Helping Bay of Plenty businesses start, grow and innovate
We’re here to help your business at every stage. Whether you’re just starting out, needing to upskill, wanting to grow, or have an innovative product or service.
The Chamber offers a range of advice, mentorship, support and training to help turn your ideas and goals into action.
You don’t need to be a Chamber member to access this support. We also make as many of our offerings free, or low cost, to make sure they’re accessible.
Explore our key offerings below or get in touch with us to see how we can help.
What can we help you with?
Starting out
Ready to grow
Innovating + R&D
Upskilling
Start your business
This free service is available to any local business owners – you don’t need to be a Chamber member!
This service is kindly supported by Tauranga City Council.
Are you looking to start a business, or have you been in business for a while? We understand that business can be daunting – but we’re here to help.
We offer small business owners, freelancers, and sole traders access to one hour of free expert business advice to help get you on the path for long-term success.
The service is completely confidential and impartial to support your business ideas.
Our Business Advisor can help you with:
- Entering self-employment or starting a new business
- Business structures and legal compliance
- Using digital tools and techniques
- Business planning, revenue, and marketing
- Trouble-shooting business issues and challenges
- Understanding finances such as tax, GST and cash flows
- Various funding options – both government and private
- Early-stage innovation and R&D support, including protecting your business ideas
- Relevant resources that may be helpful for your journey
- Finding specialist businesses/organisations that can help with the future growth and development of your business
Sessions can be held in person, virtually/by phone, or by email if you have a specific matter to discuss.
We also provide FREE Introduction to Business and GST training sessions with IRD – a practical workshop designed to help new businesses understand their tax and GST obligations with confidence.
Grow your business
This service is part of the Government’s Regional Business Partner Network in the Bay of Plenty, which we deliver alongside Rotorua Business Chamber, Eastern Bay Chamber of Commerce.
This service is kindly supported by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.
If you’re ready to start growing your business, we are here to help.
Our specialist Growth Advisors work with business owners and/or key managers to identify needs and opportunities to grow your business – providing advice, information, referrals and connections to support you on your journey.
This programme focuses on growing small and medium businesses with 50 or fewer staff that are GST registered.
If you are not GST registered, please visit our START page. If you have more than 50 employees and are looking to innovate, visit our INNOVATE page.
Our Growth Advisors can:
- Provide a customised action plan to support business growth
- Connect you with networks and resources to help you grow
- Identify constraints and provide impartial, confidential support
- Link you into co-funded training opportunities
- Connect you with exporter support
- Connect you with a business mentor for ongoing support & accountability
.
“The AI course in particular opened our eyes to what’s possible, and how we can use AI to make adjustments and help free up staff time where it’s really needed.”
– Archishade Business Manager, Shannon Burns.
“The Chamber’s workshops were very useful because they gave us a much better understanding of where our marketing spend is going, and helped members of our team build the confidence to write their own ad campaigns.”
– Oasis Engineering, Managing Director, Kevin Flint.
Training & development opportunities
Upskilling yourself, or your team, is one of the easiest ways to make a big impact on your business. Learning and applying key skills like digital marketing, or implementing basic AI, can bring in new customers, create growth opportunities, and take pressure off your team.
Small changes in what you know, and how you work, can lead to bigger revenue, smoother processes, and a stronger, more successful business.
We work with local experts to offer affordable and impactful training in key business skills to give attendees skills they can easily implement in their own businesses.
These workshops are run in groups to keep costs low and create supportive connections between businesses.
Our most popular workshops include:
Playing Strategically: This workshop helps you create a strategic business plan designed to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals.
Driving Website Traffic (SEO & Google Ads): Our hands-on workshop designed to help business owners understand the fundamentals of driving website traffic through two essential channels: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Ads. This session gives you the foundational knowledge and practical tools to build your internal digital marketing capabilities and take control of your online visibility.
AI Business Essentials Masterclass: The AI Essentials Masterclass is a full day workshop offering Bay of Plenty businesses a practical introduction to AI. We will explore AI concepts, key tools and you will learn how AI can enhance your business processes and increase productivity.
Our Sponsors
Alliance Partners
Community Partners
