Midwives at birth of small business

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 19

Midwives at birth of small business

Some people with business ideas come to his office “quivering with fright” because of problems they have had trying to put across what they are trying to do, says Denis Stollery, one of the City Council’s volunteer small business counsellors.

Mr Stollery, of Astoll Marketing, has helped set up three companies since starting his volunteer work a year ago. A product designer and distributor, he had a hit last year with his Muldoon Pen-pal sets. “I'm a small businessman,” he says. “I grew up with the pains these people are feeling. The people who could provide finance just don’t understand the problems these guys are going through. They put up such barriers.” His counselling includes going with prospective businessmen to contacts, such as banks, and going to bat for ideas he thinks will succeed.

“The times are ripe for small business initiatives,” says Mr Stollery, who has designed about 28 products. “With takeovers, so many lines are being thrown out because they are uneconomical. There are people that could be taking them on. They need encouragement.” Government corporate, finance houses are top-heavy with accountants and short on marketing managers with flair. “All they know is they have got a dream,” he says of the people he

sees, “and a product they know how to make and can sell. All they need is somebody to believe in them.

“The great thing is when they come in here, it’s not a flash office and they know it’s somebody who can relate to them.”

Mr Stollery helps with marketing, pricing and cash flow advice. “We keep a very close check on them,” he said of his clients. “We have devised a system where we keep track of these guys, and keep a personal link with them. We only need one downfall and it’s going to look bad.”

He said that some people with good ideas had personal problems that had to be fixed before they could get a company going. “You can’t bring those problems* to work in the first two or three months,” he says. “You have enough problems already.”

He had been successful with a finance house in getting support for the acquisition of cars for two photographers starting up a new business — the cars were virtually mobile offices, and a necessity — but not so successful with some other traditional financial sources. Some sources, such as banks, are “just not prepared to take a bloomin’ chance,” says Mr Stollery. “If we have to start up to help small businesses, Government offices are not really doing their job,” he says of the City Council

By the end. of January, a month short of ending its second year, , the Christchurch City Council employment promotion office’s small business section had helped in the starting of 97 new businesses, and the purchasing of 21 existing businesses. Over-all, 620 inquiries had been made of the advisory service, which depends heavily on volunteer counsellors from the business world. Those counsellors had helped 213 persons in addition to those who ended up in business. STAN DARLING talks to some of those behind the service, and some it has helped.

He has to discourage some ideas because they lack a solid marketing base — “I tell them to keep looking around.”

But those clients headed in the right direction get enthusiastic support.

“I keep them charged up, say to them don’t get sidetracked,” says Mr Stollery. “Keep on your arrow, keep going straight through. Get over the hump of being financially committed with nothing to show for it yet.

system. “The growth in employment must come from small businesses.”

Counsellors were now setting up forms so the new businessmen “can virtually check on themselves. If we keep putting safety valves in as they start to grow, we’ll be okay.” Mr Stollery says he is still going through some of the same growing pains he sees in his clients. He could have used the same sort of help himself when he was starting out.

He tells people they may know what they are talking about, but they have to get their message across to the less well informed if they hope to succeed. “Some of these guys who walk in here are so technically brilliant their words are just beyond me,” he says. “I say to them, you have to get down to basics. With finance people, the technical data just confounds them.”

“It’s a very fine line they’re walking now, especially companies with no orders through yet.” Along with a long list of other business counsellors, Mr Stollery is not paid for his services in spite of often working many hours on cases. He will take no shares in companies being set up. He arranges meetings and gets people with ideas together with people who might help them, “then I get out and let them carry on,” he says. “They report back later on how it went.

“In marketing, I get right into it. I’ve taken a lot of money out of people who have supported my products. I’m just sort of putting a bit back in. There must be thousands of people walking around Christchurch streets with brilliant ideas but frustrated by the barriers in the way of doing something about them.”

He wants to see marketing managers for Government offices having the final say on business ideas, and being able to make quick decisions when ideas are good.

“A sales rep can’t be a marketing manager,” he said. “A manager has got to be a dreamer, see 10 years hence. We’re just so far behind the times, missing out in export sales, because accountants are at the top of things. They are not inspirationalists. It is a totally different set-up in Australia.”