'Success turns on dreams, and plans'

Successful Maori business people need to stand up as role models and hold on to their dreams in their business and their personal lives.
In a presentation to the Takiwai Rotorua Maori business network on Thursday, local business leader Merepeka Raukawa-Tait urged her audience to keep their dreams in sight, share the secrets of their success with others and learn how to say "no" to whanau.
She talked about how most of us let dreams such as completing courses, learning Te Reo or achieving goals fall by the wayside.
"We should live our lives dreaming and doing something we want to do. The dreams you had 15 years ago - what happened to them?"
People need to be clear in their own minds what they want to do or achieve, but focusing too much on business alone is not something she recommends.
"Business success will be one of the things you want, but your relationship with your family, education, travel ... these are all important too.
"Look at yourself in total - to be successful in business, you need to take a planned approach to business and life."
Raukawa-Tait put being a good role model for whanau forward as a worthwhile dream, describing everybody as a "centre of influence" for those around them.
"This includes family, the people you work alongside and the city itself."
But family can also be a barrier to achieving other dreams and she said Maori women, in particular, needed to be stronger when dealing with whanau.
"For many Maori, family can be a heavy pull on finances and you can find yourself dealing with other people's financial mismanagement."
She said requests for financial help from extended whanau were difficult to refuse, but it was better for everybody, in the long term, if people helped them learn to manage their finances instead of offering handouts.
"You have to be able to say, 'I can't help you now, but come back to me in three months' time'. They never come back, because they will have sorted it out.
"It means they learn to manage their money and you do not have to put dreams on hold for lack of course fees or money to travel or invest in yourself or your business."
Raukawa-Tait talked about the need to put your dreams, and the planning required to achieve them, down on paper.
"Most people only sit down and put things on paper when they have to prepare forecasts for the bank manager, but everybody [in the business] should know what you are going to be doing during the next 12 months."
She also urged business owners to use the resources available to them through the likes of their bank manager, accountant and lawyer.
"Take your plan to them and ask if they think you are going in the right direction - they may be able to help. Develop those relationships."