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Christchurch web developer Hairy Lemon has set its sights on rapid expansion in the United States, where it has recently scored two contracts.
Joint owners Graham Dockrill and Sue Wilkinson started Hairy Lemon in 2000. They were fresh out of university with computer science and mechanical engineering degrees and went about growing the business in the midst of the dotcom crash.
Hairy Lemon now employs 21 staff and was named the fastest growing business services company in Canterbury and the upper South Island in the 2008 Deloitte Fast 50 Awards.
Despite the recession, the founders plan to employ 45 staff within five years. Dockrill and Wilkinson said turnover was looking to increase 30 per cent by the end of March and soon to exceed $3 million. About 85 per cent of the business was New Zealand-based, but the United States business was growing.
The company has a goal of gaining $3 million in revenue out of the US in the next three years. The plan is for Dockrill to move to the US within the next 24 months to set up a support and sales base. All other work would still be done in Christchurch, Dockrill said.Hairy Lemon has picked up two new US clients in the past month.The contracts are with Compix Media, a Korean-owned company that supplied motion graphics to more than 17,000 people around the world.
The other contract is with OutCast.net, which provides media and advertising to petrol stations, restaurants and retailers. Dockrill and Wilkinson said the US has a history of outsourcing, so it was not surprising that US firms were engaging a small Kiwi firm to design their websites.All of the work they have picked up in the US can be traced back to people Dockrill met on a business course in California. A cousin in the US suggested he do the course. “It really illustrates that business is business.”
“It doesn’t matter where you are, but the technology means noting without a relationship.”
The quirky name came about when Dockrill and Wilkinson told friends during their student days if they ever had their own company they would call it Hairy Lemon. The pair were married but got divorced some years ago. They said they were able to work well together, however, because they had a completely common goal of building a successful business.
They both admit they are not we developers – they employ them. They are entrepreneurs, who both grew up having their own small businesses. They funded the company’s start-up with a small overdraft and have been completely self- funded since.
Hairy Lemon has no debt, an unusual feature in the technology sector. “Our growth has been exceptional but in some ways it’s been limited by the way we’re not willing to get into debt,” Dockrill said. However, they have found it easier to keep track of how well the company was doing without additional investment. “It makes you spend your money wisely,” Dockrill said.
They are not looking for additional investment because the company was in the strongest financial position it has ever been in. The company has established a board of directors to offer advice and expertise. It was an additional cost to hairy Lemon but Dockrill and Wilkinson said the expertise offered would prove invaluable.
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