Tohutohu (tips) for Māori business leaders

Tips (tohutohu)

Conditions are challenging for many Māori business leaders right now, with economic pressure creating financial concerns and wellbeing challenges across the motu. However, many of these problem areas are not new, and there are people and practical steps to help manage these effectively. Our BDO experts share some helpful tips below – for more support, reach out to your local BDO adviser.
  • Monitor your cash flow. This is essential. Keep a close eye on whether you have enough cash to pay your bills and look ahead to see what payments are coming up, ensuring you have enough reserves to pay these. Knowing where you are financially at any point in time is vital to help manage some of the pressures associated with business finances, along with having a sound process for this.
  • Look at your financials holistically. You need to know your business finances just as well as your market and industry. Don’t just look at one metric, review net profit, gross margin, expenses, cash flow and sales together to build up a much more accurate picture of how your business is doing.
  • Take action. If you are experiencing cash flow issues, there are things you can do to help. This includes chasing up your debtors and contacting your creditors to see if you can make payment plans or delay payment.
  • Keep up the communication. The sooner you communicate any financial concerns, the better. Contact the Inland Revenue Department if you’re struggling with cash flow and speak to your bank to advise on timelines for payments.
  • Look at your stock levels. For retailers, excess stock can weigh down balance sheets and take up valuable storage space and insurance costs. If you have excess stock, consider selling it at a reduced price to help free up funds. Similarly, make sure you have enough stock to prepare for key retail seasons, including Christmas and summer.
  • Forecast for different scenarios. This can look at sales, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates – anything that might affect your business over the coming year. This can then guide you as you plan for stock, staffing, pricing, and financing, enabling you to review which levers you can pull and when, and how each one will impact the rest of your business.
  • Put business continuity plans in place. COVID-19, the Auckland Anniversary floods, and Cyclone Gabrielle have proven the unexpected can happen, and business continuity plans help enable you to deliver key services through unexpected events such as adverse weather or staff shortages.
  • Invest in financial literacy. This includes things like reading balance sheets, understanding profit and loss accounts and cash flows, and demystifying a lot of the complexities around financial literacy. Your trusted adviser can help you to bring these skills on board.
  • Seek out the right advice. Your trusted adviser should understand your industry, your business, and kaupapa. With the right team around you, you can take a more proactive approach to navigating the market conditions.
  • Seek support. Reach out to other local Māori business owners through your local Māori business network. Whāriki Māori Business Network is really helpful, along with government agencies such as Te Puni Kōkiri and Amotai.
  • Work together. Māori business leaders can be stronger together. Look for local Māori business networks through social media to form a community of like-minded business leaders to lean on for support – or why not start your own network or mentor relationship?
  • Seek skills from others. When times are tough, businesses may not have the resources to bring on skills in the form of new permanent employees. Instead, look to your Māori business network to see if other organisations have these skills to assist you in the short-term. Outsourcing can also be considered a cost-effective tool to manage workload, whether that’s bringing in external HR, IT, legal support or an outsourced finance function to tap into new skill sets. 
  • Get professional advice. Your business advisers, including your accountant, can be a real source of support for business and financial challenges and opportunities. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask how they can help you achieve more.
  • Think about the next generations coming through. Make sure you have the right succession plans for your governors and managers, and consider apprenticeships and other ways you can encourage young people to have a clear purpose and passion in their mahi.
  • Connect and collaborate. Genuine collaboration is a strategic pillar that is so important to Māori businesses. In many cases, growing the opportunity means everyone gets to share in the upside. Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi – with your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.
  • Look at your own wellbeing as well as your whānau. Māori businesses are often all about whānau and community, but it’s important as a leader to ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’ and focus on your wellbeing so you are equipped to help out your team. You will then be better placed to demonstrate manaakitanga and whanaungatanga through your leadership.
  • Work out your workload. When business conditions are tough, business leaders can end up taking on more work in a bid to reduce expenditure on labour – and sometimes at a reduced cost. Where possible, don’t take on more than you can handle, lean on your networks for support, and make sure you keep one eye on your work-life balance. 
  • Creating an engaged employee team. Listen to your people and whanau to understand what drives them. Stay connected and walk alongside them. Keep spirits high across your workforce with a daily karakia and consider incorporating maramataka – identifying energy levels through the Māori lunar calendar – to better understand wellbeing and energy levels within your team.
  • Find what fills up your cup. This might be returning to your maunga, your marae, your awa, your whenua, or being with whānau.
  • Acknowledge important days in the workplace.  Waitangi Day & Matariki are public holidays, but you could also consider doing something special leading up to those days. See what other days are significant in your local rohe and how you can acknowledge these through your mahi.
  • Be yourself. Business is hard enough – back yourself to have the right people around you and be the person you’re called to be. 
  • Keep up your ESG focus. ESG is not new territory within Māoridom. There are so many opportunities to engage with ESG principles within your business and a lot of appetite for investment in businesses that operate in the sustainability space – so don’t let this kaupapa fall by the wayside.
View the latest Māori Business Sector Report hereFor more business tips, visit the BDO Business Performance Index here