Ok guys, sorry I’ve been a bit slack with the blog. I have been crazy busy trying to study full time, work part time, live the university life and get this website off the ground. So I am going to back date some events to fill you in on how things have been going.

27/08/09 - I handed in Room4Rent’s business plan to the Audacious $40k business plan competition (http://www.audacious.co.nz). The winner gets $20k worth of cash and help.

10/09/09 - I gave my 55 second ‘elevator’ pitch for Room4Rent in front of the Audacious judges and an audience of about 50 people. The idea of an elevator pitch is to imagine you are in an elevator with an investor and you only have 55 seconds to convince them to invest in your business before they get off the elevator. The pitch gave us the chance to explain to everybody what our business idea is and how it works. After everyone gave their pitch the judges went into a room to choose the top ten entries based on what they had seen in the business plan and the 55 second pitch. In the break, slips were handed out to the audience for them to vote on their favourite pitch and business idea. The result came back and Room4Rent was announced as the “landslide” favourite. I was awarded a book named “Purple Cow” and given a $20 voucher to the local pub. It was very pleasing to win this award. Even though Room4Rent did not make the second round of Audacious it was a large help for me personally. The business plan made me write down all my ideas and really cement them. This allowed for me and others to see where the holes in the plan were so I could go away and sort out any issues. The 55 second pitch was also great for my public speaking confidence and it was really motivating to network with other young entrepreneurs. The amount of entrepreneurial talent coming out of Dunedin is huge and it should be supported by local businesses and the council. Some of the ideas have the potential to put Dunedin on the map as a real hub for entrepreneurs.

15/09/09 - I went to Switch Accounting (http://www.switchaccounting.co.nz), the small business people, to get Room4Rent incorporated (turned into a company). They took care of everything including getting us GST registered. Room4Rent is now ROOM 4 RENT LIMITED.

17/09/09 - I got a call from Richard, my business partner in Christchurch who wrote a 2 page business idea about Room4Rent for the Christchurch entrepreneurial competition. Room4Rent won $1000 at the Entre competition at the Christchurch university. We made top ten finalists from 30+ entries.

18/09/09 - I sat down with the web developers from Loop Solutions (http://www.loopsolutions.co.nz) who are developing the Room4Rent website, and nutted out exactly what the design and layout of the site was going to look like and cleared up any areas of confusion.

I attended the Prize giving for the Audacious competition. It was a great night with very knowledgeable speakers and the best thing for me as a student, free food and beer! Congratulations to ‘Home In’ for winning the top prize. ‘Home In’ is one of the start up businesses along with Room4Rent who are being brought up through The Distiller (http://www.thedistiller.org), which is an environment for entrepreneurs to develop their business.

22/09/09 - I am currently on a skiing holiday with friends and family. It is bad weather up Mt Ruapehu today so I am spending the day writing more blog posts. In the pipeline: Room4Rent’s social media blog post, a blog post on the Rugby World Cup 2011, and New Zealand’s current accommodation issues.

Sam Janett.