Waikato Business News April/May 2021

New tax rules for residential property investment have
caused a spike in demand for commercial property.
The corporate world is transitioning to a lower
carbon, more sustainable, and more resilient future.
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ISSUE 3 - 2021
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2021
13
Paul Kerssens, Samantha Hall and Michelle Howie
Making an impact
in the Waikato
Sarah White, Deserae Frisk, Anna Petchell and Nancy Tschetner
Six months after launching a co-working
space in Hamilton, Impact Hub Waikato
has boosted its membership to 80, and has
tenants for both its private office spaces.
In March the organisation
kicked off its third entrepreneurship
programme and it
has also opened a podcast studio
at its central city premises.
At a social event in April,
impact support and innovation
lead Paul Kerssens outlined
upcoming activities including a
vision impact recovery event in
June and a series of innovation
lunches online.
Impact Hub Waikato is also
working with one of its tenants,
Partner4Growth, to co-create
a series of events. Partner4Growth
founder Eugene
Moreau said the focus would be
on leadership, teamwork, trust
and communication.
“We've been in this game
a long time and we recognise
a lot of organisations, a lot of
individuals, have a really, really
good idea - they have a vision
but without strategy and execution
it's just a fantasy,” he said.
Impact Hub programme
manager and community coach
Ella Stuart said it was exciting
to be co-creating. “Because at
Impact Hub, we love collaboration.
And we want to partner
with people to make a wider
impact.”
Impact Hub Waikato is a
part of a worldwide network
focused on building entrepreneurial
communities for impact,
and is the first in New Zealand.
Moreau says Partner-
4Growth is a mastermind
coaching company. “We specialise
in self-employed and
small business owners in helping
them to go into business,
not just have a job.
“We help them with their
strategy, their presentation, their
pitch, the whole nine yards.”
Partner4Growth set up in the
Impact Hub space on the corner
of Collingwood and Anglesea
Streets earlier this year after
Moreau saw the sign when
passing one day.
“We really focus on four
critical words, unlock, inspire,
motivate, and equip. That's why
we work so well with Impact
Hub, because they have a certain
group that need a certain
inspiration, unlocking, motivating
or equipping.”
Partner4Growth business
partner Jenne Von Pein,
who has worked virtually
with companies around
the world on execution strategy,
had worked with Moreau
in the past.
She says they recognised
during lockdown how businesses
could become “very
alone”. When Moreau came
up with the Partner4Growth
concept, she says it was a
no-brainer for them to join and
she merged her Jungle Strategy
firm with the new company.
Von Pein, an Aucklander,
says she believes Hamilton has
huge opportunity.
“There is much greater
opportunity in Hamilton and
Tauranga at the moment with
the way people are thinking
with their really professional
response to Covid,” she says.
“I believe many Auckland
businesses are sitting there
waiting for it to go back to the
way it was. Hamilton and Tauranga
have met it face on, they
know they need to change and
they’re looking for ways to
do that. So it’s a completely
different mindset.”
Another at the event,
Michelle Howie of
Howie Consulting, has
been a member of the Hub for
a year, largely thanks to the
Covid lockdown.
“I do facilitation work, and
my name came up and was
Maryse Dinan, Steve Tritt and Vanessa Williams
recommended to a local social
enterprise. They needed somebody
who was experienced in
online facilitation, because we
all went home and lived on
Zoom, remember?
“This new social enterprise
that contacted me said: ‘We’ve
already got something in the
diary, and it’s to deliver a workshop
on wellbeing for members
of Impact Hub, could you do
that?’”
That became her introduction
to the Hub, running a Zoom
workshop for some of their
members. Howie, a coach and
facilitator, uses the Impact Hub
space to work away from home
occasionally, while 10-15 people
use the space weekly, with
capacity for more.
Also among the roomful
of entrepreneurs,
Ngāruawāhia-based
Sarah White is attending the
Impact Hub’s Back to Purpose
course, aimed at creating
impact-led businesses. She is
setting her sights high.
“I am building up a coaching
business. I’m quite spiritual in
hosting women’s circles, oracle
card readings. And a lot of the
drive behind that is wanting to
create community and support
people, in knowing themselves
better and going inwards.”
She wants to create a wellness
centre and community hub
with a connection to nature,
potentially including a cafe,
shop, co-working space, and
healing rooms. She also sees an
opportunity to include co-housing
with communal spaces. On
the course with her is Anna
Petchell, who runs APetchell
Coaching.
“I help people who are feeling
lost, confused and stuck in
their careers, I help them figure
out an exit strategy and live a
more fulfilling life.”
While she has local clients,
she works online internationally
and her somewhat novel
specialty is working with super
yacht crew, because having
worked in that industry she
knows what they face.
“When I went through that
transition, it was very real.
From working at sea for eight
years, coming from that back
Ella Stuart
to doing something else, I was
a little bit lost.”
She also works with a firefighter,
with shift workers, with
people who have specific skills
that are hard to cross relate to
another industry.
“What I help them do is figure
out who they are and figure
out what they actually want.”
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Jenne von Pein and Eugene Moreau