Micro-exporting promoted by NZ's Upstart Incubator

When I lived in New Zealand some time in the last century it was a quiet, sleepy, pleasant place to be. I'm sure it's just as pleasant now, but it's also turned out to be one of the most active and creative places in the accelerator/incubator field as regular readers of the Gazette know. One example is Upstart Business Incubator http://www.upstart.org.nz/ in Dunedin.The Otago Daily Times has an interesting article today about a competition to encourage entrepreneurs to use YouTube as a micro-exporting vehicle.

Foreign exchange is a very big deal in a small country like New Zealand where so much has to be imported. Micro-exporting is the simply the export of small value items or services. If that can be done in high volume, the potential can be very high. Upstart business coach Rueben Skipper estimated if every New Zealander made $20 per week in foreign currency from some online activity then micro-exporting would be New Zealand's the third-biggest export. Instead of focusing solely on striking it rich (not that there's anything wrong with that at all), Skipper's idea seems to be to help many people get a little bit richer and that YouTube is one means to that end.

Some kiwis have already been pretty successful with YouTube channels according to the Times. Matt Mulholland, a comedian, has had more than 12 million video views, and Shannon Harris' YouTube makeup review channel has over 50,000 subscribers and 5 million views.

To test his idea, Skipper conceived the "Make Money On YouTube" competition, which launches in August and targets high school age potential entrepreneurs. Winners get cash and scholarships for the Otago Business School up to a total value of $5000. They also get to participate in a workshop at Upstart Incubator to help them turn their idea into a viable business. The idea is that high schoolers 'get' YouTube and understand the potential for YouTube channels. Skipper said, "They already do this. They already make YouTube videos every day. They do it without thinking."

for more information: http://www.upstart.org.nz/ and http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/216390/video-contest-inspires-micro-e...