How a digital whanau has stayed in business for 20 years.
If you think about it, the songs “No Diggidy” and “Barbie Girl” are 25 years old this year so it isn’t a big stretch to think that 20 years wasn’t that long ago for many of us.
Let me take you back to 2002 – a long forgotten time before Facebook, Insta and Tiktok, before IPhones and Quest 2s, shucks before even Maori TV had made an appearance.
There we were, 2 young uni students, gathering information from all across Aotearoa, curating into a simple, readable format and then sending it out over email.
Our first blog – Rangikainga, issue 1.
That first blog post contained some basic links, a digital pic of a whakairo and was sent out to 12 whanau & friends who had an email account. It was our effort to provide positive Maori news, views and opinions on the internet as there wasn’t a lot of Maori content online back then.
Little did we realise that that very first blog would create a beautiful digital pathway which has helped sustain our whanau for the past 20 years.
Nikolasa and I have been at the forefront of Maori digital developments, mostly because I’m a tutu and we have been fortunate to find ourselves in amazing places, with incredible people who are doing inspiring mahi.
Over the years, we have grown from providing e-panui to developing websites for iwi to now inspiring the next generation of digital leaders at Digital Natives Academy (DNA), and the number one question we’re asked when we speak with whanau is “How?”.
I guess we all have our reasons for wanting to create our own career path – financial freedom, wanting to travel more and spend time with whanau, or even with New Years, making that Resolution and then going for it. Those are the “Whys”. But it’s actually in the path, the process, the roadmap we developed to safely navigate month to month, year to year.
So in the spirit of 22’, here are 10 Tips for you and your whanau to start a digital business and to stay in business for 20 years.
Tip Tuatahi.
#1. Believe.
Being Maori, I have had to dig deep, karakia often and sometimes, see the path ahead when few others can. I guess it came from my Kaumatua who faced their own challenging times and yet still persevered. For our whanau, we had to ensure we looked after each other’s mana, tinana, wairua and hinengaro as we set forth on a new road of entrepreneurialism.
Tip Tuarua.
#2. Select.
Today there are so many tools, platforms, communities, kaupapa and interests to provide services or products to. It’s all about defining what you love to do, choosing a lane that you feel you can fully own and bringing all the right pieces to your perfect business puzzle together. Start thinking about your Brand, Logo, Website. Social Platforms, Personal Style, as well as your ideal Target Market. Business is about selection, so do your homework and get going.
Tip Tuatoru.
#3. Quality.
You know that feeling when you’ve had a great kai? It’s that feeling of satisfaction that you want your customer, listener or client to walk away with. The more time you spend on your product or service, the higher the quality value will be and the more appreciation you will receive back. If you’re serving old, dry bread with mouldy cheese to your manuhiri, I doubt they’ll return anytime soon.
Tipi Wha.
#4.Grind Quietly.
Our whanau normally start mahi with a karakia as a way to ground us, bring the groups thinking together and to korero ki nga tupuna ki nga Atua hoki. We tend to have some lovely discussions before agreeing on what each person’s task is and getting on with it. There are regular check-ins but we have learned to trust that our team will do the mahi and have it ready to go. It’s much like a Whare Kai where we just look after the kai prep and when it’s time, we welcome in our whanau to eat. We all just get on with the mahi so that later we can enjoy the treats.
Tipi Rima
#5. Test with Trusteds First.
Have you ever made frybread and tested it on your whanau first? Same thing with your business. Some might say add a bit of this and that, others might love it straight away and be lining up for another one. This is where you get good feedback about the frybread that you are about to sell to the world!
Tipi Ono
#6. First Sales
Ah the first sale. For us, our first ad took 2 years to secure (a whooping $1700) which paid for the hosting and domain name of our website, plus a Xmas bonus. There are so many roles that Lasa and I had to cover – I was the shaky-hand man who met clients and then Lasa took over with emails, payments and paperwork. Then we’d both work on the website or campaign before delivering back to our clients. This is still an important process for us but we have largely automated many of our services (which I will expand on in a later blog). So in essence, your job as a small unit is to prepare, track, hunt, catch, kill, cook, serve and wait around for the dishes, all the while smiling and asking if they would like another. That’s a repeat sale lol.
Tipi Whitu
#7. Absorb.
Absorbing your surroundings, both good and bad, is a handy trait when in business. You learn to hear problems and when able, offer solutions. You can also hear criticisms about your own products and make the right adjustments. Being able to absorb bad data in and being able to send good data out is something we’ve learned to do (also, find ways to purge and dump waste data, information and habits).
Tipi Waru
#8. SME Responsibilities
Aroha mai e te whanau, but I am doing things the upside down way. When most people first start a business, they attend overpriced courses, randomly buy books that deal with mindsets and spend a lot of time overcoming complex formulas, start up guides, manuals and information. They build a Business Plan, get a Lawyer and Accountant to look over it, hire a website dev and graphic artist and spend all their time trying to look like they’re in business, rather than actually being in business. Ok sorry – rant out the way.
You do need an Accountant once you start making money – if you can do it all yourself, mean; if there’s ever any doubt, pay an accountant. It’s clean and you won’t have to worry about going to prison all because you didn’tpay your taxes (note: pay your taxes!)
Find as many whanau who are actual experts to help you with your Business Plan, Financial Plans and Marketing Plans. They really do work!
Tipi Iwa
#9. Tino Ownership.
For our whanau, being able to enjoy the life we choose for ourselves has been most important, especially now that our tamariki are rangatahi. We started our business as a side hustle back in 2002 before children were even in the picture and it has been cool to both raise our whanau and grow our business. This is tino-in-action and shows we continue to be kaitiaki of our kaupapa and our whanau.
Tipi Te Kau
#10. Kia Kokiri!
You have to just go for it and not look back. It’s ok to reflect on what you have done but your future exists in your front view and over the horizon, so always be present, listen to what people are saying/signalling around you and every now and then, make the quantum leap you need to enable intergenerational transformation for your whanau. It ain’t easy but if you succeed, it will all be worth it. Kia kaha tonu.
Nga mihi o te tau o hou na Te Whanau Biasiny-Tule, Lakefront 2022
“Potaua & Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule have created digital businesses since 2002, with the launch of Rangikainga, TangataWhenua.com and Digital Natives Academy. Based in Rotorua, Aotearoa-New Zealand, you can contact them for more info potaua@gmail.com.”
Coming Soon: Native Industries 2022
