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Eligible subjects for training
Services eligible for registration are management training services that are delivered to business owners and/or managers to improve the management capability within the business.
Funding may be provided to business owners to enable them to access eligible services that can fulfil a management skill gap identified by the Regional Business Partner growth advisor.
Eligible services for one-to-some training
One-to-some training upskills business owners in business fundamentals. The following subject areas will be considered. All definitions are in relation to delivering capability training and building knowledge on the defined areas.
Business planning
- Business sustainability
- Continuity planning such as compliance, insurance, health and safety, risk and people
- Environmental sustainability basics.
Operations
- Business operations basics
- Supplier/customer agreements/negotiation skills
- Client management
- Exporting basics.
Digital tools
- Artificial intelligence, customer relationship management systems, booking systems, cloud storage
- E-commerce
- Cyber security.
Leadership and employment
- Contracts
- Managing resources
- Improving performance.
Finance basics
- Cashflow
- Budgets
- Tax basics.
Marketing
- Planning
- Identifying customer markets
- Pricing
- Understanding unique selling points
- Branding
- Promotion
- Lead generation
- Sales strategies.
Governance
- Obligations under the Companies Act
- Roles and responsibilities for directors, board members, trustees
- Governance documents
- Legal structure.
Lean manufacturing
- Introduction to lean manufacturing
- Benefits and pitfalls of lean manufacturing
- Lean manufacturing tools and processes.
Eligible services for one-to-one training
One-to-one training is bespoke training courses that will significantly upskill business owners beyond the fundamental basis taught under one-to-some. Services covering the following subjects may qualify for funding for one-to-one training. All definitions are in relation to delivering capability training and building knowledge on the defined areas.
Business planning
- Goals - goal setting, planning personal growth and business development
- Vision/mission
- Growth strategies and strategic planning
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat (SWOT) analysis
- Competitive advantage/opportunity - competitor analysis, identifying key selling proposition and competitive advantage
- Targets - setting realistic and measurable targets, ratios and benchmarking
- Action/operational plans - developing action plans (human resources, marketing, production, finance, innovation plans) to achieve targets.
Business sustainability
- What is sustainability? Economic, social and environmental sustainability.
- Factors in creating a sustainable business - Making sustainability part of your vision. Leader’s commitment to sustainability. Choice and use of resources that ensure the most effective use of resources. Business systems and processes that support the most efficient and effective use of key resources. Consideration of external accreditation to verify business practices and operations.
- Understanding the implications of your business choices - Sustainability is incorporated into the design of products or services, their manufacture or delivery, and the business takes responsibility for the whole of the life cycle.
- Benefits of sustainability - cost savings, competitive edge, brand/marketing benefits, environmental, social/community.
- Customer expectations - understanding customer expectations, emerging niches, trends, leveraging your sustainability, accreditation programmes.
- Financial cost-benefits - analysing the financial impact of sustainability.
- Reduction strategies - waste reduction, reducing or switching resources, cost of waste vs. cost of disposal, reuse and/or recycling.
- Procurement selection - supplier sustainability practices and credentials and raw material sustainability.
- Business culture - people and communities are invested in and staff behaviours reinforcing sustainability are supported. Regular communication and feedback on progress towards sustainability.
Business systems
- Information and financial systems - increasing organisational efficiency, identifying information types, databases, financial systems, storage media, tracking data through processes, managing data, tracking manual and electronic information flows, flow analysis and re-engineering.
- Record keeping - processes and procedures for organising, processing and storing business related data relevant to an organisation.
- Organisational efficiency - setting up efficient office systems, reducing businesses costs through effective business systems, improving workflow, information technology.
- Operational systems and procedures - identifying, documenting organisation procedures, retaining "in head" procedures when key staff exit the organisation.
- E-commerce - online trading, e-business applications, B2B/B2C commerce, integration of backroom systems with front-end.
- Benchmarking - the systematic and continuous process of identifying, learning and adapting best practices from national and international businesses in the same industry to help a business improve its business performance.
- Distribution - best ways to store, handle and move products and services so that they are available to customers at the right time and in the right place.
- Cyber security strategy.
Capital raising
- Introduction to capital raising – provides an overview of the capital raising process, the types and sources of finance, how investors work and what they are looking for, determining if a business is investment ready, sources of assistance.
- Getting companies investor ready – preparing the business case, valuing a business, legal implications of raising funds, Securities Act and exemptions.
- Pitching to potential investors – finding an investor, the deal process and timetable, information investors will require, the importance of the pitch, tools for creating succinct pitches.
- Completing the deal - due diligence, the negotiation process, key legal agreements.
Exporting
- Are you ready for exporting? Why export, overview of the practical side to exporting: freight, finance, pricing, foreign exchange, documentation, terms of sale; an overview of the strategic side: research, marketing, promotion and market entry strategies.
- Getting started in exporting - the export process, strategic market selection and research, freight, finance and documentation, determining the best market entry strategy, selecting the right business partner, intellectual property and branding, pricing for export, developing promotional tactics, e-marketing, making the sales pitch, and export planning.
- Planning for export success - strategic market selection, market research, intellectual property protection, pricing and marketing.
- Market entry strategies - market entry options: direct marketing, distributors and agents, strategic alliances, joint venture partners, contract manufacture, sale of technology, licensing, franchising, setting up an overseas office, and overlapping models. How to build effective relationships with offshore partners, choosing the right partner, achieving a win/win relationship, agreements and contracts, and measuring your partner’s performance.
- Market research - how to develop a brief and framework to undertake market research, reliable and informative sources of information and resources, using research information as part of your export marketing plan.
- International sales and negotiation - understanding the sales process and buyer motives, developing your sales pitch and point of difference, presenting a strong business case, effective presentation techniques, handling objections, sharpening negotiation skills, closing the deal.
- Exporting online - The reasons for exporting online, defining your target audience/customer, developing an internet strategy, the components of an effective website, key internationalisation issues including tariffs, language and getting paid, marketing your website and system security.
- Tender and proposal writing - developing tactics for smart tender selection, where to find tender/proposal opportunities, understanding the purchasing process, writing powerful proposals, developing strategies to put the bid with strategic partners, review process to learn from previous tenders.
- Trade fairs - integrating trade fairs into your promotional mix, setting specific objectives, knowing your target market, getting on your target market’s “must see list”, handling booth traffic, effective lead gathering and follow up.
Finance
- Financial reports and ratios - layman’s understanding of financial reports (such as balance sheet, profit and loss) and ratios to facilitate decision making and understanding of the key drivers of profitability.
- Costing and pricing - understanding fixed and variable costs, how to calculate product or service costings, understanding and calculating breakeven, determining the most profitable areas, setting prices.
- Budgeting and cash flow planning - preparing budgets and cash flow forecasts, setting and managing financial targets.
- Taxation - types of tax, for example, provisional and terminal, GST, PAYE, and FBT; basis of calculation and payment. Reviewing business structure to minimise tax obligations.
- Credit/debt management - management of debtors and creditors to maintain liquidity, tips for debt collection. This topic needs to draw attention to the need to monitor, encourage good habits of chasing debts and longer-term planning and matching of cash needs with cash resources.
Governance
- Obligations under the Companies Act
- Roles and responsibilities for directors, board members, trustees
- Governance documents
- Legal structure.
Leadership
- Leadership/managing people – for business owners - attributes of good leaders, effective communication, directing, coaching, supporting and delegating to improve the performance of the business.
Lean manufacturing/business operations
- Introduction to lean manufacturing principles - the systematic approach to eliminating waste from processes so that every part of the process adds value to the customer. Identification of activities or work that are: value adding, non-value adding, waste.
- Benefits and pitfalls of lean manufacturing.
- Lean manufacturing process - specify value, identify value stream and eliminate waste, create flow, create pull (produce only what is needed when requested), aim for perfection.
- Lean tools and methods - including value stream mapping, continuous improvement, pull (kanban), flow, total productive maintenance, quality at source, points of use, quick changeover (SMED), standardised work, batch reduction, teams, 5S, visual management, plant layout, poka-yoke.
- Measurement - define lean measures, measure, analyse, improve, control.
- Implementation of Lean - determining the scope, project management structure, responsibilities and accountabilities, integrating and aligning the teams, documentation, communication.
- Supporting systems and activities for Lean.
Managing resources
- HR planning - identifying the human resource requirements, for example, organisational design, capacity and staff contingency, skill planning, current staff skill sets, future staffing needs and recruitment and succession planning.
- Recruitment - job analysis to determine type of person and skill level required; methods of recruitment; interviewing techniques; selection testing; reference and background checking; induction programmes and early review for new recruits; employment law relating to recruitment.
- Motivation - how different people are motivated, systems for dealing with those differences, co-ordination of performance measurement and motivation levels, how business culture can impact on productivity and staff morale and what can be done to influence this.
- Leadership/managing people - attributes of good leaders, effective communication, directing, coaching, supporting and delegating to improve the performance of the business.
- Performance appraisals - systems to measure competency, provide feedback to staff/management, have performance improvement as an outcome, reward performance, facilitate career development and focus the employees on those tasks which are strategically important to the business.
- Conflict resolution - tools and techniques to identify and manage conflict in the workplace.
- Employment compliance - employer obligations when employing people, including PAYE (registration, making payments, completing forms), ACC (registration, earner premium, employee premium, and residual levy), the Human Rights Act and the Employment Relations Act.
- Health and safety - creating a healthy and safe working environment, including discussion of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, creating and implementing a health and safety plan.
- Health and wellness – organisational health and wellness strategy - developing, managing and reporting.
- Time management - a framework for delegation, short-term goal setting and prioritising work.
- Intellectual property protection - understanding what intellectual property is, what can be legally protected (copyright, trademarks, patents, registered designs, licences), how to go about it and costs, non-legal forms of intellectual property protection and formulating your intellectual property strategy.
- Leveraging stakeholders/relationships - recognising key stakeholders (customer; supplier; community; industry); understanding the relationship that exists with each and how that relationship can be strategically leveraged to create win-win partnerships.
- Business excellence - strategy for producing goods or services which meet or exceed the required standards of quality, timing, quantity, consistency and cost, relative to market expectations.
- Business resource planning - capacity planning, production scheduling, equipment requirements, plant layout, material requirements and suppliers, inventory control and quality control requirements.
- E-commerce - harnessing e-commerce tools to build on and/or maintain the sustainable competitive advantage of your business. Understand the different types of e-commerce, the benefits to be achieved using e-commerce and the costs involved.
- Project management.
Marketing strategies
- Marketing planning - developing a marketing plan, setting marketing budgets, measuring results.
- Digital marketing strategy and social media planning – developing a digital marketing strategy including social media plan.
- Market research and planning - benefits and methods of market research, analysis of results, product/service development and innovation.
- Competitive advantage - identifying, developing, leveraging, and sustaining competitive advantage.
- Market targeting/segmentation - selection of target markets, customer profiling, developing specific marketing tactics for target markets.
- Promotion/lead generation techniques - promotional planning, setting promotional budgets, promotional strategies include personal selling, direct mail, email, website promotions, publicity, public relations, sales promotions, word-of-mouth, advertising, etc.
- Sales strategies - selling skills and techniques.
- Branding - developing and maintaining a strong brand, using branding to add value to a business.
- Client management - creating, maintaining and enhancing strong relationships with customers and other stakeholders.
- Pricing for market - pricing strategies, discussion of external factors that impact on pricing decisions, for example, the nature of the market, demand, competition, and other environmental considerations.
- Consumer rights - relevant legislation, for example, the Fair-Trading Act, the Consumer Guarantees Act, Standards.
- E-commerce - e-marketing, strategic use of websites, the internet and other technology as marketing tools, for example, better communications, improved market research, lower costs, and greater customer convenience.
Non-eligible services
Service types that are not eligible for the funding are:
- catering, travel and accommodation expenses
- compliance training, for example audits for compliance, training for government and industry body compliance services such as Worksafety (Workplace certification and audits)
- conferences, seminars, networking events, retreats, team building days/event
- consultancy services (‘doing’ or implementing the work for the business owner rather than training or coaching the business owner/senior manager to do it themselves)
- diagnostic and assessment services including audits, for example digital systems audits and financial audits); strengths and or psychometric assessments such as Clifton Strengths, Myers Briggs, Thomas DISC; ergonomic assessments
- examination fees/costs
- mentoring services (connect with Business Mentors New Zealand for these services)
- personal and professional development (personal and career development services) with the exception of ‘leadership development’
- personal physical and/or mental health consultations (medical or alternative), for example, private or group yoga, massage, Somatic experience therapy, talk therapy, physiotherapy, osteopathy, personal training, life coaching
- services already subsidised through other government funding
- services delivered by a related party, this could include personal relationships and financial
- services offered outside New Zealand
- services to help business to access government funding. (Understanding government R&D incentive tax process)
- subscription and membership services
- team and/or individual employee training
- technical and product training for example, MS Office Products, Xero and MYOB accounting software and payroll software
- vocational training courses, for example, first aid courses
- website design, develop and build implementation/consulting.
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