Events

 

Without cash, even the most successful business will struggle to achieve growth and realise its potential.  Often the most cash hungry business is one that’s in growth mode.  Growth usually demands investment in assets, systems, staff, marketing initiatives – and working capital to fund increased debtors, work in progress and inventory.

So what are the options when it comes to funding the growth of your business?  Should you offer a stake to an equity partner – or borrow funds from the bank or elsewhere?  What are the true costs of those options?  What might sway your decision one way or the other?  What if you can’t find a suitable equity partner – and lenders don’t share your enthusiasm?

These are age old questions – and often you don’t know the right answer for certain until after the event.  It’s easy to be wise in hindsight.  The panel at this Business Owners Forum event will focus on the dilemmas and decisions to be made when considering how to fund the growth of your business. 

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Constellation Drive, North Harbour at 5:30pm on Thursday 21 August 2014 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night. We have three quality panellists who will discuss this topic from their own point of view.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panellists. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues. This event will be repeated in Newmarket on Wednesday 17 September.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.

 

Most business owner’s eyes glaze over when they hear worn out adages like “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”.  But there is no doubt that without a strategy, a business cannot plan effectively.  And without a plan, that old adage will sooner or later start to ring true.

There is also no doubt that for many business owners, strategic thinking and planning gets pushed aside by the more urgent day to day stuff happening in the business.

So how to introduce some strategic planning discipline and techniques in your business without shutting the office for a week and killing a tree?  This will be the topic of discussion at the 16 July Business Owners Forum.

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Broadway, Newmarket at 5:30pm on Wednesday 16 July 2014 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night. We have three quality panellists who will discuss this topic from their own point of view.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panellists. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues. This event will be more or less a repeat of the event in Albany on 19 June.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up.  And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.

Worn out business adages like “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail” make most people’s eyes glaze over. But there is no doubt that without a strategy, a business cannot plan effectively. And without a plan, that old adage will probably start to ring true.

There is also no doubt that for many business owners, strategic thinking and planning gets pushed aside by the more urgent day to day stuff happening in the business.

So how to introduce some strategic planning discipline and techniques in your business without shutting the office for a week and killing a tree?  This will be the topic of discussion at the 19 June Business Owners Forum.

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Constellation Drive, North Harbour at 5:30pm on Thursday 19 June 2014 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night. We have three quality panellists who will discuss this topic from their own point of view.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panellists. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues. This event will be repeated in Newmarket on Wednesday 16 July.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.

 

Moving to the cloud seems to be the buzz phrase of 2014.  Applications and services are hosted from the cloud, data is stored in the cloud – and servers are moving to the cloud.  Everyone from your accountant to your graphic designer is likely to be using the cloud for some or all of these business processes.  So does your business need to become more cloud oriented?  What does that mean for you?  What are the benefits and what are the potential pitfalls?

Proponents wax lyrical about access from any device, reduced reliance on on-site IT management and cost savings.  But what about the time and effort to transition to the cloud?  And how about the risk of reliance on your internet service to operate your business?  And can you trust your cloud provider with the security and privacy of your data?

How do you consider the tradeoffs between cost, security, ease of management, vulnerability to far-away providers and ease of access?  Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

For this event we have assembled a quality panel comprising two business owners who have tackled this issue in their own business – and an expert who has seen the issues as they unfold from a professional point of view.

This event will be held at the Elevate CA Limited offices in CBD Whangarei at 5:30pm on Thursday 5 June – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panelists.  And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up.  And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.

 

Difficult people can either suck up a disproportionate amount of your time, energy and money – or you can deal with the situation decisively.   They seem to crop up regularly in every business – they may be on the team – or they may be customers, suppliers or some other stakeholders.

For this Business Owners Forum event, we will assemble a  varied panel of three who have overcome significant challenges in this area – and who will discuss this topic from three different perspectives.  Full details including the three panellists will be posted here before the end of March.  Please note that although no two BOF events are ever the same, this will be more or less a repeat of the 24 April event in Albany.

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility, Broadway, Newmarket at 5:30pm on Wednesday 21 May 2014 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panelists.  And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up.  And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.