Business & Networking - October in Pictures

Welcome to this month's series where we would like to take you behind the scenes and share what's been happening at Business Assist! Networking and regular upskilling is so important for businesses to stay up-to-date and relevant. This is why we would like to encourage you to join us and make the most of these opportunities to grow your business and network. 

We also have complimentary & free business consultations and an affordable mentoring service available for you, whether you are at a startup phase or run an existing business. Please get in touch if you'd like to further explore.

And now, here is October in pictures, and for a summary and takeaways, scroll down please!

1. NBS Lunch & Learn | 8 October

Entrepreneurship, the unwavering commitment required to turn a vision into reality, embracing both challenges and opportunities on the path to success - with Frank Witowski, Managing Director of Hybrid Bikes Ltd

Exploring startup life & entrepreneurial journeys was the topic at our NBS Lunch & Learn this month! We had the pleasure to hear the good, the bad and everything in between, thanks to our amazing guest speaker, Frank Witowski.

Frank shared his insights through the multiple startup businesses he worked on over the past decades, what challenges one goes through when starting from scratch and how to keep going, despite difficulties!

He also highlighted the importance of looking for opportunities, the proactive approach and persistence that is needed for going ahead.

We were left inspired, entertained and touched by these authentic and real life stories!

Thank you everyone for your presence, and to Frank for sharing his experience with our business community. We wish you all the success with Hybrid Bikes Ltd and all your upcoming new projects!

A big shout out to our amazing sponsors NBS and Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre for hosting us! We look forward to seeing you in November for our last event of the year, to explore further business topics, this time around money mindset.

 

 

2. Community Connect - Breaking down Barriers  | 10 October

Creating greater visibility for your organistaion and why this is important when it comes to seeking funding - with Bea Pole-Bokor, Social Media & Visibility Coach at B!Social

What a wrap! Our Community Connect workshop series came to an end with our amazing & dedicated group of not-for-profits! This training series focused on providing essential business skills for local organisations so they can support their communities even better.

In our last session, we explored why visibility is so important, not just on social media, and especially when looking for cooperation and funding from sponsors so these organisations can further support their communities through the work they do!

We hope you enjoyed the interactive workshop by Bea & B!Social and walked away with new perspectives & tips about visibility for your organisations!

A big shout out to all our Not-for-profit organisations for showing up throughout the past four months and putting time into upskilling their people!

Our Breaking down Barriers series couldn’t have happened without the generous support of our sponsors, Rātā Foundation - thank you, to our wonderful facilitators, as well as to Habitat for Humanity Nelson for hosting us!

We hope to run this training series in 2025, too!

 

 

3. Apex Accounting "Just Talking" Businesswomen's Series | 16 October

Starting a business in an area you know nothing about - with Sarah Bonoma, Managing Director of Dancing Sands Distillery

Starting a business, all that learning process, trials & errors & success, juggling work-life balance and of course, the future visions - just a number of the topics we explored with our special guest this month.

It was great to hear real & honest insights through the lens of Sarah Bonoma, the Managing Director of Dancing Sands Distillery, and to learn the origins of the business and the stories behind. It was so valuable to have a reality check and see behind the scenes and hear what does actually running a business look like.

What a wonderful group of businesswomen coming together this time again to connect, share and learn from each other’s stories!

A special thanks to Sarah and all our participants for showing up.

On what’s next? It is our Grand Finale in November! Registrations are open for the last event of the year, with the “special guests” and the much awaited business card draw! We look forward to seeing you all!

It’s the final countdown!!! 

Big shout out to our partners & sponsors, BNZ Nelson Partners Centre and Apex Accounting for making this event come to life!

 

 

4. Mentor Training & Gathering | 23 October

A fantastic day appreciating our Nelson-Tasman Mentors, old and some brand new, and all the expertise they bring relentlessly to support their Mentees! We are so grateful to be able to work with them!

If we would sum up all the years of shared business knowledge in the room, who could guess how high that number would be? We reckon very high…

- Together with Business Mentors New Zealand, we started off the day with a dedicated training session facilitated by Colin Bass. Colin got the conversations & brainstorming going really efficiently.

- Our Mentors then had the opportunity to sharpen their swords on how to ask better questions so they can support their Mentees even better. Special thanks to our Mentor Alan Mathews for the insightful live demo and exercises!

- We also had a case study, featuring Mentee Graham Manson of Crunchy cheese snacks, who got extra support in his business challenges through a room full of Mentors! We wish you all the very best!

- To end the day on a high note, 3 special pins of recognition & certificates were awarded by CEO Sarah Trotman & Trust Manager Gael Gordon to Mentors Alan Mathews, Kenn Butler and Tony Rowe for the many years & hours of their dedicated work in sharing their knowledge as a Mentor.

Our business community is so lucky to have our Mentors on board, and we are always on the lookout for wonderful new Mentors. If you think you’d like to dedicate some of your time to support our local businesses, please get in touch and we can share more details!

Thank you Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre for the great venue, and taking so good care of us, as always!

 

 

5. ICIB BizBreak Networking | 30 October

Sometimes all it takes is to share your business challenge with a group of local entrepreneurs and get the brainstorming going!

What an energy at our ICIB BizBreak networking this month - one of our brave participants decided to bring her question to the table. She got rewarded with so many new ideas, perspectives, tips that inspired her to reflect, take action, some ideas she never even thought of.

We just love our monthly networking sessions where everyone’s expertise counts, with the group working together, while there is space for new business opportunities and lots of collaborations!

Thank you to our sponsors and partners, ICIB Brokerweb Insurance & Risk Advisory and SOS Cafe Nelson for your continuous support and making these events possible free-of-charge.

 

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We hope you enjoyed this summary and we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events, or at the office for a business or mentoring consultation. 

If you’d like to be part of our business events & networking meetings, too, join us in November for our final round of events in 2024!

Registrations are now open here:

/our-events

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