Early entrepreneurs
Striking out when you’re young
Young people are taking on the world, starting up their own companies and learning lessons along the way.
There were 5097 people under 30 who identified themselves as employers, according to 2013 census data. And of those, 228 were between 15 and 19 years old, and a further 993 people were aged between 20 and 24.
Those in the 25 to 29-year-old bracket accounted for the highest number of employers at 3876.
But to 27-year-old Nikki Kennedy, the business world is an unfamiliar place as Kennedy has always been more of a creative type.
She is completing a Bachelor of Media and Creative Technologies, majoring in te reo Maori and design media.
But that hasn’t stopped her starting a business called Taputapu, specialising in designing te reo Maori homeware.
Aware of the absence of te reo Maori in modern homes, she decided to do something about it.
She saw it as a way to help revitalise the language.
‘‘It’s a way to create that Maori environment at home. Having stuff around the house, you’re learning every day without even realising.’’
Kennedy doesn’t have a background in business and used Waikato University’s new Summer Start-Up Programme (SSUP) to help navigate the business world.
The SSUP programme ran over 10 weeks and offered a $5000 scholarship, one-on-one mentoring, workshops and tools needed to start up a company or project.
The scholarships have also helped her get the business off the ground.
She has been selling her products directly through her website, www.taputapu.co.nz, but would like to eventually have them stocked in stores throughout the country.
Finding an economical manufacturer in New Zealand has been a challenge, she said.
Her advice: ‘‘What we learnt here was, it’s okay if you fail, just try it a different way.’’
‘What we learnt here was, it’s okay if you fail, just try it a different way.’ Nikki Kennedy ‘I think once you know a bit more about the industry you have a bit more of an idea about the limitations, but when you’re young and ignorant you just have a vision and you charge towards it.’ Jordan Abrahams
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Jordan Abrahams and Francesca Logan weren’t going to let inexperience hold them back.
The women, both 23, created luggage company Elephant Stripes, after seeing a gap in the market for functional and aesthetically pleasing travel bags.
‘‘The biggest thing was finding a female travel pack. It was just a boy’s pack that they had made a bit smaller and added some pink,’’ Abrahams said.
‘‘We were just really disappointed with the range. It was either pretty or functional. We were like, surely somebody can put these two together? In the end we decided that person was us.’’
Neither woman has a background in business.
Logan has a law degree and Abrahams studied science.
The pair met in Wellington in 2011, where they shared a dorm room at Victoria University’s Weir House hostel.
The idea for the business came while they were planning a trip to Southeast Asia and they realised they were going to have to fork out a chunk of cash for travel bags that they didn’t like.
Abrahams said their ignorance has helped them.
‘‘I think once you know a bit more about the industry you have a bit more of an idea about the limitations, but when you’re young and ignorant you just have a vision and you charge towards it.
‘‘You have absolutely no idea about how impossible what you’re trying to do is. The amount of times we’ve been told, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ ’’
They were oblivious to minimum order quantity requirements when they went to order their custom fabric. During a trip to a trade fair in China, the pair were laughed out of stalls.
‘‘We wanted a large range of really exciting custom-designed fabrics. However, there are minimum amounts, such as 1000 yards for each colour, and you had to pay to have the mould for your pattern . . . we just didn’t have the sort of money to invest.
‘‘We would go in and say we’d like to have 10 please, just 10 items. We had stall holders cracking up at us. It was pretty nerve racking and hard to keep morale up.’’
They stuck it out and found a company that printed in squares instead of rolls.
Financing a start-up has been another challenge. But the skinny budget has meant they are more careful with how they spend their money.
A small bank loan has helped them get the business off the ground.
They have also relied on preorders to reduce costs.
A crowd-funding Kickstarter campaign, aimed at raising $15,000 should help to complete the first full manufacturing order.
‘‘It has been difficult with no design experience and no business experience but we have learnt so much and worked so hard that we have managed to make this dream of ours a reality.’’
Abrahams’ advice: ‘‘The amount of times people have told us something is impossible or you can’t do that and we just ignore it and carry on, you’ve got to be a little bit crazy.’’
‘I would say start small and start fast. What I did, and I know it’s a mistake, is that I took a long time to release my first product range. I wanted to create something as good as I can.’ Gregory O’Connor
FAILURE IS IMPORTANT
Palmerston North-based Gregory O’Connor, 29, created active wear company Morfa about a year ago.
His idea behind the product was to offer customers a clean and understated high-end product. The clothing is made in Shanghai. O’Connor has focused on selling wholesale to yoga studios and gyms around New Zealand, as well as direct sales through a website.
He has funded the start-up by borrowing some money and using personal savings.
With a business degree from Massey University, O’Connor was not new to the game. But it has not been an easy ride.
Building brand awareness has been one of the biggest struggles, he said.
His advice: ‘‘I would say start small and start fast. What I did, and I know it’s a mistake, is that I took a long time to release my first product range. I wanted to create something as good as I can.’’
It was better to ‘‘put out a product out quickly so you can start learning really quickly, start failing really quickly, and then pivot and change,’’ he said.