The SME Stream

Do you actually need to become the face of your business to grow it?

This week on Make It Happen, we sit down with  ⁨@roimatawilkey⁩  founder of @burst digital to unpack how she built a personal brand that has reached more than 200 million people and turned content into a powerful growth channel for her business.

Roi shares how she went from struggling to post consistently to finding repeatable content formats capable of generating millions of views. We break down what actually makes content perform, from hooks and retention to storytelling, testing and knowing when to double down on what works.

We also get into the bigger business case for personal branding: why people buy from people, how showing up consistently builds trust long before someone becomes a customer, and why not every piece of content needs to lead directly to a sale.

Plus, we talk Instagram vs LinkedIn vs TikTok, how to use your analytics to improve your content, where AI fits into your strategy, and why authentic human content could become even more valuable as AI-generated content floods our feeds.

If you’re a business owner looking to build more authority, reach more people and turn your expertise into a brand people know and trust, this episode is for you.

Ready to start building or scale your existing business?

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Buying an established business can give you customers, systems and revenue from day one. But how do you know whether the asking price reflects what you’ll actually earn?

On The Prosperity Project, Nadine talks to The Comic Accountant Sam Harith about the checks to make before buying a business. They discuss financial statements, debt, cash flow, the difference between buying assets and shares, and the risks of taking over a franchise or a business whose customers are loyal to its current owner.

They also ask the question every prospective buyer should consider: are you buying a business, or buying yourself a job?

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With the election just weeks away, a new poll gives us a glimpse into how voters feel about one of the major topics this campaign season – tax. 

No new taxes for working people. No new taxes full stop. Taxes for capital gains. Tax the rich. Tax inheritance. Tax landowners. 

The campaign season’s only just officially begun but it feels like we’ve already been hearing debates about the subject of taxes and levies for a while now. 

The latest Ipsos Issues Monitor survey dove deeper into the tax debate, showing about two-thirds of Kiwis would support a wealth tax. 

Today on The Front Page, Newstalk ZB political reporter, Ethan Griffiths is with us to break down the numbers. 

Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee

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There's a belief New Zealand First's proposal to slash the tax rate for small businesses could make a positive difference to our business landscape.  

The party's promising to lower the tax rate from 28% to 20% for firms with turnover under $30 million.

Its estimated cost is about a billion dollars a year.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich told Kerre Woodham it would apply to a majority of our businesses. 

She says it would need to be researched for implementation, but it's bold and could transform business in New Zealand   

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Labour is rolling out an election-year sweetener, this time aimed at Kiwis with student loans.

The party is promising eligible borrowers will receive a 10 percent reduction on their student loan balance if it's elected. 

Under the proposal, graduates who complete their studies and stay in the country for at least three years would qualify. 

Labour's Tertiary Education Spokesperson Shanan Halbert told Ryan Bridge the policy is all about keeping the best and brightest in the country. 

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A practical, framework-heavy episode on how owners actually get better at running their business — and how to know what kind of help you need next.

-You'll learn: the 70-20-10 rule for learning (on-the-job, coached, and formal/theory);

-How to spot your business's natural bias across Product, Customer and Finance;

-The real difference between a mentor and a coach;

-Why looking outside your own industry for advice often pays off more;

-and why "strong opinions, loosely held" beats either stubbornness or indecision.

Beer: Brew Moon The Wolf APA (5.8%) & Garage Project Party and Bullshit Hazy IPA (6.2%)
Pie: Kel's Bakery, Amberley — Pork, Apple Sauce & Cheese

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NZ First want taxes slashed for small and medium businesses in order to increase productivity.

The party will campaign on lowering the rate from 28 percent to 20 - for businesses turning over less than $30 million dollars. 

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says there's a case for making this change, as Australia tried something similar for small to medium enterprises.

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Greg Smith KiwiSaver investment and Managed Funds specialist from Generate on earnings growth multiples.

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Time is running out for the businesses that generate billions of dollars worth of GDP and that employ a quarter of a million New Zealanders.

They're the businesses that run on gas. Your bakers, your coffee roasters, your wineries, your wood processors, your ag sec. And that's not counting the schools and hospitals dependent on gas to heat their buildings.

Time is running out because the gas they operate on is running out. It's a finite resource. And as yet, they haven't found anything to replace it.

And yes, we've probably heard about the high profile businesses like Glenbrook Steel Mill and Spates Brewery in Dunedin who've transitioned to electric arc furnaces and electric boilers respectively. But for a huge number of businesses, a shift is not yet technically or financially possible but the gas is going to run out.

They can't say, we'll just keep it going until we transfer over because when it's gone, it's gone. And when it comes to making the transition, it's not just the cost of a new electric furnace.

If bakers, for example, want to make the move from gas to electric, that will cost upwards of $10 million. And that's just the beginning. There are the connection costs. That starts at a couple of million, just to get the thing connected. And then there's the backup plan. Electricity isn't as reliable as gas.

BusinessDesk quotes the country president of Schneider Electric who had a customer that had to dump 19 million litres of milk because they lost energy for 30 seconds.

As a result, businesses that are transitioning are spending capital on battery stabilisation just to make the grid usable before they can completely transition over. And it makes for a really uncertain environment and that's reinforced by a Schneider Electric survey.

They looked at 288 senior business leaders and found 39 percent of them had delayed expansion or lost contracts due to energy costs or supply issues in the past year. We've talked about it before.

 I think we've talked about it and about the fact that it's coming, that the end of the gas is coming, and yet people and businesses, don't seem to be able to afford to make the transition or else they've looked at the numbers and thought - we'll have to go overseas because there we'll have a reliable energy source. It won't be as expensive as it is here.

It's a shame. But we've still got the business and we can set up offshore.

Energy costs have doubled over the past five years. But even though we've complained about the cost of everything going up, the cost of a loaf of bread hasn't doubled.

Where are you at if you are one of those businesses? They're big and they're small in terms of those that rely on gas. With the smaller ones, is it even worth transitioning?

Do you just shut up shop and start again? With the bigger ones, I mean, you probably can't afford not to. Now, the eventual exit, as BusinessDesk writes, of Methanex, New Zealand's single largest user, would free up some volumes currently used for methanol production, but that's only a temporary reprieve.

What are we doing here? I can't even imagine what the future looks like. That is, one day you'll go to turn on the gas and it won't be there. What will you have done before that?

Will you be long gone, reading about it from Australia? Will you be in another business entirely? Where do we go from here?

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Forsyth Barr Investment Adviser Mark Richardson explains which assets are benefitting from high interest rates.

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