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.
Sumit Sharma explains how, together with business partner Amandeep Singh, he successfully launched their digital odd jobs marketplace. Success has been snowballing for our app, a digital marketplace for odd jobs in Auckland. It’s called Ezy Peazy, and it’s working well – although achieving success has meant keeping a close eye on similar apps which haven’t been quite so successful. I’d like to share with you how we are making it work. Ezy Peazy was conceived in 2019 after I found myself redundant from two career roles, and looking for a meaningful project to focus on. At the time, there were a couple of digital marketplaces which were trying to help Kiwis find handymen and women for odd jobs. It
A Christchurch team have launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring the old Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square, established in 1879, back to life. They’re equity crowdfunding to raise up to $2 million to create a new destination that they hope will house nine businesses, and employ 40 to 50 people. The aim is for The Grand to include an artisan French bakery, a people-focused food court experience, visitor information centre, iconic restaurants and bars and one of New Zealand’s largest outdoor plazas, says CEO and founder of The Grand Darin Rainbird. “The Grand’s next life aims to be a world-class destination for our world-class city, and we believe this will be a part of the redevelopment of Christchurch’s future,”
MYOB’s Jo Tozer comments on the 2022 Government Budget’s incentives for business, including the Business Growth Fund – designed to deliver new funds to fuel business growth. With 48 percent of SMEs in MYOB’s 2022 Business Monitor stating that access to finance will be a pressure point on their business this year, an announcement of a new, independently managed Business Growth Fund (with a $100m investment by the Government) targeted at helping to provide a new source of capital for growing business, should be welcome news. Further insights from MYOB show growth is high up in the minds of many local small and medium enterprises, with 44 percent stating in the annual Business Monitor that growing their business is a priority over
Richard Conway explains some simple SEO techniques that business owners can use to edge the competition. The past two years have cemented search engine optimisation (SEO) as perhaps the most important aspect of any business’s digital marketing strategy. If implemented properly, appearing organically on the first page of Google for the terms your target market is searching for is a proven way to drive sales, brand engagement, and loyalty. Google dominates the search engine landscape in New Zealand, accounting for more than 93 percent of all searches in this country. That’s a massive playing field for your marketing efforts. It’s also a level playing field. Google does not share its algorithms, so no business benefits from any insider information. The
Are under-performers holding back your sales team? Logan Wedgwood explains how the right discipline and structures can help the whole team succeed. What if an over-reliance on inspirational speakers is the reason your salespeople are failing? Motivation is often bandied around as what salespeople need. That kick in the ass, or coaching and mentoring. Inspirational words and support. But what if that isn’t true? Is a lack of motivation just an excuse for under-performance or laziness? What if what is really needed is discipline? You see, in my work as a consultant, all of the most successful salespeople I work with are disciplined, not motivated. The under-performers are the ones asking for motivation. The high performers show up and do
With online reviews now trusted more than ever before, Mat Wylie highlights the importance of building your business’s reputation both online and off. When you’re asked to name a good dentist, café, mechanic or any other kind of business, you’re being asked to stake your reputation against a previous experience. This happened recently in my neighbourhood’s online group. Someone asked for a good builder, and local people chipped in with suggestions of builders that do good work. Their recommendations reached an audience of hundreds of people who weighed up feedback about this company and were able to make a better decision because of it. The old idea that people would tell five others about a great experience and 25
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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