Tim Calder

This years NBR Audacious Business Plan Competition has finally arrived. Dunedin is very fortunate to have well organised business competitions like this. Last year I was a finalist in this Business Plan competition with my business Foot-Print-Free which attempted to develop a system whereby paper based receipts would be replaced by digitally chipped cards which transferred the detailed information produced at the point of sale to an online storage system. I have taken the advice from last years Judges on board in this years entry by attempting to produce a simpler, more cost effective solution. Last year’s winner, Craig Smith, is developing his own software company called LanguagePerfect which designs Language learning tools to assist with NCEA.

The Wellington Small Business Expo was a great place to see all New Zealand’s newly established small businesses. I enjoyed some of the new web businesses that featured at this event like TooMuchPaper, KiwiSelect, and EZYPAY. I was also very surprised how helpful many of the featuring businesses were and how many of them were able to help with developing better systems at EZY STOR Self Storage. EZYPAY was one of those businesses that tapped us on the shoulder and explained how they could improve our cash flow at EZY STOR Self Storage by setting us up with Direct Debit forms as apposed to the Automatic Payment forms that we currently require our customers to setup when a storage agreement is completed. If successful this would mean that we would be able to directly debit our customers bank accounts with our storage fee on the correct day’s that payments are supposed to come out. While in Wellington I took some time out to have a look around this beautiful city, second only to Dunedin

Last night was The Dunedin Club’s 150th Jubilee Black Tie Ball held at the Dunedin Town Hall in the Glenroy Banquet Hall. The Dunedin Club has a distinguished history which stretches back to the pioneers of the 1850s. In 1848 the two settler ships John Wickliffe and Philip Laing berthed at Dunedin, bringing Otago’s first European migrants. Ten years later, a group of entrepreneurs founded The Dunedin Club in rented premises in Maclaggan Street. We were also very fortunate to have world famous actor Sam Neill as the key note speaker as weather diverted his flight to Christchurch where he then had to make the long drive to Dunedin. Sam spoke entertainingly about his career, the club and his families four generations of involvement. Credit needs to be paid to Humphrey Catchpole and his team of organisers as this event was very well planed and as a result an extremely enjoyable night.

The New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Escalator’s Auckland workshop was a truly brilliant event. All of the speakers were very interesting and provided excellent information for young, fresh, web based entrepreneurs like me. The one speaker that really inspired me was Tim Norton from PlanHQ who spoke very honestly about how he got this business off the ground. Tim has been involved with forming many web based businesses with his most recent being PlanHQ which he has successfully launched and promoted attracting great interest from around the globe. PlanHQ is a unique web service which helps you achieve success with your business plan by working with you to identify tasks/goals and breaking them down to be assigned to your team. Tim is also a member of Siliconwelly which is a community of NZ web businesses with an office in Wellington.

Jonny Love’s much anticipated album release has been annonced for the 30th of June (”The Last Day of June“). Jonny studied with me at Otago University before moving to Auckland to make a name for himself. While studying Jonny was the most popular performer in Dunedin playing at bars such as Two Bears, Brimstone, and Soal Bar to name a few. His talent doesn’t just end with his ability to make great music, Jonny has since started his own production company Limelight Records Limited which has produced his first album. Check out Jonny’s blog and listen to his popular single “Not The First Not The Last” which is being played on MoreFM and JuiceTV. Come and share the evening with Jonny Love at the album release party on the 28th of June at The Grange on Ponsonby Road.

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Escalator is holding two workshops in June (11th in Auckland and 18th in Wellington) to help those of us interested in developing successful Web Based Businesses. ”The internet continues to provide an untapped opportunity for business wealth. Yet it is also one of the biggest money pits, creating many businesses that are not investible” (NZTE). Our local Dunedin web success is Vouchermate which allows people to cut & paste a range of vouchers onto an online form which can be printed out and used at a wide variety of New Zealand businesses. Vouchermate is a great example of what the Dunedin Business Incubator “UPSTART” can do to help your business successfully grow. I have a couple of Web Businesses in early stages of conceptualisation so am keen to learn from four of NZ’s rising stars (Torpedo7, Sonar6, PlanHQ, StarNow) which will be presenting on the day.

Last night I attended Mike Taylor’s talk about “The New Zealand and Global Economy” and his boutique investment company piefunds [Pie Australasian Growth Fund] at South Bar on Frederick Street. Portfolio Investment Entities (PIEs) have become increasingly popular with the change in tax laws on 1 October 2007. In particular, natural persons will be taxed differently where they invest in a PIE as capital gains derived by PIEs in relation to New Zealand and certain listed Australian companies are not subject to tax. Mike stipulates that Pie Funds investment philosophy is “simple, uncomplicated and based on finding value in growth oriented companies”. Mike has worked for a number of large financial institutions both domestically and in the UK, including institutional equities dealer for ABN Amro NZ, FX Derivatives, Merrill Lynch UK, and recently as a Manager for Bank of Scotland NZ, supporting private equity bidders and large property developers with bespoke debt solutions.

The Start.Manage.Grow event was a great way to get introduced to the new business services on offer from our well known government departments and to meet their local representatives. Hon Clayton Cosgrove introduced the National Launch of these new business services in Dunedin last night where he highlighted the significant value of SME’s to the overall New Zealand economy and how the government plans to support their development with the new publication & website ”Start, Manage and Grow your business“. Local entrepreneur Nigel Bamford from Escea explained how these services were fundamental to the sucess of his firm and how providing cash grants for R&D were particularly important. 

It was great to be part of the 10th of May Graduation Ceremony where I graduated with my Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Entrepreneurship. The best part was the address from the guest speaker the great David Kirk who talked about the need for us graduates to try new career opportunities that confront us. I will graduate with the Otago MBA that I am currently studying for in 2010 which will complete my University Education. The only disappointment of the day was that the Highlanders were beaten by the Blues in front of their home crowd. Our party made the second half after a perfect dinner at Plato. 

For the past six months Pierre-Em De La Bussiere and myself have been putting together a deal to purchase and grow Dunedin based company Kiwitub Ltd. In 2004 Steve August was granted a patent for his innovative invention called the Kiwitub. Since then the product has been developed into a seriously portable hot tub which is light weight, requires no chemicals, no plumbing, and no electricity and is easily run on gas or firewood. We will be showing this truly unique product at the Waikato Fieldays in June where we will be located in the New Invention Section. For those of you that enjoy the outdoors and don’t have the time for the routine maintenance of a spa the Kiwitub is for you.