How Entrepreneur's grew their business with some tips direct from them

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Written by Adele Barlow
Photography by Michael Farr
Design by Catherine Chi &
Pamela Minett
Thanks to the contributors for
donating their time:
Xero, Minimonos, Jamorama,
Running with scissors, Mr Vintage,
Instinct, IVHQ, Lucy Lou, Epic
Beer, Missing LInk, Asil Group
Limited, Annah Stretton, Hell
Pizza, Cookie Time
Published by

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CapabilityNZ
A not-for-profit entity supported
by NZTE and leading national
organizations
“CapabilityNZ helps build capability
by coordinating and leveraging the
best of what the private and public
sectors can contribute.”
Incorporated since: 2008
No of Staff: 3 full time,
3 part-time staff
Locations: Wellington
Funded by: - Peter Drucker
Company facts

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Introduction
mean increased profit, efficiency, and
opportunities. Essentially, this book
exists to lead you to an online tool we
built to grow New Zealand business:
www.businessassessment.co.nz.
Enjoy,
Capability NZ
There are certain stages to running a
truly effective business. First, decide
what you want your business to create
for you. Then plan the business to
meet your needs. Remember that
small is good, if it meets your end.
Work on your business, not in it. And
when you’ve created something that
works, make it exceptional.
Growth does not have to mean chain
stores or global expansion: it can
We don’t pretend to know how you should
grow your business. Instead, we wrote
a book to introduce you to fifteen local
business heroes.
From different industries, and all at
different parts of their journey, they
share their stories on one key message:
no one succeeds alone.

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1. Gather kiwi business stories
2. Mix with management theory
Our agenda
3. Create a book
4. Get the book to you

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5.You get inspired to visit
www.businessassessment.co.nz
(By the way, no one in this
book was paid for their story
- including Esteban, who you
will meet on the next page)

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From someone who’s tried
The assessment tool
When I established my company, I
wanted a tool that would help us keep
track of what we were doing. We also
wanted something simple. At the
time, we were looking for something
that would organise our thinking. I
remembered a conversation with NZTE
staff about the Business Assessment
Tool. So I went online to find it, and
registered, to see what it was all about.
When filling in the information about my
company, I found that several questions
would not apply to small companies
or start-ups. This was a bit frustrating
because I was thinking: “What is the
use of the form for us?” However,
I found out that I could add advisors
(internal and external) to my company
profile and this became key.
We operate in a virtual environment, with
people located both locally an abroad.
The BAT was very useful in putting our
thinking and discussions in the same
place - avoiding repeated documents,
spreadsheets, and teleconferences.
BAT became a good tool for us during
this start-up phase. The tool gave us
most of the features we were looking
for (bar the external benchmarking) and
we could use it in our “own” way too.
We decided to fill out the questionnaire
once every 18 months to measure our
progress. This told us where to focus,
during different stages. At the same
time, we could get access to external
advisors - and insight - on how to build
up capability when required.
At the time, I thought: “How can I talk
to someone about my business when
I don’t even know the person? I might
be better off talking to my friends!”
This is overcome when you start to
get more involved in the process
behind the tool. The tool gives
you a starting point for talking to
advisors. Again, I found the tool great
for putting people on the same page
when talking about the business.
I would recommend that other
businesses use the tool. I have
done so already. I believe that there
is always a balance between the
intended purpose of the tool and
how different businesses use it - like
how we used it in the “international
coordination” arena.

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The tool gave us most of the things
we were looking for:
Easy and quick snapshot of our•
company profile
Triggered thinking on how to•
build our business capability
An “internal” benchmarking•
tool that could be used over
time
Access to external people that•
would give us good insight
I would strongly suggest getting
to know who is behind the BAT.
This takes away the feeling of it
being just “another online form.” If
business people don’t do this, they
would not get the most of the tool.

Q:
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“Maybe I’m just not ambitious
enough. But I don’t really want
to build a huge company.Is there
something wrong with that?”

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Greatness doesn’t
depend on size.

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the word we’re all
talking about
capability
1, ability
2, a characteristic that may be developed potential aptitude

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What your business does
[What exists right now]
business Process

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What your business can do
[What allows it to exist]
business Capability

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You can spend all day, all week, all year
on the business in survival mode
But growth happens when
you work on this
Business capability
Business process

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Business capability = working on your business
Your staff’s actions, opening the store, greeting the
customer, explaining the product, making the sale,
putting through the transaction, greeting the next
customer, purchasing new equipment, meeting a
supplier, talking to staff, closing the store
store location, customer mapping, determining
the price points for products, sales strategy,
marketing strategy, sending staff to a training
program, attending a training program, meeting
with business advisors
Business process = working in your business
EXPENDITURE OF TIME AND ENERGY INVESTMENT OF TIME AND ENERGY

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Every now and then in business we
get a big pay day (like when selling a
business). What I am really getting paid
for is the days and days I rock up and
perfect my craft.
I am a long distance swimmer. If I don’t
train, I can’t do the race. But training
is not just about stamina, it’s about
perfecting the technique so it becomes
effortless. I see being in business the
same way. The only way I get the pay
day is perfecting my technique, working
on the team, making sure we have the
stamina required, and hitting those big
pay days every few years.
- Melissa Clark Reynolds, Minimonos
“I get up between 4 to 5am every day and
work on my business until 9am. That’s
when I work on how we move forward. I
can’t come into the office and work on it;
as the minute I step in, it’s reactionary,
there’s so much to be done, people are
continuously asking for my attention.
That development or growth time is
crucial, so that I can take business to
next level. That’s when I set up my day
so I know I won’t get sidetracked.”
– Annah Stretton Clothing company
Increasing your business capability
Increasing what your business can do
- Peter Drucker

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- Charles Bruxton
How do you increase business growth?

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begin with the end in mind
(Stephen Covey)

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Most business failures begin in
the f irst creation, with problems such as
undercapitalization, misunderstanding of
the market, or lack of a business plan.

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To build a business
you clearly define what you’re trying to accomplish.
You carefully think through the product or service you
want to provide in terms of your market target, then
you organize all the elements to meet that objective.
you use a recipe you create a blueprint
To bake a cake To build a house

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After Trademe, the bar was set. You
know, they did a $750 million deal. So we
always wanted to do a $1 billion dollar
business. Hamish and I talked about
it for a while. We built a good, capable
team around us – great programmers,
developers, and designers that we
specifically targeted, and a great
operational team – Alistair Grigg, who
was the CEO of Air New Zealand, came in
to run tech and operations. We got good
advice from the people on our Board.
We specifically designed it so that we
had the resources to put an operations
team in there – with Alistair on board, I
could focus on being the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are not good managers.
They tend to frustrate the hell out of
people – always chasing the next deal;
waving your arm around; doing strategy.
The entrepreneur’s got the big picture;
but it always works better if you’ve got a
complementary team.
It’s hard, hard work, but what we’re doing,
is absolutely working. The last year was
biggest growth – we tripled our customer
base from 6,000 to 17,000 customers.
There’s operational back-office stuff
you have to do for that too. We buiilt the
foundations that would allow for scaleable
Xero - Rod Drury
Xero
Online accounting software for
Mac, iPhone and Windows that
gives companies and advisors
easy access to the business bank
transactions, invoices, reports.
Trading since: 2007
Staff: 40 full-time
Locations: Auckland, Wellington,
Christchurch, London, Melbourne
Sector/industry:
Technology, Finance
Customer market:
Small to medium enterprises
Website: www.xero.com
Company facts

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growth, and hopefully we will crack that
over the next year, having done the really
hard part.
Software as a Service is all about getting
your early adopters on board, and
maximizing the network effect – we were
always building for tens of thousands of
customers.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve
gotten was from the Aftermail days,
when someone said to me, “You’ll be
surprised at how long it takes your
competitors to react.” And I have been
seeing that trend – it’s harder for bigger,
more complex businesses to do stuff –
whereas small, nimble businesses can
get stuff done yet.
If you look at GDP and break it up, 38%
of our country’s GDP is from small
business. So when I think about raising
productivity across that sector – a crucial
step is moving data to the cloud, so
an advisor can work on the business
alongside you.
The barrier to advice before tools like
Xero was the price, and getting the data
was a delayed process. Now you can
have a shared business plan, where
everyone can easily see the numbers.
And so the cost of advice is much
less now - the Internet is allowing
collaboration to happen in a way that
wasn’t possible before.
I think people like talking about their
businesses – they’re immersed in
it, and so it actually makes for an
interesting conversation; and people
always seem to be asking for help.
It really helps any business to
have a trained outsider looking at
your numbers and opportunities,

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who can say to you, “Stop doing this
activity, it’s not making money - do
this instead.”
My advice? Get your shareholder’s
agreement right at the beginning.
Raise enough capital to be successful.
You learn so many lessons from prior
experience – how to build a profile, how
to network…. hopefully you make less
mistakes the next time. With Xero, we
knew what we were doing because of
the similar experiences we’d had before.
What we didn’t know how to do, we got
help with, from lawyers and merchant
banking teams.
If you like people, and you’re interested
in them, and you like connecting,
networking is really easy. You’re always
looking at paying it forward. You might
come across someone, and think of
someone else, then flick an email intro
saying, “You guys should talk.” And you
get that back.
So networking is about thinking
about things from another person’s
perspective, and wondering how
you can help them out. Making
connections that add value between
people, are a great way to build your
network, because you then become
valuable to people.
I think when it comes to outside advice,
you’re always listening, but essentially
you’re just testing that advice against
your own existing assumptions.
Once you’re more experienced as an
entrepreneur, you gain more confidence
in your judgment, but you still want
to test that perspective out against
someone else’s becuase you always
know that you might be wrong.
Over time I think you do get this deep
belief that you can spot an opportunity,
but a business opportunity isn’t
just about building something, it’s
also about selling it. You learn to ask
yourself how money will come from it
– how will I take investors from here,
to there.
You’ve got to be able to recognize
whether a certain opportunity has
business potential. If it doesn’t, you’ve
got to know when to acknowledge that
and just walk away.

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then 7-year-old daughter is a digital native
(has no life experience pre-internet). I
was increasingly horrified at the offerings
available for children on line – plus I felt an
urgency to work on Climate issues.
After I knew that I wanted to create
somewhere for children that expressed
great values, encouraged children to take
care of each other and this wonderful
planet, and didn’t sell them any plastic
rubbish, I spent a year talking to everyone
I could about the idea.
A Partner at PWC met me often to ask
hard questions, until I could explain the
idea to people who knew nothing about
the industry. I took the idea to a number of
Angel investors to ask advice (not money at
MiniMonos - Melissa Clark-Reynolds
I first started thinking about this in late
2006 and early 2007. A few thoughts
came together in my mind: firstly, my
this point), and got about a year’s feedback
on the business plan before I really got a
team together to get going.
My business partners have co-created
with me and have been an instrumental
part of the process, plus one of the
Angels I mentioned earlier is now our
Chairman and has personally invested.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers continue to help
with tax planning and budget modeling.
I went to MIT in Boston in 2007 and
did a short course in Technology
Entrepreneurship. Professor Ken Morse
there was my mentor for the first couple
of years, and gave me the huge gift of
knowing that I can both dream, and make
those dreams into reality.
Minimonos
MiniMonos is a virtual world for
children based on sustainability and
generosity, with over 8000 users.
Trading since: 2007
Staff: 2 full-time
Locations: Auckand
Sector/industry: Technology
Website: www.minimonos.com
Company facts

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Years ago I did a series of courses with
Robert Kiyosaki. He remained as one
of my mentors for five years and has
shaped my approach in business.
He told me, “What other people think
of you is none of your business.” I
obviously still want people to like me, but
I don’t need anyone’s permission to get
out there and fulfill my life’s work.
Another one is: “Professionals get paid
to Practice.” Every now and then in
business we get a big pay day (e.g. when
selling a business). What I am really
getting paid for is the days and days I
rock up and perfect my craft.
Going to conferences has been hugely
valuable. XMediaLab in 2008 and 2009
allowed me to workshop the project with
a series of international mentors. Two of
those mentors are now on our advisory
board. Another has been helping us with
raising capital out of Singapore.
I also went to the Games, Animation,
and Special Effects conference AnimfX
and sucked every bit of advice I could
from gurus about story writing,
technology, team development, and
purpose. John Stephenson (Director
of Kung Fu Panda) has been a huge
influence.Tim Johnson (Director of
Over the Hedge) was also inspiring and
I am still using notes from his 2007
presentation on the power of story.

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Jamorama - Jon Coursey
My recipe for success: Pay attention.
Make a plan. Be disciplined. Never
give up.
The idea actually arose in a guitar
lesson. David McKinnon was teaching
Mark Ling to play guitar when it
occurred to them that there could be
demand for guitar lessons online. A
few searches on relevant key terms
and search volume revealed a large
market gap.
Initially we read a lot - especially
internet marketing resources.
Eventually, we needed some sound
business coaching and we got our first
mentor (a local business coach) who
Jamorama
Online music education
software.
Trading since: 2008
Staff: 5 full-time
Locations: Wellington
Customer market:
Individuals wanting to how to
play instruments online using
free lessons, step by step
instructions, tutorials, jam
tracks and famous songs.
Website: www.jamorama.com
Company facts

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helped us structure our organization
and put a strategy in place.
Later we attended X-Media Lab - that
was a real eye opener for us. Until then
we had happily been doing our thing
without really realizing what other Kiwi
creative teams were doing. The advice
we received from lab mentors was very
valuable and we’ve grown as business
people as a result of it.
There have been a few major things you
could say have been pivotal in growing
the business:
Gaining a real understanding of our•
customers’ needs
The business partners learning to•
work together in a complementary way
Getting the right people in the right•
places in the organization
Putting IT infrastructure in place•
for growth.
I read a lot. There have been a number
of authors who have inspired and shaped
my approach to business management.
People like Jim Collins, Tom Peters,
Peter Drucker, Seth Godin.
I maintain good contact with business
people I’ve met and many have helped
with advice at one time or another.

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Running with scissors - Friday O’Flaherty & Andy Mitchell
We met in a fairly progressive division
of a large multinational advertising
agency. Although the business was
delivering some fairly interesting
work we both believed that there
was a better, more inclusive way of
generating ideas. The business we
were employed by didn’t share our
belief; in fact they were opposed to it
and restructured the business in an
entirely contradictory way. We had the
faith in our convictions to go out on our
own and are currently operating a new
and unique advertising model.
We have welcomed outside advice
and constantly seek it out. Our
business is based on employing
diverse minds and drawing on eclectic
experiences to deliver better answers.
We like to get advice from obvious
and obscure sources. We also like
to think for ourselves and its always
interesting deciding what advice to
take, what advice to develop and what
advice to ignore.
The hardest part is constantly looking
ahead when you’re furiously busy
Running with Scissors
Creative agency.
Trading since: 2008
Staff: 6 full-time
Locations: Auckland
Sector/industry: Advertising
Customer market:
Companies after new idea
generation using digital media.
Website:
www.runningwithscissors.co.nz
Company facts

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in the here and now. It’s easy to
get caught up in the day to day and
neglect tomorrow. But if you’re not
focusing on the future you’re not going
to get any better and you’re not doing
all you can for your business, your
staff or your clients.
Managing growth is a constant
challenge. You don’t want to grow too
fast and stretch yourself too thin, but
likewise, if you hamper growth, you’re
not benefiting from the extra energy
that growth brings.
Achieving a good work life balance is also
difficult. We haven’t got that right yet.
Building a business from scratch is hard
work. But it’s also extremely rewarding.
Life outside of work has suffered but if
we focus on the business now, when it
needs our attention the most, we believe
the benefits will outweigh the cost. And
the second anniversary of our business
approaches we feel the balance is
beginning to return.
We’ve had to make a couple of big
decisions about the future of the
business, specifically around clients
and revenue. We’ve been careful to
avoid compromising the core philosophy
of our business and we maintain that
money is only one factor to consider
when making any decision.
Our business has been shaped by family,
friends, staff, clients, accountants,
lawyers, bank managers, our business
mentor and ourselves.
We’re particularly grateful to our staff.
They share our passion and constantly

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Working on the business is essential.
It’s really important to keep looking
ahead, even when it’s busy, even if you
have to start exceptionally early or work
ridiculously late to get it done. It’s also
important to identify mistakes and fix
them quickly. Mistakes happen. Admit
them, learn from them, fix them and
move on.
Don’t be afraid of the big decisions. They
can provide additional focus and remind
you of why you’re in business. Every
adversity has an opportunity hidden in it
somewhere. Share everything with staff,
the good and the bad. They’ll appreciate
the honesty, they’ll help you make the
right decisions and they’ll make your
business exceptional.
Advice I live by: “What makes you
successful now may be the thing
that holds you back in the future.”
Another one is a famous quote by
David Ogilvy: “If each of us hires
people who are smaller than we
are, we shall become a company of
dwarfs. But if each of us hires people
who are bigger than we are, we shall
become a company of giants.”
push us to be better than we are now.
They readily share the responsibility
for the future of the business which in
turn makes us stronger.
It’s vital to set your vision and
be true to it. We’re an advertising
agency and we’re in the business
of providing great answers to our
clients. We’ve built our business on
the belief that a great idea can come
from anyone and can be anything. So
we employ diverse and formidable
minds, we draw on eclectic
experiences and we let nothing stand
in the way of improvement.

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Create a framework
(Peter Drucker)

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The health of a business begins with a high demand on
performance. Performance is not hitting the bull’s-eye with
every shot. A performance record must include mistakes.
It must include failures. It must reveal a person’s limitations
as well as his strengths. The one person to distrust is one who
never makes a mistake, never commits a blunder, never fails in
what he tries to do. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the
safe, the tried, and the trivial. The better a person is, the more
mistakes he will make - for the more new things he will try.
- Peter Drucker

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Performance is rather the
consistent ability to produce results
over prolonged periods of time
and in a variety of assignments.

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- Peter Drucker
The idea of long-range planning rests on a number of
misunderstandings. The future will not just happen if
one wishes hard enough.
The long range is largely made by short-range decisions.
Unless the long range is built into, and based on, short-range
plans and decisions, the most elaborate long-range plan will
be an exercise in futility.

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And conversely,
unless the short-range plans (the here and now)
are integrated into one unified plan of action,
they will be expedient, guess, and misdirection.

Company facts
42
At first, I had the whole attitude of, “No,
I don’t need help, I’m doing all right
by myself.” I just didn’t want someone
to tell me how to run my business. I
thought I was doing all right.
The business started in 2005. Initially I
was doing Mr. Vintage on the side of my
university studies, but eventually I pulled
out of uni and went full time, moving
into a house with a massive basement,
which I decked out with Mr. Vintage gear,
warehouse T-shirts there. It was our first
makeshift office. As time went on, we
moved into a store in Parnell.
One day, a friend’s girlfriend came into
that store. She thought it was awesome,
but could also see that it could be bigger
than it was. She happened to be working
as a PA for a business coach and advisor,
called Marti.
She set up a meeting with him, and I also
saw him speak at this seminar they put
on - I was quite impressed by the whole
set-up. He gave a CD to take away with
testimonials. Essentially, I think I just
trusted him, so I thought, “I’ll give it a go.”
So often, it comes down to a gut feeling, a
trust thing.
Plus, I’ve always been very open to giving
things a go, to trying new things, and to
keep improving and growing the business.
Mr Vintage - Rob Ewan
Mr Vintage:
NZ’s premium online t-shirt
brand, stocking Australasia’s
largest range of authentic 80s’
themed and pop culture t-shirts.
Trading since: 2005
Staff: 10 full-time
Growth: Currently at about 50%
up on same time last year
Turnover: 2m+
Location: Auckland
Sector: Retail
Website: www.mrvintage.co.nz

43
For the first time since I started the
business; there was someone there that
I could step out of the business with, that
I could talk to. There are certain things
you can’t talk to your staff about.
It was great to have someone to bounce
ideas off and empathize with me. He’d
been through his own business, which
made a huge difference.
Finding the mentor that you need
specifically to help the business,
means defining what complementary
skill-set you want.
We were already quite strong with
marketing, branding; but Marti was
really good at systemizing the business. I
had come into business with an idea, but I
didn’t actually know how to run and grow
the operations – and he was able to give
me those templated systems. The way
that I looked at any mentoring expense
was seeing it as an investment, not a
cost. I went in with a mindset of, “I’m
investing in myself. Even if I’m going to
go with a coach for a year - I’m going to
try and up-skill myself so much in that
time; and bring on skills and add to what
I’ve already got.”
“Acknowledge what you’re not good
at, read books or get people in the
business, surround yourself by people
who can help you to fix that weakness.”

Instinct
WordPress, E-commerce and
Game Creation software
Trading since: 2002
No of Staff: 5
Location: Wellington
Website: www.instinct.co.nz
Company facts
44
We’re in our seventh year of business.
We started as a small run-of-the-mill
web development company and had
some decent clients. Yet as the years
went on, more development companies
started to pop up in Wellington, and it
became harder to win decent contracts.
So we reinvented ourselves to what we
are now. We’re a company that creates
free world-class open source software
and we sell upgrades and services
around it. We’ve taken the freemium
business model and mastered it, and we
make a bloody good income from it too.
Advice is an interesting one. Anybody
can come up with a good idea or some
“sound advice”.
I think most people are too busy doing
their own thing to really stop what they
are doing to help your business. You get a
whole lot of people saying “you just need
to do XYZ “ but the problem is that you
might not be the right person to do XYZ.
My moment of divine inspiration was
not about asking for help, but realizing
that I needed to bring certain people
with certain skills into the company,
to help us grow and do the stuff that
we’re not very good at.
If your business is stuck then pay
somebody to get it un-stuck. If you
can’t afford that then borrow some
money - or give away a percentage
of your business. It’s better to do
that, than to fail massively.
Our goal this year is to bring in a CEO
that can do things for Instinct that I
could never dream of doing.
The biggest obstacle we overcame
was figuring out that we needed to
reinvent ourselves.
Instinct - Dan Milward

Company facts
46
After graduating at 22 from Otago
with a MBus and BCom, I signed onto
the Telstra Clear graduate program
but quit after a week, deciding that
working for someone else wasn’t
for me. At the time I felt I needed to
do something completely different,
to give myself time to find what I
wanted to do in life.
I didn’t have a great deal of money
but wanted to travel so decided a
volunteer holiday abroad would be
the best way to this. Unfortunately,
after extensive research of various
companies, the costs of the cheapest
company I could find were still
extremely high.
IVHQ - Dan Radcliffe
After 6 months working on my parents’
farm to get enough funds together I
went and taught in Kenya for 4 months,
travelling through Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania and Egypt. The trip was
fantastic and really opened my eyes,
however after meeting numerous
people involved in volunteer tourism
in various countries I still could not
fathom how the trips could not be done
cheaper. On returning home to New
Zealand in 2006, International Volunteer
HQ was born with the goal of becoming
the world’s largest and most affordable
volunteer travel company.
After extensive research for partner
companies and another fleeting 6
IVHQ
Safe, quality and extremely
affordable volunteering
placements in developing
countries all over the world.
Trading since: 2006
Staff: 5 staff in NZ, over 350
employees worldwide
Locations: New Plymouth
Sector/industry: Volunteer travel
Customers: IVHQ sends over 5000
individuals overseas annually
Website: www.volunteerhq.org

47
week visit to Kenya, Nepal, Vietnam
and Thailand to establish initial
partnerships and staff, International
Volunteer HQ was launched in late
July 2007. While initial progress was
slow, by December 2007 we had grown
enough to add Peru and Ecuador to
our list of programs.
Over the past 2 years we have added
Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, India,
Cambodia, Costa Rica, Colombia and
Guatemala to our countries on offer
and now send over 5000 people on
our trips abroad annually. We employ
5 staff in New Zealand and through
our local teams have over 350 staff
working for IVHQ worldwide.
I have always appreciated the importance
of trying to absorb as much advice and
knowledge from others with experience.
When travelling I have tried to network
with local teams and companies similar
to ours to get more ideas, but a lot of the
time have had to employ a “learn as we
go” approach. Friends from school and
university, now practicing in marketing,
finance and law have always been
extremely forthcoming with help and
support which has been a huge help.
Managing international staff has also
been a steep learning curve. We deal with
such a large number of cultures and our
staff have a huge variety of backgrounds
(some of whom have completed MBAs,
while some others are unable to read
nor write) it can be extremely difficult
and frustrating trying to work out what
methods of management work best in
each country.
Initially I probably tried to deal with too
many people from too many different
cultures and backgrounds and never
managed to get 100% out of any of
them. Getting a highly reliable person
at the top of each local team who knows
their staff and program, inside and
out, and is able to delegate, manage
and motivate their teams effectively,
then report directly to our head office
in NZ, has proven to be the best way of
overcoming this problem.

48
The people to have the biggest influence
on IVHQ have been my parents. Their
unwavering support from the day
I decided to start IVHQ and had to
move back home to make things work
financially, to present day when Mum
still works in the head office in New
Plymouth as part of our team has been
incredibly important in the overall
success of the company. We have also
been very lucky to be associated with
some very supportive businesses and
people in New Zealand, and we have a
very dedicated team of staff, not only
at our head office in New Plymouth
but throughout the world, who have a
passion for what we are doing.
The most important piece of advice I’ve
been given: Preparation, planning and
self belief are critical to success.
Getting the confidence to start the
business with a high chance of failing and
walk away from the standard safe 9-5
job out of university was a tough decision
to make. By researching the market
thoroughly, and planning for a variety of
highly likely outcomes, I was confident I
could make the company work.
Looking back over the first 3 years of
the business, new ideas or things that
haven’t worked have generally been
directly related to a lack of planning or
research on my behalf. Self belief and
confidence have been very important,
as the business has progressed.
Despite the relative fast growth of the
company there have also been a lot of
moments where you question yourself.
In these times, remembering to be
confident, to believe in your abilities and
what you are doing has been crucial.

53
The e-myth (Michael Gerber)

54
The trap with a small business is
that you want and sometimes try to
do everything yourself but you learn
quickly enough that you can’t.
After visiting my favourtie city of Paris
a couple of years ago, I noticed the
extremely wide range of legwear available.
All manner of patterns and designs were
available so I thought, why should New
Zealand miss out on gorgeous leggings
and tights? So Lucy Lou was born, in
about September 2009. All our product is
printed on Columbine - we’re 100% local.
Whenever I’m wondering about my next
move, it usually comes back down to
money. The thing is, this is my money,
and if this goes down the gurgler, that’s a
lot of my own money lost. Cashflow is the
biggest stress.
You know, to be really honest, lately I’ve
just been feeling like I’m drowning, and
Lucy Lou - Nichola Tomas
Company facts
Lucy Lou
Contemporary NZ made legwear.
Trading since: 2009
Staff: 1 full-time, 2 part-time
Location: Upper Hutt
Sector/industry:
Consumer goods (clothing)
Website: www.lucylou.co.nz

55
my lifeguard hasn’t come out to get me
yet. I’ve been thinking of getting a grant to
help me through, but I don’t have the time
to go find the information, let alone spend
time writing a big grant application.
What gets you through, are the little
things: the order got out. Or that this
customer called back and liked the
product, and wanted to order more.
Recently, my daughter Lucy had to get an
operation, and so she stayed in hospital.
I was with her until about midnight, then
had to come home, I was up until 8am,
then back with her, having to do the
orders and printing when I had spare
moments. It’s a very manual process - I
print and design the tights myself.
Since I feel like I’m just a mother, and
haven’t been formally taught anything, I
started out with just a dream but no idea
how to execute it. My mentor, St John
Craner, has been an incredible advisor - to
me, he has been the most amazing person.
It’s my business, and I want it to reach
the stars, but he has taught me to
celebrate the skills I have, and to ask
for help with what I lack.
I found St John Craner through
approaching Insight Creative, which used to
be Origin Design. They have been amazing,
like a big sister that keeps me honest,
especially Fiona Marianne. Through their
special support for small businesses, they
gave me a huge boost through doing the

56 Lucy Lou branding, as well as setting up
our website.
St John Craner, through his own company
Distinct, has sort of just stayed with me
since then, and we’ve continued
to work closely together ever since.
When I saw the packaging for the
first time, I cried. I am so excited and
passionate about this. And then at
times I could chuck every single pair
of tights away. Other business owners
must have had that same feeling at some
point: the worry that people won’t like, or
buy, your products and services.
What I’ve learnd is that you can’t be
afraid to ask for advice from those
who know a certain area better than
you..
Suddenly, they may say, “Oh, I know
someone who could help with that.”
Before you know it, through that
networking, someone who was once a
stranger, comes into your path to get
you to the next point of your journey.
The other thing I’ve learnd is to not
let the knockbacks get you down.
Luckily, I have great people around,
like Glenn and team from Digitex in
Tawa - he always has amazing ideas,
and a “We can do anything” attitude;
Sally who prints for me, is invaluable,
with a wicked sense of humour; my
lovely husband Peter; and of course
the little girl herself, Lucy.
You have this passion for this thing,
and you think that it can’t possibly
fail - and if someone rejects your
product or service, you want to say to
them, “Don’t you know how hard I’ve
worked on that?” And you just have to
pick yourself up and get on with it.

57
Technician TechnicianManager Manager
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
Stressed owner
does everything
Happy owner
delegates

58
“The E-myth Revisited” is a book about bringing order to chaos within small business. The entrepreneurial myth,
came from the assumption that business success is achieved by simply wanting to own a business, investing capital,
The Entrepreneur, has
the vision that drives the
business forward; and is the
dreamer. He is the creative,
innovative energy. The
Entrepreneurial Seizure hits
when a person decides they
want to start a business.
He looks for skills within
himself that he can create a
business out of. The mechanic
opens an auto shop. The web
developer starts an agency. This
refers to the character of The
Technician , who owns the skills
that make the business work.
He is the present; in charge of
doing what needs to be done,
and building what needs to be
built, in order for the business
to run. When a business is
starting out, the technician is
usually the most prominent.
The Technician, if left to run
the business, will get tired as
chaos sets in. The baker will
be so busy baking that the
running of the business itself
- the accounting and strategy
– will become neglected. The
Entrepreneur’s energy will
fade. And the Manager might
take over.
The Manager is the past –
the one in charge of bringing
about order and planning. He
is practical, problem-focused,
detests change and sticks to
time-tested solutions.
The e-myth = the myth of the entrepreneur
The characters

59
None of the characters
can effectively run the
business by themselves.
The Technician depletes
the energy of the
venture, the Manager
can deplete the soul,
and the Entrepreneur
can remove much-
needed order.
As the business
matures, and the owner
seeks outside help, then
the characters begin to
get introduced to one
another, and a comfort
zone emerges where
they can exist together.
Eventually chaos
emerges and the
business owner either
chooses to get small
again, to go for broke
or to fully survive this
phase and move on to
the next one.
At this point, the business
reaches its maturity
phase. The entrepreneurial
perspective and model
for the business approach
their maturity too. The
perspective starts to
recognize a wider view of
the business’s future and
the model can now serve
particular functions and
deliver assignments for the
technician, the manager,
AND the entrepreneur.
Some businesses also
go through the Turn
Key revolution, which
refers to franchising
opportunities. As
clearer systems and
processes begin to
emerge, and the
franchise possibility
becomes visible, a
business can then scale
up very quickly in a
short period of time.
and setting a targeted profit. In reality, the success of any business depends on numerous factors, which should be
examined and connected to give the entrepreneur a holistic view of the reality of what it takes to make a business succeed.
Michael Gerber talks about how when a baker opens a bakery, he needs to remember that the skills needed to make a
bakery successful are different from those involving an oven. His book’s tagline is: “Why Most Small Businesses Don’t
Work and What to Do About It.”
The phases

60
I grew up with a Grandpa who home-
brewed beer, so it was always there;
but I wasn’t going to be a brewer. I did a
commerce and management degree; then
traveled to the States on an exchange.
While I was there, I tasted some horrible,
bitter beer. I then came back to NZ, and
worked for export company for 3 years;
then moved to LA, and got into brewing
over there, and hung out with brewers.
Then I came back to NZ, and realized,
“Hey, I can do anything I want - why
don’t I be a brewer?” So I went out to this
brewery in East Auckland to ask for a job,
and they refused. I asked them for a year,
and they could see that I was keen. So I
threw in a high-paying job that I hated, for
a minimum wage job at this brewery.
While I was managing the brewery, I
realized we had to make it profitable, and
suggested making a new beer brand,
which we did. Ultimately, this became
Epic. After a year, the brewery decided
they’d have to spend a whole bunch of
money to make it fly; so in 2007 I bought
it back, and kept making beer.
In the States, I had the chance to see
what craft beer could become. I saw in
NZ there was a niche for myself – my
passion is making great beer and sharing
it with people.
We outsource everything. Contract
warehouse, logistics, everything. We use
Xero. I used to be the guy who printed out
the invoice, and put the courier sticker
on the box. That was taking up more than
half a day, every single day. You have
to get to a certain size of things to be
Epic Beer - Luke Nicholas
Epic Beer
Providers of specialist beer.
Trading since: 2006
Locations: Auckland
Sector/industry:
Consumer goods (beverage)
Awards:
Earlier this year RateBeer.
com announced the best
beers of each region of the
world. For the Australian and
New Zealand region, Epic
Armageddon IPA was rate #1
and Epic Pale Ale rated #2.
Website: www.epicbeer.com
Company facts

61
able to justify that extra spend on an
employee - and it was just a growing
phase - figuring out what takes up
most of that time, and figuring out how
to get someone else to do it.
I’ve been through a bunch of business
courses, and some of them are really cool
and have sound bites that stick. Otherwise
they just reinforce common sense.
A lot of it is about getting out and
learning along the way.
NZTE helped out but we were trying to get
to another tier to advisors – Beachheads.
However, because we’re too small, and
are not doing over 5 million in sales, we
don’t have access to those resources.

62
We got a grant from NZTE for building
our brand, and a grant for market
development, in the UK. That allowed
us to get our brand right the first time,
and we spent a lot of time and money to
get that right. Brand was really, really
important.. People had to want to pick
Epic off the shelves in supermarkets and
in bars.
I ended up interviewing ten companies,
and it took a whole week, where they
came and pitched to me. I met boutique
consultancies, big agencies; what I
wanted was a really good marketing
partner. My main criteria were: they had
to able to explain their process with me,
they had to get on with me, and they
had to like beer. We had obstacles with
one of the mentoring programs we went
through, where the personalities just
didn’t really click.
There are things in life that don’t
always work out at the time when you
take them in, but then you get in a
better position, and find someone or a
situation that’s better suited to you.
I was lucky – because I was involved with
realbeer.com – and this has opened up
an entire network in the states, to key
brewers and what they’re doing. It helps
me spot the new global trends, and keep
track of what’s going on in the market all
around the world.
In terms of business advisors, I picked
stuff up from talking to people. I also
looked at a wide range of different
resources available.
The communities that I’ve built are
around social media - Twitter, Linkedin,
and Facebook. These are the tools
that I use to market the brand - it
is an opportunity in itself that has
become valuable.
I’m using those networks to find an
assistant. It’s powerful being able to
tap into your friends’ friends, and their
friends, and their friends. The way I
work is through word of mouth and
building networks.
When I first started using Twitter,
there were 450 people in New Zealand
on it. I used it more like a personal
diary rather than anything else.
Now it’s a way of being able to share
interesting stuff.
When I was traveling, it was a great
way of saying, “Here’s my beer, here’s
my location.”

63
“I think when it comes to mentors or
advisors, it’s really important just to
be able to get along with them, for
your personalities to click. “
I actually found a venture capitalist
through Twitter – we’re all but ready to
close a deal with her.
Someone told her to follow me, and then
I checked out her website, and went,
“Wow – this is exactly the kind of person
we’ve been looking for.”
New Zealanders are so entrepreneurial,
but we don’t have enough access to those
resources. A lot of the reason why small
businesses fail is because they’re under-
resourced and under-capitalized. The
pattern is that in the first year, if you’re
profitable, your money’s flat out in stock,
and in making more profit – making
more to sell more. And so we lack the
resources to grow.

64
Missing Link
Specialist social media
marketing company.
Trading since: 2006
Staff: 2 full-time
Locations:
Auckland, Wellington
Sector/industry:
Technology, services
Customer market:
Companies that are trying to
make the world a better place
Website:
www.missinglinknz.co.nz
Missing Link has been around since
2006, but we really crystallised our
focus on social media for do-gooders
around a year ago.
When I first started, I attended a bunch
of courses at the CDC. I put together
an Advisory Board over a year ago and
they keep me honest.
My Board has a great ability to help me
plan strategically while appreciating
the constraints of the business. I
absolutely would not have been able
to develop Missing Link to what it is
without their input.
So many business owners I see think
they have it all figured out; in my
experience, we’re all figuring it out
every day, and the more brains we can
throw at a problem, the better!
I’m my own biggest obstacle. For
example, I don’t just think, I KNOW that
the more clearly I focus on our core
proposition, the more powerful the
business becomes. But I struggle to turn
away other business opportunities that
come through the door. I think this is a
classic entrepreneur’s struggle - we hate
to say no! But, perversely, saying no
often creates more opportunities than
saying yes.
I have had terrific mentors and advisors,
who all give me excellent business
guidance, but also really get that
Missing Link is about more than the
bottom line. So they challenge me to set
Missing Link - Kaila Colbin
Company facts

65
grander visions, to create more inspiring
opportunities and objectives, and to be
unafraid to make Missing Link a world-
changing organisation.
You have to learn, every day: from your
support network, from formal sources,
from books, or from your customers and
the people in your business. The moment
you think you’ve got it sussed, it all falls
apart! You have to be really awake to
the fact that your business is changing
constantly, your customer needs are
changing constantly, your staff dynamics
are changing constantly.
I’ve also learned it’s more fun and
interesting to chase your grandest
vision than to chase the one that
seems most achievable.

66
I worked for the export-import
corporation for about 14 years, and
when I left, I saw a niche opportunity. We
developed markets mostly in Asia around
paua shells, and the business started
growing on that. We would be the largest
traders of seashell in the Asia-Pacific
region, if not the world. Commercial
shells - as in, making buttons, shell
sheets for laminates; we buy and sell
shells from Mexico, Chile, and send to
factories in China, Vietnam, Phillipines,
Italy. A lot of them come from Yemen,
the Red Sea, then are made into buttons
and sent to Turkey - and so we get paid
from Turkey. On the back of that we
have always been exporting foodstuffs,
particularly Whittaker’s chocolate, mainly
to Singapore, Malaysia, China, just
opening Indonesia, Philippines, Korea,
growing quite quickly.
We’ve had a business plan, but I actually
think that a 10 or 20 page business
plan is a thing of the past - a strategy is
much more important. About six months
ago the bank - Westpac - invited us to
one of these things put on by Results.
com. I think there’s some connection
to Jim Collins there. We went along,
they gave us a free four-hour thing and
then we decided to go a bit further, and
did a whole day session. It’s been very
good. They did our accounting as well.
Our accountant’s a young guy, and very
interested in the business - as a result of
Asil Group Limited - William Sommerville
Company facts
Asil Group Limited
Privately owned international
trading company.
Trading since: 1998
Location: Wellington
Sector/industry:
Export marketing
Customer market:
Global, with emphasis on Asia
Website:
http://www.asilgroup.com

67
that, we meet every week, about an hour
on a Monday morning. There’s a list of
things we go through, and we review, and
look at where we’re going.
Our BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal
is in fifteen years, to be the biggest
exporter of branded NZ food and
beverages. I think it’s vital to be focused
on what you do best - decide what
you’re going to do, stick to your core
business, and try and be the best at
it. That’s what we did without the shells,
and food marketing.
We made that conscious decision to put
more emphasis on the food business
because shells are a natural product and
sometimes limited. At least with the food
products we know about NZ’s image, we
know that as long as you’ve got enough
cocoa beans, and factories, you can keep
making chocolate.
I believe that the key to any business
is relationships and building
relationships. For instance, we’re
looking at exporting corn chips. We
found a little company in Wellington that
makes fantastic corn chips; and what we
can do for that company is instantly link
them into the distributors we’ve got all
around Asia. It’s taken us years to find,
and nurture, those critical relationships.
Those relationships are everything when
it comes to exporting.
We gave a talk at the ExportNZ breakfast
recently about the intermediary solution
for exporters. There are so many small
companies in NZ with good product
and good capacity -but exporting is
daunting for them, what with the freight
documents, language barriers, currency,
foreign exchange rate, and so on.
The one thing that I always stress
when I talk to people about starting a
business - you’re probably going to lose
money for the first two years. It’s very
difficult to go straight into a profitable
situation - you’ve got to to be ready to
make a serious investment of time and
energy. It doesn’t happen overnight. We
actually got help from the Chambers of
Commerce back when we started. I got

68
a business lead from them very early
on, and it led to selling a container of
paua to Hong Kong with a $20,000 profit
- which was a lot of money in those
days. I figured that paid my subs for the
Chamber of Commerce for the rest of
my life; and I’ve been a keen member
ever since.
Everyone gets something different
from those organisations; for us, it’s
a good networking experience. I’m
also a member of export NZ. I think
networking is really important - you
can get that from all sorts of places.
friends of mine in Business Networking
national, more than one in Wellington.
I’ve found that Kiwis like helping kiwis;
if people ask me for help, I’m always
happy to go see them, and not just if
there’s something in it for us. When I
hired Andrew, I went to an employment
lawyer specialist, who charged me
about $450 an hour for something he
just regurgitated from a template. I got
quite upset and was talking to someone
about it, and they told me, “You know,
you can go to the Employers federation,
Chambers of commerce, and get the
same thing for nothing.” So that’s a
useful tip.
There are always obstacles - exchange
rate’s a really big one for us. The main
way we overcome that, is to sell wherever
we can in NZ dollars. Other hurdles
continue to crop up too - with change
of documentation, and duties. Yet my
philosophy is that if you haven’t got any
problems, you haven’t got any business.
When I started the business, a former
general manager of NZ Forest Products
mentored me, who I worked with for
13 years. The most important thing
he taught me about was honesty and
reputation. Your reputation is critical -
that’s how people will decide whether or
not to come to you. A reputation takes
a long time to build up, and just five
minutes to lose.

71
Good to Great (Jim Collins)

72
Scaling the business (Read more in Jim Collins’ Good to Great, page 120)
The start-up failure
rate is high because
start-ups often
respond to growth and
success in the wrong
way. A successful
entrepreneur is
filled with creativity,
imagination, and
venturing out into
new landscapes.
Soon the company
grows and starts to
stumble over itself
– with an overload
of new customers,
orders, products
and people. Lack of
systems, accounting,
strategy, and lack
of hiring, creates
problems with
customers, time
management, and
cash flow.
Someone says,
“Something
needs to change
around here.”
Some of the
original staff
leave, and begin
another start-up
Everything just
carries on.
At some point,
the company
tries to
reinvent itself.
Processes, systems,
procedures and
checklists start to
emerge. What was
once a flat structure,
where everyone felt
equal, now becomes
a hierarchy, with “us”
and “them”.
There is order from
chaos, but the
entrepreneurial energy
also dies. Members
of the founding team
complain that things
aren’t the same
anymore. The creative
magic begins to fade.
1 2 3 4 5
CAPABILITY

73
Effective strategy turns it into either lifestyle or•
scaleable business,
Based around the lives and schedules of the founders•
Lack of processes and systems•
Experimentation phase•
Effective strategy builds exponential growth•
Independent of founders•
Clear systems and processes•
Franchise model•
Start up Scaleable business

74
Annah Stretton
Stretton Group is based in a multimillion dollar purpose built head office
building allowing Annah to factor for growth; particularly in the global
fashion market.
Trading since: 2003
No of Staff: 145
Locations: Stretton Group remains based in the Waikato
Sector/industry: Consumer goods (fashion)
Customer market: 27 fashion retail stores throughout New Zealand, export
accounts to the U.K., Ireland, Europe, USA (California) and Australia
Awards: 2007 Winner of the Zonta International (NZ), Woman of the
Biennium; Member of New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Fashion,
Business and the Community; 2009 New Zealand recipient of the Veuve
Clicquot Award. This global tribute acknowledges female achievers in
business and industry who exemplify the qualities of Madame Clicquot, the
woman behind the successful champagne house Veuve Clicquot.
Website: www.annahstretton.co.nz
Company facts
I’d been at art school in NZ; and had
gone on to copmlete a chartered
accountancy degree. I worked initially for
a clothing company as their accountant;
then an opportunity arose to join their
design team. Four years later, I went out
on my own. Now we have 30 domestic
stores which we run as a vertical
operation, and are exporting globally.
New Zealand women are the queens of
small business. And they are often very
happy to remain in a small environment:
they’re doing something they love,
they’re self-employed and there’s
flexibility around bringing up the family,
so in many ways the operation never
eventuates beyond hobby status. You’ve
got to have great levels of discipline
and passion, amongst other things, to
grow a business to that next level.
Annah Stretton Clothing Company

75
Women can have a certain mindset:
they drive hidden agendas, avoid
confrontation, and there is a personal
and emotive element that seems to enter
into their business dealings. If we can
remove ourselves from the emotion
and think in a more black and white
way, we can become more effective in
both life and business.
I have a common-sense approach to
business: I find it very easy to deal with
challenges. I just take the relevant action
and move on. I don’t deliberate or angst
and I don’t revist them. The challenge is
getting the women I employ to also think
in this black-and-white way.
My father used to say that business is
about sticking to the knitting - and that
phrase is something I come back to
especially during a recessionary year.
Business is also about profit. You’ve got
to work out how to make your culture
work in order to maximise your profit.
I constantly advise people to find
others they’re inspired by, or who can
add value to their life. You need to be
constantly listening and learning.
My business is currently trading at
around 10 million, but to take this to
the 20, 30, 40 million level, I will also
need to look to engage people from
relevant environments that will enable
this growth.
A woman who’s started working for us
at an advisory board level has come out
of a big business UK environment. The

76
3 or 4 hours spent a month, talking to
her about the areas in which I wish to
grow and develop this business globally,
are invaluable.
Getting things done relies on one
thing: incredibly good discipline.
To run a good business you need to
be disciplined, in your time and
people management.
I use the 80/20 rule. If you look at a
day as 100 percent, 80 percent of the
stuff that happens is peripheral - it
can be delegated, left or ignored. A lot
of people get sidetracked in a day and
waste time. I will always focus on the
20% to ensure my day tracks efficiently
and productively.
I also get up between 4-5am every day
and I work on my business until 9am
from my home office. When I’m in the
head office, it’s reactionary, as there is
so much to be actioned from moment to
moment. That morning or growth time
is crucial, to take my business to the
next level. That’s when I set up my day,
work on my dreams and schemes and
identify the 20% so that I know I won’t get
sidetracked.
I see so much mediocrity in business,
and essentially it comes down to a
lost passion, and an inability to run a
sustainable and profitable business. I
never want to be seen as average. I love
what I do after 18 years in this business,
although the people I interface with
“Never, ever let
mediocrity creep into
your world. It will
stifle your dreams
and passions.”

77
- Jim Collins
daily constantly provide challenges; I
still love my products, my environment,
and the team that surrounds me. Every
day I strive to take my operations to the
next level - keeping that passion alive,
for the products and services you have,
is so damn vital. I’m still learning, and
constantly seek challenges to extend and
grow myself. I will continue to learn until
I’m six feet under.
There are times when I’ve had to
reinvent, but I see that as healthy,
simply a new way to drive my business.
Lots of people miss opportunities by
simply being time poor, but my life has
been shaped by opportunities, so it is
important that I have an open mind and
assess them all before I move on.

79
The Good-to-Great Companies
faced just as much adversity as the
comparison companies, but responded to
that adversity differently. They hit the realities
of their situation head-on. As a result, they
emerge from adversity even stronger.

80
Hell Pizza - Callum Davies
I was introduced to the pizza business
at the tender age of 15 and worked
as a pizza delivery driver. By 16 I had
progressed to being a manager. At 17
a friend and I jointly owned a carpet
cleaning business, debt collection
contracts, and a furniture removal
business. At 18 I bought a pizza
parlour in Wainuiomata that had gone
out of business.
It was this place where I tested out
what would eventually become Hell
Pizza. Two years later I relocated
to Wellington, and the first Hell
Pizza store was born. Here we also
established the mission of our
company, which still remains the
same: “Damned tasty food and a fun
working environment.”
Stu McMullin was an old classmate
of mine who had been in a string of
corporate jobs with Westpac, ACC,
ACNielsen, and IT Manpower. One day
over a game of golf, he asked me if I
wanted a partner, and the deal was
struck. We worked between 90 and
100 hours a week, opening a further
three stores, and doing most of the
renovations and outfitting ourselves.
So the business was definitely 100%
organic and a ‘seat of your pants’ sort
of thing to begin with. The only plan
was to turnover enough to pay the
rent – once that was taken care of,
then more goals were set.
In 2001, Warren Powell came on
board. He had managed the Fletcher
Hell Pizza
Food chain that provides online
order forms for pizza, pasta
and salads.
Year Established: 1996 Year of
First Franchise: 2001
Staff: 300+ Locations: 64
stores nationwide, as well as
UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada
Sector/industry:
Consumer goods (food)
Customer market:
20 to 39 year olds
Website: www.hellpizza.co.nz
Company facts

81
Challenge GIB franchise and been the
country manager for Burger King NZ, as
well as Hire a Hubby’s General Manager.
He brought his franchising expertise, and
I’d say that’s when the “unholy trinity”
was born.
When we decided to franchise, we had
those four company owned stores, and
dealing with managers was too hard. By
that point we had already decided that
franchising was the best way forward for
our business. So we ended up financing
two of our loyal and experienced staff
into our stores, entrusting them with
quality control and making it a point to
ensure new franchises were always up to
speed. The other two stores were sold.
I’ve always strongly believed that to make
the business successful, the people
who drive the business need to be
the main focus. We’ve always wanted
Hell Pizza to remain a fun place to work,
and the only proof of that is our staff
satisfaction. We didn’t need to advertise
for any of the franchises because there
was always a steady stream of Hell
employees and young entrepreneurs
wanting a slice of the action. We went
from four stores to 66 in four years - with
revenue accelerating from $1.2 million to
$55 million over that period.
All us, I was in charge of marketing for
Hell before we sold. We had a lot of fun
– quite often, I had to hold my business
partners back, as I am the conservative
one. Initially, I wanted a fun name that I
could theme the business around. I liked
the Hell Theme but thought it too risky
until I asked lots of people and went to
a graphic designer to see how we could
pull it off - we then rebranded to Hell.
We’ve always tried to mix creative
marketing with solid strategic
thinking. Having identified our target
market as 20 to 39 year olds who were
happy to use the internet, we launched
Hell’s online pizza ordering system, the
first to be established in New Zealand.
Saying that, we had always been proud to
be the underdogs, the little guys against
the multi-nationals. Then we got to a

82
certain number of stores, and could
no longer deny that we had become a
chain. That was an obstacle. The way
we saw it, we just had goals - even
when we were at 38 stores back in
2005, we had 66 planned for 2006 (666
all the way)!
As for advisors and consultants, initially
I would ask anyone I meet whom I
valued their opinion. Much later on we
worked with accountants on preparing
an exit strategy from the NZ market.
Some advice I would take with a grain
of salt, others more seriously - it would
depend on the background of whoever
was giving me the advice.
Hell was sold to TPF, owners of Burger
King, reportedly for $15 million in
December 2006. The money from
the NZ sale was used to expand
internationally - we focused on building
the brand overseas.
Hell Systems Ltd owns the Hell
trademarks and other intellectual
property (IP). While the company had
spare cash, Stu would register Hell’s
IP in countries with potential markets.
Master franchise rights have been sold
in Oz, Ireland and Canada. Hell would
get $250,000 for each master franchise
licence for a country, $10,000 for each
store opened, and a 1 per cent royalty
(we aim to keep the initial price down to
ensure franchisees are not overburdened
with financial obligations).
As Hell was doing well overseas, that
freed up capital to buy back the NZ
business. We’ve largely avoided debt by
accumulating savings before tackling the
next stage of development.
Hindsight is always great. I made
many mistakes along the way (and
I’m still making them) - but many
times I’ve learned things that I
never would have, had I not made
the mistake.
Managed growth has been an
obstacle in itself. To be honest,
the money was always secondary.
It has always been about having
heaps of fun and having a good time
with the company. And as long as
everybody is doing their jobs and
doing what they said they’d do, then
we’re all happy campers. I’ve always
believed that business really is a lot
about relationships, whether it is
franchisees, suppliers or customer -
you need to treat them right - it’s
not just about the dollars.

84
Cookie time -Michael Mayell
I started Cookie Time at 21, but my story
starts earlier. We talked about money
around the dining table growing up, so
by the time I was 18, I had decided that I
wanted to own a business. Over the next
couple of years, I wrote this goal down
- that I wanted to be a millionaire by the
time I was 30.
I did a basic business course at
Christchurch Polytechnic. Then I got a
job that took me to America, to promote
skiing in New Zealand. There, I stayed
with a small business owner called Diana
Corbett. She was very encouraging about
me starting my own business, and took me
to a retail chain store that was doing well,
Mrs Field’s Hot Cookies, and said, “Maybe
this was something you could do.”
Cookie time
Cookie manufacturer producing the Original Chocolate Chunk, rated
NZ’s #1 most popular cookie. Cookie Time is an iconic New Zealand
brand and market leader in its category, and is closely connected with
education through the work of the Cookie Munchers Charitable Trust.
Trading since: 1983 (still privately owned by brothers Guy and
Michael Mayell)
No of Staff: Over 80 full time staff, with an extra 30 staff and 69 tertiary
students employed during the busy Christmas period
Locations: Factory headquarters in Templeton, Christchurch
Sector/industry: Consumer goods (food)
Customer market: 45 independent franchisees delivering stock
to a range of outlets across New Zealand
Website: www.cookietime.com
Company facts

85
By the end of that six months, the job
was over, and I was now sitting in New
Zealand with no job and $10,000 in the
bank, and I’m 20 or 21 years old and
it’s like, “I guess it’s time I started that
business that I said I was going to start.”
I started two businesses before I started
Cookie time, with limited success.
So then I went to a couple of bakers and
asked them to bake me a chocolate chip
cookie. They all baked me this very, very
average cookie. So I rang Diana and she
sent me the North American housewife
cookie recipe - the ‘Tollhouse cookie
recipe’ which comes at the back of every
Nestle chocolate morsels pack. These
chocolate chips are nothing like we had
in New Zealand - I knew I had to have big
chunks of chocolate. One thing lead to
another and I finally got Cadbury’s dark
chocolate and unwrapped 250g of it. I put
this on a bacon slicer and found I could
chop 6 or 8 bars at a time, into chunks.
So I baked these cookies myself from
the Tollhouse recipe, gave them to
everybody, and they thought they were
delicious. I thought, “I’ll try to find a
bakery, to bake my cookies at night when
they’re not using their equipment.” So
I got the yellow pages out, and started
knocking on doors. Six said no, and I was
about to give up, when the seventh baker
said yes. I’d come in at 7pm after he
had gone home, bake through the night,
clean up, and be gone by 5 or 6am, when
he came back again.
Now I needed the outlets. So I started
knocking on doors in Christchurch. I told
people, “I’m making these chocolate
chip cookies, I’m going to be delivering
the first batch on Monday the 7th of
February, wanna take a jar?” 70 out of
the 71 stores I spoke to said yes.
On Sunday the 6th, I go into the bakery
with my mother and one staff member,
and the baker who has to teach me how
to use the equipment. And we just take
that scale the recipe up 200 times. It’s
midnight when we drive home. I deliver
my 35 jars, Mum delivers hers. I go
back to the flat and wait by the phone,
having no idea whether these things are
going to sell. At 3pm that day the phone
started ringing - all these outlets had

86
completely sold out. They were asking
for more. And so it went on for the next
six months.
Essentially I’m cruising along, doing
well, and I decide that I need a better
way of breaking up the chocolate than
the bacon slicer. So I looked in the
Yellow Pages and found a guy who
looked like a bit of an inventor. I went
around to see him and he ended up
designing me the chocolate crunchers.
At the same time, he became my
mentor. I was 21, he was 65.
He introduced me to a goal setting
program called the Dynamics
of Motivation. We talked about
visualisations, affirmations and goal
setting, and how you create your
own reality - how success comes to
you, and how happiness is a state
of mind. It was all sorts of amazing
stuff. If you want to know, what is the
absolute most important thing in goal
setting - write your goals down, and
put a date to them. The difference,
between a written goal and one in your
mind, is night and day. In your head,
it’s an intangible thought that’s not
measurable, but the minute it’s on
paper, it is into the world.
That December, my younger brother
Guy comes back from Massey Uni for
his summer break, where he’s been
doing business studies. Sales have
suddenly, for no apparent reason,
slowed. A lot. So I sit down with Guy
and he has a look at it, and for me, it’s
just so nice to be able to share this
stuff with someone - someone to just
talk about this stuff with.

87
It took a few years for us to figure it
out why sales dropped over summer.
Eventually we realised that people
tend to diet more to look good on the
beach, they’re also on holiday and away,
and also, schools and takeaway bars
completely close down. That inspired
us to come up with Christmas Cookies,
which has gone on to be one of the
most successful products. The reason
we succeed is because we try so many
things that don’t work. It’s a numbers
game, just like selling encyclopaedias.
So Guy just loves the practical side of
business so much and I loved having him.
We worked and lived together for at least
a year. We were literally working, eating,
sleeping. But it was heaps of fun, and
we were on fire. We were making tons of
mistakes and having lots of successes
too. Guy and I are a very complementary
partnership. It’s one of the biggest
factors in the success of the company -
I’ve basically got my head in the clouds,
he’s got his feet on the ground. I’m the
accelerator, he’s got his foot on the brake.
This business has been going 27 years.
Guy and I have been working at home
office for 20 of those years. We’ve both
been one step removed - we’re not in there
everyday. There have been times where
we have to take an office in town, and get
in the business again. Yet working from
home means that we’re in a separate
headspace, and it’s a better place to
work on, not in, the business.

88
At one point, I wanted to get out of
Cookie Time and do something different,
partly because after 15 years, I was a bit
tired of cookies. One of the best things
was getting out for those two or three
years, because it allowed me to come
back into the business with renewed
passion and enthusiasm.
We’re about to open our first retail
cookie store in Queenstown: an
immersion experience, with a cookie
bar where people can go order fresh
cookies; NZ music playing; touch
screens; the whole deal. We basically
want to take Cookie Time global and
are looking for a strategy to do so. If
you don’t have an inspirational goal
that you’re working towards, who’s
not going to get bored? You just have
to have something that you’re excited
about. In business, you always have to
be aiming for the next rung up: if you
want to be a really big local brand,
you need to be a national brand
in NZ. If you want to be a national
brand in NZ, you need to aim to be
a global brand. Say, if you move into
Australia, you’re forced to look at
things differently; then you come
back to NZ with different ideas that
make your NZ ideas better. That
new landscape means a new way
of looking at things.

92
Conclusion
What the business we’ve featured
all have in common is the desire
to create great businesses. And
we at CapabilityNZ share that
desire and are focused on
accelerating your progress.
The “capability journey” is just
another way of talking about
business success– but essentially,
growing your business means
realizing this: someday, to some
extent, starts today.
The journey does not just magically
unravel as we dream it to be - it
requires action right now. It
demands allocation of resources,
work, and planning, right now.
We at Capability NZ hope that this
book is just the start, and would
like to partner with you on the
journey from here.

94
we would like to thank our partners...
Business New Zealand
Economic Development Agencies of New Zealand
New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation
New Zealand Chambers of Commerce
New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants
New Zealand Institute of Management

95
www.howtheydidit.org
www.businessassessment.co.nz
Where to from here?

You run a small business. You want to grow,
so let’s turn a long-term plan into a short-term reality.
This resource covers 14 Kiwi business owners – from the little-known to the well-known (Hell’s
Pizza, Cookie Time) – and mixes their real-world Kiwi experiences with leading global business
thinking - the E-myth revisited (Michael Gerber), Good to Great (Jim Collins), the 7 Habits of
Highly Effective Companies (Stephen Covey), and Peter Drucker.
We hope to motivate and inspire small businesses to spend more time on their business, not
just in their business; so that their business capability improves – by telling the positive stories
of great Kiwi businesses, and how their founders grew them to be what they are today.

How Entrepreneur's grew their business with some tips direct from them

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