BUSINESS SERVICES

We help organisations improve their business with strategy development, strategy execution, organisational alignment, shaping culture, and developing high-performing teams and great leaders…

Do you need to get a deal done, but you’re not sure what the value of the business is? Negotiations are hard enough as they are, let alone when you go in blind. Sometimes you really don’t need a valuation, you just need some advice on approach. But sometimes a valuation is absolutely essential. Think about a messy divorce, or a shareholder split. Emotions get in the way of being able to strike a deal, and you need someone to just tell you what the answer is…

Whether you’re buying a small business or a large business, it’s easy to make an expensive mistake. For a rundown on what we recommend for a larger purchase, check out our M&A section. Most people selling small businesses, like most of the ones on Trademe, will have no idea what their businesses are worth, and they’ll want too much money. If you’re selling and have a business broker then that’s a lot less likely to happen…

Setting up a new company is an exciting venture, but we are also aware that it can be daunting at the same time. Especially if it’s your first one. Get past the hardest part, which is probably choosing the company name, then you need to reserve the name and register the company. Next you want to look at banking services, tax registration, insurances, ACC and accounting and recording systems. Even job descriptions and employment contracts – something that often gets forgotten about in the set-up process…

There are lots of points during litigation that you might need to pull together evidence. You might not even be going through litigation yet, but just have a risk of going to court. You might be trying to resolve it yourself or with a lawyer, but need some advice that may become evidence later. Or you might already be in the legal process and need an accountant or analyst as an expert, who can write an expert opinion you’ll use for evidence…

If a company is broke, bankrupt or in debt, liquidation is used to collect its assets, determine the outstanding claims against the company, and sort out the claims in order of the law. A liquidator is appointed when a company is placed into liquidation. The liquidator takes control of all the company’s unsecured assets, which are sold to repay the creditors. Trading companies are usually closed, although sometimes they might continue to trade for a short time so the business can be sold…

If you have a larger or trickier deal to get over the line, we’re well positioned to help. We’ve worked with cross-border strategic transactions, divestments, roll-ups and everything in between. We work with a number of M&A firms in Singapore, Japan, China and further abroad. This can be very useful for finding overseas buyers if the local market is too shallow. Often an overseas corporate buyer can help leverage up your business to a level that just can’t be done locally…

Not long after GS was formed, we started doing a lot in the property development funding space. These were a bit of a mix at first. We did some greenfield, some warehouse conversions, some office block conversions. We had some interesting ones in Central Auckland. Freemans Bay, Albert Street, Victoria Street, High Street, Federal Street, Emily Place. We raised capital from a group of investors to fund and help set up Kiwi Self Storage. Since then, we’ve exited (profitably) and the business is still a major player in their space…

If you’re going through a relationship property dispute, you’ll know that even though you’re fighting over money (or your other assets), there’s more than money to think about. When a business is involved, it’s even more complicated. If you need a bit of help pulling together ideas of how you’re going to get yourself untangled from your spouse or partner, we’re happy to have a confidential, complimentary catch up to see if we’re a good fit.

If you’re looking at retiring and closing up shop, there’s a pretty good chance you can sell your business instead. When you’re selling a business, there are some really simple things you can do to get the best bang for your buck. Getting your business ready years in advance is best, of course, but hindsight is 20/20 and you might not have the luxury of time. One thing to keep in mind is that selling a business can sometimes be very time consuming…

Getting into business is a lot like getting married, and it’s pretty similar when things go wrong. A lot gets lost in the emotional fallout of a shareholder dispute – you might feel hard-done by, there might be ruined friendships and wasted time. You might not even be on speaking terms. It’s pretty hard to strike a deal to part ways when emotions are running high and there’s money involved…

Each year we see dozens of start-ups looking at raising capital. Some of these are obviously good ideas, some are obviously bad. Some are totally awesome. We help maybe 10% of the start-ups we see raise capital, and try to do this for as many of the awesome ones as we can. If we don’t raise capital for a particular start-up, we give a lot of feedback on why we’re not a good fit, of course, and maybe leave them with other things to consider…

It’s very rare to find an entrepreneur who’s able to go from starting a business, to running a business at scale. Often the ones that do get a huge amount of coaching, or have a top class advisory board because the learning curve to keep growing a business is enormous. There are three key areas to keep under control as you scale out a business, and each has different challenges at different times…

There are a lot of tricky questions around succession, especially when the business is really dear to you. Maybe you’re unsure who’s going to take the reins? Or do you have someone lined up already but not sure how much to sell for? Do you give them a discount? Do you wonder if you need to keep working in the business, but aren’t sure how that would affect price? The crux of the decision is making sure it gets into the right hands and gets looked after properly…

Running a business is a lot of work. It can be really hard to keep on top of things, and keep things running smoothly. When you’re growing quickly, it can become impossible to figure out if a decision is going to take you to the next level, or put you under. We’re a team of experienced advisors, we’re directors, shareholders, entrepreneurs and investors. We work with you to make sure you have the information you need, when you need it…

Wealth is understood differently by both the wealthy, and those who aspire to have it. The process by which wealth is created, also differs depending on what is considered valuable to the seeker of wealth. Once achieved, often not well defined in advance of the journey, new challenges emerge, and for many those challenges are more demanding emotionally than the journey to success itself…