Kindermobel - the birth of a business

[Paul Turner]

This is basically a tool for me to journal the challenges of starting a business, having a two year old son, and expecting a second child in January - all this while my current job has been 'disestablished'.

We have started a business to import children's furniture from Offi Kids to distribute to retailers in New Zealand. This venture has been in the pipeline for 8 months but really only kicked off seriously in February 2007 when we found out the company I work for was up for sale and our job future was uncertain.

We approached Offi to be their agent for Australasia and they agreed to give a chance so we created our business plan, approached the banks, and took our samples to the shops of Auckland.

What a trip that was! We live in the South Island of NZ so to get to Auckland is a two day trip that includes a three hour ferry crossing. Our vehicle is our 'new' van - a 1993 Nissan Serena that I got for free from my company as it was an asset they wanted off their books, so we jammed in our gear, our two and half year old son, Oliver (Oli) and my pregnant wife and set off for a 2,500 km road trip.

Oli was great all the way and really enjoyed seeing the new sights and the boat ride. I dropped SHelley and Oli off at the grandparents in New Plymouth, then I headed up to Auckland for two days of visiting potential retailers. They loved the Offi range but for some, the cost to import plus the exchange rate meant that it was priced out of their market. However, I did manage to secure enough demand to make this a viable venture.

Back to New Plymouth to collect the family, then off to Wellington (the capital of NZ) to visit stores there. Stayed the night in Wellington then back on the boat and back to Christchurch.

Since then it ahs been a series of communications to secure orders and place our first stock orders on Offi - it takes 12 weeks to make the product then another 7 weeks of shipping so I need to plan carefully to ensure we keep sufficient stock to meet demand but not too much that my holding costs are high.

Anyway, that is where we currently are at - lots of money being spent but not a lot coming in, my current job finishes in 3 months so no steady income, I have a good sized mortgage to pay off, a new child on the way and my wife will no longer be working part time as a teacher so we lose that income as well! Good thing I am already bald!

August 14th

What a stressful time it has been - the NZ dollar has been on a rollercoaster ride against the US dollar and we were about to place our first large order but it took time to arrange the loan - this delay cost us NZ$3,000 as the dollar took a dive.

I guess it will always be like this - nothing is stable, but it made me question my ability to cope, and am I the right person to be doing this? Going to work for someone else when the risk is theirs is a lot different than putting your families future on the line.

January 4th 2008

If I thought my last post was stressful it seems like a cake walk compared to what we have been through.

The response from the retailers has been great and we launched into some of the best stores in Auckland. Our 20' container arrived a week late but that was no issue and I made a trip up to Auckland to be there when the products were delivered to the stores and helped to assemble the store displays - it was a great time and I got to know the store owners well.

What I did not realise was that to launch a new range of products on the market this close to Xmas was a disaster waiting to happen. We should have started our advertising campaign a lot earlier to build up a brand awareness - New Zealanders are slightly behind the times when it comes to designers so Offi was not a brand that was well known.

Since then we have had a lot of interest but not much follow through with sales - the public are not so keen to spend a little bit extra for a quality brand item of furniture. It is early days yet though as we have only been in the stores for two months and the big news for us is that we are attending the Australian International Furniture Fair in Sydney next month and we feel very positive about the response we will get from this - we already have an order from an Australian store and we have not even advertised yet.

Watch this space!

(By the way - to add to the stress our second son is due to be born on the 15th January though this is a huge source of joy to us both and I cannot wait to welcome him into the world).