Start-up firms go through an exhausting process of finding the right team which can deliver an idea to their fullest potential with an investor which can fund them for the same. With the right people in your team, an investor, and a potential idea that would sell in the market, can we say that a business would succeed? Certainly not! As most startup ideas aren’t proven and tested, customers find it hard to completely trust their products and services. Hence, a large number of start-up firms need to seek helps from business incubators to help support their entrepreneurship journey.
FURM Group, founded by Nader in 2016 at Auckland, New Zealand, is a professional services firm and business incubator. They cater to start-ups, non-profit and small scale to medium business sectors. They help new entrepreneurs and businesses, to achieve their maximum potential. They guide businesses to solve all the complex challenges involved in forming a successful venture such as:
ADVISORY:
Strategic Planning
Laying the foundation isn’t enough. They assist with strategic planning and advisory to help develop an idea into a sustainable and scalable business model. Helping entrepreneurs better understand product/market fit is a core focus during the strategic planning phase of an idea.
Growth Hacking
FURM Group provides advisory on growth hacking techniques which have been tried and tested during previous product launch and client campaigns.
Growth hacking often focuses on low-cost alternatives, using social media, viral marketing or targeted advertising instead of buying advertising through more traditional media such as newspaper and television.
ACCOUNTS:
Digital Transactional Accounting
They also handle the accounts on a digital platform. They carry out the accounting process for all start-ups.
XERO Setup & Training
They provide training on the XERO Set-up for the business owners and staff. This includes setting up chart of accounts, bank feeds, and sales invoice template as per your requirements. Their department for accounts helps the newbie to set up basic purchase order templates, payroll obligations including employees and superannuation and enter opening balances in the file if required.
Website & Mobile App Design & Development
They have specific teams assigned for designing, who transform an idea, or a story, into a visually appealing design, and use their layout to build the user experience throughout the whole website or mobile app product. Developers on the other side take a design and actually make an operational website or mobile app from it.
LENDING A HAND…
To help entrepreneurs, they offer high quality inspirational office space in their purpose built coworking space; CLOUD39. What’s unique is that, they offer childcare and out of school care services for entrepreneurs with young families to support. Their boutique professional services are in the advisory, accounting and digital space and their focus is on developing the entrepreneurial mindset alongside long term, sustainable growth and success, as opposed to ‘quick wins’ or ‘overnight success.’
MOVING NZ TOWARDS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
They go through four stages of maturity before commercialization or export to markets outside of New Zealand which allow them to build quality products before inviting outside investment. It helps them recognize that not all products will achieve market acceptance. Thinking limitlessly when developing digital products is important because the product may or may not sell. The only option is to give a secure product or not. While they consider the fact that, New Zealand is still in an ‘infancy’ stage when it comes to digital transformation and many companies lack vision or creative thinking to truly translate the potential it can have on their business, the downside to this is investing, developing and launching a digital product that is still open to further disruption. For longer term sustainability, companies should be investing in innovation that minimizes the potential for competitor disruption.
SETTING A FURM TREND…
Nader Luthera (CEO, FURM® Group) says, “I’m humbled to be considered a ‘trendsetter’ in a globally competitive and hungry market for innovation. I believe my vision and direction for the company has never been about ‘trend setting’ but instead about authentically representing ‘today’s reality’, which often is not seen by everyday players who remain stuck in their old ways or day to day routine. I call this the ‘futuristic present.”
FURM FUTURE…
Primarily, they’re looking to raise an investment to help support more startup entrepreneurs in the South East Auckland ecosystem. As far as long term vision is concerned, they operate in a vigorously changing environment and it’s important to remain agile, lean and open to pivoting in directions unthought-of.
QUOTES:
“FURM Group guide businesses to solve all the complex challenges involved in forming a successful venture”
“FURM Group provides advisory on growth hacking techniques which have been tried and tested during previous product launch and client campaigns”
