Kei ngā hekenga o ngā waka puta noa o te motu - tēnā rā koutou katoa. Tēnei au e tuku atu ana i aku mihi whakamānawa ki a koutou katoa i runga i ngā āhuatanga o te wā, kua eke a Huarau ki tana wiki tuarua (HURŌ!), waihoki kua eke panuku mātou i ngā wiki poto ka hori nei.
Now that I have found a quiet moment for reflection I would just like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been a part of this journey so far. It's been amazing and very surreal week and a bit, & I have so much to share. WARNING #NovelAlert #HeKauhauTeHaereAkeNei. We're mid way in to our second week of business & learning new things everyday. There have been some amazing opportunities, and so many positives, but also a few learning curves too. So here goes my recap on starting a new business, for those who may be interested or thinking of doing it, here's what I've learned so far #KiaMauTonuMai.
He Nui Ngā Tuatahitanga!
Pāia!!! We've had so many first this week that are cause for celebration from having our first post, making our first sale, and attending our very first event! We officially launched on Sunday the 1st of Sep in time for Mahuru Māori and the word spread like wildfire. Our Facebook page grew in followers and we're now sitting at 500+ likes. I consider this to be an amazing achievement in the short time we have been operating, especially considering the fact that this is still a learning experience for me. When our facebook page started gaining attention it was shared on several different pages including Mahuru Māori and Te Mana o Te Reo Māori. Not long after (@ 4:49pm on our first day) we were contacted by Karepa Wall from Te Tāhūhū o Te Matauranga and invited to attend the Te Koko o Te Reo event at Pipitea Marae - Wellington. 😱Before I go any further I have to say a huge thank you to Karepa for this opportunity! Ko koe a runga e kara.
This was too good of an opportunity to pass up so I organised babysitters and worked tirelessly for the next 2 days to create some physical rauemi to take with me to share at this kaupapa. I crammed it all in to my Awahou green suitcase and jetted of with no more than 2 hours sleep and a stomach full of butterflies.
When people ask me "how was the conference?" I can't even explain how amazing the experience was. I met some lovely people who were so encouraging and made me feel a little less intimidated by the whole experience. There was a lovely lady in the stall next to me who offered to mind our stall so I could go for a break because she realised I was there alone - shout out to you for looking out for the little guy (and shame on me for not asking for your name).
I was definitely nervous about being a first timer to an event like this, and being in the same arena as the likes of Huia Publishers 😮was a daunting thought, but I pulled out my gun stapler, prettied up our stall, and got my winning smile out. I certainly didn't make millions that day 😂, but I handed out all of my HANDMADE business cards, met some amazing people, and learned a whole lot too. I saw a few things that reminded me to stay woke, and came home full of optimism and motivation.
Since the conference I've had a steady lot of sales and I've never been happier to be busy. I enjoy all aspects of this "job" from the creative process right down to packaging each item before shipping them out. I plan on making an effort to thank each of our customers individually through social media because without their business, I wouldn't be where I am today. Everytime I get a notification that I have made a sale I do a little happy dance 😊& I am reminded that this entire journey is so worth it, especially when it could potentially mean I get to stay home with our boss baby & be there for the most important moments in his life.
He Akoranga
With all experiences there are things that you learn, and I have definitely picked up a thing or two along the way. Here a few things in a nutshell...
It costs money to make money 💰. There are some inescapable costs involved in running a business - even one that is based online. For me there is the cost of materials etc to produce our products, then I pay a monthly subscription fee to host o website, on top of this we pay additional fees to be able accept payments through our website, and then I am charged a percentage of each transaction before I receive "my cut". I didn't take this in to account when I did our initial pricing and may have to re-evaluate this later ☹️. I actually lost money in one of our sales last week due to the shipping cost, and the sale ended up costing me $1 after the shipping costs were calculated. As much as I want to be able to offer free shipping and competitive prices, at this rate I will go bankrupt if I'm not careful.
There are a lot of "big fish" out there who undercut the "little fish". This shouldn't have surprised me, but it still made me feel sad to think this is the game I'm getting in to. I won't name names here, because this blog isn't about them, but there was actually a guy came to our stall and basically scanned our mahi with his camera 😠. I made it known to him that I was aware of what he was doing, and he laughed and walked away. SIDE NOTE: Māori mā if you see similar mahi out there being sold by a "big fish" do the Māori thing and protest ✊🏾. I was also approached by another lady from a big fish company who shall also remain anonymous, who was very interested in how I made our teacher planner & how much it cost me to make because they were interested in doing "this sort of thing". I feel like that was a not so subtle way of saying - "cool idea, I'm gonna do it too and charge more". I have since decided that copyright doesn't give me enough of a reassurance for protection, & I have looked in to intellectual property management a lot more since.
My friends and whanau are amazing! From sharing our business, buying from me, to caring for our tamariki so I am able to make this all happen - I am so blessed and beyond grateful for our whānau. I've had some friends who don't even speak Te Reo (some are not even Māori) promote & share our business, which makes us feel so supported. E kore te puna o whakamimihi e mimiti!
Social media is a powerful tool. I never used instagram before launching our pakihi, and when I arrived in Pōneke I was surprised to hear that many people had already heard about us through Insta (@Huarau_NZ). We still have a lot to learn about using social media for marketing, and it's one of our short term goals! Watch this space.
Working from home is HARDER than working a normal job. The way I see it is I am accountable to myself for the success or failure of our whanau pakihi, therefore I put a lot more pressure on myself to make this work. All things pakihi related take priority in our home, and that sometimes means my poor husband has to pick up the slack around the whare so Māmā can get her hussle on. It's a work in progress, and it's not always this hectic, but for now we're learning how to make this work for our whanau.
So there it is whanau - 1 week & 4 days on, and going strong so far. We have been fortunate enough to be offered a spot at the Hikoia Te Reo event in Manukau this coming Friday to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, so already we're on to our second event and loving it! Come by and check us out if you're in the area, we can kōrero and you can tell me how you heard all about us ;).
Ka timu te tai kōrero i konei,
Mā te wā
HUARAU
Comments