How Any Indigenous ECommerce Businesses Can Reach Their Milestones

Wednesday, 13 April 2022, 2:36 pm
Press Release: Te Whare Hukahuka

Ka Hao i te Ao, the world's prevailing Indigenous eCommerce training company, proudly announces that Awhina Te Aue Murupaenga was named the Highest Earner Award (without business experience). She demonstrates that any goal can be achieved with some guidance from Ka Hao and a bit of entrepreneurial determination.

Te Tai Tokerau (The Northland region) of New Zealand was the first to be settled by missionaries, meaning the iwi (tribes) of the area were the first to pick up the bible. Unfortunately, many Māori traditions were put down.

"I was teaching the art of Tukutuku in school during Matariki (Māori New Year) or Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), and parents would ask, 'Where can I get the resources to do that.' So it took me a long time to find all the resources, and I had the idea that I could sell them as packages. I made some samples, reviewed them with my iwi elders, and sold them to family and friends, at cost, all for feedback. It went well - they were able to construct it correctly based on the instructions and resources provided."

When Awhina founded Whatu Creative in April 2021, she actualised a significant milestone along her mission to establish a cultural renaissance in the Northland region. Through Tukutuku, traditional Māori weaving, she wanted to promote Māori artwork that would decorate indigenous homes and their marae. Her iwi affiliations are to Ngāti Kuri, Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi.

"It is well known that the far north doesn't have many traditional marae (Māori meeting houses) - meaning they are not fully carved and adorned. We only have a handful of adorned marae here in the far north," Awhina explained the motivation behind starting her business, "part of my mission is to increase the pool of weavers, carvers, and artists to rebirth our traditional meeting houses. An immense love mission that interweaves my business, passion, whanau, and iwi. You go to any other iwi, and every marae is fully carved."

Ka Hao provides an online business system to 'learn the knowledge' - broken down into 32 modules - over 12 weeks. For Awhina, three modules profoundly impacted her burgeoning business: the growth mindset, customer avatar, and 1,000 true fans modules.

"Week one of Ka Hao was all about mindset, and I needed that […] I realised there was room for growth! It is just a domino effect applied in every part of life. Once your mindset is correctly attuned, you feel confident discovering the ideal customer and creating a community via social media - it feels more like a challenge to overcome than an obstacle to avoid."

Ka Hao arranges 12 belief-changer speeches from alumni and established business owners designed to provide practical tips or lessons and tell their stories to solidify the knowledge gathered.

"The belief-changer with Benita Tahuri, in the first week, is when the lightbulb dinged. She said, 'Your product doesn't have to be perfect. Just put it out there.' That stuck in my mind. I wrote it down, and I launched my website a week later!"

Awhina started with 200 Tukutuku toi kits, a community of about 600 Instagram followers, and set up Google Forms to process the purchases. They sold out in 2 hours yet spent 6 hours making invoices manually.

Ka Hao explained the benefits of Shopify and walked her through the backend procedures that would significantly reduce processing times. The advice Ka Hao gives is invaluable for any entrepreneur concerned with time management and would be an obvious motivation to shift to Shopify.

"Before Ka Hao, I had a lot of trepidations. I had a fear of social media. I had a fear that Māori would come for me because I was selling a Māori art form. We are passionate people! Of course, none of these things eventuated; instead, they were just the ideas I put in my mind. One of the things I learned from Ka Hao was that we self-sabotage; we imagine limits or roadblocks in front of ourselves."

The most significant influence on her store was Ka Hao guidance. Whether Awhina struggled with identifying her ideal customer, linking her website to her social media platforms, or drafting engaging auto-responders to capture the attention of 'product in cart' shoppers.

"What I like about our Tukutuku patterns is you see them in Maori clothing, in print, and art," Awhina said when asked about the impact of her business, "although they are widespread motifs or symbols, nobody knows what they mean. Yes, it is normal to know pātiki (flounder) which represents 'abundance,' or knowing poutama (the stairways to heaven), but few understand them [...] then you have the actual [weaving] technique. It's very therapeutic - through the trial and error process of perfecting the technique - you learn to slow down your mind."

You can check out the website https://www.whatucreative.com/.

Be sure to head over to the Ka Hao I te Ao website for further information on applications and the programme itself; visit: www.twh.co.nz.

The application for the Ka Hao i te Ao Programme is effortless. You must be of Māori or Pasifika descent and be able and willing to commit at least 8-10 hours a week over 18 weeks. Eligibility for a scholarship is based on completing the application form and all five of the 'Comfort Challenges designed to stretch and grow participants.'

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