If you could be anything...what will it be?
Case Study Participant Profiles
Traci Houpapa
Business Consultant
One of the most important aspects of being in business for Traci is her “passion for Maori development, especially for women, which is part of my motivation for succeeding in business”.
Traci is the co-owner of a Hamilton based consultancy firm that provides professional advice in strategic, business and organisational planning to public and private sector clients throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. She became self-employed through a chain of events that resulted in Traci losing her job at the time. Being helped on her way as Traci put it was the best thing that could have happened.
Strong networks and contacts made while she was an employee proved to be instrumental in the start up phase providing her with much needed contracts and support “After regular paid employment, self-employment is a big step”. So Traci saw the situation she found herself in as an opportunity and soon discovered that business was the most challenging thing that she has done.
The freedom and flexibility to work the business around your own lifestyle, preferred work time and patterns is a plus for Traci however she also found that, in the early stages of business start-up, the extreme isolation of working for yourself can sometimes be discouraging.
Traci’s family provided her with support and advice when she first began getting her business on its feet. She also had a mentor in the early days and can vouch for the importance of aligning yourself with successful role models. Traci also recognises that it is not necessarily all roses in the world of self-employment.
The challenges and the opportunities to work with a number of different people and projects at various levels keep her motivated to succeed “I like the sense of self-direction and determination. Simply put, the success I enjoy is relative to the effort, energy and ideas I provide and offer.”
It’s important to be clear about the core products and services of any business, which will determine target consumers and markets. Traci reflects that your choices should take you closer toward your preferred end goal and vision coupled with the acknowledgement that it is people who are an important part of the end result. Traci found people’s perceptions of self-employment were both interesting and frustrating. Often people would ask her when she was going to get a ‘real job’.
It seemed that, when Traci was setting up in business often people did not recognise the importance or the value that small businesses make to the overall economy of our country. Traci advises that being clear about your motivations, your vision and core values, start up costs, professional and personal support networks and having a real understanding of your proposed business market are very good starting points.
She strongly recommends that all new business people and entrepreneurs “get the best professional advisors you an afford, create a formal but unpaid support network of professional peers, get the buy-in and support from your partners and keep healthy, maintain balance between you, family and life”. Traci firmly believes that your cultural capital as an integral part of who you are flavours what you can offer and how you engage as a business owner to your workplace, staff, clients and business community.
Traci says “the ability to balance commercial and cultural imperatives [without unacceptable levels of compromise] translates as added value products and services for our clients, joint ventures, alliances or partnerships”. Finally, forming a partnership was a natural progression from being a sole practitioner allowing Traci to combine her skills and experience with that of her business partner. They decided to work together on a contract to test and monitor their business compatibility and have not looked back since.
Traci comments that while “we may be different in our approaches, we share very much the same philosophy in terms of business values. It is this synergy underpinned with our commitment to integrity, honesty and passion that makes our business a success.”
