Cycle tours to make a happy you

His job title of "chief shepherd" gives you an idea of Roger Martin's approach to business.

"This business thing, you can't take too seriously," the 30-year old reckons.

Mr Martin is the owner, or chief shepherd, of Happy Ewe Cycle Tours.

He started the business last July giving three-hour bike tours around Rotorua on cruiser bikes. It's gone from strength to strength and is now ranked the second best thing to do in Rotorua and the fifth best in the North Island on TripAdvisor.

"I made a profit in my first year. Apparently that's good," Mr Martin said. "All it was supposed to do was teach me about business. The fact that it's successful is a bonus."

With a background in sports management, Mr Martin was living in London and working on a contract with London Olympics. It was the dream job. Then his mum got sick so he returned to Rotorua, where he was born and raised. He was then faced with what to do next.

"I went for a run, and thought this place is absolutely great," he said. "I've seen it my whole life but never really looked at it."

He thought about it "for a couple of days", had a look online to see what competition there was, then bought some bikes.

"[I thought] I'd buy some bikes, go for a ride, show people Rotorua from a local perspective, my perspective growing up."

The tours take in 27 sites in three hours, including Ohinemutu, Government Gardens and the Sulphur Flats. All but 800m is on cycle trails, so the ride is easy enough for anyone to enjoy. There's a maximum of 10 on each tour.

Mr Martin studied the culture and history of Rotorua to make his tours as interesting as possible.

"There's a phenomenal history that no one really knows about. It's ridiculously cool what's happened here over the years," he said.

And while 90 per cent of his customers have been foreigners, the locals that have done it have also loved it. "Every local I take on the tour I guarantee them they will discover or learn something new about Rotorua."

After almost a year of running every tour himself - he swears he still enjoys every one and loves meeting his customers - he's about to take on staff.

"But I want to keep it small. I don't want a mass produced product. A small intimate product where people feel great."

The biggest challenge about starting from scratch had been a lack of support, he said, adding he'd like to see more formal structures in place in Rotorua to help start-ups.

Why Happy Ewe? Unable to come up with a sufficiently unique name, he searched the web for images and narrowed it down to a cute sheep and a cute chicken. The sheep won - he put her on a bike and there was the logo sorted.

"You can't be too serious. I put my own personality in it."

Although he admits to missing aspects of London life, all in all his first business venture is working out pretty well.

"As long as we provide a fun experience and people come away happy then I am happy," he said. "All it was supposed to do was teach me about business. The fact that it's successful is a bonus."

For information see www.happyewetours.com.