NZ Entrepreneur Issue 18

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

May 2014

Want to Sell Your Business One Day? Page Six

Creating a Business with No Money How you can do it too!

Page Eighteen

Interviews with World Class #nzentrepreneurs Page Ten & Page Twenty-two

The Measure of Your Success Page Twenty-Eight

Latest news from Young Enterprise Trust Page Thirty-Six

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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AJ Park is about iP • intellectual property • igniting passion • ideas pervading 2 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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

CONTENTS

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

EDITOR / Nick Harley ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

4

From the Editor

6 Think You Might Want To Sell Your Business One Day? 10

Interview: Franny McInnes of Breastmates

18 Creating a Business with No Money 22 Interview: Marcus Hoefliger of Eftplus 28

The Measure of Your Success

32

First Foundation

36 Young Enterprise Trust 40

GROUP EDITOR / Nick Harley 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 richardl@espiremedia.com ADDRESS / NZ Entrepreneur, C/- Espire Media, PO Box 99758, Newmarket, Auckland 1151, NZ 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!

Parting Shot

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 3

EDITORIAL

WOW, IS IT MAY already?

Don’t the weeks just fly by?

No wonder so many ideas never make it to market, life is busy, and before you know it, opportunities have been lost and it’s now a year or two since that initial flash of inspiration.

As many people will tell you, the best time to act is now.

There will never be a perfect time to get started on your ideas or further grow your business, sometimes you simply have to take the leap before you’re ready to. But as entrepreneurs we must also try to pace ourselves or risk the famous ‘burn out’ from working too hard, too fast, too soon.

It can be hard to find a good balance if you’re a highly self motivated individual

looking to do something awesome, so my advice is to always take action and move forward, be effective, but remember to pace yourself.

Entrepreneurship is a long and tiring game. Not everything has to be achieved ‘right now’ and you’re likely to crash if you’re going too fast!

Along with your monthly dose of motivation, inspirational ideas and business tips, this issue brings you some great stories from some top NZ Entrepreneurs who will tell you that it takes many years to build a business, they’ve played the long game, and there really is no such thing as an overnight success.

Nick

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BUSINESS

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 5

BUSINESS LESSONS

Think You Might Want To Sell Your Business One Day? Here are 5 critical success factors you should be building into your planning right now

BUSINESSES DO NOT typically sell by accident. The owners that end up selling their business for a significant amount of money have usually been preparing for that day for some time. You don’t have to be thinking about selling your business any time soon to start planning now for the day when you might want to.

If you consider the following five things, you will be in good shape when the big day finally arrives.

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1

Set your end goal.

Think about how much you might want to sell it for and by when, and work backwards. You’ll find a tool to help you work this out at www.liber8yourbusiness. com/tools

2

Name your buyer. It’s important to have a good idea who might want to buy your business in your early planning. Imagine spending 10 years building a business you intend to sell only to realise you have created something nobody wants to buy. If you build a business with a buyer in mind, you have a much better chance of building something they really want.

A potential buyer could be a larger player in your industry looking to grow through acquisition. This growth might be regional – they want a presence in your city or town and it’s easier to buy you than start from scratch.

It might be strategic – you have a smart product or service they could add to their existing infrastructure to create additional revenue streams. An example of this might be a large accounting firm buying a small bookkeeping firm to add value to their client base.

Your service or product could become a ‘nuisance’ to a competitor and they buy your company to prevent it competing, or to regain lost revenues.

It could be a management buy-out, when senior employees raise the funds to buy you out. It could be a competitor of a similar size wanting to grow and willing to invest to gain rapid growth through acquisition. I’ve sold businesses to two types of buyer. A multinational bought my advertising agency and a local competitor bought my

So who might want to buy your business? What are you building that could add huge value to someones offering? pet care company. My father’s photocopier business sold to his senior management team.

A good friend has built three recruitment agencies. The first sold to one of the original partners, who bought out the other partners. The second sold to a multinational looking for regional representation in her city. The third is in its early days of growth and I’ll watch with interest who buys it (I have no doubt it will sell because I know the founders expect this and will build with this in mind).

Another type of buyer could be a private equity group or even an individual who sees great potential in what you’ve built.

So who might want to buy your business? What are you building that could add huge value to someones offering?

Now is the time to start thinking about these things.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 7

To make your business attractive to your future buyer, it cannot be dependent on you.

3

Remove the dependence on you.

To make your business attractive to your future buyer, it cannot be dependent on you. This is a key message every business owner should remember: No one will outright buy a business that’s dependent on its owner.

If the buyer takes you out of the picture and no business remains, they will either insist you stay in the business or they will walk away. So whatever your strategy is, whatever your end goal, whatever that picture is, it needs to not have you in it.

I did that at my agency by making sure the clients loved the business but weren’t dependent on me. In the last few years, I hired two senior guys and put them in charge of our biggest clients, so my buyer could see the clients were not reliant on me.

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4

Start building a team as soon as you can. I couldn’t afford to bring in those big guns until later in my business growth. I started by hiring people I could afford, with a couple of youngsters straight from college. I trained them to do things exactly the way I wanted. I call it ‘training your clones’. I kept building my team that way until we could afford to hire more senior people. And then we had to make sure we had a really strong culture to manage senior people.

5

Secure future earnings.

Getting all our key clients on fixed-term contracts was another critical strategy that worked.

They all had two or three year contracts so when the buyer looked at my business they saw a high level of spend committed for the next three years. This was an important lesson I learned from my

businessman father. One of the best secrets to success he shared with me was, ‘you’ve got to have a back end.’

To explain, he gave the example of his own business.

While the sale or lease of each copier was worth a lot of money (especially in the 1970s when these huge machines were a relatively new addition to business productivity) the real value came from the additional contract that went with each machine. This locked the customer into buying all their ink, toner and paper for the life of the machine, as well as regular paid servicing – which meant that, for every machine sold, my father had income guaranteed for the next 10

years, enabling him to predict with complete accuracy his future income.

You can see why this made by father’s business attractive for a buyer. They could see a guaranteed return on their investment. It made sense to me when I started my own business, and I hope it does to you too. It will get you a higher price when you come to sell!

A business with committed future revenue that is not dependent on its owner to deliver that revenue is a business worth investing in.

I hope these five things have given you something to consider as you build your valuable and saleable business. Good luck! •

Laura Humphreys started her working career as a secretary. She went on to build and sell a number of businesses, using a formula that she now teaches business owners around the world. Laura’s business and life journey has been full of highs and lows, her lessons well learned and her stories full of experience. Laura says, ‘if a secretary can build a multi million dollar business, anyone can’. Her first book, Liber8 Your Business, shows you how to apply Laura’s formula right now to build a business that will ultimately bring you the financial freedom you deserve.

Available at http://liber8yourbusiness.com/liber8-your-business/

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 9

INTERVIEW

Franny McInnes

Breastmates

Not only does Franny McInnes have a business with one of the best names I’ve heard in a while, she’s actively helping new mums all over the world, having started her online business from nothing several years ago.

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Tell us about Breastmates, what do you do?

Breastmates is an online store specialising in maternity and feeding products. We cater for everything a new mum will need (with the focus more

about mums rather than babies).

The website offers a no-fuss returns policy so that it’s easy for mums to buy online without worrying, and a targeted overnight delivery service.

When my son was about six months old, I wanted to buy a breast pump from a store, but the shop assistant didn’t really offer the right advice, and I had a “light bulb” moment.

Besides the online store, our website also provides articles about pregnancy, parenting, and babies, as well as a support network of “real mums”, shared stories, and practical, tried-andtrue advice, so mums know they are not alone with the challenges they face with their new babies. The Breastmates philosophy is to support and celebrate mothers whether they are breastfeeding or bottle feeding.

I thought that I could sell a few related products along with my breast pads, and make sure that my customers were getting solid advice to help them make good buying decisions.

What’s the story behind the business, how did it get started and why?

Breastmates was founded by myself back in 2004. I had just started maternity leave from my job and I was making breast pads and a few nursery items for my baby. I would make extra items and sell them on Trade Me for a little extra income, as having a baby on the way meant that money was tight for our family!

With $50, I bought a domain name and some raw materials, and set about making products and creating a basic website.

Nearly 10 years later, the Breastmates name is a wellestablished brand in New Zealand’s maternity and parenting market.

I am now designing maternity clothes and breastfeeding clothes but am unable to commit to the sewing machine myself these days; so I oversee factories which produce my designs in New Zealand, and China (which I personally visit each year).

The business operates from a purpose-built warehouse in Cambridge and employs one full time and two part-time staff members, as well as several contractors.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 11

How did you survive those early days?

The initial risk was minimal, as I was already on maternity leave and was expecting to be broke, as our family was on one income. I didn’t expect this to grow into a sustainable profitable business.

I was selling those few basic items on Trade Me just to gain a little extra income, and building up my website as a hobby on the side. I didn’t need much for my business back then, and I didn’t even have a printer!

I used to hand-write receipts in one of those carbon-copy

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duplicate books from office supply stores. I would DIY as much of the business as I could, and taught myself HTML coding and PhotoShop.

For a few years, when my first baby had grown into a toddler, I went back to working part-time at my old job, and growing my business in my spare time. It wasn’t until my second baby arrived that I decided to resign from my paid employment permanently and make Breastmates my fulltime income provider.

In the beginning, we managed to pay the bills because the business was operated out

of our spare bedroom, so I didn’t have overheads for premises, phone line, Internet, warehouse space, etc.

difficulty with some retailers of my products who don’t pay their bills, and I have had to confront them about that.

Any profit that I made from selling products was always put back into the business, and I was taking zero wages.

It wasn’t until about five years into trading that I began to pay myself a salary.

I’ve also learned that when you’re running a web-based business, the work is never finished. There will always be updates, upgrades, and new information that you have to get online. You can’t just think, “Yup, that’s perfect!” and then sit back and relax and stop working on it.

The sacrifices have been time – people just assume it is lovely to have a business from home, but it means that you work long hours when you have small children, as there is always work waiting for you after the children have gone to bed, and it’s very difficult to switch off’ when your office is in your home.

Have you experienced any bad times? What was the most painful lesson you’ve had to learn in business?

I think that every business has growing pains and hard times, and I’m not immune. My most stressful situations have been upgrading my website and ensuring the site is always online without servers crashing. I’ve also recently had

My most painful lesson has been learning who to trust, and who I can let in to my inner circle.

How have you managed to get customers? How do you market your products and what advice do you have for others around marketing?

This is always an ongoing task for me, as my customer retention time is quite narrow. There’s only a limited time-frame when women will be purchasing maternity clothes and baby feeding products, though many happy customers do turn into ‘brand ambassadors’ for Breastmates!

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 13

Every month I have a fresh wave of newly pregnant ladies that I need to find! I primarily advertise in baby magazines and online. Facebook is perfect for my target market, and we have great interaction with our Facebook page, with over 19,000 very supportive and friendly members.

I also try to give my customers a really great shopping experience, and build trust with them, so that (a) they will come back and buy something really soon, (b) so that they’ll remember me again if they have another baby, and (c) so that they will tell their friends about me.

This is the best form of marketing for Breastmates, as women do chat at coffee groups! So I always try and turn each individual customer into a brand ambassador who will then go on to tell others. Many of these ladies

The slow process of growth allowed me to develop my skills, my brand, and my business without that huge outlay and risk.

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stay on my newsletter lists long after their babies have grown. It’s a wonderfully developed relationship.

I’ve also made a lot of mistakes with my advertising, but I’ve learned from my experiences. Advertising seems like such a big outlay, but I do think you have to be consistent and repetitive. I always try to book the same ad placement, on the same spot on the directory page, in subsequent issues. And I keep my colours and logos the same, but perhaps change a picture for summer/winter season.

Do entrepreneurs need lots of money or external funding to build a big business?

In my experience, no. I built my business with no money or seed funding, though I didn’t take a wage for a long time.

I started my business from home with my young children, and back then, things were on such a small level that it was manageable for me. But as my children have grown, so has my business. I could never have plunged into the level that my business is at now, straight away.

The slow process of growth allowed me to develop my skills, my brand, and my business without that huge outlay and risk. I’ve been able to absorb the costs of website upgrades, locations etc as the business has grown. If you can start a business alongside your paid employment, I think that’s a good way to go about things, gradually and thoughtfully.

What are the three most important business skills you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop?

Well I’m not so sure of the business skills, I think it comes down to your personal skills and the way you conduct your activities.

1. Communication Honest, trustworthiness, and straightforward communication without messing around!

2. Touch typing - Even after all my education and degrees, being able to touch-type has been a hugely helpful skill that I am grateful I learned!

3. Motivation - Get UP and go.

Don’t just sit there You have to start moving rather than just talking about it. Your business won’t grow itself.

As a predominantly online business, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of selling online?

Well, the greatest advantage is that non-one can see me sitting in front of my computer in my pyjamas and slippers!

Seriously, the advantage is that I can run my online store from a warehouse and not have to invest in a sales front, sales staff, merchandising, etc. All my ‘sales pitch’ has to be through the way I present products on the website with appealing and attentiongrabbing headlines, content,

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 15

and photos, so I really try to keep my product presentation top-notch. I also work very hard to develop trust with people who are buying online.

The disadvantage is that people can’t see clothing in person and try items on, though I try to address this by having a no-fuss returns policy so that people can just try stuff on at home and not have to worry if it’s not quite right for them. This, in turn, means that I don’t get to see people’s reactions when they try on the clothes, or see real humans wearing my designs!

I have to make a really good impression within about five seconds otherwise they will just click off to somewhere else. So the lack of in-person interaction can be difficult to overcome. But it is a good challenge, which requires me to think creatively and really pay attention to my presentation.

Another thing that is tricky is that everyone expects their items to be delivered overnight – which means I really have to carefully manage my stock and hold huge levels in my warehouse to cater for that demand.

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What do you think are the things New Zealand needs to improve upon when it comes to creating more successful businesses?

New Zealanders are great at improvising and getting things done. Those who want to get things done will make them happen! I can’t actually think of what needs to improve – maybe that is someone else’s excuse?

What’s next for you? Where do you see yourself and the business in five years time?

Mmm, five years from now based on the current weather, it would be great to be having a holiday on a tropical island.

But in terms of the business, I would like to increase the team around me so that I can focus more on design.

Breastmates will probably have moved to a bigger warehouse premises by then.

In five years, our Australian sales will have reached 50% of our total sales and I will have published my first book, which I am currently working on.• For more information please visit www.breastmates.co.nz or visit www.facebook.com/breastmates

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INSPIRATION

Creating a Business with No Money How you can do it too!

Brad Booysen is the founder and CEO of Storkk, a New Zealand based company that helps lawyers and other professionals plan and manage their professional development. The company recently partnered with LexisNexis, a global leader in legal content and technology, and the New Zealand Bar Association.

Hi Brad, tell us about Storkk, how did you come up with the idea?

Storkk helps lawyers and other professionals plan, manage and track their professional development. Storkk is my second startup. My first company was in the health space but it failed within the first 2 years. That experience taught me that building a product and then going in search of a market is the wrong way to do it.

I started doing some research and stumbled upon the Lean

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Startup by Eric Ries, the concepts made sense to me, so I set out to meet with as many business owners and professionals as I could find to understand what challenges they were facing. Through this process, I had identified a hand-full of pain points.

Lawyers were in need of an easy way to manage their professional development due to new legislation that made it mandatory for them to achieve a minimum number of professional development hours each year.

What did you do next?

Once we fully understood the pain point, we set out to create a solution. We built a minimum viable product, which had been popularised by the Lean Startup movement. Our MVP was basically a set of PDF mockups that linked to each other. As long as we were driving the mouse, it looked like a real working product.

How much money did you spend at the beginning?

How did you make sure you spent as little as possible?

We spent very little money at the beginning. I strongly believe that the only money you should spend during the customer discovery phase is on parking and coffee to meet with potential clients.

There are so many free tools available to startups today - use them. We had one criterion for spending money; if we couldn’t link it to future revenue, we didn’t spend the money.

How do you find those first customers We created a shortlist of ideal clients and we started cold

calling until we had a few weeks worth of meetings. We didn’t try to sell at this early stage.

Instead, we asked these early customers to help us build a solution to a problem we knew they were experiencing.

People love being able to help especially when they’re also helping themselves.

How did you manage to pre-sell a product that didn’t exist?

We had done such a good job with the mockups that it looked like a working product.

As a result, we got our early customers excited about the products’ potential and had them sign a Letter of Intent stating that, if we could deliver a product with the agreed features, they would buy it.

The benefit of this approach was that our early customers were invested in the product from day one because they felt ownership in it. In many ways, it was a product that they had co-developed alongside us. This is a good example of customer-driven development that every startup should embrace.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 19

How did you find the people you needed, with no money?

Find passionate people, because not everybody is motivated by money. One of the best decisions we made was to reach out to the team at Massey University’s ecentre business incubator who helped us better understand our market.

It was at the ecentre where I met our CTO, Manfred Lange, and our Business Development Manager, Flavio Hangarter.

Both are hugely talented entrepreneurs who are passionate about building a great business, it was a perfect fit. Early revenue and investor funds allowed us to hire our first employees shortly afterwards.

Remember to link every dollar spent to a dollar in future revenue. If you can’t make the connection, you shouldn’t be spending the money.

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How did you find partners/ resellers?

Talk to your customers to find out about the other products and services they use regularly.

It might be another software vendor, a consultant or even a hardware manufacturer.

Lawyers used LexisNexis who are the leaders in legal content and technology. They were an obvious partner for us.

We approached LexisNexis and they were very open to the conversation.

What do you think are the three key things to remember when bootstrapping your startup?

Fake it till you make it - our first MVP took us less than a week to build and we used it to get commitment from our first customers. It required lots of manual work on our behalf but it allowed us to keep our costs down. Secondly, use the many free and cheap tools that are available such as the Microsoft Bizspark program that helps startups to get up and running with very little cost. Lastly, remember to link every dollar spent to a dollar in future revenue. If you can’t make the connection, you shouldn’t be spending the money.

At what stage will you (or won’t you) take outside investment and why would you decide to do so?

What would your advice be to anyone who thinks they can’t start a business because they have no money?

You don’t need a lot of money to validate a business idea or even find your first customers.

Use freely available tools on the internet to build your minimum viable product. We used Prototyper because it offers a free tier. Find the early adopters in your market, there are plenty out there in both the B2B and B2C world. A characteristic of early adopters is that they want to be the first to try new products and they are willing to put up with teething issues in your product. These early customers are gold to a startup and they will become your biggest advocates in the future.

In my opinion, outside investment is necessary for most startups at some stage in their life cycle. The difference between a startup and the corner dairy is the hyper growth potential. Global domination requires money and lots of it. While some startups might be able to bootstrap their way there, it usually takes a lot longer. We took on investors once we’d validated the concept and secured our first customers.

The investment has helped us build a passionate team who come to work everyday to build a product that delights our customers. Many entrepreneurs are worried about giving equity away but I’d rather own 1% of Google than 100% of the corner dairy.•

To find out more about Brad and Storkk visit www.storkk.com

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INTERVIEW

Marcus Hoefliger EFTPlus Marcus Hoefliger is CEO of EFTPlus

Tell us about EFTPlus, what do you do?

EFTPlus is a loyalty, CRM and e-marketing service that allows retailers to dynamically track, analyse, reward, segment and communicate to their customers, based on their payment card data.

Customers simply pay using a payment card and get rewarded – simple.

How did the business get started and why? How did the founders meet?

The concept of EFTPlus started as a result of founder, Julian Cox’s frustration of having to turn down yet another loyalty card because his wallet already had too many of them (the problem!). Then the question

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occurred, why couldn’t we just use the EFTPOS cards we are already carrying as loyalty cards? So he set about making that happen.

Not long after the concept was formed, I got involved whilst studying towards my Master of Entrepreneurship at the University of Otago. Julian was after someone to build a business plan for EFTPlus, and after completing this, I soon began to realise the potential of the opportunity, and as they say, the rest is history.

How did you survive those early days?

During the early days I was still at University, and Julian had an internet consultancy company that did various developments.

Both Julian and I could work on EFTPlus in a part time capacity, and bootstrap our way through product development, commercial set up, critical partnerships and deploying a beta product.

Being a University student, money was never in abundance, so the ability to live off ‘nothing’ was something I had become

accustomed to, which I guess prepared me for start up life. Also, personally, high wages and long extravagant holidays were not my biggest motivation at the time, as I wanted to be involved in this exciting journey. Would I change my decision to join EFTPlus in hindsight? Not a chance!

Once the product and commercial model were ready we were lucky enough to attract seed funding which helped to quicken our pace, and allow us to go full time with EFTPlus, which helped enormously. Although we were still sacrificing financially by being on a low wage, it was livable, and that’s all we needed to get by initially.

What was the most painful lesson you’ve had to learn in business?

As with any start up, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. We have managed to overcome the downs through hard work and determination, two qualities that are critical for any entrepreneur. The most painful lesson we have had to learn in business is

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Sell, sell, sell!

To be able to clearly convey your value proposition to relevant stakeholders is crucial.

dealing with the time taken for large complex organisations to move. What we previously thought would take 6 months, quickly turned into 18 months.

For a start up this can be fatal, and as a result we are far more cautious with our timing and approach these days.

Do you have any plans to expand overseas? What factors influence your decision when expanding to new areas?

Yes, we deployed EFTPlus in Indonesia in 2013 via a partnership arrangement, and based on this experience are looking for additional markets, with Australia being an obvious choice. Key factors for us include the market size, characteristics of our target market, electronic card usage, how developed the loyalty market is and barriers to entry.

In saying this, although Indonesia is weak on a few of these fronts, there is a strong demand from large corporations for an EFTPlus type offering, the market is large, and the loyalty industry is very undeveloped with few competitors presenting interesting opportunities.

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Have you raised any money?

Any advice for others looking to raise funding?

It all depends on what you want to achieve as an entrepreneur, the type of product you are deploying and whether it’s an exit or long term play. This all needs to be considered carefully in your business plan before embarking on funding.

Based on our stage of the business life cycle, circumstances, approach to market, and the opportunities that presented themselves along the way, we decided early that external funding was appropriate as a means of enabling us to fully commit to the opportunity and speeding up the process of deployment.

Fortunately we have been able to successfully raise a seed round and a growth round, which have enabled us to grow and take advantage of opportunities quickly.

My advice to entrepreneurs looking to raise money would be work hard on creating a great story, expect to be diluted significantly, especially in the early rounds, and consider not only the cash

but the skills and expertise of the investor and how they can help best increase the returns/ valuation of your company.

What are the three most important business skills you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop?

Sell, sell, sell! To be able to clearly convey your value proposition to relevant stakeholders is crucial.

Whether you’re trying to convince / excite a potential client, partner, employee or investor, selling your proposition is crucial, so make sure to hone your skills in this area.

Jump in the deep end.

Personally I believe entrepreneurs need to get out in their market as opposed to being shielded in a safe harbor. Incubators are great for early stage validation, but in order to really move things along get out there and talk to all your relevant stakeholders, expose yourself to real life situations, get on the ground, aim high and don’t settle for second best. Not only will this allow you to validate your

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offering, but it will also allow you to do it fast. As the saying goes, if you are going to fail, fail fast, but make sure you have done all you can before reaching that decision.

Surround yourself with people with different skills to yours so that you can maximize the value of your team. We have been lucky enough to have great people jump on board with EFTPlus, all with different experiences, strengths, backgrounds and views, and have come to realise that this is our most valuable asset.

Do you have a board of directors? What value do they bring to your business?

Post our seed round we initially started with a small board of myself, Julian and Mark

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Kirkland (Lawyer). Mark was particularly valuable in defining our service legal terms and partnership contracts, along with providing a different perspective and challenging the assumptions we had made.

Now, with our movement into the growth phase of the business both nationally and internationally, we have grown our board by two additional members. These members were part of our latest capital raise, and have filled the capability gaps we had identified of governance, loyalty, data management and international experience.

We were very fortunate to fill these gaps with two prominent figures, Peter Hall (ex ASB, Commonwealth Bank executive) and Stephen Lobb (ex founding CEO

of Fly Buys & Managing Director International Retail Programmes at Aimia).

The value they bring to the business is immense, not only around the capability gaps identified, but have also added significant credbility and know how on how best to position the company to achieve it longer term goals.

What do you think are the things New Zealand needs to improve upon when it comes to creating more successful businesses?

I firmly believe that our education system needs to play a greater role in promoting entrepreneurship as a valid and aspirational career to embark on. In addition to this, not only do we need to promote entrepreneurship, but also focus on the key tools required to achieve success, including, sales, finance, access to mentors, promotion of business leaders, case studies etc. If we can unearth more of our talent in this sector, who knows how far New Zealand can go.

Not only do we need to promote entrepreneurship, but also focus on the key tools required to achieve success, including, sales, finance, access to mentors, promotion of business leaders What’s next for you?

Gearing EFTPlus up for growth both nationally and internationally, and continually pushing new and exciting developments to our retailers to enable them to engage with their customer base, simply, quickly and cost effectively. In 5 years, I hope that EFTPlus has made a positive and significant mark in the industry, and from there lets see what happens (that’s the exciting bit!). •

To find out more visit www.eftplus.co.nz

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IP IN ACTION

The Measure of Your Success

By Lavinia Calvert, Marketing Manager at AJ Park

IF THERE’S ONE characteristic that defines what it means to be a successful entrepreneur or business owner, it’s the ability to recognise that you don’t always know what you don’t know. Every day you’re making decisions that impact your business and how it performs over time – strategic decisions, financial decisions, decisions about people and processes. How do you know if you’re on the right track?

You measure things.

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H. James Harrington – a world leading performance improvement guru – once said ‘measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.’

There are plenty of vital signs to indicate the general health of your business – top line revenues, bottom

line profitability, customer satisfaction, market share, staff engagement levels – all of which are fairly easily measured. But that’s only the first step. You also need to understand what those measurements are telling you.

experts, BIQ™ stands for ‘business of international quality’. The Icehouse defines this as ‘a business that’s ready to take on an international market or that can solidly defend its local position from strong competition’.

What if the signs are that you’re tracking along nicely but not really growing? Or you’re growing but your competitors are nudging ahead of you? Would you know what to focus on to lift your game? What if the business is a bit out of shape or moving in the wrong direction all together? Would you know where to start to get it back on track?

Whether your end goal is international growth or local dominance, your business can become a business of international quality.

By completing a BIQ™ Barometer assessment, you can quickly and accurately identify what your areas of strength are, as well as areas for improvement.

Enter the BIQ™ Barometer – a nifty online tool that helps business owners quickly and accurately measure how their business stacks up in six key areas. These six areas are regarded as critical to the success of any New Zealand business: leadership, offering, market, processes, capital, and governance.

Developed by The Icehouse, in collaboration with Auckland University and several business and industry

Armed with the knowledge of what to focus on, you can then make use of the resources, tools, and practical advice that’s provided to help make your business more successful.

How do you know if you’re on the right track?

You measure things.

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So what does ‘good’ look like in the land of BIQ™?

LEADERSHIP • You have a strong and diverse leadership team in place.

• Your company culture is positive.

• The business is aligned around a clear longterm strategy that’s being well executed.

OFFERING • Your business has a welldefined, sustainable competitive advantage.

You know what your unique value proposition is.

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• There’s a strong understanding of the company’s core competencies and how they contribute to the creation of intellectual property.

• You have a sound strategy in place to extract value from the protection, commercialisation, and enforcement of your intellectual property.

MARKET • You have a deep understanding of your market, and you have tailored your business model and offering to the specific needs of your target customers.

ways of doing business. You’re not making ‘tourist’ blunders!

• You have a sound and sustainable sales and marketing strategy in place.

• You know what your customers value, what your competitors strengths and strategies are, and you’re ‘playing to win’.

• If you’re already operating internationally, you’re doing so with a high degree of cultural competence. You understand local market customs, traditions, and

PROCESSES • You have good systems and processes in place to drive operational excellence in how you manage your people, dayto-day operations, and financial functions.

• Key business decisions are based on accurate, timely, and reliable information. •

SAVE 20% ON A FULL BIQ™ BAROMETER ASSESSMENT Receive a 20% discount ($50) on the regular price when you sign up for the AJ Park newsletter by 31 July, 2014.

Find out more here.

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FUTURE

First Foundation

Scholarship helped Michael develop the foundations for success; now he’s helping others to succeed.

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDERS are recognised for their passion and innovative thinking, yet not all of our young talent have access to the tools they need to succeed. First Foundation is a unique scholarship organisation that works alongside secondary schools, universities, businesses and individual mentors to provide a holistic support programme, helping talented but underresourced young Kiwis through tertiary study.

We spoke to former scholar Michael Moka about Indigenous Growth Ltd,

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and how First Foundation encouraged him to pursue his entrepreneurship goals.

Michael, tell us about Indigenous Growth Ltd? I’ve founded Indigenous Growth Ltd based on the principle that the support of many can conquer the poverty cycle. We exist to empower indigenous people, providing support and tools that will allow people to better themselves, both professionally and in other aspects of life.

We’ll be modelling principles of successful people and implementing them in a way that indigenous people will relate to. My role is director of Indigenous Growth Ltd, and I’ll also be working as facilitator and executive coach.

How will Indigenous Growth Ltd achieve these goals?

We’ll be delivering professional development programmes specifically catering to indigenous people. We’re currently in the pilot stage, and I’m aiming to start programmes in February 2015. Programmes will run for 12 – 18 months, for groups of up to 15 people.

We’ll have clients from corporate, tribal and governmental organisations, who will give us access to individuals who are selfemployed or unemployed, and youth. We’re aiming to empower any indigenous people who want to develop themselves, thrive and break the poverty cycle for themselves and their families.

What will programmes include?

During the course of each programme we’ll be facilitating self-awareness to reinforce our client’s capabilities, encouraging them to focus on what they can do. We’ll be applying

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the learnings of others who have achieved executive excellence, to encourage our clients to advance themselves, and setting individual precedents for turning one’s dreams into reality.

Your passion and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship has developed from a young age.

How did First Foundation support you when you began you scholarship?

In 2005 I received a scholarship through First Foundation sponsored by ASB Lending Services, where I was offered work experience.

I was fortunate to have the best mentor, Jonathan Butler, with whom I had a great relationship. Throughout my scholarship, I worked at the Lending Department for ASB – not an environment I was used to. But with Jonathan’s support, along with that of my managers, I was able to walk

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between worlds without losing my true essence.

I didn’t always have a lot while I was growing up, but I always had a dream to succeed and whanau who believed in me. First Foundation became part of that whanau, and their support gave me a base from which I could go on to help others better themselves.

How did First Foundation influence your attitudes toward personal progress and development?

First Foundation empowers young people who have experienced hardship. It’s all about empowerment and unlocking that amazing potential that so often goes unrealised. They help people to achieve their definition of success. I always thought, how amazing would it be if this could be a financially thriving career path?

What skills did you learn during your scholarship that helped you get to where you are today?

Why did you decide to focus specifically on helping empower indigenous people?

Jonathan, my mentor, taught me the art of believing in possibility. During my time with First Foundation I learnt that showing my hardship and upbringing is what differentiates me from the pack. Through my own experiences, I also learnt that there is a need to empower people who have experienced hardship to achieve what they define as success and awaken their potential.

Look at all the poverty statistics world-wide. For example, unemployment, crime, teenage pregnancy etc are statistics heavily occupied by the indigenous people of their country. I am of Maori and Pacific Island decent, and as indigenous people we all have certain things in common.

Why did you decide to develop Indigenous Growth Ltd? From a young age I have always wanted to empower families similar to mine, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, and youth. I’ve always known this was what I wanted to do, and I’ve been working toward making it happen for a long time.

Maori are natural entrepreneurs

Maori are natural entrepreneurs. I believe that combining our innovative thinking with core principles of business acumen will create a formula for success.

I find that many Maori also have natural affinity for believing in a purpose greater than themselves, for seeing the big picture.

This holistic view can be channelled to allow Maori to do something other than just succeed professionally; if developed, it can assist them to be their own bosses, to succeed by excelling at what they enjoy, and to make a difference to others. •

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TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEURS

Young Enterprise Trust Terry Shubkin, CEO Young Enterprise Trust

WHILE MOST PEOPLE know us for our ‘day job’ – helping Kiwi kids to learn about enterprise – we also have another role that we’re very proud of. In 1994, we created The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

Enterprise student, who reads the official citation as the Laureate is being inducted.

Each year, a select group of New Zealanders are inducted into the Hall of Fame. Past Laureates include Sir Michael Hill, Sir William Gallagher and Sir Peter Leitch, and earlier this month we announced this year’s Laureates.

One of our students also gives a valedictory speech on behalf of all Young Enterprise students. Last year, Darren Ritchie from Mount Hutt College was the Young Enterprise Student Ambassador, and he spoke about the effects of having instant data at your fingertips, saying that a world of unlimited information creates both opportunities and challenges.

We host the annual gala dinner and love involving our students. Each of the Laureates (or their families) is escorted by a Young

This is a wonderful event that lets us bring different generations together – tickets are now on sale and we’d love to see you there.

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Young Enterprise announces 2014 Hall of Fame Laureates EIGHT AMAZING NEW ZEALANDERS will be inducted into The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in August. These entrepreneurs join 133 New Zealanders who have made outstanding contributions to business and the community.

The 2014 Laureates are: Graeme Avery Publishing, Food and Wine, Sport Graeme Avery transformed medical publishing firm Adis International into a $100 million world leading business before creating his awardwinning Sileni Estates venture in the Hawke’s Bay. A significant supporter of sport, especially athletics, Graeme has led the fundraising campaigns to create the AUT Millennium Institute of Sport & Health - now the national training centre for high performance sport.

Jules Fulton (1901-1973) and Bob Hogan (1900-1992) Roading and Infrastructure In 1933, Jules Fulton and Bob Hogan formed a small roading company in Otago.

More than 80 years later, the company now works on civil infrastructure projects throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Fulton Hogan employs more than 3000 staff and is renowned for its workplace culture.

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James McAlpine (1906-1959) Refrigeration

Sir David Henry (1888-1963) Forestry and wood processing Sir David Henry led the establishment of New Zealand’s commercial forestry industry and created Kinleith Mill, which became New Zealand’s largest industrial processing complex. Sir David created a scholarship for forestry students and was involved in a range of charitable organisations including Rotary and YMCA.

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James McAlpine pioneered the use of refrigerated transport and chiller units, and help=ed to revolutionise the New Zealand dairy industry with refrigerated farm milk tank storage. He was a director of the Reserve Bank and the Blind Foundation, a Foundation member of the Auckland Lions, Past President of The NZ Manufacturers Federation, and an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Sir Ralph Norris Leadership & Governance Sir Ralph Norris is one of New Zealand’s most successful chief executives. He spent twenty years transforming ASB, Air New Zealand and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Sir Ralph is now a director of Fonterra and supports many organisations including Starship Children’s Hospital and Diabetes New Zealand.

Don Rowlands Leadership & Governance Don Rowlands has led some of New Zealand’s iconic companies. He was chief executive and director at Fisher & Paykel, managing director for Champion, and chairman of Mainfreight.

He has been a longtime supporter of rowing in New Zealand, following his Commonwealth Games medal wins in 1950 and 1954.

Lady Adrienne Stewart Leadership & Governance Lady Adrienne Stewart was involved in industry and commerce for 40 years. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the NZ Institute of Directors and was one of the first women in New Zealand to be appointed as a public company director.

She is a generous and longstanding supporter of many arts organisations.•

The Laureates will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a black tie gala dinner on Thursday 7 August. Each Laureate (or their descendant) receives a citation from the Governor-General of New Zealand, and is accompanied by a Young Enterprise student. Tickets are available from Young Enterprise Trust on 04 570 0452 or online at www.businesshalloffame.co.nz.

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PARTING SHOT

“The most powerful thing you can make is a mistake - you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”

Adam Osbourne

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