Small Business Tauranga will be holding a forum in late June hosted by Bakertilly Staples Rodway, which is expected to get an update on some of the issues being raised at a national level by Tenby Powell.
Powell was appointed chair of the recently established Small Business Council, designed to advise government on opportunities to create a stepped change in the support of the SME ecosystem. He is the founder in 2011 of the NZ SME Small Business Network, which aims to create a more positive environment for small business.
In 2012, he was appointed convenor of the Small Business Development Group established by government to provide SME owner / managers with a greater voice in policy development and about issues facing small businesses.
And in 2017, he was appointed a NZ representative on the APEC Business Advisory Council.
He told Bay of Plenty Business News that he could not speak on behalf of the Small Business Council at this stage, until his report was formerly submitted to government.
However, he said that his aim was the formation of an institute for small business, which would be a crown entity, and bring together all the work that was being done in central and parts of local government, as part of a regional economic development strategy.
“There is no doubt in my mind that small business economically has to be leveraged locally against regional economic development strategies to lift the entire small business economy,” said Powell.
“We’ve got to lift it up the value chain and eliminate the red tape to allow government to work more clearly with small business in the regions.”
Powell is also founder and executive director of Hunter Powell Investment Partners
a private capital investment and SME / not-for-proft advisory firm owned by Powell and Sharon Hunter.
Connecting the networks
Powell had high praise for Small Business Tauranga and told Bay of Plenty Business News he felt it was one of the best in the country and had been incredibly effective.
Small Business Tauranga was conceived within the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce three years ago, was initially chaired by Steven Farrant, and is now chaired by Infuzed’s Zita Cameron.
She told Bay of Plenty Business News that the organisation was about connecting the networks and working together to support small businesses in Tauranga in a wider capacity.
“SBT has created a strong following on Facebook and has been providing showcase opportunities, alongside morning networking and affordable bite-size training to help small businesses upskill themselves,” she said.
“This new initiative is getting traction and in particular attracted the support and insights of Tenby Powell.
“Currently there is no organisation in NZ specifically representing small business in the way we do and we are looking to expand even further.”
Cameron said that as a Chamber network, SBT had helped create relevancy for the Chamber and hoped to get more traction in further connecting local and other networks.
