Dealing with the young entrepreneurs in this week's business theme was as you would expect - things were done at top speed, a little by the seat of the pants, they were quite demanding and direct about how they want to be presented, but provided great insights.
Young make-up importer, 22 year old Chanel Oades got in touch with me last Thursday morning to see if she could participate in a column for this theme. She had the answers to my questions and a professionally-taken photo over to me before 2 pm. Top marks, Chanel.
It was fun talking to the kids of some of New Zealand's well known entrepreneurs for this topic. Sam Thom in the print profile this week on Monday, the son of record producer Murray Thom, is boundless in his energy and enthusiasm. He popped round to my house with some samples of his Note to Self stationery collection on the same day of our interview.
Meanwhile Reuben Cairns-Morrison, the son of All Good Organic's Chris Morrison was keen to be featured. Neither young men brought up their dads' names when being interviewed. They want to do this on their own merits obviously. Still, entrepreneurialism seems innate in these families. They just have no fear in giving an idea a go and riding the wave of a trend, literally in the case of Cairns-Morrison with his surf app, sherpasurfguide.com.
And, while you might think young entrepreneurs would be into interesting technology products, we have two contributions from people doing traditional baking food products but with a modern twist. Take a look at columns from Massey University food tech grad Campbell Ellison and Felicity Craft from The Sweet Eatery. Ellison's business idea came from a university assignment so who says university is a waste of time for entrepeneurs? And they are adept users of social media, Craft using Facebook extensively to help talk to her customers.
