Johnnie Saunders is the Founder and Managing Director of NZ Proud and an Owner Manager Programme alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 16 November 2022, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
Who is Johnnie?
I was born in Porirua and moved to the Kapiti Coast when I was 11. I was a high school dropout at 16 and started my building apprenticeship pretty much straight away. I worked across a few trades – a part-time barman and bar manager in my early 20s – but settled back into carpentry at 22.
How did NZ Proud come about?
In 2008, I was working for myself and started to have aspirations to start a business. Pre-GFC, I was contracting as a builder, focusing on large home extensions and alterations, and I found a real passion for it. Renovations come with a completely new set of challenges and complexities that new builds don't – it really develops skills like troubleshooting and project management.
I launched NZ Proud Property Improvements in July 2016 as a one-man band – I pretty much filled the gas tank of the wife’s small SUV, dusted off the tools, threw the dog in the car and hit the cobbles – picking up small renovation jobs and lots of landscaping jobs and slowly started to execute my business model.
From 2017 to today, we've grown five branches throughout Wellington and the Kapiti Coast, delivering around 300 renovation projects a year.
What makes NZ Proud different?
We're a specialist all-in-one property improvement business. Our primary portfolio of work is large extension alteration projects. So I suppose what's relatively unique about us is that if a customer comes to us, we can take them through the entire journey. And because it's almost its own niche in the industry, the design process is different, the build methodology is different.
It's really important that we pride ourselves on being specialists in this sector. We utilise a ton of innovation and technology to provide a truly streamlined process for our clients. And we're constantly evolving our innovation across every aspect of operations to add the most amount of value we can for our clients, our community, and our country.
You mentioned imposter syndrome. Do you suffer from it?
Big time. I grew up in a humble home. My father was a plumber; my mother was a nurse. My whole family are tradespeople, the traditional 1960s family. Nobody was an entrepreneur, and nobody's done anything that I've ventured into.
So every day was a new experience. And every day, you meet CEOs, big business owners, you talk to people, and you get lost in this. You're overwhelmed a little bit by it. And I've suffered from it a lot.
I entered OMP with this huge weighted amount of impostor syndrome, but OMP taught me that it's very normal. Every business owner has it, but it's actually an emotion that’s sharpened my senses…
I'm never going to shake it. I know that personally. Some people will be really good at overcoming it. It is something I'll eat every day, but I'm very aware of it now. So I use it to sharpen my senses and go, ‘Right… the only reason it's there is because I genuinely care about doing something right.’
How was your OMP experience?
The content was so well executed. You've got to have an open mind and not have expectations other than to set yourself some goals, and that's how I entered it. Probably the biggest benefit was I learned to love the journey of business ownership again.
With this development of aspiration to grow a national brand, build a great business, tweaking our operational infrastructure, you get lost in that momentum. Credit to David Irving, who was on my panel. He reminded me that your business started because you had a passion for something, and I'd forgotten all about that.
And that was the key takeout: ‘This is me. The NZ Proud brand is Johnnie Saunders.’ This is a great journey. Good and bad will happen. Of course, there were so many other benefits [on OMP], but if there was a key takeout, it was that light bulb moment, with the final panel on block five, that really did resonate.
What would you say to someone about to start their own construction business?
To sum up, check yourself before you wreck yourself; time is money, and go big or go home! And reach out. Talk to heaps of people… There are so many guys like us who just love to have a beer and a yarn about what you want to do. And take everything we say with a grain of salt because we're just speaking on experience. It doesn't make it gospel.