Nathan Roper, owner of Horizon International an Owner Manager Programme 51 Alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 08 June 2022, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
What does your career journey look like?
I have been in the family business for a long time. But pre that I worked as a dive instructor for five years. The thing that killed it in the end was finally the day that it became not enough mental stimulation. I then studied IT, then worked for the government for a couple of years doing IT support and did a year in the Uk doing the same occupation. I was still quite a young technician, moved back and my father offered me a V8-holden to bring me back to the family business and the rest is history.
What was the “aha” moment that led to horizon?
Oh, it was the return journey and in the growing up in the business, it has always been part of our family, part of the makeup. That was the material part of the journey. But the other thing is I love what we do. Every day is not necessarily enjoyable, but what we do and what we deliver feels good, when you travel the length of the country, the examples are from Queenstown to the Far North. We work in beautification. People are happy with what we do when we finish, it is a feel-good job.
Any advice that you would have given your younger self, or one thing you wish you knew?
Do not get stressed about things you cannot change. But take on board the things that you can alter that you can change. We deal in a lot of international freight. Whilst it is terrible now, it has always been a little bit challenging, I used to really get wound up when shipments would run late and freight would not happen like it was meant to, I really used to take it on my shoulders and take it personally. As I now say to people, when things run late, you can get upset, you can yell and scream, get it all off your chest. But at the end of the day, that is not going to change anything. So, deal with what you can do. Getting upset about the things you can change and then just deal with and manage the things that you cannot change.
How would you sum up your Owner Manager Programme experience? And were there any, like key takeaways that you took from the from the experience itself?
There was no, as you would say, “Aha” moment, the whole thing was fantastic. It was just continual learnings out of it. There are things which, whilst you get busy, you just reflect on and just continually try and add these things to the business. Even to the degree of an introduction into the Metaverse stuff, mind blowing. Nothing ever stands still; it is always changing which means there is always room to learn.
What does the future look like for Horizon International? And what excites you most about it?
When we sat down, we went through opportunities that were available still in business. One thing I looked at; we have acres of room to grow. We have a dozen different angles that we can go for growth in the business. I see now we are looking at new machinery purchases, we are looking at new resellers. So, in my next couple of years, three, four or five years, I would like to double the size of the business.