Jay McLaren-Harris is returning to his hometown with the annual Youth Summit.
When someone tells you that they are 19 you probably think of them being at university, going on an overseas experience or starting their first proper job. What you definitely wouldn’t think of is that person being the founder of a nationwide social enterprise.
For Jay McLaren-Harris, his story is the latter. Fresh out of high school in Tokoroa, and only 18 at the time, he went straight to Auckland with $250 in his back pocket and started Tumeke Enterprise, an organisation building the next generation of leaders.
It all started at Tokoroa High School in 2017 when Jay and three of his school mates entered the Young Enterprise Scheme with their project Tumeke Clothing. That year they won two excellence awards and were given opportunities and support from many notable and influential New Zealanders such as deputy prime minister, Winston Peters.
“At the time I realised that there was a lot more that we could do with it. So I took a big risk and now that lightbulb moment has paid off,” said McLaren-Harris.
Once high school was over, his three team mates went their own way and Jay was supposed to go to university to study law. Instead he decided to take a chance on Tumeke Clothing, took full ownership of the business and transformed it into Tumeke Enterprise with the sole mission being to redefine leadership.
“I wanted to focus on young people in leadership and be able to show them that you don’t need a badge or title to show that you’re a leader,” said McLaren-Harris.
“We need young people to disrupt the business industry and take it over.”
The first six months before moving into his Manukau-based office were spent living much like a student, sleeping on an air mattress and inhaling two minute noodles. He’d also often thrive off business meetings at cafes where coffee was almost always shouted by a potential investor he was meeting.
In no time, though, he gained support from Dr Lance O’Sullivan who in effect brought in more and more investors and he also received backing from Rob Campbell, chair of SkyCity, THL and Summerset.
The extensive list of contacts and connections has allowed Tumeke Enterprise to become two-thirds corporate-funded with service fees making up the last third, but McLaren-Harris says it will not always be this way.
“LinkedIn is how we got most of our business but now we are looking at new models. I don’t think that we can always expect corporate to just keep giving us funding.”
Tumeke Enterprise offers four different services. That includes Tumeke talks, with McLaren-Harris attending school assemblies to talk to students who are always stunned at how young he is. They also offer youth leadership programmes, lunch with Tumeke and corporate development sessions to help businesses create an environment suitable for younger generations.
McLaren-Harris also runs an annual Youth Summit which is to be held in Tokoroa this year and will celebrate young people outside the main city centres.
“Young people in regions are doing so many cool things but they are grasping for opportunities that Aucklanders would just sweep under the rug,” said Jay.
The three-day summit will bring together 100 young people in July and they will be surrounded by 20 mentors for the duration. Applications to attend will open on April 29.
McLaren-Harris is also busy with expansion plans that will see Tumeke Enterprise running in Australia, the Cook Islands and the United States by 2021.
He says he is confident in going international having achieved his first five-year strategic goal, that he set only last year, in just nine months.
His ambitions don’t stop there. By 2022 he also would like to be able to say that he and Tumeke Enterprise would have directly affected one million lives and for the next three years he would like to grow his following by 7500 people each month.
“I have really big aspirations but I have to practise what I preach and not give up, the sky really is the limit,” said McLaren-Harris.
To learn more, visit www.tumekeenterprise.com or email Jay at admin@tumekeenterprise.com.
