The recent demise of renowned sports brands and textile companies in New Zealand has been a bit of a vicarious learning opportunity for those within the industry, and the wider business community.
When I started my business I had a fairly gung ho attitude - always take risks, big andsmall, with no real concern on the profit. I just wanted to make great products and have them worn by the world's best and all those they inspired.
However, clearly even with a great idea, brand, product or service, and especially in today's market, that kind of business approach can only last so long. The thing that instigated the change for me was controlling the ever increasing costs as the company grew.
As an entrepreneur I've tended to rely on my instinct and focus more on great products and the bigger picture and less on the financials. But to grow a business locally and globally you sometimes have to flick off the entrepreneur switch - over the last five years I have been closely looking at the cents rather than the dollars and it seems to make a difference.
I'd call my approach now aggressively conservative. It means when I take a risk I don't rely on it to be the make or break of the company - in fact I take the risks and trust my experience about whether or not to start something and when to stop or carry on.
Some of this change was learned through mistakes and hard knocks, and some has probably come with age and maturity! It's a continual process and by watching the cents the dollars seem to take care of themselves.
Unlike when I started out when I was 22, now I'm looking to see the bottom line working before I invest more to grow and build momentum. Having started out making all the decisions myself I've also learned to debate with my team, trust their opinions and get their buy in - particularly those lovely finance people who don't like me spending all our money on marketing!
So regardless the economic situation we'll continue an aggressively conservative approach - but never lose sight of the bigger picture.
