We hope some of the wisdom shared by our WHK clients can propel your business to greater heights in the year ahead.

Move with the times – don’t stand still in an ever changing world. Be prepared to alter your strategies, try new concepts and move with the times (Wood Mallets, Manufacturing, Hawke’s Bay).

Regular contact with your key customers – when was the last time you called up every one of your major customers just to have a yarn with them? We find that more effective than anything else

There is a state-of-the-art building rising from the construction dust at 105 Collingwood Street and it’s all set to house an amalgamation of specialist medical services. The Collingwood Centre will be the new premises for Nelson Radiology and the Nelson Orthopaedic Group, as well a new Accident and Medical Centre, pharmacy, café and others.
Peter Faulkner, Manager at Nelson Radiology, says their business has required more space for some years, with the unsatisfactory result that some

Most business owners would see winning an award at the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce Awards as the ultimate success, but for Robin & Cheryll Davis at cuts@once, it was just the beginning.

Says Robin, "That night, we met Paul Rosanowski, a WHK business adviser, and told him of our desire to franchise the business. We had been trying for a while but without success. Paul suggested we meet once a month to find out why we’re not getting there and how to do it, and so for 18 months, that’s what

It was after the feedback they received from entering the Nelson Tasman Chamber Business Awards in 2009 that owners Noel and Sharyn Tait from Cooper Webley realised some changes needed to be made in their business.

Beginning of 2010 they decided it was time to sit down and have a serious hard look at their business. It very quickly became clear that there has been some misconception on their behalf as to where the business was going and how it was tracking overall. One thing was certain - it

What do you expect if you become really ill?  A hospital stay then convalescence at home assisted by family?

Before 1997, you certainly did not have the option in Nelson of private nursing care. Then Jill McKnight, an experienced nurse started Nelson Nursing Services. It began as a team of two, offering home based care. But Jill quickly saw an opportunity to extend services to include ACC contracts for social rehabilitation assessments, home support and occupational health checks.

Extra

We are all aware of the reaction from the insurance industry to the recent Christchurch Earthquakes, in that the premium cost for natural disaster insurance is on the rise. This will already be apparent to some businesses that have recently renewed their material damage (buildings & contents) and business interruption (loss of profit) insurance, and to others as they do so from now on.

As with any other claims for property damage, claims for natural disaster damage are subject to an excess

With 62% of New Zealand business owners over 50, 45% wanting to sell and only 11% having a plan, there is a huge need for being ready with an effective succession plan.*

When owners are selling, there are a number of ways to do this but they tend fall into two key areas: voluntary - for retirement, raising capital, mergers, acquisitions etc, and involuntary - at times of sickness, death or dispute.

Many business owners today regard their company as a retirement fund.

This means that if you

Running a successful business can be a rewarding experience both financially and emotionally. But what would happen to your business if you or a close family member fell seriously ill? Or if you just wanted to take life a bit easier?

As much as careful thought goes into your business, financial and marketing planning, it's critical for the ongoing success of your business to pay equal attention to how you exit, and not leave it too late to start working on a strategy.

It should be no

Are you wearing a shirt that says ‘Made in New Zealand' on the label? If so, you'll be in the minority. Most New Zealand manufacturers can't compete with the Asian behemoths but there is a business right here in Nelson providing quality clothing to the ethical niche market and boutique retail stores.

MW Clothing Ltd in Bridge Street has been manufacturing for 13 years and is run by business partners Mike Stevenson and Fay Jones.

It originally operated as Martha Washington Manufacturing

For many smaller businesses, the pressure of generating sales never stops. For many, this means continually offering discounts to attract and entice customers. However, this strategy can be very dangerous if you do not have a good understanding of the price-cost relationship because lower prices may mean lower overall profits, even on higher volumes.

Pricing is an art. Good pricing considers:

1. The cost to make and deliver the product or service
2. The desired profit margin for effort and

The key to effective Debt Management is FOCUS, TIME and COMMUNICATION. Listed below are some steps and principles an owner-manager should adopt in order to best manage debt and maintain a successful credit control policy.

1. Consider credit limits (perhaps vary these for longstanding customers versus new customers).
2. Devote the time to invoicing regularly and following up queries and overdue accounts (i.e. a set time each week).
3. Review the debtors ledger weekly (understand who owes you money

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but the Holer brothers have grown pretty attached to them too.

Holer Diamond Tools has been supplying high end specialist products for concrete cutting and grinding, tiling and bricklaying since 1992.  What's remarkable is that since operations began out of the family garage, the business has doubled its turnover every year since, resulting in the firm becoming the largest diamond tool supplier in New Zealand by 2000.

From garage to gargantuan in just 8

At the end of last year, the Government released the new legislation in relation to the tax treatment of Qualifying Companies (QCs) and Loss Attributing Qualifying Companies (LAQCs). Many ‘mum and dad' investors have shareholdings in QCs/LAQCs: they have been popular ways of holding interests particularly in residential and commercial rental property but also in numerous other types of investment or activity. The tax law changes proposed by the Government are about to change all that.

The

Personality Profiling Sam Hazledine

Sam needs little introduction to many of you. He has been on the speaking circuit taking to many WHK clients around the country. Sam started a medical recruitment company that has been hugely successful. In the first three years building MedRecruit, Sam has won numerous awards for the phenomenal growth the company has experienced; winner Conway-Petrie Marketing award, finalist Action International Entrepreneur of the Year, finalist Ernst & Young Entrepreneur

You would think that Business Planning was the same as going to the dentist if you saw how many business owners react when discussing the future of their business.  However, business plans are more like a big road map for a long trip away.

Without having the intended journey for your business mapped out, it can be like heading to a point in an unfamiliar city with no map. Using a map and an itinerary will help you get to the place you want to, rather than making wrong turns and seeing where

Hitting performance targets isn't easy. But if you knew there was a secret weapon you could deploy with minimal effort to achieve this, would you use it? Of course you would!

The secret weapon of choice for businesses that have grown, or been comfortably maintained over the course of the recession, is an acute focus on achieving company wide Key Performance Indicator (KPI) targets.

KPI's are quantifiable measurements which benchmark and monitor performance in all levels of your company on a

There aren't too many people who make a career change mid-life, but even less often does a man, aged 51, enter a female-dominated industry like hairdressing. For Robin Davis at cuts@once, it was a natural progression. The business was started by his father-in-law 17 years earlier. When he retired and Robin and his wife, Cheryll, took over the business,
Robin decided to pick up the clippers.

"Originally, when I came in, it was to be as an administrator and salon assistant but the numbers didn't

While businesses throughout NZ are aware of the introduction of the NZ ETS (New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme), there is still much confusion about its effect, especially for businesses that will not be direct participants.

The NZ ETS already covers the forestry sector, with large emitters having to offset 50 percent of their emissions from July this year. However, the number of businesses outside of forestry that are required to participate is actually quite small. Businesses that are not

Running your own business involves a great deal of blood, sweat and tears.

So imagine finding out that your business is slowly being eaten away from the inside whilst your attention is focused elsewhere. And being done so by someone trusted and respected within your organization. That’s what is happening in a surprisingly large number of New Zealand enterprises.

So how can your business protect itself and limit its chances of being a victim of the escalating fraud trend? It is widely viewed

Cash is king in business. Without it you can’t pay your bills or reward yourself for your efforts. We can sometimes get caught in the trap where the only way to get money is to sell more or see the bank manager to increase the overdraft limit, when in actual fact there may be funds available to you in places you haven’t yet looked.

Debtors

Getting your debtors to pay on time is one of the quickest ways to provide your business with additional cash funds. Regular follow-up phone calls on

When Jan and Gerda Dissel bought Anatoki Salmon in Golden Bay five years ago, they knew little about salmon, tourism or New Zealand. But after spending the first fifty years of their life in the Netherlands, they were ready to risk it all in the pursuit of new challenges and a better lifestyle.

"We came for a visit and thought if this isn't as close to paradise we will never find it", Jan explained.

WHK did the accounts for the previous owners, so it was a natural step to continue the

The highlights for Budget 2010:

• Personal tax cuts across the board from 1 October 2010 with the top rate dropping from 38% to 33%
• An Increase in GST from 12.5% to 15% from 1 October 2010
• A cut in the company tax rate from 33% to 28% from the start of the 2011/12 income year
• A suite of measures against property investment including removal of depreciation on all building and tightening of QC and LAQC rules
• Removal of all 20% depreciation loading on all new depreciable assets acquired from

OTR is run by Melissa Munro and Jane Peterson.  The entrepreneurs set the business up in 2007 on a hunch that sustainability and carbon footprint reduction would become as important to Nelson businesses as it would to the rest of the world. Three years on and they are excited about the new business collaboration with WHK.

"It's fantastic, a really brilliant fit", says Melissa. "I think green accounting is a huge area of growth and potentially in the future, people will be accounting for carbon

In November last year we decided we wanted to reduce our impact as a firm on the environment. As part of this we went through the Carbon Conscious Company Certification ("Certification") process with Offset The Rest ("OTR") which
meant we had to follow a simple three-step process of:

1. Carbon footprint measurement
2. Putting in place carbon management and reduction strategies; and
3. Offsetting our unavoidable carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits.

(Full details of our Certification and

Most of you have a 31 March balance date, so the end of tax year is almost upon us. We suggest that you begin planning for the tax year end now, to ensure that you maximise deductions and do not forfeit tax credits.

Please consider the following issues in light of the current economic situation:

1. Bad debts - the debt must be bad AND actually written off by or on balance date. For irrecoverable interest-bearing loans, it may be possible to obtain a deduction for interest accrued and returned

You might have noticed that since our most recent name change in July last year, we also acquired a brand new tagline Better Advice for a Better Life. This is something we as a firm believe in and take it so seriously that our focus for 2010 will be to make this a part of our everyday business.

By helping you be more successful in your activities, we are able to provide you with the ‘Better Life'. We do this by understanding your circumstances and delivering our services, giving you the

The first thing you notice when you visit the Sunrise Cleaning empire is how much it doesn't look like one. Bruce Farley and Phillipa Rutherford operate their 110-employee business out of their home office, which is sited on a 5-acre Buddhist retreat the couple created on gorse covered hills from the company's success.

When Bruce Farley began Sunrise Cleaning in 1986, his main motivation was to be his own boss. A cleaning business for sale had bad will and an expensive price tag, but the idea

"This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

The words of Franklin D Roosevelt seem as appropriate today as they did at his 1933 inauguration speech when talking about the Great Depression (in 2009 it's

Many business people have never determined the true worth of their business. They may only have an idea of the book value. Business or share valuations are essential in assessing the worth of one's investments. This is an area of specialist expertise with which the WHK team can assist you.