Business Club - Lisa Er Wednesday 13th April 2005
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EMPOWER YOUR BUSINESS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE SQUARE
The annual 'Business Club' roadshow is once again moving around the country and Invercargill's big day was Wednesday April 13th.
Sponsors Telecom and Yellow Pages provided the 'Business Solutions' session where Grant Sidaway explained the new phenomena of 'T3G' (Telecom's third generation) mobile services. Faster broadband, Push 2 Talk and Video messaging are the tools of
future business practice. With the new T3G mobile services you will be able to clear email and download from the web at unprecedented speed through Mobile Broadband. 'Push 2 Talk', a walkie-talkie style communication tool where you can connect up with up to 5 other Push to Talk users, enables you to contact a group simultaneously. Telecom Video Messaging, allows you to take and send short videos from your video-capable mobile phone, or to email addresses anywhere in the world.
Business Club's guest speaker this year was 'Lisa Er'. Lisa was the creator and founder of Lisa's Hummus. Her inspirational story tells of a business begun when she was at her lowest ebb. With three small children to support and a marriage breakdown, she felt she could earn a little bit of extra money by selling to the local community her organic hummus. She had already been supplying her friends, family and her doctor, who encouraged her to start selling to the dairy on the corner. 
Starting from a home base with nothing more than a conventional food processor, Lisa's hummus soon became a favourite in the local area. Because hummus was a relatively unknown substance in New Zealand and no one knew what to do with it, Lisa cleverly designed her packaging so customers knew what they were getting and what it was used for. Clear plastic pottles and a label that read 'Lisa's Hummus - for dips and spreads' was all it took for kiwis to become savvy with hummus etiquette. Traditional Hummus is a Turkish hors d'oeuvre made from ground chickpeas and sesame oil, flavoured with lemon and garlic. Lisa introduced new flavourings to her hummus which grew her market to the 
point where she had to find a commercial kitchen. She rented premises from a Turkish Delight manufacturer in exchange for cleaning up and a small rent. The deal was she could use the kitchen in the hours they were not manufacturing and clean down the kitchen at the end of her day. It wasn't long before this situation became inadequate and she soon expanded to setting up her own factory.
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