Community group muscling-up for expansion

Leanne White-Haverkamp and Emilie Castellanos-Wright. Photo/Ben Fraser

It may have gone about things a bit back to front but a Rotorua community group is learning to think like a business in order to achieve its dreams.

Leanne White-Haverkamp and Erin Thompson-Pou are the co-founders of FlavAzum Health and Fitness, a community organisation helping Rotorua families get fit and healthy.

It's been going since 2011 and last year was recognised as the overall TrustPower Spirit of Rotorua Awards winner.

But it's now time to step things up a level, according to Mrs White-Haverkamp. And that means the former beauty therapist and mum of five has to get more business savvy.

"We never had the foresight that FlavAzum would be where it is today," she said. "Most people who go into an organisation have plans, goals and vision ... we're back to front, now we're looking at business structure."

This week, Mrs White-Haverkamp, who works full-time administering FlavAzum, moved into co-working Flair Space.

She is one of the first two participants on the Rotorua X Incubate programme, set up to help new businesses and social enterprises grow. As well as use of Flair Space for three months, they get access to mentoring and business coaching.

For FlavAzum, it's an important step in the journey from small community group to a self sustaining non-profit organisation.

Mrs White-Haverkamp said a turning point came recently when a mentor questioned why she and Ms Thompson-Pou weren't thinking bigger.

"We were only thinking small, we realised let's dream big."

That dream is "the FlavAzum hub". By 2016, if not sooner, they aim to have a building in Rotorua where they can run classes and workshops, somewhere whole families can train together.

To get there, they need business skills. Professional development, networking and "getting the word out there" are priorities.

"We know that the more we let people know and share what we want to do ... the hub will come."

In the relatively distraction-free environment at Flair Space, Mrs White-Haverkamp is learning as she goes. With help from mentors such as Rotorua X's Darren McGarvie, she's working on the organisation's first business plan and an application for a Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust major projects grant. That's at the same time as doing correspondence courses in nutrition and childhood obesity. It's all new, but she's enjoying it.

"We had no idea when we started we would get to this point," she said, adding she loved being able to work every day on something she was passionate about.

The second Incubate participant, Emilie Castellanos-Wright, started her French interpreting business Liaison Services eight months ago.

She's working with local business to link them with French-speaking visitors and investors in the city.

She said about 550 properties in Rotorua were believed to have French-speaking owners. Many came from New Caledonia for spa treatments, returning later to buy holiday homes, she said.

Mrs Castellanos-Wright said the Incubate programme would help her keep learning and improving.

"There are people in Rotorua who have experience and are happy to share it and help. I find that really encouraging," she said. "As a new business person, it's a really encouraging thing to have people who have more experience to be behind my back and help."