When you start a business you will need to think about building a team to help realise your vision. Although the idea and drive may come from yourself individually, it is unlikely you will be able to work alone, and as your business grows you will be dealing with a number of key suppliers, advisors, mentors. Today I will talk about some key members of my start up team and roles they served to get our vision off the ground.
Fellow R&V founder Tom and I shared a passion for our idea to host friends at a summer party. While Tom came up with the initial idea for a party of friends for new years, it was me that seized it. I could see the vision immediately and arranged a meeting at Gardies to flesh out the idea. I was looking for a business idea in the music industry and this seemed the perfect project. Tom has a creative mind and wicked sense of humour and I had loads of fun discussing and dissecting the idea him. It wasn't long until we had fleshed out a vision for our festival and began taking steps to get it off the ground. It was my job to perhaps keep Tom propped up and engaged, because he had a short attention span and tendency to drift off.
My flat mate Andrew was also a key part of the our initial team. We went to him with our idea for having a party at his parents place and asked for his support in making it a reality. Having run a summer fruit truck for some time he already had great business experience already. He knew about budgets, cashflow, contracts, staff, along with selling a product. He was social and well connected, and had already hosted friends in Gisborne over prior summers. He was most supportive of our idea and invested his own time and money to get the first wheels in motion, including booking our flights to Gisborne to meet his father. He was a great support and while his focus has been predominantly on BW, he continues to be across all areas of the business.
One key member in our initial team was a mentor. Having Dean Witters (Andrew'
s father) involved was paramount to getting things off the ground. In Dean we had an experienced and well-versed business man in our corner. From that first presentation to him he was on board. Asking us the hard questions. Make us think outside the box. Inspiring us. Giving us confidence to move forward. Being a sounding board for any issues we were coming across. And being commercially minded and focused. As little things like deposit dates, and pricing of local suppliers Dean was our eyes and ears along with our bank!
As we grew we need to bring on support in key areas. The second year of the event we had bigger bands on board and with 5000 expected it became clear we need a more commercial manager to help us dot the i's and cross the t's. Dean helped enagage a local business man to be our Event Manager. This guy was in the radio industry so new a little bit about promotion already, along with being commercially driven. He was able to contract all the event team, suppliers, sponsors, staff. We were focused on the grass roots, promotion and advising him on the music, brand and creative direction for him to pull it all together.
By year 3 it was soon clear that our small team not big enough. We were now dealing with top professional kiwi bands like Fat Freddys Drop and we had 60 days before 10,000 people were coming to our little party. We split up roles and began to look for specialist contractors in key areas of the event. We bought on a production manager who worked on Splore a similar sized festival set west of Auckland. We took our accounts to a local accountant to provide some cost control and advise on. While Dean took care of the venue alterations with a team of local tradesmen, I tried to keep an overview on all was happening while trying to learn as much as I could It was all a bit over our head as we had just finished our studies. We weren't scared to delegate when the going got tough!
In building your team you need to surround yourself with positive people who are supportive of your quest. I was lucky to have my good friend and band member Kyle Bell on board to help seek sponsors and partners. Kyle was excited about the opportunity to be part of our event, not just to play but to have a summer in Gisborne. He was a loyal confidant in listening and suggesting inital ideas and constructive criticism. His support has been unwavering and he still with me today as our Head of Partnership. Find these people and keep them in your life. Other mates didn't particularly understand my journey. While my flatmates were downstairs playing Playstation and watching Frat-boy movies I was upstairs in my room hustling, on the phone to sponsors and negotiating with bands. We would have some crude dial in conference calls between the 3 of us and Dean. But that small team would inspire each other towards getting our idea off the ground.
Family were supportive, if not at times a little confused about my journey. They continue to offer love and support through the good times and the bad. My sisters handed out posters to their network of friends and helped with artist hospitality. While my parents helped set up the venue. Dad being an ex Policeman helped get us resource consent and an alcohol licence. They offer unwavering and love and support and are all part of an extended entreprenurial team.
As your business builds you will need to continue to grow this team. In building a world class event we haven't pretended to be experts in event management. But we have surround ourselves with those who are. In areas such as marketing, artist liasion, corporate governance etc. I do think our vision is one of excellence, and we have demanded a level of behaviour and respect - for the product, the market and each other. This includes removing those are not on your team. Don't settle for well poisoners, or people that aren't 100% in support of you and your idea. Start with a small and loyal team all working towards a common go and build from there.
