Mojo founder shares his ideas

During Global Entrepreneurship Week BusinessDay puts questions to Wellington entrepreneurs. Today: Steve Gianoutsos.

Steve Gianoutsos is the founder of Mojo Coffee Cartel, which broke into Wellington's prolific coffee culture relatively late, with its first store in 2003. The company has ranked on the Deloitte Fast 50 twice and now has 12 branded cafes in the city and four more around the country.

He talks about what it takes to break into a fiercely competitive market.

What is the key to creating a niche in a commodity market such as coffee?

First of all, your product has to be good. And as important, you must maintain consistency. Your customers come to expect a certain quality pretty quickly. I've seen places do well even with serving bad coffee. But they are consistently bad. Their customers know what they're getting before they get to the counter.

How do you convince your bank manager you can do it?

When you start off for the first time, it's not easy. The longer you're in business with a good history, the easier it gets. The bank likes to back winners. You also need to be good at telling the story to the bank. The bank likes information - lots of it.

How do you build the right team?

It's important to like the people you are working with. You don't have to be their best friend, but if you wouldn't have them in your house for dinner, why would you spend all day in the office with them? I think it comes down to trust, respect, honesty and a belief in people. That takes time. As good as your team are at their job, they need clear guidelines and direction. Once they have those, let them get on with it.

What is the one business tool you could not have done without?

Good sound advice. I think it's important to have people around you who understand your business and vision and are prepared to do some straight talking with you. Most entrepreneurs left school early, have a tendency to go 24/7 and fly off on tangents. So you need people to slow you down, get you to smell the flowers and make the right decisions.

What mistake taught you the most?

I won't tell you the mistake but I will tell you that communication is the lesson I learnt the most. People hate being kept in the dark, especially creditors. If you're open and honest, people are prepared to give you a bit of slack and support you. I think that goes with anything in life.

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