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

December 2015

The

ART
FLOW
of

10
QUESTIONS
with
Richard Liew
Founder of Espire
Media & NZ
Entrepreneur

Start As You Mean To Go On

Getting More Visibility Doesn’t Have To Cost The Earth
Market Matters Most - How To Size Up Yours

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

CONTENTS
4 From the Editor
6 Start as you mean to go on
12 The Art of Flow: 10 Questions
with Richard Liew
22 More Visibility, More Business
Doesn’t Need to Cost the Earth
24 Time to Take Advantage -
Entrepreneurial Spirit in the
Primary Industries
28 3 Sales Follow Up Strategies To
Replace ‘Touching Base’
30 Entrepreneurial Intelligence
32 Market Matters Most
36 Three Highlights From Live the NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and
Dream’s First Two Weeks
2 • 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
forward-thinking entrepreneurs.
EDITOR / Jennifer Liew
ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson
GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER /
Alastair Noble
CONTENT ENQUIRIES /
Phone Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or
email jennifer@nzentrepreneur.co.nz
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES /
Phone Kristin Harper on 021 905 830
or email kristinh@espiremedia.com
WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz
ISSN 2253-5683
distributed without the use of paper so it’s
environmentally friendly.
Please think before you print. Thank you!
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EDITORIAL
THERE’S A REAL variety of
good stuff to wrap up 2015
in this issue. At this stage of
the year we’re all well and
truly ready to celebrate the
holiday season and put our
feet up for a bit. If there’s
one message I’d like to share
before the year is out, it would
be to make sure you make the
most of some real R&R, make
it your number one priority.
4 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Pretty hard to start off the
New Year with a bang when
you’re exhausted and haven’t
✉
recovered from the last.
A big thanks to all our
wonderful contributors and
followers for your support
in 2015. Have a wonderful
Christmas everyone and enjoy
the holiday season!
Jennifer Liew
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5030

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 5
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

START AS YOU
MEAN TO GO ON...
Having the right mindset and building a solid
foundation is critical for your business to grow.
Jo Hutchison from Great Spirit shares her
insights with us as well as a great example of
entrepreneurs walking the talk.

6 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
REGARDLESS OF WHAT
your big dream is, there is
one thing that you will need
to do and do well to achieve
it. Engage people. No dream
is achieved on our own –
there are always others that
we need in order to realise
it - be it staff, investors,
customers, people with
specialist knowledge or our
very own family and friends.
There are different stages of
growth that our businesses
undergo. In the beginning,
we have an idea, a purpose
or passion that inspires us to
take action. We may begin
on our own as a solopreneur
or we may find others who
join us in our quest, who are
in alignment with our shared
purpose or ideal.
In those early days, we often
end up doing everything
ourselves as we usually don’t
have all the resources we
need so the spare room, the
garage and attic are often our
humble beginnings. As we
grow, we discover growing
pains and new challenges.
Trying to do everything
ourselves becomes much
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 7
 harder and more stressful.
It’s about here that things
can get unstuck. We need
different foundations
in place to support the
business growth, and we are
sometimes made painfully
aware of our shortcomings be
it the way we think, lead or
engage others.
I believe the most important
thing is to have a growth
mindset that contains
8 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
a healthy dose of self-
awareness, resilience and
being open to the change
that growth brings.
EcoZip is one
entrepreneurial story that
is inspiring and a great
example of these qualities
in action. They started by
building a solid foundation
that has then allowed them
to learn, grow and evolve
quickly into a premier zip-
lining experience and
visitor destination on
Waiheke Island. They first
opened their doors just
three years ago, and now
over 32,000 people have
zip-lined through their
spectacular landscape. An
incredible achievement!
I was lucky enough to meet
their Managing Director
Gavin Oliver at a tourism
forum a year ago and have
since been intrigued not only
by their rapid growth but also
their approach.
Started by three friends,
they have played to their
strengths and built a highly
skilled team that lives and
breathes the passion and
vision of the founders. They
are a tight-knit team where
diversity is embraced.
Their relationships are
founded on a deep binding
trust in each other, openness
to giving and receiving
feedback and a commitment
to continuous improvement.
No stone is left unturned,
and they continue to go from
strength to strength.
They embody and embrace
the entrepreneurial mindset
of growth through self-
awareness, resilience
and evolution.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 9
 Here are my top three tips:

1
Start as you mean to go on
Put the right foundations in place as
early on as you can. It will save you
time in the long run so things like
getting the right people on board,
being clear about your values, the
way you operate your business and
standardising processes around key
customer touch-points.

2
Know thyself
Your strengths and weaknesses.
Not everyone is cut out for
everything so build a team that
complements your strengths. Get
help from a coach or mentor to
help you as a leader and grow your
people as you grow your business.

3
Be relentless in trying
new things out
Listen to your customers but also
learn from other industries or
companies that you admire. Your
business is as unique as you are and
there is no one way. ■
Jo Hutchinson is passionate about
helping people ‘flourish’ as leaders in
their life, work and business. To flourish
is to grow, evolve and prosper and she
provides Coaching,
Mentoring and Facilitation services to
entrepreneurs and small businesses.
See more at www.greatspirit.co.nz

10 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
 GOT A PRODUCT,
HE POWER OF FACEBOOK

SERVICE OR BUSINESS
WORTH T TALKING ABOUT?
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by creating and curating relevant and valuable content
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Check out our blog for content marketing advice, tips and ideas, plus a
free copy of our content marketing guide The Content Creation Cookbook!
INTERVIEW

The

ART
FLOW
of

10
QUESTIONS
with
Richard Liew
To round off the year, we spoke to Richard Liew, founder of NZ Entrepreneur and
NZ Sales Manager magazines and founder and CEO of digital media company
Espire Media. Espire Media is a specialist digital publishing and content
marketing company that serves businesses in New Zealand and overseas.
You’ve started four businesses always appealed the most.
over the last 15 years. Can you But it was actually out of
tell us a bit about how your desperation that my first
entrepreneurial career started? entrepreneurial venture was
I have always wanted to started back in 2000. As
live life on my terms and they say, “Necessity is the
of all the ways to earn mother of invention!”. Long
time and money freedom, story short, I did a finance
building businesses has degree but after three years

12 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
working as an accountant,
I realised I was hating it.
I was 23 at the time and
thought that learning how
to sell would probably be
a good idea if I wanted
to be in business. For six
months I applied for every
B2B sales job I could find
and got rejected every time
because I was an accountant
with no sales experience.
One day I bought an
awesome book called
“Money, Success and You”
by John Kehoe and after
a month studying it and
examining some of my
beliefs, I realised the best
way for me to get some
sales experience was to just
build something and sell it.
So I handed in my notice
at my accounting job, built
a package of spreadsheets
for small business owners,
and my first business
Spreadsheet Solutions was
born. I cold called and sold it
to business owners and real
estate agents, and it made
enough to pay the rent for
a year. Not only did it give
me a year’s worth of sales
experience to put on my CV
but it was also my first taste
of being fully responsible
for my own income. If I
didn’t sell, I didn’t eat!
I then spent the next few years
in ICT sales and what I learnt
opened the doorway to my
second business, a specialist
sales training and recruitment
firm. We had no recruitment
or sales training experience
other than as salespeople
ourselves, but we soon had
some of New Zealand’s
biggest companies as clients.
We ran this for five years
and then the GFC hit, at
which time we took stock,
assessed the lessons we
had learnt and made
the decision to exit the
recruitment industry and
instead looked at building
a membership-based
learning and development
organisation for salespeople.
Our small team was too
under-resourced and pulled
the plug after two years. By
this time I had launched NZ
Sales Manager mag to help
inspire and nurture New
Zealand’s sales people and
that then led to creating
Espire Media, which we
have been building since.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 13

What was the reason and vision
behind starting NZ Entrepreneur?
I believe that success in any
area of life starts with self-
development. So just like I
did for the sales profession
with NZ Sales Manager,
I wanted New Zealand’s
aspiring entrepreneurs to
have some sort of publication
that they knew was there
to help inspire, encourage
and educate them on their
journey. It has become clear
to me that in order for New
Zealand to build bigger
and better businesses, we
must first build bigger and
better entrepreneurs. So I
guess NZ Entrepreneur is my
little contribution towards
helping this happen.
14 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
What’s the hardest or most
painful lesson/s you have had to
learn so far.
That’s going to be
hard because there’s
been so many!
Worst experience: Having
to sit two senior employees
down on payday and tell
them that we could not
meet payroll for the month.
I was 29 at the time, and
these ladies were mid-40’s
and mid-50’s respectively.
While it was bad debts
from a couple of big clients
that led to the problem
with cashflow, I felt like
a complete loser for not
having a plan in place for
these situations. One of the
ladies had a family, and I
got justifiably angry calls
from her husband over the
next couple of days. The
other was on her own with
no other support and was in
tears. That experience really
gave me a wake-up call.
Lesson learnt: People are
relying on you so if you
are unwilling to accept the
responsibility you need to
get out before you cause
too much damage.
What do you think it takes to be a
successful entrepreneur?
Ha! Maybe ask me in a few
more years? No, from my
personal experiences, and
what I have observed, a
business is only as good as
the entrepreneurs behind
it and there are three
fundamental personal
qualities that are essential.
1. Courage. The courage
to believe that you deserve
and can achieve the life
you dream of. The courage
to take the actions you will
need to make it happen. The
courage to stand up to the
bullies, sharks and detractors
you will meet along the way.
Why courage? Because
entrepreneurship requires
you to constantly take
actions and make decisions
that are outside of your
comfort zone, experience
or knowledge. Most of the
time you will not have all
the info you need to make
a risk-free decision, and
most people can’t handle
this. In order to expand your
reality, you need to keep
pushing through the limits
of your current reality and
for most people it is easier
to simply stay within the
comfort zone they know.
2. The ability to learn
quickly. Someone said,
“I never lose - I either
win, or I learn” and this to
me is the epitomy of the
formula for entrepreneurial
success. There are a series
of rules and principles that
must be mastered and it
is your job as an aspiring
entrepreneur to learn these
as soon as possible. So your
ability to learn from your
experiences is critical.
Whether it’s something that
worked or something that
didn’t, you need to always
be asking “What can I learn
from this?”. Entrepreneurship
is like a video game. The
quicker you learn, the
quicker you can overcome
whatever challenges are in
your way and progress to the
next level, where of course
some other problems or
challenges will pop up. Some
people refuse to learn and
get stuck at the same level.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 15
 3. Tenacity. If the basic
formula is ‘set a goal, take
action, learn, repeat until
success’, you need the
tenacity and determination
to hang in there for
as long as it takes.
It’s important to remember
that the majority of
successful entrepreneurs
have taken years, often
decades, and numerous
16 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
failures to achieve the
success they are recognised
for. The media loves ‘first-
time entrepreneur makes
it big’ stories but don’t let
them fool you into thinking
that is the way it has to be
for you. Entrepreneurship
is not just a job - it’s a way
of life, so you need to be
prepared to spend the whole
of your life working towards
success if that’s what it takes.
 “
“
I believe there is nothing that you
need to learn to be successful
in entrepreneurship that has not
been written down.
Who are some of your heroes
or inspirations?
Actually, I have heaps of
heroes, but most of them are
non-business people. When
things are tough, I try and
put things in perspective
by reflecting on their
challenges, achievements
and attitudes. Some are
Bruce Lee, Billy Corgan,
Kurt Cobain, Goldie, Richard
Branson, Roger Hamilton,
Jim Rohn, Seth Godin,
George Lucas, Peter Jackson,
Edmund Hilary, Winston
Churchill, Nelson Mandela...
Some Kiwi entrepreneurs
I am inspired by include
Rod Drury, Ray Avery, Bill
Buckley, Victoria Ransom,
Jeremy Moon, Glenn Martin.
Actually, pretty much any
Kiwi out there doing their
best to make things happen.
You’re a keen reader - what
books would you recommend for
aspiring entrepreneurs?
Yeah, I believe there is
nothing that you need to
learn to be successful in
entrepreneurship that has
not been written down.
So taking time to seek out
as much knowledge and
inspiration as you can just
makes sense. Some of
the books I recommend
every time are:
• Wink and Your Life, Your
Legacy by Roger Hamilton
• 7 Principles of Highly
Effective People by
Steven Covey
• Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
• How To Win Friends
and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
• How To Get Rich
by Felix Dennis
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 17
 With Espire Media you made a
conscious decision to build a
‘virtual’ business - how is that
working out and do you have any
advice for other entrepreneurs
looking at the same model?
Basically, we wanted to build
a lean business that allows
team members to work
from wherever they want,
without being restricted
to a traditional office
structure where everyone
has to come into an office
and look busy from 8 to
5 every day. Instead, we
have a culture built around
performance and efficiency.
As a result, we have team
members (all Kiwi’s) who
currently choose to live in
Auckland, Wellington, Bali,
Singapore, Edinburgh and
in the new year, our family
will be moving to Wanaka
to enjoy the offerings down
there for a few years.
There are certainly some
challenges but with the
cloud-based tools now
available it’s very doable,
and we serve clients
overseas just as easily
as we do for our clients
throughout New Zealand.
The biggest challenge
18 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
is communication. In an
office, a lot of information
gets shared just by osmosis
- general chit chat and
that kind of thing. With a
virtual business, you don’t
get that, so you need to
be more diligent about
communicating and ensuring
everyone has access to the
information they need.
Where do you get your ideas from?
Well, I’m not an inventor
or a technical person, so
I’ve never really just had
any great ideas. Rather I’ve
looked for problems related
to whatever sphere I’ve been
working in and looked to
create a business around it.
For example, as an
accountant, I saw how much
small business owners were
paying in accounting fees
because of unorganised
expenses. So I created a
solution to address it. Once
I got into sales I saw how
existing recruitment firms
were failing sales managers
and business owners when
helping recruit salespeople
so we created a business
to do that. Through our
“
When what you’re working
“
on doesn’t seem like
work you know you are in
your flow. You’re hugely
productive and you don’t
have to think about what
you’re doing as you’re
completely in the moment.
experience in training and
recruitment we saw that
there was a need for a
learning and development
organisation for the sales
profession so we attempted
to solve that problem.
As part of trying to help
salespeople learn more I
saw that there was a need
for a dedicated publication
so we started NZ Sales
Manager. As a result of
starting NZ Sales Manager
I created Espire Media in
order to do similar things
for other interest groups.
I have just tried to go with
the flow - one opportunity
opens the door to the
next. You just need to
have the courage to step
through the door.
People who know you know that
one of your guiding principles
is ‘flow’ - can you tell us a bit
about this?
The concept of flow
is nothing new but it
is certainly one of the
principles I have tried to
live my life by, including in
my entrepreneurial journey.
One of my heroes, Bruce
Lee, talks about ‘being
water’ - formless, shapeless -
flowing and crashing. Roger
Hamilton’s Wealth Dynamics
system for entrepreneurs is
based on being in the flow -
“If it doesn’t flow, let it go”
is one of the underpinning
concepts of the system.
Sportspeople and artists
will understand what it’s
like to be in flow - also
known as being in the
zone. Time ceases to exist
and everything seems to
flow easily and effortlessly.
In terms of personal
productivity it means playing
to your strengths. When
what you’re working on
doesn’t seem like work you
know you are in your flow.
You’re hugely productive
and you don’t have to
think about what you’re
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 19

doing as you’re completely
in the moment. Ideas for
overcoming problems or
challenges emerge without
having to stress or obsess
over them. But as soon as
you start doing work you
are not naturally suited to,
you start to get bogged
down, not sure about
how to proceed, finding
it difficult to get done.
When you’re out of your
flow you’re forced to try and
use your head to ‘figure it
out’ because your intuition
stops working. This is why it
is essential you understand
the value you bring to the
table and build a team who
can take care of the things
outside your flow so that
you can spend as much time
as possible on the sort of
work you are suited to.
In an entrepreneurial
context, aside from personal
productivity, this concept
of going with the flow and
learning to let go can be
applied on a number of
levels. For example, in sales,
if a relationship or deal you
are trying to build just seems
20 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
to be hard work, let them
go so you can find better
quality opportunities.
If there is a team member
who just doesn’t seem
to fit in, let them go.
If there is a market
opportunity, idea or product
that seems to stall every
step of the way, let it go.
Learning to let go will enable
you to spend time on better
quality people, relationships
and opportunities. The
problem is, as entrepreneurs
we are a stubborn bunch
and love a challenge, so we
hate to quit on anything. The
idea of giving up on anything
feels like we’re losing, and
so we dig our toes in even
further, throwing even more
time, effort and money at
trying to make it work.
For whatever reason,
consciously or
subconsciously, I seem to
have been attracted to past
times and activities along
these lines. Parkour and
wingchun kung fu are all
about finding flow, and I’m
really looking forward to
finding my flow on the slopes
while we’re in Wanaka.
What’s the plan for the next
few years?
Our focus for 2016 is just
to continue building on
the foundations we have in
place now and ramping up
the number of New Zealand
customers we’re serving and
the number of titles we’re
putting out. We’ve had two
planned funding rounds
fall by the wayside in the
last two years as the timing
hasn’t quite been right, but
once we’re comfortable we
have the right model and
right resource in place, we’ll
be looking to Australia,
South East Asia and the
UK as our next addressable
markets. No doubt
something will come up!
Any last advice?
Firstly, be careful who you
take advice from! When you
know nothing, everyone
sounds like an expert.
Say “No” more often.
Spreading your time,
energy and focus across
too many things will get
you nowhere fast.
Learn how to sell.
Work harder on yourself than
you do on your business.
Document every
agreement that involves
money, in writing.
Know your strengths and
play to them. Delegate
everything else to others ■
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 21
MARKETING

More Visibility,
More Business
Doesn’t Need to
Cost the Earth
You may already know that 93% of New Zealanders will research
their buying decisions online before making a purchasing
decision (that counts for business to business too).
BY Colin Kennedy

22 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
MARKETING IS ALL ABOUT
visibility. The more visibility
you have, the more business
you will do. People like to do
business with people they
know, like and trust and, in the
words of sales guru Jack Daly:
“Selling is the transfer of trust.
People do business with people
they trust, and they get to trust
the people the get to know…
and they get to know the people
they SEE more frequently”.
So even Jack agrees… be seen,
be heard – with your existing
customers and your target
market. Here’s how you do it:
I don’t have to tell you, though,
that it’s no use jumping up and
down saying, “Look at me!
Look at me!” You have to have
a reason to ‘show up’ or you’ll
end up being booed off the
stage (unsubscribed, clicked,
crumpled, switched off, deleted). attention and trust of their target
One way to increase your
visibility is to add value to
your ‘audience’ by drawing
on your experience, skills and
knowledge to share tips, advice
and stories that can help a
person or organisation make
better decisions about business
or life. It’s called content
Colin Kennedy, Head of Content from Espire Media is a thought leader in content marketing strategy
and communications in New Zealand. www.espiremedia.com
marketing, and there are three
broad components to it:
1. Positioning (how you want
to be perceived e.g. “The
experts in pest control”
(Rentokil)
2. Content creation (“How
to avoid bed bugs” – a
blog by Rentokil)
3. Syndication. In other
words, how you distribute
the information. This may
include posting it to your
blog, Twitter, Facebook,
online media, the local
newspapers, producing a
newsletter, a short video on
your website and YouTube or
writing a book.
Perhaps one of the best things
about content marketing is
that it enables businesses of all
sizes to have an equal chance
to compete for the valuable
customers. This is because good
content marketing does not
have to be expensive. It simply
requires some thought, a good
knowledge of your customers
(their ‘buyer personas’),
and some commitment to
putting out good content
on a regular basis. ■
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 23
 *
Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

Time to Take Advantage

- Entrepreneurial Spirit
in the Primary Industries
With a projected period of growth in the Primary Industries over the next decade, the
sector presents huge challenges and opportunities for the future of New Zealand
entrepreneurship. As we move away from exporting unprocessed low-value products,
and towards capturing the whole value chain onshore, the sector will demand
more highly skilled workers and more support services and products. The kiwi
entrepreneurial spirit will be needed more than ever before, to take advantage of the
huge opportunities available and contribute to New Zealand’s economic sustainability.

Human Resources – 8 wire’ creativity and skill

A challenge flexibility are incredibly
According to a Ministry for important if we are going to
Primary Industries study fuel the growth of the Primary
(Future capability needs for Industries. NZ will require
the primary industries in more ‘intrapreneurs’; people
New Zealand, April 2014), by within organisations who
2525 New Zealand will need possess the skills and mindset
to train 235,000 workers for of entrepreneurs. We’ll need
the Primary Industries. This people who can innovate new
is because of both growth (a products and processes, and
net increase of 49,900), and more marketing and sales
natural attrition of workers as capability as we expand into
the ‘baby boom’ generation different markets. We will also
retires. The demand will largely need more people who can
focus on sales and marketing, manage fluctuating teams
management and transport. of seasonal staff, and skills
Entrepreneurial ‘number around resource management.

24 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

Primary Industries Entrepreneurs–
An opportunity
Farms and horticultural units
are tipped to grow, and
require the development of
huge numbers of support
services and products. As
we push towards exporting
high-value products, the
Primary sector will be
full of opportunities for
entrepreneurs to step in
and fill niches up the value
chain. Entrepreneurs will
be central to the Primary
Industries. There will be
opportunities around the
introduction of more complex
farming technologies,
growing Asia markets,
biosecurity, sustainability,
and environmental
challenges. Kiwis have a
Flatpak product.
proud history of innovation
and entrepreneurial values.
It is these values that we all
need to foster, so the next
generation of young
New Zealanders are equipped
to take advantage of the
future opportunities.
We at Young Enterprise are
determined to respond to this
human resourcing challenge,
by helping to develop
young kiwi’s entrepreneurial
and intrapreneurial skills.
Alongside our suite of
programmes involving
entrepreneurship, we work
with Ministry for Primary
Industries and DairyNZ, to run
The EPIC Challenge – which
encourages year 10 students
to think about a Primary
Industries career.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 25
Emily Tasker - Co-founder and CEO of Flatpak

“
You have to love
what you do if you are

“
going to spend your
time and focus on it,
but if you don’t look
after yourself as well,
you find you not only
let yourself down but
also your business.
Young Entrepreneur Spotlight some sort of life balance and
voicing my own opinions
Emily Tasker is an example
rather than trying to find
of a young entrepreneur who
a solution that will please
has spotted an opportunity
everything. I’ve learnt and are
in the Primary Industries
still learning to not be afraid
sector, and run with it! Emily
to put myself first sometimes.
is the co-founder and CEO
You have to love what you
of Flatpak, and alumni of
do if you are going to spend
The Lion Foundation Young
your time and focus on it, but
Enterprise Scheme.
if you don’t look after yourself
Flatpak is a successful start- as well, you find you not only
up, with a focus on storage let yourself down but also
and transport for the Primary your business.”
Industries sector. The Flatpak
On advice for other young
Quady, their current product,
entrepreneurs: “Always
is a flexible storage bag built
follow your heart and never
to transport things safely on
be afraid to take a different
quad bikes and diminish the
or new path. We each have
risk of quad bike accidents
the ability to create/take on
on farms. Flatpak has been in
our own direction in life, and
distribution talks with a major
it is so much more fun when
agricultural supplier and have
you are doing something you
plans to expand into a line of
love. You don’t have to plan
transport storage products
out every step along the way.
over the next five years.
Enjoy the ride, set yourself
some audacious goals
On her biggest challenge: and don’t feel afraid to try
“There has definitely been something new. It’s when you
a lot of challenges on the step outside of the ordinary
way, but I think the hardest that you are truly able to
ones have been trying to find discover the extraordinary.”■

Check out www.flatpaknz.com to see what Emily and Flatpak are up to.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 27
SALES
3 SALES FOLLOW UP
STRATEGIES TO REPLACE
‘TOUCHING BASE’
WHEN YOU LEAVE messages
like ‘i’m just touching base’, or
use phrases like ‘checking in’,
your prospect deletes them in
a nanosecond. Worse yet, they
see you as just another pesky
salesperson. Clearly, that’s
not good! Here’s the deal. To
keep sales momentum alive,
you need to provide value on
every interaction – even a quick
follow-up call. That means you
need to rethink all your call-
back strategies.
28 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Here are three approaches that
have worked for me:
1 Re-emphasise the
business value
Your prospects will only change
because of the impact you can
have on their organisation.
Reiterate it. Remind them of
how you can help. You might
say: “Pat, in our previous
conversation you mentioned
how important it was to get
going on this soon so you
could realise the savings
(eliminate redundancies, drive
incremental growth) that you
need by year end. Let’s set up
time to talk so we can get you
moving forward”.
“
Sometimes your prospects 3
are still asking themselves:
“Does it make sense to
move forward or not?”
From the outside, you
won’t know. But you can
“ Continue To Educate
Sometimes your prospects
are still asking themselves:
“Does it make sense to move
forward or not?” From the
outside, you won’t know. But
you can keep giving them

keep giving them more

more reasons to change!

reasons to change!
You might say: “Pat, I know
it’s a big decision to change
from the status quo. That’s
why I thought you might be

2
interested in this article (ROI
Share ideas calculator, case study, webinar,
and insights eBook) on (relevant topic). Let’s
Your prospects want to set up a time to talk through
work with someone who’s your questions.”
constantly thinking about See the difference? You’re still
how they can improve their providing value. Even though
business. Be that person. they said, they were interested.
You might say: “Pat, I’ve Even though they told you to
been thinking more about check back next week. Even
how we can help you though they told you it was a
increase sales (reduce costs, ‘slam dunk’ and they just needed
speed up productivity). to get the paperwork done.
I thought you might be Drop the ‘touching base’ and
interested in what we did with ‘checking in’ mentality from
XYZ organisation when they your vocabulary entirely. When
were dealing with the same making follow-up calls, become
challenge. Do you an asset in their decision
have a few minutes for a process. That’s when they’ll
quick conversation?” want to work with you! ■

Sharing her fresh sales strategies, Jill Konrath helps salespeople to speed up new
customer acquisition and win bigger contracts.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 29
PERSONAL TRAINER

Entrepreneurial
Intelligence with
SandyGeyer

I’m not sure if it’s just me that feels this way but why is
it that most employees are so lazy and don’t use their
common sense? What’s the point in hiring people when
I just end up having to do their jobs for them? How do
other employers do it? What am I missing here?
What you are missing is that Check references carefully
leadership is everything in this and make sure all periods
area, and you are at the root of work are covered with
of your problem. There is no references available. If they
doubt that it’s difficult to find are late for the interview,
committed people, and the misspell words in their CV,
work ethic, in general, seems dress inappropriately or don’t
to be getting worse, but we communicate well - stay away
have to be responsible for who from them. How they present
we take on. Here are some tips themselves on their ‘best
to employing the right people: behavior (in an interview) is a
Always hire the traits that very strong indication of what
are the hardest to teach you might land up with and if
ie. accountability, honesty you have a negative instinct,
and focus. The candidates listen to it, even if they have
need to prove these from the most impressive skills
previous work experience base. A very experienced
and their professional entrepreneur once told me
development journey so far. that if we take the time to

30 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
employ properly, management Don’t get too attached to
is easy, but it also works the your employees. Being the
other way round - and he was business owner can be lonely,
dead right. and it’s tempting to befriend
Use employment tools such our employees; but at some
as personality profiles and point, someone has to be the
proficiency testing. This gives boss and offer guidance, and
you important insights into maintaining a professional
their strengths and motivations distance equips us far better
and a good idea of what they to deal with employee-related
can actually do. Also, these issues appropriately as they
insights assist you to manage come up.
them effectively and motivate Don’t take non-performance
them appropriately. personally. In most cases non-
Base their wages on performance is due to lack
performance and not hours. of understanding, difference
If you pay them to show up, of focus or unconscious
it’s likely, that’s all they will do. incompetence. Try to get a
Remunerating for performance good understanding of why
creates a win-win situation the person is not performing
from the start, and they are and deal with it constructively
automatically incentivised to through better communication
want to do well. and skill training, or start
Unless your company requires termination proceedings if all
access to facebook, twitter, else fails. Losing productivity
etc. during working hours, and employees is distressing,
block these applications as but it’s all part of being a
they cause major loss of focus business owner and it’s seldom
and productivity. a personal issue.■

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 jennifer@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

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 31
Investment Corner

Market
Matters Most
Sizing Up Your Market
BY Nathan Rose

MARC ANDREESEN, Andreesen begins by making

VENTURE CAPITALIST, co-
founder of Netscape and
board member of Facebook,
eBay and Hewlett-Packard
wrote a seminal post in 2007
on the importance of operating
in a healthy market to a
venture’s success.
the case that businesses can
be boiled down to three core
elements: team, product and
market. He then goes on to
convincingly argue that market
is the most important element
of the three – that a baseline
competent team with an

32 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
“ “
Despite the importance of quantifying
their target market size, companies
often shy away from doing so.
This reluctance can be due to either
a lack of understanding of the
importance of sizing the market or due
to difficulties in obtaining reliable data.

acceptable product can still helpful to your case if you

be successful in a booming
market while the reverse is
rarely true.“In a great market…
the product doesn’t need to
be great; it just has to basically
work. And, the market doesn’t
care how good the team
is, as long as the team can
produce that viable product…
Conversely, in a terrible market,
you can have the best product
in the world and a killer team,
and it doesn’t matter – you’re
going to fail.”
Whether they have read
Andreesen’s 2007 post or
not, investors intuitively
understand the importance of
exposure to large and growing
markets, so it will be extremely
can show that your venture
is operating in such a space.
Of course, it is not enough
for an entrepreneur seeking
funding to simply assert that
a market is large and growing
– investors will invariably want
it quantified: ‘how large’ and
‘how fast-growing’, based on
reliable third-party sources.
Despite the importance of
quantifying their target market
size, companies often shy away
from doing so.
This reluctance can be due to
either a lack of understanding
of the importance of sizing the
market or due to difficulties
in obtaining reliable data.

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 33
 2 Government departments:
Hopefully, the first part of
this article has convinced you
of the importance of sizing
the market. Next, I want to
show you some good places
to begin your search for
third-party sources you can
credibly reference.
1 Industry bodies: There
is a very good chance
an industry body is out there
that represents the interests
of whatever your business
does or whichever group it is
selling to. Sometimes you can
download reports on the size
and growth of a market directly
from their website. Other
times, you can get in touch
with the industry body to see
what figures they may have to
hand – and at the very least
they should be able to point
you in the right direction.
34 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Governments routinely
commission reports to
inform public policy. They are
particularly happy hunting
grounds for information
around such things as tourism,
construction, housing,
energy, and transportation.
Statistics departments also
gather amazingly detailed
information on demographics,
trade and consumption, and
these can often be accessed
by the public either online
or with the assistance of
a statistics department
employee whose specific job
is to assist with queries such
as yours, free of charge.
Research reports: Privately-
3
commissioned research
commentary is produced
daily on every aspect of the
economy. PwC is particularly
prolific, and their reports tend
to be easily available and
downloadable. Sometimes it is
possible to get industry think-
pieces from brokerage houses,
such as Goldman Sachs and
Credit Suisse. Special research
organisations such as Forrester
and Gartner also produce highly
credible data on just about
every market, albeit for a price.
 “ “
Having market size
4 data to hand shows
that you have done
Presentations from publicly
listed companies: Companies
your homework and
listed on the stock exchange that you are on top of
regularly produce publicly- the trends shaping
available reports and
the space that your
venture is operating in..
investor presentations rich
with data designed to fulfill
their continuous disclosure
obligations. Access these
reports online, flick through a
few and you could be amazed
at what you find. Including a market size
figures in your presentation
pre-empts the questions that

5
Media surveys: Very potential investors are going
useful for making to ask anyway if you don’t
statements such as “73% include them. Having market
of consumers surveyed size data to hand shows
say they are prepared to pay that you have done your
more for environmentally homework and that you are
sustainable paper” or “82% on top of the trends shaping
of businesses with revenue the space that your venture is
of over $1 million agree or operating in. Though the data
strongly agree that they may not always be easy to
expect to increase their social come by, investing the time
media spending in the next 12 to find something reliable is
months”. If someone else has absolutely worthwhile when
done work that supports your developing a business plan
investment case, go ahead or writing a presentation
and take advantage of it! to seek funding. ■

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

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 35
Ecosystem

ThreeHighlights
FromLivetheDream’s
FirstTwoWeeks
We love the work Inspiring Stories are doing for a better, brighter future for New Zealand.
Check out just some of the good work they’re doing with their Live the Dream project.
BY Guy Ryan

AUCKLAND PARTICIPANTS They also got matched

not only saw social enterprise
in action at Eat My Lunch,
they also pitched in to help
make 2,000 lunches for hungry
school kids.
with awesome mentors -
including a number from
our sponsors, Kiwibank and
KPMG - through a spot of
speed-dating.

36 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Christchurch news station CTV Christchurch this summer.
came into the classroom to You can watch the resulting
talk to participants about Live story at 7:51.
the Dream, which is new to

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 37
 Wellington participants got shipping container espresso
caffeinated and got advice bars provide first jobs for
from local social entrepreneur young baristas. ■
Scottie Reeve, whose two

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

38 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
PARTING SHOT

May what I do
flow from me
like a river, no
forcing and no
holding back,
the way it is
with children.
-Rainer Maria Rilke

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 39