Marketing Maestro
Small business gets it; big business doesn’tIt’s New Zealand’s smaller businesses that lead the way when it comes to...
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Opinion
129 Articles
Employment Matters
Erin Burke considers some of the cases where employers have successfully taken action to address absenteeism problems. The minimum...
Export Report
Catherine Beard reports on why the sky’s the limit for tech start-up exporter WhosOnLocation. While in San Francisco recently I...
Franchise File
Franchisors need to be prepared to defend their brand against one-sided media, says Simon Lord.If I run a headline on my website that reads...
Employment Matters
Great CV? Check the ‘netprint’!Going online can be extremely useful for pre-employment checks.Erin Burke takes you through the...
Don’t buy a lemon
Michelle Malcolm explains the importance of a thorough due diligence process when buying a business. Recently I was approached by an...
Ask, listen and learn
Your staff may be good at answering customer questions, but if they don’t ask questions, they’re just order-takers. Dr Ian...
Budgets and bottom lines
A lack of budgeting is often a likely contributor to business failures. Paul Moodie outlines what every good budget should have.Alarming...
The truth about Trusts
Should you have a trust? Naturally, the answer is dependent on your circumstances. The primary reason for having a trust is to...
Understanding business debt
For many small business owners, managing debt may have been exasperated recently by the slowing economy. Debt can either be good or...
Making your customers feel they are missing out
I have just spent an hour organising flights for a rather complicated trip zigzagging across the Tasman and around Eastern...
Don’t mess with our ACC
For the past six to eight weeks the spin machine has been working overtime and spewing out half truths and misinformation about ACC....
Are you investment ready?
There are many steps or hurdles to overcome before your business may be attractive to an investor, and consequently achieve the...
The customer loyalty myth
This behaviour is not only counter intuitive it goes against the old 80:20 marketing rule – spend 80 percent of your marketing...
Mentor a Guide for Tourism Business
Ryan Kelly, owner of guiding company Southern Wilderness, is optimistic about the future of his business, despite the recent dip in...
Stable and Sustainable? I think Not
On April 17th the NBR commented on the just released OECD report and some of the harsh facts that it includes. We’re in...
‘The Consequence–Free Society’?
Regular readers of this column will be familiar with a central theme I repeatedly mention; the benign business environment from an...
Half full or half empty?
I am not one for astrology or predictions, especially when it comes to the economic outlook, other than to say I have learned that...
The case of the missing origami cranes?
Good communication with staff is fundamental to achieving the obligations of good faith which underpins the Employment Relations Act...
Is marketing all about campaigns?
Marketing is not all about campaigns. That is only a tiny bit of what constitutes the Marketing concept and it is...
Those ‘Unplanned Marketing Messages’
spend a lot of time driving on Auckland’s Northern Motorway and I’m increasingly struck by the volume of ‘Unplanned...
Tell them once, tell them twice?
Managers who deliberately repeat themselves are more effective at getting things done, according to research by Professors Tsedal Neeley of...
Do your customers 
trust you?
An Annual Monitor (Edelman PR’s “Trust Barometer”) conducted each year in the US reports that fewer than half of...
Enhancing employer rights with an employment agreement
Are employment agreements all just about paperwork? No, definitely not; they define the rights of both parties to the employment...
Is franchising good news or bad for small business?
In last month’s column I referred to the statistic that, with around one franchised outlet per 215 people, New Zealand is the...
A look through the LTC regime
On 15 October the Government released the much anticipated legislation in relation to the treatment of Qualifying Companies...
Does Business Give a Damn.
First, a warning and an apology. This is a rant.You would think, wouldn’t you, that as businesses struggle to cope with,...
Customer Service: an outdated concept.
When was the last time you had a truly satisfying, rewarding, enjoyable and, above all, successful customer service experience?Bet...
Business: what’s the point?
Is there a point to business? A purpose?If we were to conduct a street poll, what would people say in response to that question?I am...
What’s the last thing new franchisors need?
If you are going to franchise your business, domestically or internationally, the last thing you want is a...