After a punishing economic cycle Kiwi businesses are emerging into something of a stabilisation period. Cautiously optimistic, past the worst, but with operating costs still biting and reinvestment held back. Why the next six months will define the recovery, and what business owners need to be doing in that period.
New data from Employment Hero shows New Zealand’s small and medium business sector continuing to add headcount in May, even as wage growth stalled completely on an annual basis, highlighting a labour market where businesses are growing cautiously rather than competing hard for talent on pay.
Turning a dreaded parenting challenge into a science-powered solution, ISpy Nits is making head lice detection accurate, stigma-free, and even fun for kids, and in the process earning Kate Ricketts a well-deserved David Award.
After burnout and a corporate career, Nikki Taylor started her own business at 44, and discovered that midlife isn’t a crisis, but a chance for clarity, on what kind of work, and life, actually fits.
New Zealand’s productivity gap with countries like Finland isn’t about effort, it’s about clarity. Elliot Royce argues that as businesses grow, complexity quietly crowds out a shared understanding of what actually creates value, turning productivity into a symptom rather than the real problem.
A pilot programme’s runaway demand has exposed just how many promising New Zealand startups are being turned away by traditional bank lending.
New Zealand’s sustainable innovators remain confident about growth, but a new report shows many are struggling to access the capital and conditions needed to actually scale.
New Zealand’s small business productivity has flatlined, with the country continuing to trail Australia and the UK, even as Deloitte’s latest CFO survey shows finance leaders remain confident about growing their businesses despite economic uncertainty.
Solar retailer Lodestone Energy is opening up its “virtual rooftop” solar product to residential and small business customers for the first time, choosing Hawke’s Bay as the launch region for its new EASY Plan.
New Zealand tourism businesses are committed to becoming more sustainable, but new research shows the journey from good intentions to genuine change is anything but straightforward.
Spacebar Design won Most Innovative Business at The David Awards 2025, also taking out the Supreme Award, recognition that cements its role as a trailblazer in sustainable interior design.
New Zealand’s longest-running sustainability awards programme is calling for entries, with expanded categories and a direct pathway to a global million-pound prize.
Kiwibank has become the first New Zealand bank to roll out open banking across all its digital channels for both individual and business customers, delivering most of the data‑sharing capability required by regulators six months ahead of its statutory deadline.
Christchurch’s Tait Communications has been named PwC Hi-Tech Company of the Year at the 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards, capping a record-breaking night for New Zealand’s third-largest export sector.
Full-scale loyalty programmes are expensive, complex and slow to roll out, but a gift card programme can deliver many of the same benefits in a fraction of the time, and customers pay you upfront for the privilege.
Inside MOXX Brands, the Kiwi FMCG company growing at 512 percent and rewriting the export playbook in the process.
Hawke’s Bay’s Rockit has landed one of China’s most bankable celebrities as its brand ambassador.
Demand for Tapuwae Roa’s Tupu Accelerator keeps climbing, with a new cohort of ten high-growth Māori-founded ventures welcomed for the programme’s third consecutive year.
A new Christchurch start-up wants to turn the security cameras already watching your warehouse into a real-time safety system that spots risk before it becomes an incident.
As New Zealand businesses face mounting productivity pressure, new research from 2degrees shows AI is already delivering measurable gains for SMEs. From streamlining operations to unlocking new growth opportunities, the challenge now is turning early experimentation into lasting business impact.
Acron Plastics, a New Zealand thermoforming manufacturer, had been running as a fully paper-based business before adopting MRPeasy. We sat down with Business & Sales Manager Mark Wong to see how the company uses the system to structure orders, manage purchasing and inventory, and reduce the risk of missed jobs.
West Auckland’s Waitākere College has officially opened a new School of Business, founded and seeded by Just Life Group CEO Tony Falkenstein CNZM, with the goal of producing the country’s next wave of entrepreneurs from communities that have historically been overlooked by corporate New Zealand.
As AI rapidly shifts from experimentation to operational reality, AI start-up founder Dave Howden says the businesses that move first – and rethink how work gets done – will hold the advantage.
A new national productivity programme is aiming to back more than 4,000 Kiwi SMEs into AI adoption. But the most useful lesson for business owners, says ASB’s Ben Speedy, may be the simplest: Think small first.
Three decades behind the counter taught pharmacist turned entrepreneur Tim O’Donoghue that patients know exactly what they want. They just rarely get it. Now, with an FDA-listed product live on Amazon and a 14-strong self-care platform behind it, the Healthtex Co-founder is raising capital through PledgeMe and inviting Kiwi investors into a corner of the global pharmaceutical industry usually reserved for big backers.
Digital and AI experts will share practical strategies to help businesses stay visible and competitive as AI transforms online search and customer behaviour.
A former delivery driver who started at HELL Pizza straight out of school has become one of the brand’s youngest franchise owners, taking over the Kāpiti store at just 21 years old.
Satisfaction among SMEs with the Coalition Government has declined for the second consecutive year, according to new research from MYOB.
Entries are now open for the 2026 David Awards, with this year marking a new chapter for the long-running small business awards programme as NZBusiness steps into the role of Official Steward.
When consumers start watching every dollar, many businesses reach for familiar tactics: Bigger discounts, louder promotions and more urgent calls to buy.
A new monthly laughter subscription model has been launched to help Kiwi businesses boost morale and connection. Finding the positive amidst a tidal wave of negativity in our news feeds can be a daily struggle. That’s why Wade Jackson, high performance coach, author and founder of charitable trust Covert Theatre, has launched an innovative new laughter subscription to bring business and laughter together. Enter, stage right: The Laugh Gym. Inspired by new research from University College London[1] which shows that engaging with the performing arts has a positive impact on wellbeing, improv is the latest business tool to help employees find joy, laugh and thrive. Launched on July 20th with a special performance by global hit The Improv Bandits, The Laugh Gym
Rachel Klaver explains how to create a successful trust-building content strategy by looking after the five main stages in a customer journey. As a marketing strategist and trainer for small businesses I have taught everything from how to change the colour on a Canva design, write a caption, or create a Tiktok. These are all skills we all need to magically know to market our own small businesses (or at least know enough to be able to brief someone else), and often they are far easier to do once you’ve been given a few tips here and there. The hardest part of creating content is to trust. Trust that you will attract your ideal customers and they will want to
Peri Finnigan reveals the warning signs, the fundamentals of business liquidity and cashflow management, and what happens when a company ultimately fails.
Lauren Parsons shares her nine signs for recognising when things aren’t going well for your employees’ mental state. As a leader it’s vital you stay aware of how your staff are doing and know the signs to look for that could indicate mental distress. In 2021, researchers at AUT found that burnout had tripled – from one in nine Kiwis in early 2020, to just one in three. Depression is also on the rise, with one in four New Zealanders now experiencing a mental health challenge. So, it’s clear that you’ll highly likely have staff within your team who are struggling at times. Putting your head in the sand and ignoring this only exacerbates the challenge. Withdrawal, sadness, anger and
YEN is a young Christchurch gin distiller utilising NFTs to market its product internationally. It’s a disruptive strategy and it’s already succeeding beyond initial expectations. By editor Glenn Baker. In 2020 3D-artist and creative director Blue Hamel, recently returned from New York, along with gin bar co-owner and mixologist Luke Dawkins hatched the idea of producing not just a new gin brand, but also a uniquely millennial/Gen Z-oriented consumer experience based around the emerging NFT digital asset class. Despite many people still playing catch-up on the potential of cryptocurrency, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have already made a mark on the world. Stored (or ‘minted’) in a crypto digital wallet, these tokens exist permanently, each with its own unique digital serial number.
InternetNZ’s interim CEO Andrew Cushen sheds some light on business Internet usage, domain name trends and emerging Internet-enabled technologies. NZB: From your recent discussions with the business community, what are the main concerns they have around Internet usage in 2022? ANDREW: Lockdown and Covid-19 have changed a lot of expectations. Two particular trends show through in the conversation. Firstly, that it is leading to a new wave of digitisation in business. We’ve seen an increase in domain name registrations as more organisations look to establish or revitalise their online presence. As a result of that, there are now more than 740,000 .nz domain names registered. This growth during lockdown is similar to many other countries, as businesses looked to retain
Upcoming event
Thursday 30 July 2026 | 7:00am – 9:00pm
📍 Covert Theatre, 51 Mackelvie Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland
Everyone talks about the importance of business strategy, but what does it actually mean in practice? Strategy trainer Ryan Sproull cuts through the jargon to give SME owners a clear, practical framework for thinking strategically about their business.
Latest issue
Practical AI insights, Kiwi tech innovators, and the tools helping Kiwi SMEs compete on a global stage. It’s all packed into this special tech issue of NZBusiness.
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