Yesterday I handed in my audacious entry for Room4Rent for the second year running. For those who are unaware of what Audacious is they define themselves as “Audacious helps University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students start, and run, their own business. Audacious is about helping young entrepreneurs get a foothold and giving them the tools they need to succeed.” http://audacious.co.nz/index.php

I would like to thank Ryan Priemus for his dedication to running the Audacious programme over the last few years. Ryan has moved onto another job but his legacy of transforming Audacious will carry on. A testament to Ryan’s hard work is the rising number of entries into the business idea competition. This year there was 226 entries compared to last year’s 97. Audacious has been a very useful resource for networking and I thoroughly enjoy the Audacious events and the guest speakers they invite to come and speak to the students.

The most useful thing I have gained from Audacious is the experience of entering in the NBR Business Challenge. This requires students to write a 10-15 page business plan outlining the market opportunity, product or service, strategy, management and financial plans for their business. The process of taking what your business is ‘in your mind’ and putting it on paper is one of the most useful exercises an entrepreneur can undertake. It forces you to decide: ‘what is my market’ ‘how big is my market’ and ‘how am I going to reach my market.’ Too many start-ups focus on how good their product but in reality the product is useless without the market.

Looking back and comparing my last year’s audacious entry to this year, the main difference is that I am far more focused on how I want to get my product to market rather than how great and new and innovative my product is. Last year I said “there was no competition” for Room4Rent but a year later and it is clear that there is massive competition for accommodation in New Zealand. The advantage that Room4Rent has is a niche market and currently we are the only ones occupying this niche. However I know that if I do not grow Room4Rent in the next 6 months someone else will fill the gap.

Entering Audacious was much less stressful this year, although a lot more expensive. I was able to hand in my entry at 3.55pm, 5 minutes before the deadline, after I picked it up from Print stop in Dunedin. It cost me $110 to get ten colour copies printed and bound but I hope the cost will be worth it. One thing I have learnt so far in business is that presentation is everything. A professional looking business plan shows that the business is professional and for an investor this is extremely important. They want to know that they are putting their money into a worthy start-up.

Recently I presented my business Room4Rent at The Distiller Showcase. I wore my best clothes and shoes and I think this helped me in making a professional presentation. Since the event I have spoken with people and they have not recognised me because I was wearing very casual clothes and they could not associate me with the person who presented Room4Rent. First impressions do last.

Do you have a business idea? Even though it is too late to enter Audacious this year, check out http://audacious.co.nz/documents/40KBusinessPlanGuidelines2010.pdf for a very useful business plan outline.

Don’t wait to write your first business plan, do it now!

Remember to be flexible as your business develops. Your first business plan will be so so different to the one you write a year later and if it isn’t you probably haven’t gone any further than writing your plan.

What is the market for your product? Try and find statistics that can show the size of the market. Check out the statistics New Zealand website. http://www.stats.govt.nz/

Need help writing your business plan? Flick me an email at samjanett@room4rent.co.nz and I will do my best to get back to you.

Thanks

Sam