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- Hi, I have a small business that makes reusable food packaging. We are one year old and have been making everything by hand. We have approximately 20 stockists in NZ and are keeping up with the demand. We have recently received offers from companies overseas wanting to act as distributors in UAE, Japan and UK. We believe these are genuine as we have a product that is a world first. We have the funds to invest and grow, but currently we are super small and just working out of a garage so this is difficult for us to get our heads around as to how we will manage this. Our product is also able to be copied very easily but we do have the advantage of a strong story and brand. So essentially we are out of our depth but don’t want to miss out on these opportunities. One thing I have thought of doing next week is trying to throw together an advisory board. What advice can you offer us? Thanks in advance.
- Reply To: Hi, I have a small business that makes reusable food packaging. We are one year old and have been making everything by hand. We have approximately 20 stockists in NZ and are keeping up with the demand. We have recently received offers from companies overseas wanting to act as distributors in UAE, Japan and UK. We believe these are genuine as we have a product that is a world first. We have the funds to invest and grow, but currently we are super small and just working out of a garage so this is difficult for us to get our heads around as to how we will manage this. Our product is also able to be copied very easily but we do have the advantage of a strong story and brand. So essentially we are out of our depth but don’t want to miss out on these opportunities. One thing I have thought of doing next week is trying to throw together an advisory board. What advice can you offer us? Thanks in advance.
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Andrew Hamilton
Admin
@andyadmin
Reply submitted 18/05/21 @ 05:50am
::Morena DJD – love the story, and wanted to say ‘opportunities whisper, they never really shout at you’! So awesome do you all for acting on this – and listening – and awesome for reaching out – I figure the best people to learn from are people who have done what you are doing before – not so they tell you what to do, more they tell you what they did when they faced a similar question. So building an informal group who you can go too is a really good idea – and I would say, come back to the Manaaki Platform when you have specific questions or challenges.
NZTE has great resources so tap into those. Business mentors NZ can be a good place for find mentors too.
If you share the areas you have thoughts in your mind that are challenges – then we can keep thinking – just remember, you want to put yourself around people who have done this before! Andy
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