Taupō’s The Cozy Corner isn’t just a café, it’s a community hub where inclusivity, wellness, and sustainability meet. With a menu that caters to every dietary need, a great team culture, and a commitment to values-driven business, owner Camilla Baker has built an eco-friendly café that sets the standard for hospitality with heart.
New Zealand small businesses are facing one of the biggest shifts in customer discovery since the rise of Google Search, as AI-powered tools change how consumers find, compare and choose who to hire.
More than 80 percent of people don’t independently verify AI-generated information. As AI becomes the first place customers go for answers, that trust is creating a new challenge for New Zealand businesses.
We’re told the economy and the environment are locked in a trade-off. Autex’s Jonathan Mountfort says that’s a false choice, and shows how circular thinking is already building a healthier version of both.
New Zealand research into scientist-entrepreneurs has identified an “IP paradox”: Intellectual property is seen as essential to start-up success, yet often experienced as a costly, complex barrier. Here’s what the findings mean for founders, investors and the wider SME community.
AI is having its “peak hype” moment, but beneath the noise there is a very practical question most New Zealand business owners are asking: Will this actually help my business run better, or is it just another shiny tech distraction?
Most of the AI conversation right now is about what the technology will eventually do for everyone. Not much of it covers what you should actually start doing, this week, to make sure your business can use any of it. Let’s change that.
Keynote speaker, educator, author, recording artist and Solo Meo Award winner Julia Grace, has turned her mental health journey into inspiring talks, workshops, and performances across New Zealand and beyond. She’s also made a success of being an entrepreneur in the process.
Setting a big, bold goal feels like strategy. It isn’t. Ryan Sproull explains why picturing success can actually work against you, and what to do instead.
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.
Kiwi job seekers and employees are prioritising flexible working hours over any other benefits companies may be offering, according to a new report. In Frog Recruitment’s 2022 Employment and Salary Trend report more than 1,000 job seekers and employees were asked what matters most to them in terms of salary packages, flexibility, learning and development and other benefits like bonuses. The results were equally in favour of flexible work hours and the ability to work remotely , while career development and training, bonuses and company-paid training rounded out the top five. Frog Recruitment 2022 Employment and Salary Trends Report: Top Ten employee benefits 1. Flexible work hours
Business and marketing strategist Judy Celmins explains the seven stages that can develop the heart of your business and grow it. If blood flow is restricted to your heart, you’re straight off to the specialist – it needs urgent attention to keep you alive! Your business heart is no different, and a timely diagnosis can be a life-saver. Especially as we navigate the tough times. Essential Fuel: First, you have to understand what’s driving the heart of your business. And the easiest way to identify that is to ask yourself, what can’t the business do without? And I’m pretty confident most of us would agree it’s customers. You can always find a new product or service to satisfy your customers, but
Franz Josef-based Waiho Hot Tubs took out the Supreme Award at the 2022 Development West Coast Leading Light Business Excellence Awards, held at Shantytown on Friday May 20th. Adam Haugh’s business also took out top honours for the Greymouth Star Rising Star Award. The creation of Waiho Hot Tubs was a response to COVID-19. With two other businesses in Franz Josef, having to batten down the hatches during the first lockdown was tough and could have been a very negative journey for Adam. He took the brave decision to start something new and something that would support other struggling businesses, not just his own. “Franz Josef’s isolation creates a special community spirit and strong interdependence between businesses. We need each
If you’re a Kiwi business owner, you’re be glad to see the end of the past two Covid-ravaged financial years. This stress-busting wellness guide can assist you in recharging and refocusing. I take my hat off to New Zealand’s business owners. Collectively, and individually, in recent times they have navigated and endured the trickiest of economic waters. Sadly, for many, Covid’s fallout has forced them to walk away from their livelihood. Others battled on through multiple disruptions. It has not been easy. A terrible personal toll has been extracted. Business coach Leone Evans, a mentor with Business Mentors New Zealand (BMNZ) since 2012, says small business owners especially have been hit hardest. “Not only have they taken the brunt of
Grant McIvor explains why New Zealand’s tech sector has the potential to be transformational, but is being hindered by a lack of experienced people. The tech sector in Aotearoa New Zealand has the potential to be transformational. But while the industry is booming – with annual earnings of nearly $14 billion – it is also being constrained, not by a lack of ambition, but by one of the most important factors in its growth: a lack of people. Throughout my career in technology, the skills shortage has been a constant, but somewhat manageable, reality. Exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic and the resulting closed borders, coupled with rapid growth in the sector, this challenge has now grown to undermine the
Petfood brand WildHQ has secured national distribution with Fresh Choice supermarkets only one month after launching at the Nelson Saturday market. The new brand is the brainchild of friends Blair Chapman and Pete Kinane who combined their backgrounds as a commercial helicopter operator and police dog trainer to launch their new WildHQ venture. “When COVID-19 reared its ugly head and the world went into lockdown and tourism ground to a halt, Pete and I were chewing the fat over the phone and got talking about our dogs,” says Blair. “We have five dogs between us and we were talking about how much we missed being out in the bush. And then our wild idea was born.” “We went from chatting
Upcoming event
Thursday 30 July 2026 | 7:00am – 9:00am
📍 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.
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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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