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When life gives you lemons, pivot

Paul Martin • Sep 21, 2020

The world of work has been transformed this year and the only way forward is to adapt. Here are two businesses who rejigged their offering to keep the invoices rolling and who experienced great success.

Bringing home the bacon

Pop-up restaurant founder Stacey Jones from Mount Maunganui describes time in lockdown as a 'tale of two halves' for her business   Kitchen Takeover. "It was hard because my seven events sold out in 24 hours before lockdown and they all had to be cancelled. But this was good because it forced me to pivot and move really quickly into something new, which would never have happened if I hadn't had my hand forced."

Stacey decided to package up her pop-up restaurant night into a dinner party box - a fine-dining experience delivered to your door.

"One of the challenges of the pop-up restaurant is that I spend months developing menus with chef Shane Yardley and experiences that are completely unique," she explains. "The boxes are great because they allowed me to scale up and get the edible experiences into more people's hands."

Stacey is a big believer in the 'innovate or die' saying and views each one of her business ideas as a big prototype.

"You're always moving forward and changing things to get a better end result. We're in the very early stages of   Kitchen Takeover - At Home , but it's going really well. We sold out of all our boxes in the first and second round so I think that's a good sign of market validation."

Top businesswoman Theresa Gattung, who was involved in the conception of   My Food Bag , is a fan, and one diner described it as "having a five star restaurant in your home".

Kitchen Takeover pop-up restaurants are now back in full force in the Bay of Plenty. Stacey's future plans include a physical food innovation space and a food festival to celebrate local producers.

Metal Art finds silver lining during lockdown

When the pandemic hit, engineering company   Metal Art   from Wellington carved out new opportunities. The interior and exterior furniture specialists designed and produced more than 1,000 hand sanitiser stands for Progressive supermarkets nationwide and   Initial Hygiene.

"Around 50% of our regular business dropped away so we knew we had to change our focus fast," says Managing Director Carl Longstaff. "We developed a new product line of hand sanitiser stands and manufactured and supplied gel.

Thankfully we have managed to maintain full employment for our 35 staff and I'm confident these products will continue to see strong demand by companies, government departments and organisations dealing with the public face-to-face."

He says COVID-19 emphasised the importance of supporting local businesses where possible.

"Our steel is produced less than 50 metres down the road from us and we outsource where we can - be it powder from Dulux or sandblasting from   Seaview Blasting. We try to get things as close to home as we can because at the end of the day we want to deal with locals and with people we trust."`

How the new Government and coalition agreements might affect owners of residential rental properties

By Paul Martin • 04 Dec, 2023
There were some key takeouts of interest to many of our clients from the recently signed coalition agreements between National, ACT and New Zealand First and the formation of the new Government. In particular there are a number of policies which will likely benefit landlord clients who own residential rentals. I have summarised some of these below. 1. Return of Interest deductibility for residential rental properties Interest deductibility for residential rental property owners will return. It will be phased back in over three tax years: • 2023/24 tax year: 60% of interest cost will be deductible. • 2024/25 tax year: 80% of interest cost will be deductible. • 2025/26 tax year: 100% of interest cost will be deductible. 2. Reduction in bright-line period National signalled in their pre-election campaign that the bright-line period for residential rental property sales would reduce from 10-years to 2-years. While the exact implementation of this policy is not yet known, it is good news on the horizon for residential property investors. 3. Reinstatement of 90-day no-cause termination notices The new government will reinstate 90-day no-cause tenancy termination notices. This will avoid many unnecessary disputes in the Tenancy Tribunal and gives landlords more confidence in letting to possibly “marginal tenants". Many landlords have avoided what they considered to be risky tenants because eviction for anti-social behaviour was so difficult. With this reinstatement, landlords might be more inclined to give a marginal tenant a chance because they know that if the tenant misbehaves, they won’t be stuck with them. If you would like more information on how these changes might affect your personal circumstances, please feel free to contact us to discuss further.

How does provisional tax work, especially in an economic downturn?

By Paul Martin • 18 Jul, 2023
If you had to pay tax of more than $5,000 in your last income tax return, you may have to pay provisional tax for the following year. Provisional tax is like making progress payments on next year's income tax.

How to handle inflation as a sole trader

By Paul Martin • 18 Jul, 2023
Sole traders have had an especially difficult few years as inflation surges. We have got three tips to help lighten the load for your sole trader business. 
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