Courses to teach DIY enterprise
A British pop-up business school that teaches budding entrepreneurs to forget about their business plan is heading to Wellington.
The PopUp Business School, the brainchild of Simon Paine and Alan Donegan, is a free 10-day course showing how to build an enterprise without the need for a business degree.
Wellington business consultant Tony Henderson-Newport approached Paine and Donegan about a year ago, as he wanted to provide New Zealanders with a ‘‘chance to have a real crack at starting their own business’’.
The school has been running in the UK for about six years. Last year, it helped get nearly 290 new ventures off the ground.
Henderson-Newport came across many success stories when he visited the UK four months ago, prompting him to bring the school to New Zealand.
He began approaching local authorities, economic development agencies and government departments to secure funding. Each course costs about $25,000 to run.
The first one in New Zealand will be held in Porirua in October. Anyone can register, but numbers are limited. There are to 70 spaces in the Porirua course for those who live or work in the area. Registrations open from September 1.
Further events are planned for Upper Hutt and Whanganui.
The course will be run by Henderson-Newport and one other, who will be sharing the school founders’ messages.
Henderson-Newport has a background in coaching and mentoring. He has also worked in the IT sector in New Zealand and overseas, and is an experienced manager. He also works with Victoria University’s young entrepreneurs.
The main message of the business school was ‘‘don’t take out a loan, and don’t write up a business plan’’.
‘‘It’s not about writing a business plan, because the business plan can always come later. What you are looking to do is get the product out in the market, and test the market.
‘‘And it’s not about taking out a business loan, because if it’s not going to work, the last thing you want to do is incur debt,’’ he said.
‘‘You never know if your idea is going to be successful, or not, right? So you just do the best you can.’’
Cost was a barrier for many people.
‘‘A lot of people think it costs a lot of money to get in to business, but actually, you can get into business for free. There is a lot of stuff you can do and negotiate.
‘‘Ten years ago, you couldn’t build a website for free, but today you can, and there are ways of using social media to enhance the opportunity to sell products that you couldn’t do five years ago, but now you can.’’