some stage need to raise finance, thus providing a wider range of investment alternatives for both early stage and retail investors. (Remember though, the average New Zealand investor is still an unsophisticated investor – housing and finance companies are what they know and love and more businessrelated investment opportunities won’t necessarily dampen their appetite for property. So don’t get your hopes up in raising money from them!)

•

Your profits will contribute to government revenues, allowing them to invest more into helping the economy and employment grow.

•

More money in the economy from the success of your businesses will result in more funds being available for new housing development, thereby helping address our housing supply problems.

•

And as a very kind added bonus for house hunters, in the pursuit of your business-building dreams most of you will have to invest all your money in your businesses, and will simply be too poor to afford a house unless you beat the odds and actually succeed!

So go forth and multiply, New Zealand entrepreneurs!

(Of course, the big question for entrepreneurs is: do you put off starting a business until you’ve secured a property or two, or do you invest in your business, and risk foregoing the family home, perhaps forever…?)

Richard Liew is the founder of Espire Media

7

INTERVIEW

10 Questions with

Bethanie Maples Krogstad A lot of focus is put on tech focused startups these days, but great businesses are started every day when people act upon an opportunity. After winning the Auckland startup weekend in 2011 TranscribeMe has been on an roll. We talk to entrepreneur and VP of Sales and Marketing Bethanie Maples Krogstad about her own journey.

Have you had previous experience as an entrepreneur and how did you get involved with TranscribeMe? I’ve been exposed to entrepreneurship from an early age.

My father is an entrepreneur and has been a guide for me, especially around the interpersonal nature of teams and business. I caught the bug, and before university led a nonprofit focused on teaching vocational skills to at-risk youth all around the world. After university, I gravitated toward high-growth start ups where I could learn new skills quickly.

I gained first-hand experience with entrepreneurship during my years at Auckland University. The Spark Business Challenge was a fantastic platform for getting me, along with my friends, to create companies in our spare time. At one point my flatmates and I developed an idea and were finalists in the Spark 40K Challenge. I also had the chance to lead the Spark Aspire Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. During University, I also worked at a start up with my friend and now business partner Alexei Dunayev who I met through Spark.

That experience of working together led to him asking me to lead product, sales and marketing for TranscribeMe. When was the idea for TranscribeMe born and how did it come about?

TranscribeMe was born out of real world pain. Co-founders Alexei and Greg were spending hours transcribing their partners’ doctorate and law studies interviews, and realized there wasn’t a high quality, fast, and affordable solution in the market.

8

Personally, the idea took hold in my mind when I looked at the exponential rise in telecommuting and self-publishing. More valuable audio is being created than ever before, but it’s not keyword searchable or easily sharable, so ideas are lost.

Technologies like Siri were already teaching people that they could speak into their smartphones and expect a transcript back, but all were failing to provide a level of accuracy which made them useful for business and technical purposes. I joined the founding team with a mandate to bring TranscribeMe to the US and Global markets. It’s been a wild ride from our first breakthrough contract with VMware to where we are now – serving clients globally, in multiple languages, integrations and partnerships with major players like Evernote, Livescribe, GigaOM and Cisco.

What have been the biggest challenges you have had to overcome building TranscribeMe so far?

TranscribeMe is a hybrid model which combines proprietary speech processing technology with crowd-sourced humans to achieve 99% accuracy. Managing thousands of transcribers all over the world in our crowd has been really interesting, as well as challenging. An on-demand workforce will be the way of the future, but there is no book yet written on how to organize, learn from, and extract the full potential of such a diverse group of people. We are now one of the leading innovators in this area globally, but it’s been a challenging road to get here.

We’re learning faster, and focusing on getting to a quick ‘no’ with ideas that won’t work out.

Additionally, with offices in New Zealand, Singapore and California, going global from day one has been rewarding in terms of growth potential, but also a complex structure to organize.

“

Listen but know when to be stubborn.

Knowing when to heed advice and when to stick to your guns is one of the hardest things to get right.

9

What are the key objectives for the team at TranscribeMe at the moment?

Enhancing our product and driving efficiency in our operations. While we’re experiencing exponential levels of adoption, I believe there is an opportunity to bring millions of people into this market with the right combination of transcription accuracy, price and speed. I’m also focusing on partnerships where we can quickly scale the business.

TranscribeMe has been successful in raising angel funding both from NZ and overseas investors. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking for investment in order to be successful when raising capital?

Raising money is part science, part art. Having a solid financial model was critical, but gaining traction and buzz within the investor community is what closes a round. Having a lead investor on board, who’s due diligence others can refer to, helps to smooth the way and materially increases valuation.

It’s important to have both a business leader dedicated to fundraising, and have someone on point bringing the product to market. In high growth start-ups there is a natural dichotomy where someone needs to fundraise, and someone else needs to focus on the business itself. Fortunately, we had both.

Do you believe anyone can learn to be a successful entrepreneur? Why or why not?

I believe any of us can be an entrepreneur given the right circumstances, but it is a very tough path and definitely not for the faint of heart. Maybe it comes down to what’s driving you.

I think of an entrepreneur as someone who creates value, whether for social or commercial benefit, in a financially sustainable way no matter whether at large or more modest scale. I really like Randy Komisar breakout of the characteristics inherent in two distinct types of entrepreneurs.

(Props to Vinod Khosla for making this list).

Mercenary: Drive, paranoia, opportunities, the pitch, the deal, sprint, short run, expediency, aristocracy of founders, financial statements, entitlement, lust for making money.

Missionary: Passion, strategic, big idea, partnership, marathon, long run, excellence, meritocracy, values statement, contribution, lust to make meaning (then make money) What are the three most important skills or qualities you would advise new entrepreneurs to develop?

1.

Extreme stubbornness, without ego

2. The ability to actively listen.

3. Being able to bridge the gap between engineering and marketing mindsets.

10

Building a new business can be very stressful – what do you do outside of work to cope with stress?

Triathlons are a great meditative sport which blows off a lot of steam. Also the San Francisco Bay offers world class sailing, which has been great. Since we are talking sailing… Go Team Emirates New Zealand! We are really looking forward to having the America’s Cup hosted in San Francisco but will be very happy for the next America’s Cup to take place in the Hauraki Gulf.

When all else fails, there is always a nice Marlborough Sav… Do you believe Kiwi’s have a healthy attitude towards entrepreneurship and the creation of wealth?

I think Kiwis are innovative and practical, and have a healthy attitude toward entrepreneurship. We often fail however to achieve scale in overseas markets. So yes, we have a healthy attitude toward fostering ideas and starting companies. But we need a better support structure in place to aid in large-scale wealth creation. By support I mean capital, mentoring and social support.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to up and coming entrepreneurs?

Listen but know when to be stubborn. Knowing when to heed advice and when to stick to your guns is one of the hardest things to get right. Pick good advisors who have actually been there and done that (investment bankers and lawyers don’t count). Choose smart money when taking on venture capital.

To find out more about TranscribeMe, visit their website at http://transcribeme.com/

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I P / I n n o vat i o n

Case Study:

IPanels IP IN ACTION

By Deidre Coleman for AJ Park Reginald Richard’s new construction system might hold the key to rebuilding Christchurch, and meet global demand for quality, cost-effective housing.

“

There is a lot of prior art on wall prefabrication, but none has the features that give all the benefits and advantages of this system,” says Senior Associate Mike Biagio.

Reginald Richards from RCP Holdings Limited has a simple and economical solution to rebuilding Christchurch after the Canterbury earthquakes. A Master Builder with long experience in design and construction, he’s created an innovative modular building system called IPanels. His lightweight refinement of the concrete tilt slab allows an average house to be assembled in just two days. They’re environmentally friendly, remove weather tightness and fire issues, have good thermal characteristics, and initial prototypes have resisted the September 2011 earthquake damage.

“

There is a lot of prior art on wall prefabrication, but none has the features that give all the benefits and advantages of this system,

12

“It’s compatible with all existing forms of construction and complies with building regulations, so it’s a great solution for rebuilding Christchurch,” says Richards.

Having worked on his concept for the past four years, Richards approached us to help protect the idea. Mike Biagio, senior associate, has helped RCP Holdings file a provisional patent application and an international (PCT) patent application for the system, with a view to obtaining patent protection overseas in time.

“We’ve protected every component,” says Biagio. “There is a lot of prior art on wall prefabrication, but none has the features that give all the benefits and advantages of IPanels.”

Richards believes there is a good market for the IPanel system in earthquake-prone countries, Pacific nations requiring lowcost, easy-to-erect housing, and countries such as South Africa where concrete construction is favoured.

A New Zealand firm is already interested in obtaining the licensed technology rights to mass produce the panels here.

RCP Holdings is about to build an architecturally designed demonstration house in Christchurch and has got council acceptance.

Richard’s has now formed a team with DD Architects and builder Peter McGuire, who recognise the potential for IPanel, and has recently refined the system’s framing component to use more versatile glass-fibre composite as well as steel.

“We’ve done it all on a shoestring, but Mike Biagio understood what we were trying to do - that it was a system, not just individual panels. That was important. Mike’s been very supportive.”

Written by Deirdre Coleman, this case study was featured in #37 of Idealog. Photo courtesy of Dean MacKenzie.

P E R S ONA L T R A I N E R

Entrepreneurial Intelligence with Sandy Geyer Expanding the team

By Sandy Geyer

My design business is three years old and up until now it has just been me in the business, doing everything. I really need to bring someone else on board to help as I can’t handle the workload and am beginning to drop balls, but I don’t have enough extra business to be able to hire someone else. The problem is, I can’t see how I can take on more work if I don’t get help. It feels like I’m trapped - what should I do to get out of this situation?

This is a very common issue with those who start a business that relies on their specific industry skills. You have done well to get this far on your own but it is at this point that you need to decide if you want to become an entrepreneur in the “real” sense or remain as a sole operator, paying your own wages and deciding on your working hours. It is going to take different skills, other than what you have been utilizing, to build a design business by means of driving the sales needed to keep future employees busy and efficiently focused whilst ensuring that all the customer and financial needs of the business are running smoothly.

If you haven’t given a lot of thought to the “why” behind possible expansion, now would be an excellent time to make some decisions and lay your foundation. Think about what you

want out of your business, how much money you need to make to get what you want and how much you are prepared to do to make it happen. Once you have this vision in place, you should have the makings of a sound business plan that will indicate whether you need significant financial investment of some kind, or if you can build in smaller leaps. Having a strong sense of purpose along with a very specific plan will lift the feeling of being trapped as the path in front of you clears.

Many potentially very capable entrepreneurs don’t take the leap simply because they haven’t cleared their vision. The ones who succeed are the ones who understand why they are building a business and know what they need to do immediately to start or continue on their journey. In my own experience, if I can see it, I can do it, but I have to be very specific about what “it” is before I set off. Although you might be busy with design work, making time for this process is going to be key to your progress from here, even if it means that you choose not to grow.

In each issue Sandy will be answering commonly asked questions from new entrepreneurs. If you have a question for Sandy to do with entrepreneurship, building successful businesses or the challenges and difficulties faced by entrepreneurs, email the editor at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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

13

TAKING THE PLUNGE

Profile:

Made on Jupiter Tom Kluyskens Profile by Nick Harley

14

Each month, we talk to an up and coming New Zealand entrepreneur who has set about turning their idea into a real business. Made on Jupiter is a digital manufacturing company making it easier to make custom, virtual designs into physical, real-life products.

Briefly tell us about your business. How did you first come up with the idea?

Our story was forged in the fires of the Visual Effects industry.

Working on Lord of the Rings here at Weta Digital was one of the highlights of my past career. I got seduced by the incredible creative flexibility of working in worlds purely digital. But at heart and by education, I’m an engineer. A maker of things. Not so much a pusher of pixels.

So, together with some likeminded friends, I founded Made on Jupiter because we saw a great opportunity to apply the skills and tricks we acquired while making movies, to design and fabrication of physical products.

In particular, we are currently building software that makes deep customisation of physical consumer products much more accessible to consumers, designers and manufacturers. And we are planning an online marketplace for such products.

What is the big goal for your business?

We are facing increasingly unsustainable (mass) production models: hidden social and environmental costs, and a culture misrepresenting the authentic nature of products. Inflation and rising wages in South East Asia are driving manufacturing back to local bases (re-shoring), and are forcing manufacturers to reevaluate the way they make products.

We are becoming ever more sophisticated buyers, requesting specialized goods. This causes extreme differentiation in product lines, putting pressure on the models of economies of scale. We want our products to be perfectly suited to their intended task, and fit our personal taste. Many products today are simply too impersonal for our time. They offer no easily accessible (hi)story beyond the point of sale, and are not or awkwardly meshed within the new online social fabric. The Internet of Things promises to solve that, but is still in an

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TAKING THE PLUNGE

exploratory and legislative phase. Of true or perceived lower quality and without much of a story, the things we buy are all too easily discarded, and enable unsustainable practices.

Our platform fosters transparent functional and social recordkeeping around what we buy, and is a soft transition to emerging technologies, like the Internet of Things, and post-industrial manufacturing, like digital fabrication.

By enabling & encouraging the manufacturing of customisable, personal, unique goods, we think we can give the things around us their stories back. The stories that offshore mass manufacturing practices have taken away.

Essentially, just like in our VFX days, we still aspire to create technology that facilitates storytelling and experiences.

We believe that through stories, we can foster a culture of transparency and sustainability around what we sell and buy.

This is our mission.

What inspired you to take the plunge?

The timing seemed opportune, with the strong emergence of post-industrial manufacturing. Manufacturing is becoming very flexible and accessible, one of the latest results of the democratising power of the Internet. It’s creating new opportunities that require new tools and interfaces to go along, which we are uniquely positioned to offer.

Our efforts caught the attention of an important windsurf board brand. We have been working with them for over 2 years now, developing a fully functional online board customisation environment and high-tech manufacturing backend. We couldn’t have wished for a better opportunity - and first client!

This is what showed us we were relevant, so we went for it...

What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of building your business so far?

Nothing new here...everything takes much longer than you expect.

It takes 6 months to a year, and at least 3 ‘touches’ for durable relationships to form: collaborators, investors, partners, clients.

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Everything is much more work than expected. When working on your own stuff, software development timelines are like fractals: every second half unfolds into a new whole, ad infinitum. Scrum & Agile notwithstanding. Horrible to budget at first!

Having a client is a blessing, but it requires careful planning to make room to develop towards a future beyond that first client, if that is the purpose. We are heavily investing in making our product work on things other than surfboards. It would have been much easier not to.

What keeps you going when you feel like giving up?

Every day we are reminded of the relevance of what we do: Another crap product breaks and needs to be thrown away. Or the opposite: we handle a beautiful thing that we’ve cherished for a while, because it has a story. Maybe we fixed or modified it, maybe we gave it personal touch when we bought it.

We see people express their personality through the objects they surround themselves with. We want to make that easier for everybody - including ourselves.

“

Listen but know when to be stubborn.

Knowing when to heed advice and when to stick to your guns is one of the hardest things to get right.

What advice would you give to any people reading this who are thinking of starting a business?

Set yourself up for the long haul. Don’t try to do something like this on-the-side. Make sure you have cash reserves for a few years. Dare to live simply. It’ll actually make you happier.

We moved to a bach up the coast, 2h from Wellington. Away from costly distractions, but close enough to engage with the business community. Eat healthy, make some time for exercise, get enough sleep. Choose your entertainment wisely.

Make sure your partner knows what’s coming.

Don’t do this alone, but don’t despair if you can’t find a business partner immediately and the business community looks down on you for it. It took me a year+ to find and court Ross, my first active partner. I’m glad I didn’t waste my shares on lesser candidates before him!

Talk about your idea to everybody, even your potential competition. Let people come to you.

Be grateful. Always. You can mutter to your spouse and partners about matters (not too much), but be kind to anybody you deal with. You’ll have to beg. A lot. But beggars CAN be choosers. Choose who you deal with.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Do NOT believe in business fairy tales and the whole startup hype. Startup Weekend is

fun, but stay away from the startup formula or people offering to ‘accelerate’ your business. Everything takes time. Few and far between are the quick success stories. We organised a few ‘Join a Startup’ events to raise awareness and as a soft recruitment effort, outside of the official startup circuit.

So yeah, everything takes much longer than you expect. So if you can - and it’s too late if you’ve signed the contract (like we did) - keep things simpler than you think they should be.

Simplify simplify simplify!

Delegate what you can, and avoid being controlling. Still, in this fragile initial phase, make sure you know what’s going on. Yes, this might mean learning to code, boot Amazon servers, pitch, write contracts, speak the lingo, knock on doors (and heads on desks), and many late, very late evenings with nothing but your frustration to keep you company.

I then soothe myself with the realisation that those previous nights of frustration gave me the skills to do three jobs. Three jobs I couldn’t do just a year ago.

Are you a New Zealand entrepreneur that has recently “taken the plunge?” Would like to tell our readers your own story? Get in touch with Nick at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz

17

SALES/MARKETING

Cold Calling Tips Looking to improve your sales calls?

Two inspirational business leaders give us their view

By Victor Yuen & Debbie Mayo-Smith

Respect their time

Victor Yuen is a marketing entrepreneur, dedicated to making a real lasting difference in the world and is currently involved in marketing start up, Futurist Inc. Research I do a decent amount of research before calling someone.

I think about what value do I bring to the call? What do I know about their business? What are they doing in terms of marketing already? Would my solution give them a good return on investment? All sorts of things.

Now there’s a fine line between doing enough research and too much research. After all, you could do all the research in the world and they may just hang up on you straight away.

However, in my experience, the difference the research makes is not necessarily the fact that you can spout out lots of info about their company, but it’s rather the confidence having this knowledge brings.

When they say, “What makes your service different from every other man and his dog that rings me?”

I can say “Well, I see that you’re doing Yellow Pages advertising, spending a decent amount on Google Adwords and based on your radio advertising I know you’re trying to promote office furniture. Our solution is a specific approach that could drop your Yellow and Google Adwords spending to nothing and whilst bringing you more office furniture customers. Based on what I’ve found about your business - I know we can provide a realistic return on investment.”

That little amount will make you stand out from the rest it’s simple. For you others that aren’t into business. Think about using this for job interviews and networking.

Doing your research shows interest and respect.

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When we get cold called, doesn’t it annoy you when the person on the other end is just talking a million miles an hour and not giving you an opportunity to respond? A lot of us just aren’t rude enough to hang up - we’re left feeling frustrated.

So the first step I take is to ask permission to talk. I ask them “have you got a couple of minutes to chat?” Sure you’ll get some people that say no, they’re busy - but that’s no problem, just ask them when the next best time is to call them.

For those that say yes, that’s great. The key here is not to speak too quickly and throw everything at them before they can respond. You’ve now got permission to talk to them so take your time and have a conversation, not throw a sales pitch.

My rule of thumb here is to let them speak. Listen more than talk. Just because it’s a cold call it doesn’t mean you have to do all the talking.

The end result if it’s all gone well is that they’ll end up suggesting we meet. They already know that’s what I’m after and it becomes natural once all their concerns are resolved.

Be authentic When I call someone, I don’t try and strategise or fumble my way through things. I don’t run through a script or get attached to any sort of result. I say what’s honestly there in my mind. This is especially important when they throw curveballs at you, like “you’re the 5th person that has called me today” or “what do you want?”

By speaking with authenticity and not trying to have the perfect answer, you come across as a human and honest.

That really lands over there with the person you’re calling.

Sometimes from a cold call, I’ll end up dancing in a conversation for 5 minutes before it gets concluded. That’s quite long for a cold call. More often than not, after dancing around for this long, the appointment gets booked. They’re satisfied I’m not hiding anything or trying to manipulate them in any way.

"

Debbie Mayo-Smith is an International Motivational Business Speaker, trainer and bestselling author. Find out more at about Debbie at www.successis.co.nz Most telemarketers (at least initially) work off a script.

This script is invariably written by someone who has never actually made a cold phone call to a prospective client.

This is obvious from how detached and verbose they are.

The trick is to ascertain whether or not the customer meets your sales criteria before they realise you’re a telemarketer.

There’s no need to be brisk (and it’s important to smile while talking) but for your sake and theirs get to the point – as an example this one little change moved me from minimum wage to over $40k p.a. commission while working only 14-17 hours a week.

‘Hello my name is …………. and I’m calling from…………

Have you heard of us before?

We are…………………………(insert company history – *yawn*) and we’re currently trying to locate mortgage holders in the area. Would you fall into that category?’

Aside from taking forever to find out that they didn’t have a mortgage, thereby rendering them ineligible for the promotion anyway, we were prone to wasting at least 1 hour per shift repeating that opening for teenagers and the elderly, who were obviously not mortgage holders either.

This is the new conversation-launcher: Hi it’s Sarah calling from Home-Loan Solutions. We’re just trying to locate mortgage holder’s in your area this evening, wold you happen to have a mortgage on the home there?

"

With the right tone of voice, speaking clearly and not too fast, this gets an excellent response. It lowers the number of ‘not interested’ straight away because you’ve given them a concise yes or no question.

The conversation is now on your terms. You’ve also

Be authentic - When I call removed at least half of the people who say “not interested” simply because you sound like a boring and someone, I dont try and long-winded telemarketer. strategise or fumble my If they say no, that’s great – you can cross them off way through things. I dont and you only used 10 seconds of your time. If they run through a script or get say yes you have the perfect platform to throw bait attached to any sort of result . from. ’12 years off the mortgage with no extra repayments’. Now, they’re listening.

I say whats honestly there in my mind 19

Getting It Done

How to Learn More about Your Competitors

By Nick Roberts

There are many reasons why you need to learn more about your competitors but my three favourites are: 1

To avoid their mistakes.

2

Copy and build upon what they do right.

3

Know their weak points when quoting against or taking their customers off them.

Generally, benchmarking can be useful to find out about your competitors. Of course, benchmarking data does have its shortcomings. For example: it might be difficult to determine ideal sample sizes or find an exact business match, so you will need to dig deeper to mine the valuable information you need. Here are some easy ways to find out about your competitors:

Go Mystery Shopping Despite the name, this extends far beyond retailing and can be done in any line of business. Visit your competitors or telephone them to see how they answer and deal with your enquiry. Check your prices by getting quotes, or maybe buy something. See how (and if) they follow up your enquiry, ask where you heard about them, or inadvisably recommend something unrelated to you. What sales techniques did they use? What options did they offer; was financing available; did they offer a discount or stand their ground? All of this is a goldmine of vital business intelligence.

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Join the club

“

Join your competitor’s customer club, loyalty programme or sign-up to their online offerings or newsletter. I regularly receive newsletters and notifications from about 20 competitors, some of which are humdrum, but others are very useful. This way, you can see what the competition is offering their customers, get new ideas and see what they are doing to keep their customers interested. You can also avoid what looks boring, oldfashioned or has been tried many times before.

In today’s business climate of constant change, tough trading conditions and tough competition, knowing your competitors well and how they operate their businesses is essential to business survival and growth.

Research Online Websites now provide a wealth of information about our competitors we could have only dreamed about getting hold of ten years ago. Everything from pricing, pricing plans, offers, personnel, unique selling proposition, marketing, service lines and products, technical information—the list goes on. Try to look at their websites through the eyes of your customers or prospective customers and find what might attract them. Often it is best to keep things simple and “dumbed-down” in your approach, as we often fall into the trap of assuming our customers understand what we do and will read and absorb information that to us is interesting but not necessarily to them.

Ask Around Go to networking events, join a referral group, and speak to people you meet wherever that might be, whether sitting next to you on the plane to Auckland or in the queue somewhere.

Speak to your lawyer, your accountant, your suppliers, your local Chamber of Commerce, ex-colleagues, and staff who used to work for your competitors.

Join a trade association and attend their events—the possibilities are endless. Just ask “have you used John Smith & Co?” Find out why they use (or do not use) a competitor, what they like about them, what problems they have had, and what they have heard from others and their opinions on pricing.

Watch for Marketing Material and Advertising Keep an eye out for and collect competitors’ advertising and marketing materials. Is it effective, stuffed full of offers and calls to action, or just plain and dull? Do they emphasize their unique selling proposition, offer a cast-iron guarantee, support reasons to do business with them, emphasize price or value, and tell a good story of how they have gone beyond the call of duty? Who and what type of customers are they trying to attract? How are they getting people to their website, their Facebook or social media sites?

Of course, collecting all this information is great, but how do you use it to your best advantage to get ahead in your business? Click here to download a Competitor Analysis and Action Plan worksheet. If you need any help completing it or with your action plan, leave a comment below.

In today’s business climate of constant change, tough trading conditions and tough competition, knowing your competitors well and how they operate their businesses is essential to business survival and growth.

So take time out and draw up a plan to get it done. Gather information, collate it, plan your strategies, and determine who will do what and when, but above all, take ACTION!

Nick Roberts runs his own popular weekly blog www.empoweryourbusiness.co.nz where he provides free tax, accounting and business advice.

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One simple search and I’m in business!

Get your business off to a great start Securing a business name is simple with the new ONECheck online tool from Business.govt.nz Simply enter your proposed name, hit search and you’ll find out immediately if your name is available as a company name, website address and trademark.

It’s quick, easy and one of the most valuable things you can do for your business.

Check it out at www.business.govt.nz/onecheck

ONECheck

T o m o rr o w s E n t repre n e u rs

VOLUNTEER: We want you!

Young Enterprise

T

he 2013 school year has kicked off again, and we’re delighted to say that an increasing number of schools will be offering our enterprise programmes in their

classrooms. For example, we will visit nearly 50 secondary schools this year to deliver the BP Business Challenge, a threeday programme similar to a virtual Dragon’s Den. We are also expecting more than 3000 students to take part in our most popular programme, the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme. These students will form 600 companies this year and bring a new product or service to market.

These programmes cannot survive without the support of local businesspeople. Each year we are assisted by 1,000 volunteers from the business community, and we’re on the hunt for more people to join us. This is an investment of your time, and we want you!

Local business people can volunteer by: •

Judging at a BP Business Challenge (3 hours total)

•

Judging at a regional or national event for the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (Options vary but are usually 2-4 hours total)

•

A mentor/coach for a student company participating in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (1-2 hours every month for a year).

We know that students benefit hugely from the chance to connect with the local business community. For many, it’s their first experience with the world of business and it can have a huge effect on their study and career plans.

Help us by giving up just a few hours of your time – volunteer now via our website.

Terry Shubkin, CEO Young Enterprise Trust

T

he school year has started and so too has the business year for our Lion Foundation Young Enterprise students. This year we will see more than 3000

secondary students work together in groups to bring 600 new products and services to market.

It is exciting to see that today’s students are so keen to learn about enterprise. At the start of the year, all YES students take part in a workshop called E-Day. There, they learn about the programme and start to generate their business idea.

We encourage them to set goals that focus on the quadruple bottom line – focusing on social, environmental and cultural good as well as economic profit to achieve sustainability.

More and more, we are finding that this generation doesn’t recognise any other way. While they understand the need to set profit goals, they are not willing to exploit the world around them to do so.

This year’s YES students will create some amazing products and services this year, and in a generation they will be leading New Zealand’s most influential companies. From my perspective, New Zealand’s future looks bright.

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T H E PA D D O C K What’s happening in the NZ entrepreneur ecosystem

E-Centre Massey: Upcoming Business Idea Workshop

Y

Developing young Kiwi entrepreneurs

ou’ve got a great idea you’ve been thinking about. You may have been developing it for a while. You think you have the drive and passion to see it through. You

want to be part of the next generation of smart New Zealand companies going global.

You don’t have to do it on your own. Support is available for entrepreneurs.

T

he next generation of New Zealand business leaders now has its own go-to guide. Written by best-selling author, academic and entrepreneurship specialist

Dr Ian Hunter, The Young New Zealander’s Guide to •

Where do you start?

•

How can you reduce risks and costs?

•

What makes a successful business model?

•

What tools and methodologies can you apply to accelerate your venture?

•

How do you validate the market for your idea?

If this sounds like you, we’d like to meet you. Come along to one of our free Business Idea Workshops.

The next workshop is: When: Thursday 25th April 5:30pm – 7:00pm Where: ecentre, Gate 5, Oaklands Rd, Massey University, Albany Please register early to secure your spot. To register, please contact Dorian Scott: dorian.scott@ecentre.org.nz

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Entrepreneurship is an inspirational and practical guide for people wanting to start their own businesses.

The book is endorsed by the Young Enterprise Trust which now has around 30,000 young participants. It has been written as a direct response to the growing interest in innovation and entrepreneurship in New Zealand so well fostered by the trust.

Available at Whitcoulls, the guide is filled with great advice from icons of business such as Sir Peter Leitch, Sir Stephen Tindall and Anne Norman CNZM. Dr Hunter says it is the ultimate handbook for young Kiwis who have the desire to turn a good idea into a successful business.

“We wanted to create a guide that is user-friendly, inspiring and with plenty of real-world examples. The book teaches readers how to come up with new ideas, manage projects, run a team and be more alert to the commercial reality of their business decisions,” Dr Hunter says.

Whitcoulls book manager Joan Mackenzie says the volume is

Enterprise Trust, an independent charitable trust focused on

brimming with practical advice.

developing enterprising young New Zealanders.

“The Young New Zealander’s Guide to Entrepreneurship

People who purchase the book also get the chance to get

tackles different areas in the development of a successful

personal advice on a business idea from one of the experts

business including how to get started, write a business plan, put

featured in it. A special competition run through Whitcoulls

a winning team together and manage money,” Mackenzie says.

will give three lucky entrepreneurs the opportunity to spend

“These aren’t necessarily skills that are taught at school or

the day with a top NZ business leader. Book purchasers can

university so the value to readers is immense.”

head to www.whitcoulls.co.nz for more information on

The Young New Zealander’s Guide to Entrepreneurship

how to enter.

contains a forward from the Governor General The Rt

The book is available exclusively at Whitcoulls now for

Hon. Sir Jerry Mateparae. Sir Jerry is patron of the Young

$34.99.

Startup Flash from The ICEHOUSE Introducing: Start-Up Flash - news, events, tips, resources & stories for kiwi start-ups

T

he ICEHOUSE is introducing a new email update for kiwi entrepreneurs and their supporters: Start-Up Flash.

product/service announcement, events and introductions to new start-ups.

Our goal is to provide valuable information, tips and resources to Kiwi entrepreneurs and those who are considering starting their own business. Each month we will share relevant news, events and useful resources and get start-up experts to share tips and tricks.

The first edition introduces three exciting new start-ups, includes tips on writing convincing financial plans as well as resources for business plan writing, and includes several job / co-founder listings. Start-up flash also features a list of upcoming events and interesting readings as well as the latest industry news.

Start-Up Flash aims to really engage and connect the start-up community in New Zealand by providing the opportunity to share information with each other including job listings, new

Check out the latest edition of Start-Up Flash here. If you would like to be added to the Start-Up Flash mailing list please subscribe here.

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“

P A R T I N G S H OT

For me the word entrepreneur means someone with drive and ideas, a person with the potential and passion to create something new where there was nothing before — someone with the knack for making a lot out of very little.

Sir Stephen Tindall

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