Waikato Business News January/February 2021

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8 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS January/February 2021 CONVERSATIONS WITH MIKE NEALE OF NAI HARCOURTS HAMILTON Looking to make a Commercial lease decision in 2021? Talking to David Hallett from Company-X just before the Christmas break, we discussed our reading habits and what grabs or maintains our attention when reading articles. David was very clear in that he likes to get comment about ‘how to….’ On that basis, I thought it might be an opportune time to give my view on what tenants should consider when making such an important decision. It is inevitable that the banter around the barbecue over Christmas and New Year’s will lead to more people making such decisions early in 2021 than previously. With industrial vacancy rates of around only 1 percent and a distinct shortage of quality commercial spaces available, those that make early decisions may be glad they did so. Having made or still contemplating the decision to lease a new premises in 2021? If you are in existing premises, consider the options here first. Could this tenancy be modified or made to accommodate your future requirements? If it can, then it’s worthwhile talking to your current landlord to discuss those possibilities. However, if you have made the decision to relocate or take up a tenancy, then what have been the drivers to relocate or what should you be looking for with a new commercial premises? What sort of questions should you be asking yourself? • How many staff do I need to accommodate? Do I need storage? • How does the space need to be Mike Neale - Managing Director, NAI Harcourts Hamilton. configured? Do I need individual offices or can I occupy open plan space, which is often far more efficient and economic? • Easy access for customers and clients? • Branding or signage opportunities? • Car parking? How many do you really need (not how many would you ideally like) and what are options for staff within a reasonable walking distance? • Is this the right location for my business? If it is retail based, what is the profile and/or are the pedestrian counts like? • What quality of space do I need or want to be in? Better quality space and local amenities will be an attraction to both recruit and retain good staff • Do you have a seismic requirement for the building? The legislative requirement is to be above 33 percent NBS (New Building Standard), with government and some corporate tenants needing to be above 67 percent NBS. • Do you have a rental budget? Make sure you consider the gross operating cost, which includes Opex (rates and building insurance etc) Inventors Julie Blackwell and Julie Caldwell with the Kitcal. Innovative tablet connects seniors By RICHARD WALKER An easy-use tablet to help older people connect them to their families and loved ones has been launched by two entrepreneurs based in Matamata. Increasingly, tenants are asking questions about potential landlords, as it is likely to be a long-term relationship (hopefully) for the benefit of both parties. Landlord reputations in times of uncertainty, as we have now, are an increasingly important factor for consideration – Hamilton is fortunate in that the vast majority of landlords appear to be good people, looking for fair outcomes. How long a lease term are you considering committing to? The longer the initial lease term, the more flexibility and the more goodwill you will get from a landlord, either in terms of rent free, capital works or other contribution. • If it’s a start-up type business, you may be considering a shorter initial term of lease, or if it’s small office space, then shared or co-working space might be a good option. You may be paying a higher rental rate, but you aren’t locked into a long-term lease commitment and retain flexibility if you need to upsize or downsize. • If it is an existing business, then it is important to determine and prioritise the factors that you are seeking in a premises. It is inevitable that you will need to make compromises, so be very clear in determining what is actually important and what items are just ‘like to haves’. If you have a good and established business, then don’t be afraid to back yourself to provide stability and make a long-term lease commitment in the best interests of your business. I have seen relatively novice retail businesses or owners make poor business decisions based purely on their proposed rental budget, without taking into account the fact that they could pay a little more and benefit significantly from increased pedestrian counts and/or profile. The same applies to office space, where a little more rental will often provide a better working environment and place to build culture – the cost to recruit, train and retain staff is significant, so provide an environment that will enable staff to thrive. It has become increasingly important over the last couple of years and significantly more so since Covid with the advent of working from home, to provide an attractive work environment, where staff want to come to work and will be more productive. This can be much about the business culture you have created, but cannot be fully developed without a desirable physical environment and providing access to good amenities in the immediate surroundings. So, do not be afraid to make a decision and be prepared to make compromises, as procrastination will not be your friend when it comes to having to make strong business decisions in this fast-paced and changing environment that we live it. NAI Harcourts Hamilton Monarch Commercial Ltd MREINZ Licensed Agent REAA 2008 Cnr Victoria & London Streets, HAMILTON 07 850 5252 | hamilton@naiharcourts.co.nz www.naiharcourts.co.nz 205175AA It comes after Matamata woman Julie Caldwell discovered there was nothing on the market suitable for her mother. Julie Caldwell had been supporting her mother, Lois, who was living independently but was no longer able to use an iPad to stay in touch with family. Caldwell was calling in on her mother, in her mid 80s, twice daily as simple tasks like taking medication and keeping appointments became increasingly difficult. A beautiful wall calendar was of little use if her mother didn’t know what day it was. The solution would be simple, Caldwell thought, a communication device like an iPad but less complicated. “I said to her, let’s find a new thing for you to use. There’ll be something out there, and we’ll just go and get it, or go online and buy it for you, and then you’ll have all these things fixed.” To her surprise, she found nothing. “I kept googling this, that and the other, for things for older people or people with cognitive decline, and there wasn’t anything.” That began a four-year journey with friend and colleague Julie Blackwell which has seen the two accountants launch the nattily named Kitcal to market, aimed at keeping older people connected to friends and family. It helps seniors live independently, with ready contact with family, including through video or phone calls and messages, and easy sharing of photos. Its shared calendar also means families can keep an eye on things from a distance. “It just seemed to be something that my mum needed, and therefore other people needed, and it was worth doing,” Caldwell says. They enlisted the help of an occupational therapist to design the tablet, which comes with magnetised rechargers and wooden stands. Everything was considered, from use of colour to size of font. The result is a 10-inch tablet featuring five buttons aligned across the bottom of the display, each with a different purpose. Families can download the free app to stay in touch, and can update the calendar, and provide prompts and alerts. The tablet features a range of emojis rather than a keyboard, and includes the ability for video calls - a late addition when lockdown saw them pivot from 3G to 4G in order to provide the video option earlier than they had anticipated. Blackwell says they want to help people live independently - without their children, often the eldest daughter, getting run ragged. She has seen the benefit of the tablet herself, having sent one to her grandmother in Canada as that country was heading into another lockdown. Her family were able to download the app and send their grandmother the family photos she cherished. I kept googling this, that and the other, for things for older people or people with cognitive decline, and there wasn't anything. “It just brings them [older people] into that daily conversation. It doesn’t have to be, ‘Look, we’re in Paris, and this is the Eiffel Tower’; it can be we, ‘Look what we’ve just picked from the garden’.” Caldwell recalls a moment about two years into development, when their energy was flagging. She went to her mother’s Christmas lunch at the rest home she had recently moved into. Someone across the table took a photo of them, and they sent it to Caldwell’s two daughters, one of whom lives in America. The daughter immediately responded, a conversation started, and
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS January/February 2021 9 The development path others started sending photos as well. Caldwell’s mother remarked that she would like the photo in her room. Caldwell realised she would have to send it to her printer, go to work to fetch it, and bring it back. “And I thought, this is ridiculous. I can send it to the US and I can’t even send it to the room three doors down. How crazy is that? There’s got to be something that she can use to get so that she can have them in her room. Why shouldn’t they [older people] have the same sort of social connections that we have just because they can’t work a blasted iPad? “I got angry. And so I came back and I said to Julie, ‘we’re into this!’.” They both laugh. “If only we knew what was coming!” What was coming was endless discussions with designers and developers and multiple groups working with older people, as well as surveys in both New Zealand and Australia, as they focused relentlessly on functionality. Getting in touch with Callaghan Innovation, and through them with Te Waka, was a key step in getting the business moving, Blackwell says. They decided they wanted their own hardware. “If there’s a problem with a tablet, it’s our tablet, and we know what the problem is,” Caldwell says. The two women, who have self-funded the tablet’s development, import tablets to their own specifications from a factory in China, while staying as local as possible on other fronts. They are using a Matamata software developer, and the stands and cases are made in Hamilton. The Kitcal comes ready to use out of the box, with a Sim card meaning there is no need to worry about Wifi connections, and using an IoT platform built for them by Vodafone. The tablet costs $690, the plan has two prices according to usage, and the app is free. “People who’ve had some experience [with similar devices] will obviously pick it up faster,” says Caldwell. “And just from talking to older people who’ve got cognitive decline or dementia, if they’ve already been using it a little bit, then they will retain enough knowledge to use it much further down that pathway than if they hadn’t.” From talking to older people who’ve got cognitive decline or dementia, if they’ve already been using it a little bit, then they will retain enough knowledge to use it much further down that pathway than if they hadn’t. Along the way, they discovered two tablets in the US market that they had initially overlooked, but neither offered exactly what they were looking for. Unbeknown to them, they were also inventing the very device that an Auckland researcher, Wendy Wrapson, had seen as a solution to the isolation residents could experience in rest homes. She had written to big tech companies with her suggestion, only to be batted away. Having her research was a validation for the path Caldwell and Blackwell were on. Their marketing focuses on adult children, rather than the parent, and buyer interest is coming from around New Zealand including the South Island. Caldwell says they have had inquiries from families in New Zealand who want one for parents in the UK. Blackwell says they don’t want the Kitcal to be an electronic photoframe that people buy and never use. “We want it to be useful. We want it to be exciting. And we know from the feedback we’ve had from those who are using it, it is.” Sadly, one person who won’t be using the Kitcal is the very person who set Caldwell out on her mission. Her mother died in June last year, just weeks before they were ready to begin testing the device. “But there’s lots of others like her, and she would have been happy,” says Caldwell. What’s in a name? When it comes to the device’s name, Caldwell had a brainwave while on a car journey. She had, she said, spent ages trying to think up a name for “the thing” that her mother kept asking about. Lots of words came to mind, but none of them felt right. “And then it just sort of popped into my head. And I thought ‘that’ll do’.” The name, Kitcal, stands for “keep in touch calendar”. “I actually pulled over on the side of the road up in Patetonga, and I googled it to see if it was anything already.” There and then, she reserved the name with the Companies Office before continuing with her journey. “It really is about keeping in touch,” Blackwell says. “And so I think the name really does encompass what we want it to do - it’s that social connection.” How do you develop a new product? Ask lots of questions and be prepared for the long haul. “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions,” says Julie Blackwell. “We don’t know what we don’t know, we are not tech experts. And we’ve had to ask a lot of questions and just really put our pride on hold.” Julie Caldwell: “I thought of it as like getting a textbook, and you don’t open the last page because you can’t translate that thing or do that equation. But if you start on page one, and get that little bit, then you just turn the page and get the next thing. And so we did, we just ticked off things we found. We found the cable clamp [to secure the cable to the back of the stand for ease of use]. We found someone to make the stands. But as soon as we’ve done that, there’s another thing. There’s always another thing.” Julie Blackwell: “At the beginning, we tried to write this critical pathway list of all the things that we were going to have to overcome and think about that we knew about at the time - hardware, who we’re going to use for the software, how are we going to advertise this, where are we Experience care as it should be, experience the Braemar way. Braemar Hospital is one of the largest private surgical hospitals in New Zealand, and it’s here in Hamilton. With more than 100 world class specialists, 10 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 84 beds including 32 private rooms, at Braemar you’ll receive the highest level of care. Choose the very best. Choose Braemar. going to source for this list? And it was too much.” Julie Caldwell: “We always said, if we hit a brick wall, if it’s critical, and it’s no-go, then that’s fine. We’ve gone as far as we can, we’ll stop. But we won’t look too far out there because we’ve fixed everything and we’ve managed everything and we’ve found everything so far. We probably can do that out there too. As long as it’s not a brick wall that we can’t blast our way through, then we’ll just worry about today’s thing.” Julie Blackwell: “We’ve had to stop and do checks all throughout the journey. Because we are so into it, sometimes we need to have a pause and ask somebody outside from us: Is this the right thing? Do we keep going?.” Julie Caldwell: “Even now people look at it when it’s finished and they’ll say, ‘oh, it’d be great if you could have YouTube on it’. And, ‘wouldn’t it be great if you could do this?’ We must have had those conversations 300 times and all of a sudden it’s an iPad. And we really kept saying to ourselves, stop reinventing an iPad, because there is already one and it’s perfect.” Julie Blackwell: “This is for social communication, keeping in touch, we had to keep coming back to why we’re doing it, and what it needs to do in order to achieve that. So it was a lot of to-ing and froing. A lot of time was spent researching, talking to people - lots of informal conversations or group conversations with people, but also online surveys or paper surveys.” braemarhospital.co.nz
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Waikato Business News January/February 2021

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