Part-time job is a full-time success

By ELLEN READ

How many people dream of setting up a business which runs itself and quietly turns a profit while they continue with their everyday lives?

After an initial burst of hard work, this dream has come true for Ian Falconer and Steve Coppard of New Zealand Software.

A few years ago the pair saw a gap in the market for sales team software while working for a major New Zealand company.

They developed the missing software and run the business while continuing with their day jobs.

"If you get the business model right, there's very little ongoing work and the rewards are endless," Falconer said.

He and Coppard are now looking for overseas opportunities.

"We've had inquiries from Armenia," Falconer said.

"You'd never dream of doing business there but that's what's happening."

Their boutique software development company, which specialises in electronic marketing, purchase and payment settlement, was formed in 2001.

Falconer and Coppard were working for a sales manager who constantly wanted sales updates and information from the sales team.

"We went over to the pub and put our heads together and decided there had to be a better way to do it than with lots of paper and updates," Falconer said.

After 2000 hours of development, the result was Sales Manager, the company's main software product.

It is a website into which sales teams around the country can log in and update their records.

A manager can then see the information.

"It replaces the spreadsheets that sales teams have to continually update and fax or deliver," Falconer said.

The product is available online, so customers can sign up.

They don't have to purchase anything physical, and payment can also be made online.

Asked why the solution hasn't come up before, Falconer and Coppard say that similar products exist, but are far more complicated and research shows that up to 80 per cent of their functions are not used.

"So we decided to focus on the 20 per cent that was useful and build a product around that," Coppard said.

The main investment at the start was the time spent developing the product and $7000 for a designer to give the website a professional look.

The expenses were paid by Coppard and Falconer, and the company's third director, silent partner Mike Chisholm.

Their Sales Manager website has had more than a million visits, and they have secured more than 100 business customers, ranging in size from five to 200 employees.

Because the product is an online one, security is paramount.

The company's business is run from a server hosted in a large American server farm which requires digital palm prints for access.

The company's name also helps. Falconer says the New Zealand Software name gives them credibility and a large branding advantage.

"It's as big as we are in terms of its future," said Coppard, of the name.

This month, the company signed a distribution agreement with Prolific Publishing to manufacture, market and sell its range of screen saver products for Macintosh and PC computers in New Zealand and Australia.

The company plans to promote and sell these products through specialist retailers, marine attractions and from its online store marinetank.co.nz.

Because the business is web-based, the partners don't have to be in the same place to run the firm.

Coppard lives in Auckland, and Falconer in Christchurch.

They said the hardest thing about setting up their own business was struggling with major organisations - banks and the Inland Revenue Department - which refused to take them seriously and help them with the various processes required.

Battling perceptions of the dotcom bomb was also a challenge.

"The whole e-business thing is alive and well and there will be a big resurgence once people have got over the whole e-bomb," Falconer said.

Coppard says the key to success is to find the market and develop a suitable product, rather than trying to market a new product that may not be needed.

Another philosophy the pair have is to keep the operation streamlined and simple.

They have no employees, just the three directors, and outsource as much as possible.

New Zealand Software