How Plus by ASB can add to your business: Boma
19 June 2018 / Published in Tech & InnovationAfter realising just how little support small business owners had in the digital marketing space, Anna Lawrence helped to found Boma. Boma is an online platform intended to help remove the complexity from digital marketing and provide business owners with the tools and resources they need. She spoke to us about how Plus by ASB has helped in the running of her business.
Tell us a bit about your business and how you got started.
My career so far has predominantly been in marketing and communications. I’ve worked for corporates like Lion as Communications Director in Australia and I’ve also been a small business consultant in the past.
Two years ago, Boma was born out of the recognition that people in small businesses needed help to navigate multi-channel digital marketing in order to prosper, but were underserved with current tools.
We understand what it takes to create effective campaigns, so we decided to build an online tool that ensures business owners who don’t necessarily have marketing or creative skills can do it easily and in a way that saves them time and money.
Boma enables business owners to create email and social media campaigns, in a few minutes from one place. It also allows access to a free media library of over 250k images and helps business owners understand what’s working and what isn’t across all the channels, saving heaps of time.
We recently partnered with Xero and built a bespoke library of expertly written articles their global partners can choose from, which can be instantly reformatted and published on social media or sent via email – within a few minutes.
We’ve grown quite a bit and are now we’re working with other enterprises and franchises to make it easy for their small business customers to access a centralised content library.
What is the best thing about owning your own business?
The feeling that we are contributing to businesses and helping them prosper. We are there for small businesses - without them, our economy would suffer.
It’s very full on but it gives me the flexibility to manage a super busy life – which includes young kids and any parent will know what a juggle that is!
What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered operating a small business in NZ?
The online world is only going to get more and more important for small businesses. There’s a small window of opportunity to take advantage of this and we are focussed on it. But finding great talent for our technology development can be challenging as there is a lot of competition for resource out there!
What online business tools do you use?
Boma, Xero, Google Analytics, Slack, Trello, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Receipt Bank and Plus, of course!
Why did you start using Plus?
We love data and being able to see at a glance things like web traffic and cash flow is very handy, especially as we are all on the move constantly. I can even check it at school pick up!
How has Plus supported you to run your business?
I check it a few times a day, usually on my mobile around coffee and lunch time. It’s our “go to” app. It’s great to see our Xero information presented in a way that doesn’t require any interpretation.
Where to from here?
As we have a global spread of customers (mainly in Australia and the UK, as well as NZ) we want to be a global Kiwi business. Onwards and upwards!
What advice do you have for other Kiwi businesses wanting to be a success?
Building a start-up is a marathon, not a sprint. Be super strategic with your time. Be prepared for a roller coaster ride and remind yourself - “On the other side of fear is everything you want”.
But, if you need help or an introduction? Just ask. So many people are prepared to give their time it’s amazing. Kiwis rock.
Join other Kiwi business owners using Plus by ASB and get started for free.
