Can you tell me a bit about Eventfinda?
Eventfinda is New Zealand's largest online event marketing company and fastest growing ticketing company. Around a million New Zealanders use the site every month to find out what's on and we supply most of the event listings you see elsewhere on the web. All our event information is submitted directly by the event promoters or publicists themselves. At any given time we're also ticketing more than 500 different events, and that's the fastest growing area of our business.
We started the business in 2006 when I was 26. Back then there were literally hundreds of websites in New Zealand with event listings on them. Some covered an individual town or city while others covered a niche such as mountain biking or raves. We thought if we could bring all of those events together in a single place, it'd be much easier for people to find out what was on.
Today we have 15 staff.
What's been the general story at Eventfinda in terms of cashflow?
Cashflow has been challenging at times. We can deal with advertising agencies with long payment cycles, and some promoters may not be in a position to pay for marketing until after their event. Too many late payments can lead to significant knock-on effects across the business if they're not managed tightly.
One of the strategies you've adopted is shifting some accounts receivable duties from the finance team to sales. Why?