NZ Entrepreneur - March 2017 Vol 1

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

MARCH 2017 VOL 1

When Silence is Deafening Are There Natural Born Salespeople?

Startup Watch: Holonize

10 QUESTIONS WITH GEORGIA MEEK from THE BABYSITTERS CLUB www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

2

CONTENTS 4

10 Questions with Georgia Meek from The Babysitters Club

10 When Silence is Deafening

14 Are there natural born salespeople?

20 Startup Watch: Holonize

21 Quick Fix

22 Case Study: Being held to ransomware

CONTACT US

w: www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forwardthinking entrepreneurs.

f: www.facebook.com/nzentrepreneur

EDITOR / Richard Liew ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble

linkedIn: NZ Entrepreneur t: @NZpreneur

CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on 021 994 136 or email richardl@espiremedia.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

MARCH 10 2017 | GRAND MILLENNIUM AUCKLAND

where the

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS FIRST

Online Retailer New Zealand is returning to Auckland, bringing with it a line-up of savvy experts who will help you to deliver an outstanding customer experience, from start to end.

For more information visit onlineretailer.com/new-zealand/about

BOOK TICKETS NOW For group discount rates contact Cindy Le Guen cindy.leguen@reedexhibitions.com.au One day out of the office could make a world of difference to your business. Do something today that your future self will thank you for. Secure your tickets to the biggest retail event in New Zealand.

Hurry, as seating is limited and tickets are selling fast. ONLY 23 SEATS LEFT!

LUCY GLADE-WRIGHT HUNTING FOR GEORGE Building a community and owning the customer experience

MINISTER JACQUI DEAN Innovation and productivity in the retail industry

GAVIN MERRIMAN NUDE BY NATURE Top tips to tackle data and personalisation

RUTH BROWN TRADE ME Design the sites that match customers’ brains

4

10 Questions

10 QUESTIONS WITH GEORGIA MEEK from THE BABYSITTERS CLUB

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

5

G

eorgias’ passion for teaching and childcare meant she noticed a gap in the market, so she took the opportunity to develop a premium babysitting service.

Her aim of creating a more stress-free experience for parents has meant her business is quickly gaining popularity and growing organically through word of mouth.

With a brand-new iOS app now accompanying the website, it is now even easier to book a hand-selected, police-checked babysitter through The Babysitters Club. We had a chat to Georgia about the good, the not-sogood, and the most rewarding times on her entrepreneurial journey so far.

Tell us about The Babysitters Club – what is it exactly that you do?

The Babysitters Club makes it easy for busy parents to do the things they love or need to do, without the worrying about the safety and well-being of their children. Our sitters go through a vigorous selection process and are police-checked, reference-checked, and interviewed to ensure they are up to our world-class standard.

We have just recently released New Zealand’s very first babysitting app – where parents can now book and pay for one of our hand-selected sitters through the click of a few buttons. Our aim is to create a world where the stresses and time-consuming nature of finding an interactive, trustworthy and experienced babysitter no longer exist.

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

I began my Primary School Teaching Degree in 2012. Wanting more experience with children, and wanting to connect to the Mount Maunganui community more, my friend Kerry and I began chatting about creating a ‘babysitters club’. The way we operated was COMPLETELY different to how it is now – we didn’t get paid, we just got priority on all jobs.

I went travelling a year later, landed myself an au pair job in London through a client who used ‘The Babysitters Club’. It was then that I realised I could create a business out of this. When I came back from overseas, Kerry and I worked together to make it official, and we experimented from there.

We made no money and worked hard during this time, and Kerry, unfortunately, ended up leaving due to work commitments.

I luckily received a scholarship for startups not long after, and the business that many people had told me ‘had no future’ was pulled to pieces and remade, restructured and is now on its way to becoming a sustainable business. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

6

10 Questions

How did you survive the early days? Did you have any money? Did you make any sacrifices? How did you pay the bills and keep growing your business?

I was in uni for the first year, then went into part-time nannying and worked on the business outside of work hours (the business didn’t pay me at the time). Money was very tight, but I made enough to get by – just.

I made lots of sacrifices and never quite understood just how hard it could be running your own business. I have worked every day for as long as I can remember. I can’t go places where there is no reception, as I am on call every minute of the day and I can’t leave the country. I have cried many days and nights and at times have thought to myself, I can’t possibly go on – but that is just life I guess. It has been my dream to make this my job since the idea first arose, and I am determined to make this my reality. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

How did you know you could build a successful business?

I didn’t know I could build a successful business. The only reason why I think this has worked is that I have a genuine passion for what I do, I understand my customers (babysitters and parents) and have a background in teaching, which has allowed me to take the standards of babysitting to the next level. If you believe in yourself and what you are doing, there is nothing that should be able to hinder your success.

7

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

To be completely honest with you, most of our client base has come from referrals. When you have a service that ‘wows’ people, word begins to spread pretty quickly. Alongside that, we have pretty high ratings on Google and keep our social media sites up to date.

My biggest piece of advice for marketing would be that you HAVE TO understand your brand to market yourself successfully. By brand, I am not just talking about a logo; I am talking about your underlying values, vision, purpose – the whole package. You need people to feel connected to your business, and how can you connect to something if you have no idea what they are all about?

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

1. Brand awareness/purpose 2. Customer service skills 3. Innovation What are the three most important personal qualities you would advise up-and-coming entrepreneurs to develop?

1. Passion 2. Creative thinking 3. Communication skills

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

8

10 Questions

There have been many times of ‘I can’t do this anymore’, but the thing with owning your own business is there are so many more rewarding aspects to it What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in building your business so far?

The biggest challenge I have faced was figuring out how to create a business that was sustainable for everyone – customers, babysitters and myself. It’s difficult to be rejected by some who think your prices are too high – but my service focuses on quality and those who use TBSC understand that you get what you pay for.

Many people put off starting a business because they don’t have any money. Does it really take money to make money?

I’m not going to lie, it does help to have money in any given situation, but you can start a business for next to nothing – you just have to be creative, hardworking and willing to make sacrifices.

www.thebabysittersclub.nz I: @thebabysittersclubnz www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

In building your business, have there been times where you felt like giving up, and how did you keep yourself going through those times?

My gosh, there have been many times of ‘I can’t do this anymore’, but the thing with owning your own business is there are so many more rewarding aspects to it that bring you back pretty quickly. To be honest, my sitters have allowed me to get through a lot of these really tough times.

They are so supportive, they do their best in all that they do and the feedback I receive from parents about them has legitimately put me into tears of happiness at times.

Our mission statement isn’t ‘your extended family’ for no reason; they make so many people’s lives better – not just mine. •

F: www.facebook.com/babysittersclubBOP

Vist:LeadingEdgeGroup.conz

9

, l l e s we ceed c u s u yo

Better sales begin with better relationships.

Our proven sales and customer service helps your business thrive by fostering deeper connections between people and brands.

We work behind the scenes to make our partners’ brands shine.

Find out how your sales channel can work better and smarter.

Visit: LeadingEdgeGroup.co.nz

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

10

Entrepreneurship

WHEN SILENCE IS DEAFENING

BY Sandy Geyer

11

B

efore the digital revolution, there were three conventional responses to approaches, questions, negotiation discussions and follow ups between colleagues, clients and service providers within a professional environment.

These were to agree, disagree (question) or defer. Due to the nature of communication – which was either face to face, telephonic or by letter – a response of some nature was expected and mostly forthcoming.

Today, there is a fourth response emerging.

This response is silence – largely made possible by digital communication. No one would think to suddenly go silent during a face to face conversation or a telephone call, leaving their colleague or client to hang in the space of uncertainty; it would surely be deemed rude, uncomfortable for both parties and at the very least inappropriate.

So the question is, is it any less rude to respond to an emailed or voice message communication today with silence?

I can imagine that most reading this article are immediately thinking that it has become impossible to answer everyone who communicates with us, due to the digital communication overload. Personally, I receive over 200 emails per day. Thank goodness we can be choosy as to who we respond to with caller ID and email identifications, or we would do nothing

else, and still not get to everyone. But this is not about spam mail, sales calls and unknown first-time sales approaches.

It is a given that we ignore these unless one happens to say exactly the right thing at the right time, which is unlikely.

Personality types come through quickly in digital and telephonic communication too, but these will mostly likely only influence the time taken to respond and the tone and focus of the response.

Personality types come through quickly in digital and telephonic communication too, but these will mostly likely only influence the time taken to respond and the tone and focus of the response.

This article is about the use of silence as a finished response to a known service provider, client or colleague. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

12

Entrepreneurship

Silence as a finished response isn’t a non-response – it’s simply an ‘open to interpretation’ response from which the other party could conclude as follows: are too busy to answer, which 11. We leads right into the next option: are not important enough 22. They to us to warrant an answer don’t agree with what they 33. We are suggesting or asking but don’t want to openly disagree are unsure of how to respond 44. We and are therefore saying nothing

Whichever of the above our colleagues or clients choose as the reason for our silence response, their conclusions are unlikely to be correct. More importantly, their conclusions could lead to a breakdown of trust in a relationship we have taken the time to build and might not be able to build again on the same solid foundation.

We are all values driven. Those of us driven with values such as integrity, trust, respect and loyalty, which includes many of us, will tend to read a silence response as disrespectful to our business relationship.

Effective business leadership is also driven by values. Before using silence as a finished response, we should think carefully about how deafening a response this might be to someone important to our career journey.

As my husband has been known to say, “A wise man thinks carefully before saying nothing”.•

(this differs to the above option)

55. Their mail landed in our spam box,

and we are unaware of it completely

circumstances have 66. Our changed, and they are no longer relevant to our situation

77. We expect them to know what our silence means

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Sandy Geyer is an entrepreneur and mentor who teaches the principles of entrepreneurial intelligence (EnQ) to entrepreneurs in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. www.enqpractice.com L: Sandy Geyer

GOT A PRODUCT, SERVICE OR BUSINESS WORTH TALKING ABOUT? Want to grow brand awareness in a more effective and useful way?

TALK TO ESPIRE MEDIA ABOUT OUR CONTENT MARKETING SERVICES We offer a range of ways to attract and retain customers, by creating and curating relevant and valuable content to engage and add value to your audience.

BENEFITS: • Expand your digital footprint • Grow brand awareness • Increase traffic to your website • Thought leadership • Media exposure • Attract new customers • And... grow SALES!

Get in touch with Jennifer now to discuss our options. +64 3 443 6316 (NZT) | jenniferl@espiremedia.com | www.espiremedia.com

Visit us for content marketing advice, tips and ideas, plus a free copy of our content marketing guide The Content Creation Cookbook!

13

14

Sales

ARE THERE NATURAL BORN SALESPEOPLE?

Why sales is like assembling cheeseburgers BY Brett Burgess

A

question I am often asked is “Are there natural born salespeople that we should be looking for?”

My answer to this is there is no such thing as a natural born salesperson. There are salespeople with the ‘gift of the gab’ who make good sales, but they tend to lack consistency in their results.

on the product or technical training rather than specific sales skills development.

This tends to produce product-focused salespeople who use the classic show and tell sales presentation. Typically the presentation goes something like this:

The salesperson looks around the prospect’s office, finds some item of interest and begins a discussion on this, much to the annoyance Contrary to popular belief, the best of the prospect that has had the same salespeople aren’t the best talkers; they are conversation with a hundred other salespeople the best listeners. The best salespeople, the and hasn’t got time to waste with the usual soconsistent high performers, are those who called rapport building techniques. They then have been trained in the best sales practices ask a few self-serving questions to uncover a and then supported through management. potential need, and launch a product/technical A vast amount of ‘sales training’ is focused solution based presentation. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

15

A study of over 500 buyers from the fortune 1000 companies showed that salespeople jump in with a solution before the real problem has been uncovered. This happens in 63% of sales interviews.

It is a fact that the greatest asset in our businesses is our staff. It costs businesses just as much money in salary, travel and costs for a poor sales performer as it does Sales, like any other business activity, is for a great sales performer. Therefore a process and needs to be systemised to we need to lift the performance of all our ensure consistency in the results. Exceptional salespeople to ensure consistency in sales salespeople have a planned approach to selling results. The way to achieve this is through and follow a process. McDonald’s doesn’t hire using best sales practices and measurement staff and then challenge them to figure out how for accountability. best to do the job. Instead, they work on the basis that there is a best way to take an order, A question I sometimes hear is “What happens if we train them and they leave?” greet a customer and put a burger together.

I ask “What happens if we don’t train them In sales there is a best practice too. Like and they stay?”. assembling a cheeseburger, sales has a Coming back to what makes great process. Firstly identify your prospects, salespeople, Malcolm Gladwell wrote in next get a referral to them, then establish trust, uncover their need – if they have one – his famous book Outliers, “Success in any present a solution, and ask for the business. field comes from opportunity and practice”.

Many companies give their salespeople the opportunity to undertake sales training.

Selling is very simple, but not easy!

What makes the difference between the good and the great salespeople is the great Imagine sitting on a plane at an airport, salespeople continue to learn and practice waiting to take off, and the captain comes on and says “This is my first flight in one of the skills they have acquired. these really big planes – I’m going to try and They say ‘practice makes perfect’. This is figure out the best way to fly this thing.” only partly true – perfect practice makes Many companies send their salespeople out into the field with great product training and very little, if any, sales training to ‘fly by the seat of their pants’.

perfect. Therefore, sales come down to using best practices. As sales guru, Brian Tracy says, “Until we learn the formula (process) for success, we can’t repeat it”. •

Brett Burgess helps equip salespeople and business owners with processes and systems to increase the amount of sales they make on a consistent basis. www.salesimpactgroup.co.nz L: Brett Burgess

16

Marketing

THE EVENT PROMOTION PLAYBOOK

BY Rebecca Caroe

1. Create excellent content about your event speaker(s). This should be original so ask for an interview and video them as they talk to you.

Y

ou want to run an event for your business promotion, but are unsure how to promote it and get attendees.

This playbook of tips encourages crosspublicity from offline to online and helps to build up an email mailing list which will also help with future promotions.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

2. Edit their interview into 90 secondlong videos. Include a start and end ‘card’ with the event logo and your business web address. Add subtitles so the Facebook feed will play them and the viewer can easily understand. Start to publish on Facebook and LinkedIn and link to the video on other relevant channels (local newspapers, Neighbourly, Chamber of Commerce, etc.).

3. Post the video to your website blog..

17

4. Take a photo of the presenter and overlay with a quotation from their 2017 speech. Also share this on Facebook and on your blog. On the picture, always have your web address.

5. Follow the presenter’s personal blog/website, so you can look for opportunities to create curated content.

6. Every Friday, send an email to your mailing list with a link to the video you published that week. Also include links to the other articles written by the speaker(s) from your list in #5 above. Here is a good example of a preview video from a conference.

7. Encourage readers to add comments to the videos as you share them.

What questions does this raise for you? How would you solve this? Does this match with your experience?

11. Get your video edited down to 90 seconds as in #2 above.

12. Make a still image of the person with a quote from the video (just like #4 above) 13. Share on social, add to the newsletter, encourage people to comment or ask questions. Ask the speakers to also share the video on their website and social channels.

14. Continue weekly until you release the tickets for the event. By this time you should have a good mailing list of prospects and this will help early bird ticket sales.

The Webstock conference in Wellington each February is a very good example of this methodology – join their mailing 8. On the website, add a prominent ‘signup list to see how it can be done. Note their newsletter also shares jobs and event to news’ form either by lightbox or listings which are a very nice way to enable on the page header and explain what them to stay relevant in the year between people get when they sign up (i.e.

Friday news with new educational video conferences. Go rock your event...and don’t forget to video it and release the content and links to expert articles). video afterwards, so the people who didn’t 9. Also, publish the newsletter come will realise what they missed!. • on the blog every week.

10. As the event gets closer, add in more publicity for the speakers on the theme of the event itself – you can do this by asking the speaking team to allow you to interview them by Hangout or Skype video chat. Your interview should be three questions only.

Rebecca Caroe is an expert digital marketer and CRM specialist who helps business owners find new customers.

T: @rebeccacaroe L: Rebecca Caroe www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

18

NEW ZEALAND IS A HOTBED OF ENTREPRENEURIAL GOODNESS EACH WEEK WE PROFILE A STARTUP WE’RE WATCHING ACROSS A RANGE OF INDUSTRIES

Tell us about your business.

Holonize is an Augmented Reality app. It creates a platform which allows users to view 3D-created content in AR. We offer a service (3DMe) which captures people or objects via a 360 degree turntable, and maps a point cloud to recreate 3D models of that person or object. These models can then be viewed in 3D via your smartphone.

Who is your target market?

Universities, 3D media designers, general tech users, businesses. Basically anything you can imagine creating with Augmented Reality, we can provide the mechanism to view it. Our slogan is ‘Holonize the planet’. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Holonize

FOUNDERS: Bruce Rook and Liam Pool HQ: Auckland

Where did the idea come from?

We came up with the idea for the business in 2015, after watching a video about Microsoft’s Hololens. The original idea was to create an application for the Hololens, but this quickly evolved into a mobile app.

19

What are your biggest unique selling points?

• Augmented Reality is one of the largest upcoming fields in the tech space. There are an endless amount of things you can do with it, which is only limited by your imagination.

• AR allows you to view objects in 3D in places where these objects could not possibly be. It opens the doors for virtualising advertising, gaming, info-tech, business displays, etc.

• We have the ability to create 3D models of people or objects in less than 15 minutes.

With this technology, you can then view yourself as a 3D holographic model on your phone. And that’s only the beginning.

A customer-created image made at the Auckland Armageddon event

An example of Holonize’s 3DMe service, the scanning and creation of personal 3D models

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

20

A hologram viewable on a t-shirt using Holonize’s software

What are you most proud of?

We launched at Armageddon and had an awesome response from the public. We scanned and created over 200 3D models of people over the space of one weekend, which shows that there is definitely appetite for this kind of technology.

The entire concept was built out of a garage, and I’m really proud of what we were able to achieve not only with the build of the technology, but our dedication to the idea and the refinement of the technology.

But the main reason why I’m proud of this

W: F: T: www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

business is the reaction that I get from people when I show them this technology.

There is a genuine WOW from people when they see themselves floating in 3D space via their smartphone.

What is the biggest entrepreneur lesson you would like to share with other Kiwis thinking of starting their own business?

Ideas are a dime-a-dozen. It’s putting that idea into practice that separates normal people from business owners. We are all the same, it just comes down to whether you want to do something about it.•

www.holonize.com www.facebook.com/holonize @holonize

Quick Fix

21

QUICKTakeFIX a Walk

Y

ou’ve got a critical client meeting and the stakes are high. You judge the 30 minute drive to perfection, have the radio on full volume to motivate you, and the prime spot is vacant in the customer carpark when you arrive. You bowl on into the client’s reception in a frenzy of nervous anticipation and excitement.

Guess what – the first five minutes of the meeting are a bit of a disaster as your nervous energy dissipates.

If you are feeling nervous prior to an important meeting, rather than taking the prime spot in the car park, park two streets away and walk to the client’s office. The five-minute walk will relax you. Breathe deeply and your brain will be oxygenated and you will be thinking clearly. As you walk, replace the distraction of the music by visualising how you want the opening of the meeting to go. •

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

22

Spomsored

CASE STUDY: BEING HELD TO RANSOMWARE

I

Imagine a pop-up message announcing “Your files are encrypted. To get the key to decrypt your files you have to pay $5000 USD.”

You learn that if you fail to pay within a week, the ransom will double and your decryption key will be destroyed. Any chance of accessing 15 years of client files and all the data assets held on your business server would be lost forever.

It’s every business’ worst nightmare. But this wouldn’t happen in New Zealand – would it? Actually, it would, and this is what happened to Mike* who runs a Management Consulting company in Wellington.

We talked to Mike to hear his story: “It started as an ordinary Sunday. But then an employee rang saying he couldn’t get access to a file he needed for a client

presentation first thing Monday. I logged in remotely to find our business server was being held to ransom,” remembers Mike.

Their specialist IT company confirmed that all files on the server had been encrypted, but not any of their desktops or laptops.

“The big issue,” said Mike, “was that 15 years of client work files were on that server and we rely on those files for all our future work. I rang my business partner and said it was the second worst thing that could ever happen to us, the first being having the building collapse.”

Fortunately Mike’s company had daily back-ups, as well as a duplicate drive and shadow copies of most of the files. The IT company was able to restore all but a few of the business files.

23

“But it still took three days. We were finally back up and running by Thursday morning.”

However, there was an auxiliary drive on the server, which held about a terabyte of personal files – mainly photos and videos of one of the business partners. It was on a different backup cycle – a weekly destructive backup on a Sunday night. The business partner decided he wanted to pay the ransom to get his files back, but the ransom had increased to $5000, which they decided was cost prohibitive. By piecing together duplicates saved elsewhere, they recovered 90% of the photos, but only 50% of the videos.

Key lessons Mike is philosophical about the learnings and lessons. “Every business has its setbacks to get through, and this was one of ours. But it was a bit of a wake-up call as well. We’re definitely thinking about moving our files to the cloud after this.”

Here’s what Mike’s company learned: • Don’t let staff use their name and a number for a password.

• Restrict access to change information on How did this happen? business servers to those who really need it.

An investigation revealed that a cyber attacker had logged in remotely to the server • Use layers for back-ups and keep to a by accessing Mike’s account and password. regular schedule.

“It turns out it was a brute-force attack with • Have other-site or cloud-based backups multiple attempts to crack the password. They for personal folders. (the hackers) got dumb lucky. It was because • Occasionally undertake a cybersecurity my password was my name with a number.” audit to discover weaknesses.

“I’m reasonably tech-savvy so the reason it For any entrepreneur or small business, was a dumb password was because I had cybersecurity is a necessary part of to send my password to IT one day and just doing business these days. But with an changed it to a temporary one. My desktop increase in email hacks, data breaches and has fingerprint recognition so hadn’t got ransomware, how secure is your business? around to changing it back because I don’t think about entering the password every day.” *Mike’s name has been changed. •

To learn more about keeping your small business safe from cyber attacks, watch this Microsoft Small Business Academy episode about online security for small businesses or get in contact with Microsoft and let us know your doubts so we can help you further.

Visit our blog for NZ’s small and medium businesses. www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

24

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Simon Sinek, Ted Talk WATCH IT HERE: ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action.’

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz