Most top business people are afraid to admit their mistakes but Bizzone, organisers of the Bizzone Business Expos, have persuaded eight business leaders to talk about their greatest stuff ups in business and share them in a tell all documentary.

What they got were stories of inspiration, of perseverance, tenacity and courage that are an inspiration for every business owner.

The documentary is about their journey, not dwelling on stuff ups but highlighting that no path worth taking is easy, that mistakes are part of business, and learning from them is what counts. All spoke of this balancing act between success and failure, and if you are not making mistakes then you are not pushing the boundaries enough.

The Prime Minister John Key has contributed to the Stuff Up™ documentary with his own video contribution endorsing the proposition that business people should not fear making mistakes.

The overall message from the business leaders interviewed is there is no perfect roadmap to success. However with the right attitude of never giving up, of surrounding yourself with great people and getting the right support when you need it - these business owners have overcome their hurdles.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE is the message for the 13,000 business owners who are expected to attend the Bizzone Business Expos this year and who can watch the full screening of this documentary in the Stuff Up Room presented by WHK.

The business owners who have ‘fessed up to their stuff ups are:

John Barnett, owner of South Pacific Pictures, New Zealand’s largest independent television and film production house says “You don’t start fully formed, nothing goes according to plan and you need to be prepared to make mistakes. Sometimes they are of your own making and sometimes you are caught in a set of circumstances that are beyond your control.”

Nick Katsoulis, co-owner of St Pierre’s Sushi, who now employs 300 staff in 29 different stores, says “I think small mistakes are healthy and they are all part of pushing the barriers and seeing how far you can go. Making mistakes is really important! The most important thing is learning from them.”

Ross Hunter, co-owner of Harvey’s Real Estate says “so many people have these great ideas but they’ve got no plan. The great thing about planning is where you’ve got a plan, you’ve got all these dates and times of when things are going to happen - it keeps everyone focused to achieve certain benchmarks. And if you take a left turn instead of a right turn, get the road map out and very quickly you will find your way back to the highway. ”

Ian Taylor, Chief Executive Officer at Animation Research Ltd, the company behind the animation graphics for Formula 1, Golf PGA and the America’s Cup, says “We don’t share these stories of failure enough. All we ever hear about is success. We should be sharing stories of failure because it happens to everyone. In other parts of the world they do business differently, long story short, we got shafted in India. It’s very scary but it is something that you learn from. After that I actually went in to close down the business, can’t do it today I thought…And then I decided that we would find a way - we fought our way out of there.”

Steve Bonnici, owner of Urgent Couriers, who are carbon neutral and one of the best places to work for couriers, says “In the first year I took on a partner but we didn’t find out about each other enough and after a year we just didn’t see eye to eye and had a fairly serious falling out. I lost 40% of my business in 3 months. Also don’t dwell on the past! We have innovated and grown and built a business that has lasted 20 years.”

David Johnson, founder of Trends Publishing, with offices around the world says ‘Everything is a stuff up, it’s just the degree to which it affects you! Very rarely as an entrepreneur do you do things to your satisfaction that your dream is inspired by. In my mind I can see we can go into China no trouble-but it takes 8 years of stuff ups for that to be a successful business.”

Erica Crawford founder of Kim Crawford Wines says “We started in 1996, with $20,000 which we had scraped together- the house, the cars, everything was hedged against the business, it had to work! We produced 4000 cases that were to be exported to the UK, and then the distributor got fired, so we sat with 2 containers of wine that we had no home for. We went cap in hand to Glengarry’s in Auckland and the rest is history…”

Sarah Trotman, founder of Bizzone, currently franchising their operation into Australia, says “Entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries constantly walk a tightrope between success and failure. It’s about finding the personal courage and personal strength to deal with that balancing act.”

“Every person and every business learn their biggest lessons from their biggest stuff ups – it’s human nature. The next best thing is to learn from and be inspired by other people and businesses we respect. The Stuff Up room is exactly that; a place for us to be inspired, gain confidence and move ahead by listening to the mistakes and experiences from some of our most successful and respected entrepreneurs.” Says Gay Rankin CEO of WHK.

Qiujing Wong Managing Director of Borderless Productions says “We’re delighted to be producing the Stuff Up Stories video – stories of what went wrong are so rarely shared this way and yet these first hand experiences give us the greatest insights into how we, business owners and entrepreneurs, can manoeuvre the often turbulent waters of business. It’s a tremendously exciting and important project which will no doubt help many of us figure out our own paths to success.”

No path worth taking is easy, mistakes are part of business, and learning from them is what counts Bizzone’s Sarah Trotman says. “For business owners the Bizzone Business Expo with over 300 providers of quality support, will offer the inspiration, the connections and the motivation they need to move forward.” Any business person who wants to learn more from these stuff up stories can visit the Stuff Up Room presented by WHK at the Bizzone Business Expos on in:

• Auckland from 2-4 June at the ASB Showgrounds,
• Wellington 21-23 July at the TSB Bank Arena
• and Christchurch 11-13 August at the Convention Centre