Business advisers offer workshops

Sheldon Nesdale, Thoje Hood and Darren McGarvie.

Business advisers from Tauranga and Rotorua have joined forces to produce a workshop series to help business owners find and connect with the right business adviser to help them succeed.

The AdviseMe Workshop Series was developed by Tauranga's Thoje Hood, founder of AdviseMe, with input by Darren McGarvie from Rotorua business growth centre Firestation, and Sheldon Nesdale from Marketing First in Tauranga.

The series has its origins in a series run by Mr Hood in late 2014, when he ran a workshop that put business owners in the hot seat in front of three advisers.

"Our inaugural event was really well received," he said.

"We know several participants continued to use advisers they met through the experience. This year we have expanded our offering and turned it into a series. We want business owners to experience the full power of an advisory group over time, so they can see the big impact it can have on their business."

The objective, he said, was for participants to end up with an ongoing advisory group that suited their needs.

This year's series consists of three 90-minute workshops with adviser and four one-on-one business coaching sessions. Before and after each session they meet one-on-one with a professional business coach.

Participants will be paired with three advisers for the first session and will have the choice of keeping or swapping any or all of them for the subsequent workshops. The organisers said they had a diverse range of advisers lined up to participate with skills and experience across varied industries, business sizes and local government.

"Great advisers can make or break your business," said Mr Hood. "But many business owners shy away from the unknown, or put it in the too hard basket to find and connect with advisers."

The business coaching will be supplied by Firestation. Co-founder and chief coach Mr McGarvie said the series was ideally suited for business owners who wanted help to develop or launch a new product or service, overcome a specific challenge, fast-track their growth or simply improve their work-life balance.

"The series provides a safe platform for business owners to try out a range of adviser and the advisory group process," said Mr McGarvie.

"Advisory groups are a great way for business owners to access skills, knowledge and networks outside of their organisation and can help accelerate success and growth."

AdviseMe Workshop Series:

* Will be taking place on Thursday, July 28, Thursday, August 25, and Thursday, September 22