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Marriages end in death or divorce. Business partnerships often end in a lawyer's office. What a divorce lawyer taught me about getting agreement before you think you need it.

Tony's first request was to move our first meeting to his office, a kilometre down the road, because he couldn't leave the business for fear it would fall down. I said no. Eighteen months later he took a six-week holiday and the business had its best month in company history while he was away.

What a business coach costs in NZ, group vs one-on-one, and how to work out if it pays for itself.

A business coach works with the owner of a business on how it grows: strategy, people and the numbers. The Growth Toolkit is Matt Fitzsimmons' coaching practice in Hamilton, New Zealand, for founders and owners of businesses with 5 to 80 staff. Who does a Hamilton business coach work with? Founders and owners with 5 to 80 staff who have built something real and now find everything runs through them. Decisions, problems, approvals. You are the lid on the business. The work is

Two ways to work with me: The Masterclass group, or one-on-one coaching for owners of businesses with 5 to 80 staff.

Shane knew three business owners he could ask about his quoting system. He'd had a beer with all of them. Asking for help was apparently a much bigger commitment.

Grant and his business partner never put anything in writing, because they were mates and mates don't need paperwork. Six years later that assumption cost him forty thousand dollars and the friendship. Here's what "we'll sort it out later" actually costs.

August's card spending grew at exactly the rate of inflation, so the headlines called it flat. It wasn't flat. Hospitality's annual growth fell off a cliff while cinema spend jumped 77 percent. If you're in an “everyday” category and reading that as good news, you haven't looked at your own number yet.

When cash is tight, most owners think caution kicks in and they hire smarter. They don't. They hire slower and just as badly, then call the delay diligence. Here's what actually protects you when you can't afford a bad hire.

The Employment Relations Amendment Act rewired four things about how you hire, fire and classify contractors back in February. Six months on, I'd guess fewer than one in five small businesses have updated a single template to match it.

Retail NZ's own numbers show apparel sales down for a fourth straight month and hospitality spend still falling. Forty-one percent of firms raised prices last quarter anyway. The other fifty-nine percent didn't decide not to. They just didn't decide.

There are three numbers in the room when you sell your business, and most owners only know one. Seven things to get right before you go to market.

Business confidence just posted its biggest monthly jump in years. I think it's about to cost some owners real money. The operators who actually grow through this were never watching the survey in the first place.

Phil used to get things done by yelling. Not cruelly. Not maliciously. He just ran his business the way a lot of good, hardworking people run businesses: tell people what to do, tell them again louder if it's not happening fast enough, and measure success by how much got done today. He was effective. He was also, by his own admission years later, kind of exhausting to work for. I started coaching Phil when he was still very much a manager. The tell-not-ask kind. And over a fe

(I'm writing this at the end of the day, a harder day than usual) This morning, I fired someone on behalf of the company I work with. We'd given them the opportunity, support, and clear feedback to improve. When nothing changed, we made the call. It's not a part of the role I enjoy but sometimes it's necessary. But here's what struck me sitting with that decision: the real issue wasn't them. It was about standards. About what we're willing to accept and what we're not. Most

A client of mine ran a business with fourteen staff and a problem he couldn't name. Revenue was fine. Margins were fine. But every week felt like pushing a boulder up a hill he'd already climbed twelve times before. Then he hired an operations manager. Cost him more than he wanted to pay. Six months later he told me he finally understood what “working on the business” meant, because for the first time in nine years, someone else was working in it properly. Nothing else about

If you're reading this and things are tight right now, I want you to know I'm aware of the irony. You're reading an article about economic culling while wondering if you're the one for the chop. I'm not going to pretend that's a comfortable place to be, but I'm also not going to look away from it. Nor should you. There's a phrase that gets thrown around every time conditions tighten. Usually by someone whose business is fine. Usually delivered with the detached confidence of

My clients grew their sales by an average of 22% last year. Their EBIT grew by 39.5%. Not one of them went backwards. I'm not telling you that to brag. I'm telling you that because last week we talked about how businesses die, and the answer was that they don't get unlucky. They get complicit. One small bad decision at a time, until the weight of them becomes unsurvivable. Growth works exactly the same way. It's not luck. It's not market timing. It's not some proprietary stra

Nobody's business dies in a day. New Zealand recorded 3,080 formal insolvency appointments in 2025. Liquidations, receiverships, voluntary administrations. The highest annual figure since 2010. The December quarter alone was the second worst since the turn of the millennium, surpassed only by the GFC. People will read those numbers and think: tough economy, bad timing, external forces, luck. Wasn't their fault. Nothing they could have done. Poor buggers. Some of that's true.

I probably don't need to tell you this, but running a business with any number of staff is no small feat. You’re juggling sales, profits, operations, and the big picture of growth. But how do you really know if your business is in tip-top shape? That’s where a solid business health assessment comes in. Think of it as a regular check-up for your company, helping you spot issues before they snowball and uncover opportunities you might be missing. Ready to dive in? Let’s get you